Week 3

Written CommunicationFaisal AlSager

Business Writing Steps

1. Planning and Preparation

2. Writing

3. Editing

How much effort should you put in each?

✤ Planning and preparation: 25%

✤ Writing: 25%

✤ Editing: 50%

✤ This percentage can differ depending on the type of the document written

Planning and Preparation

✤ The purpose of writing

✤ The outline (introduction, body, conclusion)

✤ Headlines

✤ Topic sentences

✤ For better planning: Use Mindmaps

The Purpose of Written Communication✤ Every written communication should serve its own set of purposes

✤ You must know what the purpose of writing is before you start to write

✤ Examples of purposes:

✤ To sell goods or services

✤ To collect and overdue account

✤ To obtain a job

✤ To build good will by expressing appreciation

✤ To obtain good will while denying a request

A Clear Purpose

✤ Sometimes the purpose of your communication is very clear

✤ Sometimes it’s not. Example: “I’m going to blast that company!” which means he wants a replacement for a defective appliance he bought from that company

Questions to Define the Purpose

✤ Who is going to read this? One person or several? A clerk or a responsible manager?

✤ What do I want him/her to do, or say, or decide?

✤ What sort of feeling must I produce in him/her in order to persuade him/her to do as I wish?

✤ What has the reader asked me to tell him/her?

✤ What does he/she intend to with what I tell him/her?

Writing

✤ According to studies and researches, it’s better to write by completely disabling the editing process. We should write first, and leave the editing to the end. Why? Because writing is a creative right-brain task and editing is an analytical left-brain task

✤ Exercise!

Editing

✤ This process should take most of our effort

✤ Editing is not associated with grammar and spelling only; it’s a process of reviewing the whole written document

✤ We edit to ensure: completeness, coherent

Effective Business Writing

✤ For a business writing to be effective, it has to be:

✤ Clear: clarify purpose and understand audience

✤ Coherent: logical structure and accessible format

✤ Concise: keep the writing concise and to the point