BUS 251: BUSINESS

COMMUNICATION
Summer 2019
 Lecture 2: Adapting Your Words To Your Readers
(Chap 3)

Learning Outcomes:
▪ Explain the role of adaptation in selecting words that communicate.
▪ Suggestions for Selecting Words
- Simplify writing by selecting familiar and short words.
- Use slangs with caution.
- Use technical words and acronyms appropriately.
- Use concrete, specific words with the right shades of meaning.
- Avoid misusing similar words
- Use active verbs
▪ Suggestions for non discriminatory writing.
 The Importance of Adaptation

❖ Remember context from Chapter 1? Readers occupy particular Contexts.

❖ They do not have the same kind or level of vocabulary, knowledge, or
values.
❖ Also, your audiences may be from cultures very different from yours.
❖ General Rule - More work for the writer, less work for the reader; less
work for the writer, more work for the reader
 Read two examples from a financial report: Which one is
Last year your company’s total
sales were £117,400,000, which
was slightly higher than the
£109,800,000 total for the year
before. After deducting for all
expenses, we had £4,593,000 left
over for profits, compared with
£2,830,000 for 2011. Because of
these increased profits, we were
able to increase your annual
dividend payments per share from
the 50 cents paid over the last 10
years.
better?
The corporation’s investments and
advances in three unconsolidated
subsidiaries and in 50 percent-owned
companies was £42,200,000 on
December 31, 2012, and the excess of
the investments in certain companies
over net asset value at dates of
acquisition was £1,760,000. The
corporation's equity in the net assets as
of December 31, 2112, was £41,800,000
and in the results of operations for the
years ended December 31, 2011 and
2012, was £1,350,000 and £887,500,
respectively.
 The Importance of Adaptation (Contd.)

❖Therefore -
❖ Identify your audiences. Always keep their context in mind while crafting
the message.
❖ Choose words that communicate clearly and with the appropriate tone.
❖ Tailoring your message to your readers is not only strategically
necessary; it is also a sign of consideration for their time and energy.
 Adapting to Multiple Readers

❖ What if you need to address your message to several different readers?

❖ Visualize the readers –
- How they think - What they know - Educational level - Culture
❖ Write your message in such a way that different readers can find and
understand the parts of your message that are important to them.
❖ For the non-experts, you will need to define any specialized vocabulary
you use.
❖ You may use clearly worded heading so that one party can read a specific
parts while other skim or skip it.
❖ Your choice of words needs to be guided by your audience and purpose.
That’s the main rule for effective wording.
Exercise
SUGGESTIONS FOR SELECTING
WORDS
 Use Familiar Words

❖ Using familiar words means using the language that most of us use
in everyday conversation.
❖ Plain language is the “communication your audience can understand
the first time they read or hear.” -U.S government
❖ To write clearly, avoid stiff, more difficult words that do not
communicate so precisely or quickly.
❖ Using plain language.

❖ Example of some unfamiliar words:

• Endeavor
• Demonstrate
• Ascertain
• Underpin
• Discontinue
 Use Familiar Words (Contd.)

Unfamiliar Words Familiar Words

Endeavor Try
Demonstrate Show
Ascertain Find out for certain
Underpin Support
Discontinue Stop
Terminate End
Utilize Use
 Try using Familiar words

• We must leverage/use our core competencies/benefit to

maximize/increase our competitiveness/advantages.
• Relying on what we do best will make us the most
competitive.
• Company operations for the preceding accounting
period / last year terminated/ended with a deficit/ loss.
• The company lost money last year.
 Prefer Short Words

❖ Short words usually communicate better than long words.

❖ Heavy use of long words – even long words that are understood-
hinders communication.

❖ Let’s find out if we can do this –

Our expectations are that there will be increments in commodity
value.
The price of the goods is expected to go
up.
We expect that price of the goods will go
up.
 Try to use short words

• They acceded/agreed to the proposition/ proposal to

undertake/take/work/start a collaborative/joint
venture/business.
• They agreed to work with us.
• This antiquated/ old merchandising/ business strategy is
ineffectual/ not working in contemporary/ current business
operations.
• This old sales strategy will not work with today’s
customers.
 Use Slangs with Caution

❖ Avoid using slang. Your word Slang word or phrase Meaning

choices should be easily Check this out Look at it, examine
translated into other languages. Chocoholic, workaholic, a person who loves, is
shopaholic addicted to
chocolate/work/shopping
❖ Slang is regarded as very Pro Professional
informal, are more common in Wassup, Bro! How is everything,
speech than writing. brother?
❖ https://owlcation.com/humanities/T Gross, nasty Disgusting
op-10-Most-Annoying-Cliches Screw up Make a mistake
Awesome Great

Adios
 Use Technical Words and Acronyms Appropriately

❖ Technical words and acronyms are useful and often necessary

when speaking to someone in the same field of work.
❖ Miscommunication occurs when these words are used with people
outside.
❖ Be careful when using acronyms as some might not be widely
recognized.
❖ Example: covered employment, annuity, IBM, SEO, CSR, CRS
etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-wb9ddKsDE
 Use Precise Language

❖ Use words with sharp and clear meanings, with the right emotional
tone.
❖ Choose words that are concrete, specific, and sensitive
❖ Concrete words stand for things that the reader can see, feel, taste,
smell or count.
❖ Whereas abstract words can often be vague.

❖ See examples on page 54.

 Prefer Active Verbs

❖ Overuse of the verb “to be” and passive voice can sap the energy
from your sentences.
❖ “A sentence with a verb that can take a direct job(the recipient of the
action) can be written either in a direct (active) pattern or an indirect
(passive) pattern.”
❖ Example- The auditor inspected the books (active); The books were
inspected by the auditor (passive).
❖ More examples is on page 58 and 59 of the book.
 Avoid Overuse of Camouflaged Verbs

❖ A camouflaged verb is a verb that has been

needlessly transformed into a noun.
❖ Words with endings such as -ion, -tion, -ing,
-ment, -ant, -ent, -ence, -ance , and -
ency often change verbs into nouns.
❖ Camouflaged verbs increase the sentence
length and difficulty.
❖ For example- acquire (Action verb),
acquisition (Noun form),
Make an acquisition
(wording of camouflaged verb)
❖ See page 60
 SUGGESTIONS FOR
NONDISCRIMINATORY WRITING
 Nondiscriminatory Writing

❖ By discriminatory words we mean words

that do not treat all people with equal
respect.

❖ More specifically, they are words that

refer negatively to groups of people,
such as by –
• Gender
• Race
• Nationality
• Sexual orientation
• Age, or
• Disability
 How to Avoid Nondiscriminatory Writing

❖ Use Gender Neutral Words

▪ Avoid masculine pronouns such as he, his, and him, for both
sexes.
▪ 3 ways to avoid -
1.Reword (Comparison: Sexist – Gender Neutral)
2.Plural
3.Gender neutral expressions: One, you, he/she, s/he

▪ Every person has HIS own point of view

▪ The typical university student eats HIS lunch at the cafeteria
▪ Look at page 63
 How to Avoid Words That Stereotypes

❖ Age – Try using ‘retired’ ‘experience’, or ‘veteran’ instead of

senior citizens, elderly or aged

❖ Disability – Try using ‘those with disabilities’ instead of ‘the

disabled’. ‘Wheelchair user’, ‘developmentally disabled’
instead of ‘crippled’, ‘handicapped’, ‘retard’

❖ Race, Nationality, or Sexual Orientation

- Try putting yourself into some one else’s shoes