Feb 24 (ch 8): Designing Documents

Why Design Matters

• Saves time and money
• Reduces legal problems
• Builds goodwill
• Attractive pages look friendly, easy to read
• Grouping ideas shows structure

Design: Part of Writing

• Think about design at each step
• As you plan, think about audience
• Skilled or busy?
• Read straight through or skip around?
• As you write, use lists, headings.
• Use visuals to convey numerical data clearly
• Get feedback from your audience
• As you revise, check the design guidelines that follow

Design and Conventions

• Vary widely by audience, geographic area, industry, or department
• Change over time
• Violating is risky
• Presents incorrect interpretations
• Signals author is unreliable or unknowledgeable

Page Design Guidelines

• Use white space
• Use headings
• Limit words in all capital letters
• Use no more than two fonts per document
• Justify margins selectively
• Put key items at top left or bottom right
• Use a grid for graphic unity
• Use highlighting, decorative devices, and color in moderation

Designing Brochures

• Use this process to create effective brochures
• Determine your objectives
• Identify your target audiences
• Identify central selling point
• Choose image you want to project
• Identify objections; brainstorm ways to deal with them
• Draft text to see how much space it takes
• Select visuals to accompany text
• Experiment with different papers and layouts
• Make every choice a conscious one
• Color – Font – Layout – Paper
• Polish prose and graphics

Designing Web Pages: Text

• Help surfing audience learn about Web page sponsor
• Offer contents list, link to each part
• Make clear what audience will get if they click a link
• Put most important info at top of page
• Start with important words

Designing Web Pages: Visuals

• Use white or light background
• Keep graphics small
• Provide visual variety
• Unify pages; show sponsor on each
• Include link to homepage on every page
• Use little animation; let users control it
• If page includes sound, put off button where users can see it

More to do…
Assignment 8: Visual Impression and Organization Analysis
DUE: Thursday, March 31

Blog entry: What part of report writing do you find to be the most challenging?

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Content attributed to Locker, Kitty O. and Donna Kienzler. Business and Administrative Communication, 9/e. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. 2010.

Feb 24 (ch 7): Planning, Composing, and Revising

Ways Good Writers Write

• Revise first drafts
• Write regularly
• Break big jobs into small chunks
• Focus on purpose, audience
• Choose from several different strategies
• Use rules flexibly
• Finish a draft before editing text

Four Basic Composing Activities

1. Plan – analyze, gather
2. Write – transform ideas into words
3. Revise – evaluate, get feedback, change
4. Edit – correct grammar, typos

More About Composing Activities

Don’t have to do in 1-2-3 order
Don’t have to finish one to start another
Don’t have to use all activities for every message

Brainstorm, Plan, and Organize

When content isn’t obvious—

• Brainstorm
• Freewrite
• Cluster
• Talk to audiences
  

Writing Good Business and Administrative Documents

• Closer to conversation
• Varies by audience
• Contains easy-to-read words, sentences, and paragraphs
• Attention to visual impact
• Less formal than academic writing (except reports)

Half-Truths about Style

• Write as you talk
• Never use I
• Never use You
• Never begin sentence with And or But
• Never end sentence with preposition
• Big words impress people

Ten Ways to Make Your Writing Easy to Read

As you choose words—

1. Use accurate, appropriate, and familiar words
2. Avoid technical jargon; eliminate business jargon

As you write and revise sentences—

1. Use active voice most of the time
2. Use verbs—not nouns—to carry weight of sentence…
   Mary’s kindness was much appreciated by all her colleagues. Mary’s colleagues appreciated her kindness
3. Eliminate wordiness

As you write and revise sentences—

1. Vary sentence length and structure
2. Use parallel structure
   Mary likes hiking, swimming, and to ride a bicycle.
3. Put readers in your sentences

As you write and revise paragraphs—

1. Begin most with topic sentence
2. Use transitions to link ideas

Organizational Preferences in Writing Style

• Good writing varies by organization
• Preferred style should be used
• When preferred style is bad
  Ask about poor examples you find
  Recognize that a style may serve a purpose
  Revise, Edit, and Proofread
  Revise – change content, organization, and tone to satisfy purposes and audiences
  Edit – change mechanical flaws, grammar errors
  Proofread – correct typing errors

Use Feedback

• Ask for feedback you want
  Approach  Benefits  Tone  Grammar
  Heed comments, even if you disagree
  Rephrase
  Give more details
  Document sources

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Content attributed to Locker, Kitty O. and Donna Kienzler. Business and Administrative Communication, 9/e. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. 2010.

Feb 17: Presentations (Running Order)

February 17

1. Kavik B.
2. Chau N.
3. Aras K.
4. John L.
5. Mickey H.
6. Alan D. P.
7. Nicholas P.
8. Carl H.
9. Archie T.
10. Jaffer A.
11. Abdullah A.

Feb 10: Presentations (Running Order)

February 10

1. Abdullah A. (moved to 2/17)
2. Kevin K.
3. Derek V.
4. Tim D.
5. Aaron T.
6. Raed A.
7. Ahmed A.
8. Darren L.
9. Mansoor A.
10. Melissa D.
11. Muhammad Naquib M.T.

Feb 3 (Ch 16): Persuasive Messages

Purposes

• Primary
  - To have audience act or change beliefs
• Secondary
  - To build good image of the communicator
  - To build good image of communicator’s organization
  - To cement a good relationship between communicator and audience
  - To overcome any objections that might prevent or delay action
  - To reduce or eliminate future messages on subject

Choosing a Persuasive Strategy

1. What do you want people to do?
2. What objections will audience have?
3. How strong a case can you make?
4. What kind of persuasion is best for organization and culture?

Building Credibility

• Be factual—don’t exaggerate
• Be specific—if you say X is better, show in detail how it is better
• Be reliable—if project will take longer or cost more than estimated, tell audience immediately

Three Persuasive Patterns of Organization

• Direct Request
• Problem-solving
• Sales

Why Threats Don’t Persuade

• Don’t produce permanent change
• May not produce desired action
• May make people abandon action
• Produce tension
• People dislike/avoid one who threatens
• Can provoke counter-aggression

Organizing Direct Requests

• Ask immediately for the information or service you want
• Give audience all the information they need to act on your request
• Ask for the action you want

Subject line:

• Request itself
• Topic of request
• Question

Organizing Problem-Solving Messages

• Catch audience’s interest
• Define shared problem
• Explain solution to problem
• Show that advantages outweigh negatives
• Summarize additional benefits
• Ask for action you want

Subject line:

• Omit request or use neutral
• Use common ground or audience benefit

Developing Common Ground

• Suggest you and audience have mutual interest in solving problem
• Analyze audience to understand biases, objections, and needs
• Identify with readers; make them identify with you

Dealing with Objections

• Specify time, money required to act
• Put time, money in context of benefits
• Show that spent money now will save later
• Show benefit about audience’s values
• Show need for sacrifice to achieve larger, goal
• Turn a disadvantage into opportunity

Reasons to Act Promptly

• Show that time limit is real
• Show that acting now will save time or money
• Show the cost of delaying action

Building Emotional Appeal

• Storytelling
• Psychological description
  - Create word picture for readers’ senses
  - Help readers imagine themselves doing, enjoying what you ask

Tone in Persuasive Messages

• Be courteous
• Give solid reasons for requests
• Make requests clear
• Give enough information for audience to act

Varieties of Persuasive Messages

• Performance Appraisals
  - Cite specific observations, not inferences
  -Identify two or three areas for improvement
• Recommendation Letters
  - Be specific
  - Tell how well/ long writer knew applicant
  - Give details about applicant’s work
  - Say whether writer would rehire applicant

Sales and Fund-Raising Purposes

• Primary
  - To motivate reader to act (send donation, order a product)
• Secondary
  - To build good image of writer’s organization
  - To strengthen commitment of readers who act
  - To make readers who do not act more likely to act next time

Organizing Sales/Fund-Raising Messages

Opener

• Makes reader want to read entire message
• Types
  - Questions
  - Narration, stories, anecdotes
  - Startling statements
  - Quotations
• Sets up transition to letter body

Body

• Answers reader’s questions
• Overcomes reader’s objections
• Involves reader emotionally.
• Content usually includes
  - Information any reader can use
  - Stories about history of product/organization
  - Stories about people who use product
  - Readers enjoying benefits offered

Action Close

• Tells readers what to do
• Makes action sound easy
• Offers readers reason to act now
• Ends with positive picture
• May recall central selling point

Using a Postscript

• Reason to act promptly
• Description of premium reader receives
• Reference to another part of package
• Restatement of central selling point

Writing Style

• Make text interesting
• Use psychological description: vivid word pictures
• Make message sound like a letter, not an ad

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Content attributed to Locker, Kitty O. and Donna Kienzler. Business and Administrative Communication, 9/e. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. 2010.

Feb 3 (Ch 15): Negative Messages

Negative Messages

• Information conveyed is negative
• Audience’s reaction is negative
  - Message does not benefit them
  - Usually they experience disappointment or anger
• Varieties
  - Rejections, refusals
  - Policy changes not benefiting customer
  - Poor performance appraisals
  - Disciplinary notices
  - Insulting, intrusive requests
  - Product recalls

Purposes...

Primary

• To give audience negative news
• To have audience read, understand, and accept message
• To maintain as much goodwill as possible

Secondary

• To build good image of communicator
• To build good image of communicator’s organization
• To avoid future messages on same subject
• Want audience to feel
  - They have been taken serious
  - Your decision is fair and reasonable
  - If they were in your situation, they would make the same decision

Organizing Negative Messages: Clients and Customers

1. When you have a reason that the audience will understand and accept, give the reason before the refusal
2. Give the negative information, just once
3. Present an alternative or compromise
4. End with positive forward-looking statement

Organizing Negative Messages: Superiors

1. Describe problem clearly
2. Tell how it happened
3. Describe the options for fixing it
4. Recommend a solution and ask for action

Organizing Negative Messages: Peers and Subordinates

1. Describe problem objectively, clearly
2. Present an alternative or compromise
3. Ask for input or action, if you can
   - May suggest helpful solutions
   - Audience may accept outcomes better

Context Crucial In Messages

• Do you and audience have good bond?
• Does organization treat people well?
• Has audience been warned about possible negatives?
• Has audience accepted criteria for decision?
• Do follow-ups build goodwill?

Parts of Negative Messages

• Subject lines
• Buffers
• Reasons
• Refusals
• Alternatives
• Endings

Parts: Subject Lines

• Put the topic, not the specific negative
• Use negative subject lines when the audience—
  - May ignore message
  - Needs information to act
• Keep in mind not everyone reads all their messages
  - Be cautious of neutral subject lines

Parts: Buffers

• Buffer—neutral or positive statement that delays the negative
• Use a buffer when—
  - Audience values harmony
  - Buffer serves another purpose
  - You can write good buffer

Parts: Reasons

• Clear, convincing reasons precede refusal
  - Prepare audience for refusal
  - Help audience accept refusal
• Don’t hide behind company policy
  - Show how policy benefits audience
  - If no benefit, omit policy from message

Parts: Refusals

• Put refusal in ¶ with reason to deemphasize
• Imply—don’t state—refusal if you can
• Make it crystal clear
• Finalize message on subject
  - Don’t write 2nd message to say no

Parts: Alternatives and Endings

• Offers way to get what audience wants
• Shows you care about audience’s needs
• Returns audience’s psychological freedom
• Allows you to end on positive note
• Best endings look to future
• Avoid insincere endings:
  Please let us know if we can be of further help.

Tone in Negative Messages

• Tone—implied attitude of the author toward the audience and subject
• Show you took request seriously
• Use positive emphasis and you-attitude
• Think about visual appearance
• Consider timing of message
  

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Content attributed to Locker, Kitty O. and Donna Kienzler. Business and Administrative Communication, 9/e. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. 2010.