The Writing Process in the Information Age: Organizing and Drafting Business Messages

Informal Research Methods

• Brainstorm for ideas.
• Search company digital or other files.
• Talk with the boss.
• Interview the target audience.
• Conduct an informal survey.

Formal Research Methods

• Access electronically.
• Search manually.
• Investigate primary sources.
• Conduct scientific experiments.

Learning Outcome 2

Organize information into strategic relationships.

Organizing Information to Show Relationships

• Group similar ideas.
• Organize into lists or outlines.

Tips for Efficient Outlining

• Define the main topic (purpose of message) in the title.
• Divide the main topic into 3 to 5 major components.
• Break major component into exclusive subpoints (no overlapping).
• Use details, illustrations, and evidence subpoints.

Organizing Ideas Into Strategies

Use the Direct Strategy if audience will be

• Pleased
• Somewhat interested
• Neutral

Organizing Ideas Into Strategies

• Uninterested
• Displeased
• Disappointed
• Hostile

Learning Outcome 3

Compose the first draft of a message using a variety of sentence types while avoiding sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and comma splices.

Achieve Variety with Four Sentence Types

1. Simple Sentence (one independent clause) – She needs a job.
2. Compound Sentence (two independent clauses) – She needs a job, and she must expand her skillset.
3. Complex Sentence (one independent and one dependent clause) – Because she needs a job, she must expand her skillset.
4. Compound-complex (two independent clauses and one dependent clause) – Because she needs a job, she must expand her skillset; however, she also must begin networking.

Three Common Sentence Faults

1. Avoid fragments (broken-off parts of sentence).

Fragment: E-mail seems boring. When compared with Twitter.

Revision: E-mail seems boring when compared with Twitter.

2. Avoid run-ons (two independent clauses without coordinating conjunction or semicolon)

Run-on: He’s addicted to social media he posts updates constantly.

Revision: He’s addicted to social media, and he posts updates constantly.

Revision: He’s addicted to social media; he posts updates constantly.

3. Avoid comma splices (two clauses joined without proper punctuation)

Comma splice: He prefers a tablet, she prefers her laptop.

Revision: He prefers a tablet; she prefers her laptop.

Alternate revision: He prefers a tablet; however, she prefers her laptop.

Alternate revision: He prefers a tablet, but she prefers her laptop.

Favoring Short Sentences

         Sentence Length       Comprehension Rate

8 words                              100%

15 words                            90%

19 words                            80%

28 words                            50%

Learning Outcome 4

Emphasize important ideas, employ the active and passive voice strategically, build parallelism, and prevent dangling and misplaced modifiers.

Developing Emphasis

Emphasize important ideas by using vivid and specific words.

GENERAL

• She has a new device.
• That skyscraper is tall.
• Someone left a message.

VIVID, SPECIFIC

• Lisa loves her new iPad.
• The Burj Khalia in Dubai is 2,723 feet tall.
• Michael Lee called this morning and said he would call again at 4 p.m.

Label the main idea.

Unlabeled

• Explore the possibility of leasing a site, but also hire a consultant.

Labeled

• Explore the possibility of leasing a site, but, most importantly, hire a consultant.

Emphasize the most important idea by placing it first or last in a simple sentence and by making it the sentence subject.

Unemphatic

• Labor lawyers say that companies should review their internship programs because most often they are illegal if interns are not being paid for their work.

Emphatic

• Most internship programs are illegal if interns are not paid.

Using Active and Passive Voice Effectively

Use active-voice verbs for clear expression.

• Our team missed its deadline.

Use passive-voice verbs to de-emphasize the performer or to be tactful.

• The deadline was missed.

Use Active Voice for Directness, Vigor, and Clarity

Direct and More Clear in Active Voice

• Rosario started a customer service blog last year.
• The government expects the economy to improve.
• The manager completed performance reviews.

Indirect and Less Clear in Passive Voice

• A customer service blog was started last year.
• The economy is expected to improve.
• Performance reviews were completed.

Use Passive Voice to Emphasize the Action, Not the Doer

Less Tactful in Active Voice

• We cannot grant you credit.
• The hospital cannot admit patients without insurance.
• Our CEO missed his estimate on this quarter’s profits.

More Tactful in Passive Voice

• Credit cannot be granted.
• Patients without insurance cannot be admitted.
• Estimates of profits were missed this quarter.

Use Parallelism to Achieve Balance

Lacks Parallelism

• We focus on money – earning it, investing it, and how to spend it.
• Applicants are interested in work environment and how they can advance their careers.

Illustrates Parallelism

• We focus on money – earning it, investing it, and spending it.
• Applicants are interested in work environment and career advancement.

Lacks Parallelism

• Our peanut butter spread (a) is all natural, (b) contains no hydrogenated oil, and (c) there’s no need to stir.

Illustrates Parallelism

• Our peanut butter spread (a) is all natural, (b) contains no hydrogenated oil, and (c) requires no stirring.

Avoid Dangling Modifiers

Not This

Walking down the street, our sign is easy to see.

To enroll, an application must be sent by April 1.

But This

Walking down the street, people can easily see our sign.

To enroll, you must send an application by April 1.

Avoid Misplaced Modifiers

Not This

An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be strangulation by the coroner.

Never pet, play with, or give commands to a person using a guide dog without permission.

But This

An autopsy by the coroner revealed the cause of death to be strangulation.

Without permission, never pet, play with, or give commands to a person’s guide dog.

Learning Outcome 5

Draft well-organized paragraphs that incorporate (a) topic sentences, (b) support sentences, and (c) transitional expressions to build coherence.

Drafting Effective Paragraphs

Topic Sentence

Tells readers what to expect

Explains central thought

Support Sentences

Illustrate, explain, and strengthen the topic sentence

Provide details and evidence

Building Paragraph Coherence

To build paragraph coherence, link ideas with one of these techniques:

• Sustain the key idea by repeating a key expression or a similar word throughout a paragraph.
• Dovetail sentences by connecting the beginning of each new sentence with a word from the end of the previous sentence.
• Use a pronoun in one sentence to refer to a noun in the previous sentence.

Building Coherence With Transitional Expressions

Use transitional expressions to build coherence for special effects:

Building Coherence With Transitional Expressions

Use transitional expressions to build coherence for special effects:

Controlling Paragraph Length

Compose short paragraphs.

Paragraphs with eight or fewer printed lines are most readable.