Organizing and Writing Business Messages

The 3 X 3 Writing Process

• Analyze, Anticipate, Adapt

• Research, Organize, Compose

• Revise, Proofread, Evaluate

Some Questions about Your Writing

• How do you generate ideas?• Do you use diagrams and outlines?• Do you have to be in a special setting

(e.g., a quiet room)?• Do you use a computer from the start?• Do you build much time into the process?• What do you find most difficult about writing?

Half-truths about Style

• Never use “I” or “You”

• Never begin a sentence with

“And” or “But”

• Never end a sentence with a

preposition

• Big words impress people

Building a Better Style

• Try reading your writing out loud

• Ask others to read your writing

• Read widely and write a lot

Building a Better Style

Mission Statement:

Our mission is to professionally

integrate diverse catalysts for

change to allow us to seamlessly

customize interdependent meta-

services to stay competitive in

tomorrow's world.

Please give immediate attention to insure that the pages of all documents prepared for distribution are numbered sequentially and in a place of optimum visibility. This is needed to facilitate our ability to refer to items during meetings.

Remember to number your pages.

Jane, I’m not sure we’re right for each other.

Jane,I’ve done a lot of thinking about the extensible value proposition in our relationship, our synergies and whether we could seamlessly leverage our repository of spiritual assets.

Deloitte Consulting

Bullfighter®

http://www.fightthebull.com/bullfighter.asp

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

A Plain English Handbook

www.sec.gov/pdf/handbook.pdf

Ways of exit access and the doors to exits to which they lead shall be so designed and arranged as to be clearly recognizable as such. (26 words)

An exit must be free of signs or decorations that obscure its visibility. (13 words)

Make sure exits are clearly marked and unobstructed. (8 words)

Ten Commandments

297 words

Bill of Rights

463 words

Federal Directive to Regulate the Price of Cabbage

26, 911 words

Write Like Abe

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address:

701 words:

505 one-syllable words

122 two-syllable words

March 4, 1865

Eliminate Wordiness

• Ameliorate improve• Commence begin• Enumerate list• Finalize finish• Prioritize rank• Utilize use• Viable option choice

Spot Redundancies

• Close scrutiny• Past work

experience• New innovation• Free gift• Triangular in shape

• Present status• Advance planning• Completely finish• Major disaster• Cooperate together

Verbal Deadwood

• Due to the fact that• In a great many

instances• Is of the opinion that• On a yearly basis• Hold a discussion• At this point in time

• In this day and age• In the near future• Prior to the start of• In regard to • Connect up together• With the exception

of • Give careful

consideration to

Verbal Deadwood

• Due to the fact that• In a great many

instances• Is of the opinion that• On a yearly basis• Hold a discussion• At this point in time

• In this day and age• In the near future• Prior to the start of• In regard to • Connect up together• With the exception

of • Give careful

consideration to

Clear Out Verbal Deadwood

Heavy rains throughout most of the state have given an optimistic outlook for lessened fire danger for the rest of the season. However, an abundance of lightning maintains a certain amount of hazard in isolated areas that have not received an excessive amount of rain. We were pleased to have been able to help Nevada with the suppression of their conflagration.

Heavy rains throughout most of the state have given an optimistic outlook for lessened fire danger for the rest of the season.

• However, an abundance of lightning maintains a certain amount of hazard in threatens isolated dry areas that have not received an excessive amount of rain.

• We were pleased to have been able to help Nevada fight fires with the suppression of their conflagration

Heavy rains throughout most of the state lessened fire danger for the rest of the season. However, lightning threatens isolated dry areas. We were pleased to help Nevada fight fires.

►Delete ► Replace ► Simplify

Euphemism

• Inoperative combat personnel

• Pre-dawn vertical insertion

• Inappropriate intimate contact

• Pre-need memorial property

• Energetic disassembly

Business Euphemisms

• Displaced inventory• Non-consensed items • Facilities compression• Sub-optimal performance• Negatively impact

• Dehired• Outplaced• Deselected• Redeployed• Separated• Transitioned• Prematurely retired

Oxymoron

“Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!” (Romeo and Juliet, I.i.173)

“interim final temporary rule”

(SEC description of a new regulation on short selling)

Acronyms

TVA, CCC, WPA

TARP

RATLUSTFCCCER

SHT

Use Concrete Language

Compare:• A period of unfavorable

weather set in.

It rained every day for a week.

• Our initial consultation will occur soon.

I’ll call you on Friday.

George Orwell

“Politics and the English Language”

George Orwell on Concrete Language

Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must inevitably be taken into account.

Orwell (Cont.)

I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill, but time and chance happeneth to them all.