BUS 305Week 7
Agenda
• Producing business communications• Written, online & email• Best practices for making messages look
professional and polished
Form compared to substance
• Which is more important?• Why do both matter?• Can form impact substance? Why? How?
Production
• Communications must be ‘produced’ so they can be read easily and understood
Enhancing visual appeal
• Critical to getting messages across• Human beings are highly visual• Visual choices are part of the communication and
can influence the reader; What does this mean?
HATS
• Headings• Art• Typography• Spacing
HATS: Headings
• Must use these effectively!• They are a call to attention and action• Many people scan/skim messages making headings
critical to comprehension and action• What happens when you are given a message with
no headings and just paragraphs of text?
Types of headings
• Topical: Customer Service• Statement: Customer Service and its Role in
Revenue• Question: What role does customer service play
in revenue?
Adequacy and Hierarchy
• Two important concepts related to headings• Adequacy: Are there enough headings to see the
general idea/contents of the communication without reading it?
• Hierarchy: Is the structure of the document/message clear based upon the hierarchical order of headings (general to specific) indicated by size, indentation, and font (important in long documents!)
HATS: Art
• Use of visuals to convey information• Graphs, charts, pictures, clipart• So easy in a world where images are just a Google
search away!• Can be as simple as a row of information in columns
HATS: Typography
• Do you know a serif font from a san serif?• Which is better?
Alignment
• Left, center or right• Justified (hard to read but gives a document a
polished feel); Useful with narrow columns• Everything should be lined up whatever you choose
HATS: Spacing
• Spacing between paragraphs and headings helps the reader scan and comprehend
• Appropriate white space is important!
Activity
• Fix the hideous memo on the course website• Use HATS and make it readable to earn 3 extra
credit points! This is huge…can help if you are missing an assignment or think your analytical report won’t be so good…