Effective Written Communications GBUS 600 Spring 2004

To start… What is your goal? –Information –Persuasion Who is your audience? –Professor –Manager What is the content?

Start writing… 1.Outline!!!!! 2.Write 3.Review / Edit : organization, big things 4.Revise 5.Review / Edit: facts, style, phrasing 6.Revise 7.Review / Edit: formatting

Proofreading Grades will suffer for spelling and grammatical errors –Typo’s vs. Braino’s –Don’t rely only on the spell checker Take advantage of peer review –Communication encoding/decoding –Perceptual bias

Formatting Looks matter Meet the basics: –12 point font Serif Sans serif –1 inch margins –Page numbers –Include relevant identifying information –Stapled unless professor requests binding – files: only with permission!

Improving Business Writing Richard Lanham Revising Business Prose “Paramedic Method”

Eliminating Bureaucratic Style Find the prepositions Locate all “is” verb forms Determine the action. Who’s doing what to whom? –Avoid passive voice. Use active verbs.

Example From an industry strategic report… “The purpose of an environmental scan is to obtain a general understanding of the external business environment we are currently in and expect to be in over the near-term. This may include any number of factors, but they are factors that may significantly impact the firm’s business, either positively or negatively depending on how the firm manages its way through them.”

Example “The purpose of an environmental scan is to obtain a general understanding of the external business environment we are currently in and expect to be in over the near-term. This may include any number of factors, but they are factors that may significantly impact the firm’s business, either positively or negatively depending on how the firm manages its way through them.”

Example Revised An environmental scan surveys the current and foreseeable business environment. Original: 29 words Revised: 10 words “Lard factor” = 65%

More Paramedic Treatment Start fast, get to the action Look at rhythm of your prose. –Mark off sentences’ units with / Avoid run on sentences –Mark off each sentence’s end with X Read aloud what you have written