Business Writing

Baden Eunson

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781118319680
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Persönliche Entwicklung
• Subtopic: Karriere

The ability the write well in professional situations is a much sought-after and all too rare skill. Business Writing takes a hands-on approach to help you excel in writing a range of hard-copy and electronic documents.

Learn how to write effective:

• letters
• memos
• emails
• reports
• website text.

Expert communicator Baden Eunson shows you how to design documents, employ persuasive techniques and how to recognise (and foil) the mind games some people play. Also, discover how to avoid the pitfalls of planning and editing documents to become a proficient and fluent writer.

Effective writing is a skill that everyone can develop and is a vital attribute for those who wish to succeed in the highly competitive business world.

Chapter 1

Letters 1 — what they are and how to write them

One of the most important elements of business writing is writing letters. You may ask, ‘Why should I bother with such an old-fashioned form of communication as letters?’ There are many reasons why letters are still utilised; read on to find out why.

Letters — when, why and how

Letters are one of a number of genres we use as communicators. With the rise of email, it is commonplace to hear about ‘the death of letter writing’ in relation to both personal and professional communication. In spite of this, the letter is still very much alive — primarily because its advantages still outweigh its disadvantages, which are listed in table 1.1 (overleaf).

Table 1.1: advantages and disadvantages of letter writing as a channel of communication

Advantages	Disadvantages
Official status: many recipients will take a letter, especially on letterhead, more seriously than a fax or email	Time cost. it takes longer to plan, draft, write, edit and send a letter, via mail or courier, than to use email
Touch and keep: a letter can be handled, filed and stored without loss of quality	Financial cost. letters involve costs in labour, materials (printed letterhead is costly), postage/delivery costs, and creation and storage of copies
The personal touch: a signed or handwritten letter carries more weight and consequence for many recipients than a fax, email or telephone call	Slow delivery: letters sent via ‘snail mail’ involve longer delivery times than faxes or emails
Slow delivery: the weakness of relatively slow delivery can be a strength if the creation process leads us to take more care in the message’s production — putting more thought into the words and ideas on the page

You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you’ve got something to say.

F Scott Fitzgerald

New technology has increased our channels of personal and business communication, which now include physical and electronic methods such as letters, memos, reports, faxes, emails and SMS (short message service) via telephones. Technology changes, but certain principles of communication remain constant. We should never forget the 8Cs of written communication (see table 1.2).

Table 1.2: the 8Cs of written communication

As writers, we need to be ...	How?
1 Clear	The document should send a plain and unambiguous message It should not confuse or patronise the recipient It should aim to prevent or fix, not cause, communication breakdowns
2 Correct	The message should contain no factual errors All words, especially proper names, should be spelt correctly
3 Comprehensive	The message should include all critical information The recipient should not need to seek clarification because the writer has made assumptions about the recipient’s knowledge
4 Concise	The message should be only as long as it needs to be The message should be only as complex as it needs to be
5 Credible	The message should be conveyed in a professional way Any opinions should be supported by facts
6 Considerate	The message should reflect the ‘you’ attitude (that is, a concern for the reader’s needs and interests, rather than the writer’s). The ‘you’ attitude is: Polite — demonstrating good manners and tact Practical — answering the recipient’s question ‘What’s in it for me?’ (that is, it gives the recipient an incentive to respond to, rather than ignore, the message) (see p. 50)
7 Courteous	The message should reflect respectful and civilised values It should not give the reader cause to take offence, or to take legal or retaliatory action
8 Conscientious	The message should meet the highest ethical standards It should contain no material unethically taken from other sources

The discipline you use to write things down clearly is the first step in making them real.

Lee lacocca

Approaches to writing letters

Different approaches may be taken when writing letters, depending on their purpose. For example, it’s useful to distinguish between direct and indirect approaches to the topic. Each pattern has its strengths and weaknesses.

The direct approach in a business letter is appropriate; for example, when we are able to give our readers what they want, while a more indirect approach may be taken when we are unable to do so or when conditions apply. We need to keep the direct/indirect distinction in mind when creating documents for different situations and recipients. Table 1.3 lists the direct and indirect patterns of letter organisation.

Table 1.3: direct and indirect patterns of letter organisation

Before I turn to some of the techniques involved in composing letters, I will briefly look at matters of process — presentation, layout, formatting or information design, and conventions of wording and expression.

The elements of a letter

A letter contains various elements, some of them essential, others optional, depending on the circumstances. Within many organisations, these questions are determined by house-style conventions — ‘the way we do things around here’. Communication conventions develop over time and vary considerably according to the organisational culture. People in organisations may often be unaware of the specific house-style conventions under which they operate until:

• someone decides it would be a good idea to write a house-style manual
• the organisation merges with another and is confronted with a different culture and with conventions that differ slightly or radically
• technological changes prompt writers to challenge current conventions.

Much of this section on document conventions is about details. Details can be boring, but when writers get one or several details wrong, the impact and effectiveness of the document is compromised. Attention to, or neglect of, detail sends out a message of its own, separate from but linked to the main content of the communication. Table 1.4 details the essential and optional parts of a letter.

Table 1.4: essential and optional parts of a letter

Essential	Optional
Sender’s address	Subject line
Date	Attention line
Recipient’s name and address	Security heading
Salutation	Reference details
Body of letter	Document initials
Close	Sender’s contact details
Signature b...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Title
• Copyright
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Letters 1 — What They are and How to Write Them
• Chapter 2: Letters 2 — Giving Good News and Bad News
• Chapter 3: Letters 3 — Persuading
• Chapter 4: Memos
• Chapter 5: Reports
• Chapter 6: Online Writing — Emails and Websites
• Conclusion
• Appendix
• Notes
• Glossary
• Index