CHAPTER 3: Organizing and Drafting

Business Messages
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
❑ Compare two forms of research that begin Phase 2 of the 3-x-3 writing
process.

❑ Demonstrate methods for organizing ideas to show relationships.

❑ Write effective sentences that avoid fragments, run-ons, and comma
splices.
❑ Demonstrate methods for emphasizing ideas, using active and passive
voice, developing parallelism, and placing modifiers correctly.

❑ Incorporate meaningful visuals aids and graphics in business reports.

❑ Explain how to create well-organized, coherent paragraphs.
 Drafting Workplace Messages Begins With Research

Introduction
With today’s ever-present technology, business, technical, and professional people
in this digital age are exchanging more messages than ever before. The faster you
can articulate your ideas and the more efficiently you can explain what needs to be
said, the more successful and content you will be in your career.

Process Guide
- To be able to write efficiently and clearly is also critical to
promotions.
- To have a tried-and-true writing process through the steps necessary
to write confidently and clearly.
- To focus and address on researching, organizing, and drafting. You
can use this effective process both in college and on the job.
The 3-x-3 Writing Process
 The Writing Process Begins With Background
Information
The process of drafting a message before gathering a background information
is called research, which means collecting information about a topic and helps
you shape your message, discover significant information and reorganize your
thoughts. To avoid inaccurate messages, you should collect information that
answers the following questions:

■ What does the receiver need to know about this topic?

■ What is the receiver to do?
■ How is the receiver to do it?
■ When must the receiver do it?
■ What will happen if the receiver doesn’t do it?
 Informal Research
“In the Internet Age, nowhere is good writing more important than in your
online presence, whether for yourself or your organization. While the
majority of your web page, blog post, or profile visitors will almost certainly
leave before they’ve even had a chance to scroll down, the ones that do stay
are the ones that you want reading your content. And they’re the ones you
want to impress because they have a need and came to you looking for
educational, informational, and well-crafted content with real value. . . .” -
Chip LaFleur, digital marketing expert

■ Search your company’s files.

■ Talk with the boss.
■ Interview the target audience.
■ Create an informal survey.
■ Brainstorm for ideas.
 Formal Research
Information for long reports and proposals may be obtained through formal
research using primary or secondary sources:
■ Primary sources.
■ Secondary sources.
Organizing Ideas to Show Relationships

Creating Lists and Outlines

Organizing Ideas to Show Relationships

Typical Document Components

Organizing Ideas to Show Relationships
Structuring Ideas Into Strategies
direct & indirect strategy
 Organizing Ideas to Show Relationships

Direct Strategy for Receptive Audiences

Advantages of direct method:
■ Saves the reader’s time.
■ Sets a proper frame of mind.
■ Reduces frustration.
Indirect Strategy for Unreceptive Audiences
Advantages of indirect method:
■ Respects the feelings of the audience.
■ Facilitates a fair hearing.
■ Minimizes a negative reaction.
Organizing Ideas to Show Relationships
 Writing a First Draft With Powerful Sentences

“If you think an apostrophe was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, you will
never work for me. If you think a semicolon is a regular colon with an identity
crisis, I will not hire you. If you scatter commas into a sentence with all the
discrimination of a shotgun, you might make it to the foyer before we
politely escort you from the building.” - Kyle Wiens, CEO, iFixit, the largest
online repair community

Good technique for students

- Research your topic, brainstorm for fresh ideas, and select a strategy to organize the data.
- To begin drafting sentences and organizing your ideas, work from an outline.
- To compose messages set aside a given time and allow no calls, visitors, or other interruptions.
- Free writing is suggested: getting your thoughts down quickly and refining them in later
versions.
Writing a First Draft With Powerful Sentences
Adding Interest and Variety With Four Sentence Types
Writing a First Draft With Powerful Sentences
Adding Interest and Variety With Four Sentence Types
Writing a First Draft With Powerful Sentences
Avoiding Three Common Sentence Faults
Writing a First Draft With Powerful Sentences
Avoiding Three Common Sentence Faults
Writing a First Draft With Powerful Sentences
Choosing Short Sentences
Mastering Four Helpful Writing Techniques
Creating Emphasis
Mastering Four Helpful Writing Techniques
Achieving Emphasis Through Style
Mastering Four Helpful Writing Techniques
Achieving Emphasis Through Style
Mastering Four Helpful Writing Techniques
Achieving Emphasis Through Style
 Mastering Four Helpful Writing Techniques
Using the Active and Passive Voice Effectively

“Good writers don’t let their modifiers dangle in public. “Always suspect an -ing word of dangling
if it’s near the front of a sentence; consider it guilty until proved innocent.” - Patricia T. O’Conner,
author, Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English
Mastering Four Helpful Writing Techniques
Creating Parallelism
Mastering Four Helpful Writing Techniques
Dodging Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers
 Building Well-Organized Paragraphs
A paragraph is a group of sentences about one idea. The following types of
sentences may be organized to express ideas in a well-organized paragraph:
■ Topic sentence: Expresses the primary idea of the paragraph; often, but
not always, comes first in a paragraph.
■ Supporting sentences: Illustrate, explain, or strengthen the primary idea.
Crafting Topic Sentences
A paragraph is unified when it develops a single main idea expressed in
a topic sentence, which may appear at the beginning, in the middle, or
at the end of the paragraph. It tells readers what to expect and helps
them understand the paragraph’s central thought immediately.
Developing Supporting Sentences
Supporting sentences illustrate, explain, or strengthen the topic sentence. One
of the hardest things for beginning writers to remember is that all support
sentences in the paragraph must relate to the topic sentence.
Building Well-Organized Paragraphs
Creating Paragraph Coherence

■ Sustaining the Key Idea.

■ Dovetailing Sentences.
■ Including Pronouns.
■ Employing Transitional Expressions.
Building Well-Organized Paragraphs
Controlling Paragraph Length
 Communication Workshop: Social Media
Eight Tips for Safe Social Networking

Career Application.
Office workers and businesspeople are
steeped in technology. Best practices
are a key concern in IT and HR
departments. We’ve presented eight
salient tips here for the safe use of
social media.
■ Beware of privacy settings.
■ Check before you click.
■ Realize that Big Data never goes away.
■ Beware of oversharing.
■ Think twice before friending.
■ Be careful of third-party apps.
■ Limit your LinkedIn info.
■ Don’t link accounts.
Thank you for your attention!