COMPOSING YOUR

MESSAGE

• Choosing powerful words

• Creating effective sentences

• Crafting Unified, Coherent Paragraphs

COMPOSING YOUR MESSAGE:
CHOOSING POWERFUL WORDS
 Selecting words that are both ‘’correct’’ and ‘’effective’’ (making right use of
functional words and content words).

 Understanding ‘’Denotation’’ and ‘’ Connotation’’(denotative meaning is literal or

dictionary meaning e.g. desk, a piece of furniture--- connotative meaning includes all
the associations and feelings evoked by the word , e.g. the connotation of word
‘’fail’’ is negative.
 Sales department failed to meet annual quota. ( Negative)
Sales department achieved 85% annual quota. (Positive)

 Balancing ‘’Abstract’(word expresses concept, quality or characteristics) ’ and

‘’Concrete’’(word stand for something you can touch, see or visualize) words.

 Finding words that communicate well(use strong and familiar words, avoid
clichés( and Buzzwords, minimize jargons) Cliché a tired and outworn stereotypical
phrase given in answer to a situation, is common. Example: "I wonder who will be
elected president." "Who knows. I guess time will tell." Shortcut answer to common
experiences, questions and dilemmas. 'Hurry up, time is money!"
AVOIDING CLICHÉS:
ASSIGNMENT 3
 Revise the following paragraph to avoid
clichés:
1. When I started thinking about getting a
new job, I was completely clueless. I knew
I wanted to do something really cool, but I
was lost about what might fit the bill.
2. Please resolve this ASAP.
3. Thanks for your help. Now just kick it
through the goal posts.
ACTIVITY 1:
 Replace the clichés and buzzwords with plain language from the
following sentences:

1. Being a jack-of-all-trades, Dave worked well in his new general manager

job.

2. Moving Leslie into the accounting department, where she was literally a
fish out of water, was like putting a square peg into a round hole, if you
get my drift.

3. My only takeaway from the offsite was that Laird threw his entire
department under the bus for missing the deadline.

4. I’d love to help with that project. But I’m bandwidth constrained.

5. The board green-lighted our initiative to repurpose our consumer

products for the commercial space.
ACTIVITY 2:
 Write a concrete phrase for each of these vague phrases:
1. Sometimes in Spring
In April
2. A substantial savings
A saving of 10%
3. A large number attended
Over 100 attended
4. Increased efficiency
Saved time and efficiency
5. Expanded the work area
The work area now has extra 15 feet
6.Flatten the website structure
The website should be simple to navigate
COMPOSING YOUR MESSAGE:
CREATING EFFECTIVE SENTENCES
 Arranging your carefully chosen words in effective sentences is
the next step in creating powerful messages. Choose the best type
of sentence from the 4 types of sentences:

1.Simple sentence(has 1 main clause)

2. Compound sentence (has 2 main clauses)

3. Complex sentence (has 1 main clause and 1 subordinate clause)

4. Compound-complex sentence: (has 2 main clauses and at least 1

subordinate clause)

Use of variety of sentence type can make your writing

interesting and effective.
USING SENTENCE STYLE TO
EMPHASIZE KEY THOUGHTS
 In messages there are some key ideas that should be given emphasis
through sentence style. One obvious technique is to give more important
point the most space. Consider this sentence:

The chairperson called for a vote of the shareholders.

To emphasize the importance of chairperson, you might describe her

more.

Having considerable experience in corporate takeover battles, the

chairperson called for a vote of shareholders.

You can also increase the emphasis by adding a separate, short sentence
to augment the first:

The chairperson called for the vote of the shareholders. She has
considerable experience in corporate takeover battles.
COMPOSING YOUR MESSAGE: CRAFTING UNIFIED,
COHERENT PARAGRAPH
 Readers expect every paragraph to be
unified--- focusing on a single topic-and
coherent--- presenting ideas in a logically
connected way.

 By carefully arranging the elements of each

paragraph, you help the readers to grasp the
main idea.
1. CREATING THE ELEMENTS OF
A PARAGRAPH
Most paragraphs consist of:
 A Topic sentence that reveals the subject of
the paragraph.
 Related sentences that support and expand
the topic.
 Transitions that help readers move between
sentences and paragraphs.
TOPIC SENTENCE
 In informal and creative writing the topic sentence may be implied rather than
stated.

 In Business writing, the topic sentence is generally explicit and is often the first
sentence in the paragraph.

 The topic sentence gives readers a summary of the general idea that will be
covered in the rest of the paragraph.

 Topic sentences remind the writer of the purpose of the paragraph and also
encourage him to stay focused.

The medical products division has been troubled for many years by public
relations problem. (in the rest of the paragraph, readers will learn the details
of the problems)

To get a refund, please supply us with the following information.( the

details of the necessary information will be described in the rest of the
paragraph)
SUPPORT SENTENCES
 In most paragraphs, the topic sentence needs
to be explained, justified, or extended with
one or more support sentences. These
support sentences must provide the enough
specific detail to make the topic clear.

 A paragraph is well developed if it contains

enough information to make the topic
sentence understood and convincing.
TRANSITIONS
 Transitions connect ideas by showing how one
thought is related to another.

 Transitions give your writing a smooth, even flow.

 Transitional elements include:

1. Connecting words(conjunctions)
2. Repeated words or phrases
3. Pronouns
4. Words that are frequently paired
CONTI…
 Here is list of transitions frequently used to move readers smoothly
between clauses, sentences and paragraphs.

1. Additional detail: moreover, furthermore, beside, first, second,

third
2. Cause and effect relationship: therefore, because, accordingly,
thus, consequently, as a result, so
3. Comparison: similarly, in comparison
4. Contrast: yet, whereas, on the other hand, however
5. Condition: although, if
6. Illustration: for example, in this case, for instance
7. Time sequence: formerly, before, after, when, meanwhile,
sometimes
8. Intensification: indeed, in fact, in any event
9. Summary: in brief, in short, to sum up
10. Repetition: in other words, that is, as mentioned previously
2. CHOOSING THE BEST WAY TO
DEVELOP EACH PARAGRAPH
 There are 5 ways to develop paragraphs:

1. Illustrations( giving examples to demonstrate the general idea)

2. Comparison or contrast(using similarities or differences to

develop the topic)

3. Cause and effect(focusing on the reasons for something and their

effects)

4. Classification(showing how a general idea can be broken into

specific categories)

5. Problem and solution(presenting a problem and then discussing

the solution)