The Cs of Effective Business Communication

and Writing
Completeness Conciseness
Consideration Concreteness
Clarity Courtesy
Correctness
Clear Candid
Concise Correct
Coherent Complete
Concrete Convincing
Constructive Conversational
 COMPLETENESS
• Message having all facts the reader needs for reaction
you desire. Communicators can be different in mental filter and
influenced by backgrounds, viewpoints, needs, experiences, attitudes, status
& emotions.
• Completeness offers three benefits:
 brings desired results
 Can do a better job of building goodwill
 Help prevent costly lawsuits
• Tree guidelines bring Completeness:
– Provide all necessary information (answering 5 Ws)
– Answer all questions asked (replying inquiry/complaints)
– Give something extra when desirable
(do something more than answer)
 CONCISENESS
• Conciseness is to say in the fewest possible words
within 7 C’s applications.
• It presents advantages
 Saves time for communicators
 Contributes emphasis on main point
 Eliminates unnecessary words
 Let you stand important ideas
 Makes message “You – View”, interesting to reader
 Show respect for recipients

• Conciseness observe following suggestions:

• Eliminate wordy expressions
• Include only relevant material
• Avoid unnecessary repetition
 CONSIDERATION
 Consideration means preparing message with receiver
in mind; try to put yourself in their place. You’re
considerate:
DON’T: lose your temper, accuse, and charge without facts
DO: Be aware of their desires, problems, circumstances,
emotions, possible reactions to your request. Handle them in
their point of view (YOU – ATTITUDE), Human touch,
and human nature.
 Three specific ways to indicate consideration:
 Focus on “you” instead of “I” and “We”
 Show audience benefit or interest in the receiver
 Emphasize positive, pleasant facts.
 CONCRETENESS
• Concreteness means specific, definite, vivid, rather than
vague and general. It also means using denotative (direct,
explicit, dictionary based) rather than Connotative (ideas or notion
associated word or phrase).
• The benefits of using concrete F& F:
– Your receivers know exactly what is require.
– Concreteness increases likelihood in the message u intend
– Concrete messages are richly textured than vague message.
• The guidelines help making concrete message:
– Use specific fact and figures.
– Put action in your verbs.
– Choose image - building words
 CLARITY
• Clarity means getting the meaning form your
head into the mind of your reader accurately.
• Guidelines:
Choose precise, concrete and familiar words.
Construct effective sentences and paragraphs.
 COURTESY
• Courtesy involves in true awareness of others,
perspective and feeling. It is politeness with
mechanical use of “please” and “thank you”, socially
accepted manners, and respect and concern of others.
• Suggestions for generating a courteous tone:
• Be sincerely tactful, thoughtful and appreciative
• Use expression that show respect
• Choose nondiscriminatory expression
 CORRECTNESS
• The core concern of Correctness is proper
grammar, punctuation, and spelling. The
message may be correct mechanically but still insult
or lose a customer.
• Three characteristics bring Correctness:
– Use the right level of language.
– Check accuracy of figures and facts, and words
– Maintain acceptable writing mechanics.
 Clear Writing
Don’t leave any doubt in your reader’s mind about your exact meaning. Sentences like these, if read
literally, may be both unintentionally amusing and confusing.

The new director of public relations worked her way up from the reception desk to her
present high office.

Corrected to: The new director of public relations started her career as a receptionist.

There isn’t any question about the proposed advertising campaign’s success in the
opinion of (the account executive).

Corrected to: (The account executive) believes that the proposed advertising campaign will succeed

Before we can start the new computer system, it must be fully covered by insurance

Corrected to: Before we can start the new computer system, we must insure it fully.
Eliminating jargon is important to maintain clear writing. Readers appreciate a
straightforward approach. Say what you have to say, and then stop. Avoid jargon, buzz
words, and paralegal or bureaucratic phrases, as found below.

The following may be translated :

From: To:
to adjudicate to judge
economically disadvantaged poor
to enjoin to order
feedback response
to dollarize to compute the cost
at this point in time now
impacted affected
parameters limits
to procure to get
While writers hope that jargon sounds impressively technical and shrewd, many readers
react to it with distaste. Obscure, pretentious, trendy language is the rival of intelligibility,
a smoke screen designed to disguise dim thinking and personal insecurity.
I actually received the following in a report on labor relations:

Here’s a decent option, because it impacts excellently on our viable interface with
labor, and that’s the bottom line.

It was corrected to:

This is a good choice because it supports our sound relations with labor and that is essential.

Be careful of homonyms. They are words with the same spellings or pronunciations but
with different meanings. Used near each other, they may slow down a reader. Try
correcting the following:

Before he tabled the motion, he referred to the table on page six of the report that had
been placed on the table in front of him.
 Candid Writing
Tell your readers the truth and nothing but the truth. They know when you’re trying
to disguise bad news or inflate good news. Remember the following:
1. Exaggeration creates doubt; so do euphemisms, as in the following, which
actually appeared in a report from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The plane experienced negative impacting with terra firma. (Tree tone Lang. firm)

For cryin’ out loud! What happened is the bloody plane crashed! So say it!

2. Anyone who is recognized as having deceived, misled, or lied to colleagues is

suspect forever.

3. Don’t “fudge or cheat” on unfavorable information. If you don’t know…say you

don’t know. Where doubt prevails, acknowledge doubt.
 Concise Writing
Brevity is one of the keys to effective communication. Don’t let sentences run on…
and on…and on…and don’t use a long word where a short one will do as well.
Don’t repeat what your reader has written to you. Instead, start right in and answer
the memo or letter. If you must refer to it, do it concisely. Check the following:
This is in reference to your memo of November first regarding use of the company
dining room for personal entertaining.

Corrected to: Your question about use of the company dining room touches upon a current
policy dispute.

To accomplish concise writing, eliminate the following:

Digressions or unfocussed topic
Redundancy or idleness, unwanted
Irrelevant details
Stating the obvious
Here are some excesses of language that are common in business communications. Note
these carefully, and then…prune your prose!
Overdone wording Improved to:
advance planning planning
advance warning of warning
ask the question ask
a small number of a few
at a later date later
at a time when when
basic fundamentals basics
due to the fact that because
in view of the fact that because
merged together merged
mutual cooperation cooperation
not in a position to can’t
the color brown brown
the reason is because because
without further delay immediately
 Correct Writing
To be correct in your writing you must have all your facts, figures and dates right. You must be fussy
about spelling, grammar and punctuation, and you must address the appropriate people, accurately
spelling their names and using their titles. Consider this:

The very people whom you most want to impress are often the ones who will zero
in on your errors.
The following are some typical errors found in business communications:
Don’t write: When you mean:
administrate administer
affect effect
alternate alternative
comprised composed
different than different from
disinterested uninterested or indifferent
hopefully I hope that
invaluable valueless
maybe no
 Coherent Writing
Support your major points with concrete ideas that relate unambiguously to them.
Connect ideas to one another in ways that will make obvious sense to the reader. You do
this by:
1. Not confusing the issue with extraneous information.
2. Providing only relevant data and documentation.
3. Limiting communication to one primary topic.
In other words…
Don’t explain first. Explain second. As in the following:

We’ve run out of stock unexpectedly. I won’t bore you with the details. Needless to say,
we are desperate and hope you will fill the attached order without delay.

Corrected to: Please rush the attached order through as fast as you can. We’ve run out
out of stock unexpectedly and need new supplies at once.
 Complete Writing
Be sure to give your readers all the details they need, including:
Deadlines
Pertinent Resources
Contacts
Criteria
Alternatives
Supply definitions and explanations of specific points only when you feel they will inform
your readers (remember Concise?). Therefore:
1. Assess your reader’s level of expertise, and insert suitable background material.
2. If related information is available elsewhere, tell your reader where to find it.
3. Enlist anecdotes, quotations, and particular examples when they help to make
a point.

Above all, make sure you have the IMPORTANT DETAILS. There is hardly
anything worse than leaving something out of your communiqué that is essential
 Concrete Writing
Generalizations are important, but they should be used judiciously and supported with
reliable evidence. Be as specific as possible, even when this entails writing at greater
length…as in the following:

Nature’s Best health food for dogs had a good year.

Corrected to: Last year, sales of Nature’s Best health food for dogs increased 50
percent, and distribution went up 44 percent.
OR
We have been able to attract many outstanding artists to our stage.
Corrected to: Here are the names of one hundred outstanding artists who have
appeared on our stage over the past five years.

Tell your readers what you expect from them and when; tell them what you will do and when.
Please let me know your answer soon.

Corrected to: Please let me know your answer before February 18th when I leave for our
national sales conference.
 Convincing Writing
Keep your messages sincere and plausible. Don’t embroider or distort. Cite authorities
when you can (both internal and external), and demonstrate that you’ve done the
research. Explore pros and cons. Often, to write simply is to write forcefully; therefore,
listen to what you write. Once again, prune your prose!
Wordy and Weak Simple and Stronger
move forward advance
rich businesswoman tycoon / business person
afford an opportunity give a chance
terminate end
in a position to may or can
inquire ask
Clichés are ineffective because they have been heard so often that they have become
stale. For example:

Tired handshake limp handshake my case rests

richly deserved bright idea lost in thought
separate the men from the boys or separate the women from the girls
 Constructive Writing
Part of being constructive is being diplomatic. To be diplomatic, avoid words and phrases that make
readers defensive. For example:
unreasonable unfortunately
misinformed the blame, error, failure
questionable you claim, allege, maintain
overreaction you neglected, forgot
one-sided I insist, require, demand
rejection I cannot comprehend, believe

Instead
Compliment your reader whenever you can do so sincerely. Cultivate generosity of spirit and a
supportive attitude in your writing. Avoid racism or bias, sexism, narrow-mindedness and rigidity.
Note the following:

Negative: Health and performance problems associated with executive stress escalate wherever a
corporation fails to provide a supportive environment.

Positive: Executives under stress perform better and are healthier in corporations that provide a
supportive environment than in those that do not.
 Conversational Writing
The best writing strikes a conversational tone but avoids the digressions and hesitations of
speech. Writing is better organized and more specific than talk. If you want to write as
unaffectedly as you speak, try reading aloud what you’ve written and then rewrite any
sentences that sound stiff or awkward. Remember, naturalness is superior to stuffiness,
and gobbledygook (nonsense) befuddle (confuse) the mind. Note the following:

Nonsense Sense
Authoritative feedback is deficient. No one knows.
Personnel’s tolerance of a transitional People resist change.
framework is negative.
Construct an optimal manipulative strategy. Make it work.
There’s been a breakthrough in top-level The board of directors has finally
ideological polarization. reached a compromise.

Don’t try to attain an ideal norm. Relax! Speak in your own voice. Let your own
personality shine through your words. Gradually, your own style develops, and it’s the
best style for you.