Fundamentals
of Business Communication
This segment is divided into two sections and summarizes
the major concepts you need to design effective business documents
(check links below):
For more resources for business and technical writing, click
here.
Writing
in School vs. Writing at Work
You may be wondering why so many programs now include a capstone
course in business communication and why upper-level courses
in so many fields have case assignments. You may have made
an A or a B in freshman composition and in literature courses.
In fact, you may have passed the notorious freshman writing
exam and won an exemption from English 103. However, studies
of employee communication have shown consistently that employees
spend from 25%-30% of their time writing and that writing
skills can help or hurt advancement opportunities. So preparing
for the kind of communication you will do in business will
help you apply the specialized knowledge you have gained in
your major.
IMPORTANT: The way you communicate
at work requires that you approach writing in a different
way from the way you have approached your written assignments
in school.
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In school, you write to get grades.
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On the job, you write to do your job.
Writing in School
Throughout your years in school, your school writing assignments
have had one purpose: to show that you understand some topic
or concept. To put it bluntly, in your academic writing, you
have always written for a reader, a teacher, who is an expert
in the field or who knows more about the topic than you do.
Teachers are paid to read what students write no matter how
good or bad it is, to evaluate the material on its correctness,
and to return the assignment to each student with some grade
that reflect how well the student understands the assigned
material or topic.
Writing at Work
On the job, however, this situation will change. You will
be writing to other employees, to clients, and to an almost
unlimited number of individuals. You will be writing to achieve
goals and complete job tasks that are a part of your job description.
Unlike teachers, readers in the workplace are not committed
to reading what you write. They will do so only if they believe
that what you have written will help them do their
own job.
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The audience, or readers, for your work-related writing,
may change with each document. Your readers may have varying
levels of knowledge about the topic you are discussing.
Your readers will definitely not be like your teachers--knowledgeable,
academic readers who are committed to reading everything
you write to determine its correctness.
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Readers in the workplace also differ significantly from
your college teachers in another important way. On the
job, readers are not going to read what you write unless
your reports, memos, and other documents are easy to read.
Professors may be a captive audience because they are
paid to read your stuff, but readers at work are selective.
They will read what they think will be useful to them.
It will be your responsibility to make your documents
easy to read and understand.
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The documents written most frequently by employees are
e-mail, memoranda, memoranda reports, letters, instructions--not
essays or examinations. And you will write these to a variety
of readers, not a professor or instructor. Thus, in addition
to the kinds of readers you will be addressing, you will
be writing different kinds of documents.
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Many of the reports, memos, and letters you write on
the job will be read by people you do not expect to read
what you have written. Copies of everything you write
will be filed and can be accessed at a later date by readers
who do not know you or the situation which elicited the
document. Everything you write as an employee can be used
as legal documents--you are legally responsible for anything
you write.
In short, in the workplace, you must be responsible for every
thing you write. The document lives on in files and has an
almost infinite life span. For that reason, you will want
to begin to prepare every document carefully. You will want
your reports, your letters, your instructions to be as effectively
written as you can possibly make them.
| If
I seem to be repeating myself about audiences in the workplace
NOT being captive readers, please bear with me. The most
common mistake that employee writers make is assuming
that the intended reader(s) will read what the writer
has written and read that carefully! |
The bottom line is this: being an effective
business writer requires that you look at writing in a different
way. If you think people will automatically read what you
write, then you had better revise your thinking.
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Designing Effective Business
Documents
Because such a great difference exists between the academic
and the nonacademic reader and the purpose of writing, you must
always consider the following issues as you plan your documents.
Without good planning, your writing may not be effective.
Every assignment that imitates a business situation will involve
these design steps!
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Know to whom you are writing. Ask yourself a number
of questions:
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Who is my reader?
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What does my reader know about my topic?
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What is my reader's background?
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What is my reader's attitude toward me and the topic
about which I am writing?
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Who else may read what I write? Could anything be
misconstrued by unknown readers and reflect unfavorably
on me or the organization ?
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Know why you are writing. Ask yourself several
more questions:
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What do I want my reader(s) to do after reading my
document?
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Or, what do I want them to know or understand?
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What attitude(s) do I want them to have?
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Choose your ideas. Based on questions you asked
about audience and purpose, select and list the ideas
you need to include to achieve your purpose with you reader(s).
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Decide on the order. Arrange your ideas in the
order in which your reader needs them or according to
standards used by the organization where you work.
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Design a format. Use document design techniques
that will reveal the content and the organization to your
reader.
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Choose a style. How you say what you say should
be appropriate for your reader's(s') knowledge and reading
context.
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Draft your document. Write and revise. Do everything
with your audience and purpose in mind.
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Let your document cool (this improves your objectivity).
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Edit for correctness. Check spelling, usage, sentence
structure, and punctuation.
Following these steps in planning anything you write will
help ensure that your document is effective.
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