Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chapter 6 Completing Business Messages
Chapter 6 Completing Business Messages
LECTURE NOTES
Section 1: Revising Your Message: Evaluating the First Draft
Learning Objective 1: Discuss the value of careful revision, and describe the tasks involved in
evaluating your first drafts and the work of other writers.
Since the first draft is rarely good enough, recognize that youll need to revise the document.
Careful revision can mean the difference between a rambling, unfocused message and a lively,
direct message that gets results.
The third step of the three-step writing process involves four key tasks:
Revising your message to achieve optimum quality
Producing your message
Proofreading your message
For informal messages to internal audiences, particularly when using instant messaging,
text messaging, email, or blogging, the revision process is often as simple as quickly
looking over your message to correct any mistakes before sending or posting it.
With more complex messages, try to put your draft aside for a day or two before you
begin the revision process so that you can approach the material with a fresh eye.
After letting the document sit for a day or so, start with the big picture, making sure that the
document accomplishes your overall goals before moving to finer points, such as readability,
clarity, and conciseness.
After youve reviewed and revised your message for readability, your next step is to
make sure your message is as clear and as concise as possible.
Consistency
Balance
Restraint
Detail
White space
Provides contrast
25.
Offers readers a visual resting point
White space includes
Centered type is
Have no serifs
Boldface
Italics
Underlining
Color
33.
Other highlighting and decorative styles
Use boldface type for subheads, but avoid overuse of boldface within the text.
Use italic type for emphasis as well as for highlighting quotations and indicating foreign
words, irony, humor, book and movie titles, and unconventional usage.
Underlining, all upper case, and shadowed or outlined type can hinder legibility and slow
your readers progress.
When completing your business message, choose your type size to match the
importance of your message and the space allotted:
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Formal business letters usually follow certain design conventions. Most are printed on
letterhead stationery, which includes the companys name, address, and other contact
information. Other parts of the letter include:
Date
Inside address
Salutation
Message
Complimentary close
38. Signature block
Like letters, business memos usually follow a preset design.
Memos usually dont use a salutation, complimentary close, or signature, although
signing your initials next to your name on the From line is standard practice in most
companies.
(See Appendix A: Format and Layout of Business Documents for details.)
Section 5: Proofreading Your Message
Learning Objective 5: Explain the importance of proofreading, and give eight tips for successful
proofreading.
Proofreading is the quality inspection stage for your documents, your last chance to make sure
that your document is ready to carry your messageand your reputationto the intended
audience.
Review your document for
Undetected mistakes from the writing, design, and layout stages
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Document complexity
Situation
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Which of the following does the best job of reducing the length and complexity of this
sentence without significantly altering its meaning?
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a. No. This version loses the essential information about the extensive research behind the
book.
b. Yes. This version retains all the essential information while cutting 20 words.
c. No. This version isnt bad, but the simplified phrase how traffic works lose the key
words of the physical, psychological, and technical factors that explain how traffic
works.
d. No. This all this version did was lose the first sentence, which emphasizes the extensive
research on which the book is based.
4 A number of authors reach out to their reader bases by offering to
participate in book group discussions via Skype. If you wanted to get the
word out that a new author was available to talk with book groups via
Skype, which of the following distribution methods would you choose? (For
this exercise, assume that you can choose only one of these.)
a. No. Many readers will access the book through online bookstores or libraries, so a
message in brick-and-mortar bookstores will fail to reach these target audience members.
b. Yes. People who are in possession of the book, having either purchased it or borrowed it,
are the most likely to want to discuss it, and printing the message on the book itself
ensures that the message reaches these interested audience members. However, note that
this response does have a significant weakness, which is that it doesnt address the rise of
e-book sales. To reach all readers, the message should be printed on the physical editions
and embedded in the e-book editions.
c. No. A Twitter update is a great way to reach those people who follow the author on
Twitter, but it will not reach the broadest spectrum of readers.
d. No. Like (c), this is a good way to reach a limited portion of the audience, but not to
reach the broadest possible audience.
Note: In todays fragmented media environment, the most effective strategy would be to take
all four of these steps as part of an integrated promotional campaign, rather than selecting
just one of these options. However, the exercise was designed to have students evaluate the
options individually.
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3.
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government agencies about important issues. We also educate the public on the safe and
enjoyable operation of personal motorsports vehicles.
Message 6.B
The document should be reformatted with attention to the following details:
Consistent use of fonts
Fewer fonts
Consistent paragraph formatting, including left alignment
Better balance on the page
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7. Here
a.
b.
c.
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12.
13. With the indefinite starters removed, the sentences might read
as follows:
a. Several examples here show that Elaine cant hold a position very long.
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16.
17.
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