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Student Workbook

Advanced Writing Skills

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Advanced Writing Skills

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Student Workbook

Copyright

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All rights reserved world-wide under International and Pan-American copyright

agreements. No part of this document can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of Velsoft.

Table of Contents

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Session One: Course Overview ...................................................................................................................... 1

Session Two: The Three Cs............................................................................................................................ 2
Writing Clearly ..................................................................................................................................... 2
Writing Concisely ................................................................................................................................. 5
Group Exercise ..................................................................................................................................... 7
Writing Correctly .................................................................................................................................. 8
Choosing Your Sources ...................................................................................................................... 10
Session Three: Grammar and Writing Mechanics........................................................................................ 12
Seven Ways to Simplify Your Writing ............................................................................................... 12
Proper Paragraphs ............................................................................................................................... 19
More on Paragraphs ............................................................................................................................ 20
Session Four: Readability............................................................................................................................. 23
Session Five: Writing Letters ....................................................................................................................... 26
Parts of a Business Letter.................................................................................................................... 26
Letter Styles ........................................................................................................................................ 29
Session Six: Dealing with Specific Requests ............................................................................................... 33
Session Seven: E-mail Etiquette................................................................................................................... 36
Session Eight: Business Documents............................................................................................................. 37
Business Cases.................................................................................................................................... 37
Requests for Proposals........................................................................................................................ 38
Writing Reports................................................................................................................................... 39
Documentation.................................................................................................................................... 41
A Personal Action Plan ................................................................................................................................ 44
Recommended Reading List......................................................................................................................... 45

Advanced Writing Skills

Session One: Course Overview

Course Overview

This is a one-day workshop for those who already are good writers. Our time will be
devoted to writing letters of recommendation, of persuasion, of refusal or of action, that
reflect current word usage and up-to-date formats. You can also become more skilled at
writing business cases, proposals, and reports, and learn a bit more about e-mail etiquette.

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Discuss your writing challenges.

Learn how to make your writing clear, concise, and correct.
Improve sentence construction and paragraph development.
Identify some ways to make your writer simpler and easier to read.
Learn about a tool that can determine how readable your work is.
Develop effective business letters for tough situations.
Discuss e-mail etiquette.
Develop an appropriate writing style and format for your letters, business cases,
and reports.

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Personal Objectives

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Learning Objectives

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Advanced Writing Skills

Session Two: The Three Cs

Writing Clearly
All writing should be clear, concise, and correct. Good writers use plain language to
express clear meaning. They write in a simple style that uses every day words. They do
not use showy words and ambiguous expressions in an effort to dazzle or confuse
readers. They write to express ideas, not to impress others.

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What do you think this manager meant in the following message?

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Personnel assigned vehicular space in the adjacent areas are hereby advised that
utilization will be suspended temporarily Friday morning.

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You would probably have to read that sentence several times before you understand that
you are being advised not to park in the lot next door on Friday morning.

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Clear messages contain words that are familiar and meaningful to the reader. Whenever
possible, use short, common, simple words to say what you mean.

2007, www.velsoft.com

Advanced Writing Skills

Familiar Words

Look at the following list. What words could you use instead?
Instead of writing

I could say

Ascertain
Conceptualize
Encompass
Hypothesize
Monitor

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Operational

Perplexing
Reciprocate

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Stipulate

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Perpetuate

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Option

Terminate
Utilize

However, dont give up a precise word if it says exactly what you mean.

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Concrete Nouns

Concrete nouns help readers visualize the meaning of words. Concrete nouns name
objects that are more easily imagined, such as desk, car, and earring. On the other hand,
abstract nouns name concepts that are difficult to visualize, such as automation, justice,
integrity, and environment. In business writing, help your reader see what you mean by
using concrete language whenever possible.

2007, www.velsoft.com

Advanced Writing Skills

Jargon

Every workplace has some words and some terms that are particular to that industry or
that business.

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What are some examples of jargon you use in your workplace?

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Why do we want to avoid using jargon in our writing?

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When is it appropriate?

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Advanced Writing Skills

Slang

This refers to the trendy use of certain words or in some cases, made-up words. This is
dangerous as such words may not be understood by our audience or they may date us
since they quickly go out of fashion.

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Writing Concisely

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Can you give some common examples of current slang/out of date slang?

Writing concisely means saying exactly what you mean in the fewest words possible.
Often, when you re-write a sentence to make it more concise, it will also make it clearer.

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Here are some easy tips to remember that will help you make your writing more concise.
Use the active voice when possible.

Passive voice: The groceries had been carried away by the manager.
Active voice: The manager carried away the groceries.
Notice how much shorter the second sentence is, even though it contains the same
information? Its also easier to read and understand.
Watch out for adverbs.

Adverbs can add unnecessary bulk to your sentences. In his writing treatise On Writing,
Stephen King says, The road to hell is paved with adverbs.
Example:
The dog moved much more quickly than the cat.
The dog moved quicker than the cat.

2007, www.velsoft.com

Advanced Writing Skills

Dont be redundant.

Have you ever seen a sentence like, I watched the colorful sun set in the west, or, I
took off the purple colored shirt? Now, if the sun were setting in the east, that would be
something to comment on, but we all know that the sun sets in the west. Likewise, you
can safely assume that your readers know that purple is a color.
Similarly, watch out for words that mean the same: We drained and emptied the tank,
could be replaced by, We emptied the tank.
Eliminate empty words.

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The Writers Brief Handbook lists these words as the most common empty phrases.
By means of
Due to the fact that
For the purpose of
For the simple reason that
In order to
In spite of the fact that
In this world today
It is important that
It is necessary that
On the occasion of
Prior to
In anticipation of
Until such time of
With regard to
In the neighborhood of
Had an effect on

2007, www.velsoft.com

Advanced Writing Skills

Group Exercise

Instead of

Write

By means of
Due to the fact that
For the purpose of

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For the simple reason that

In spite of the fact that

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In this world today

On the occasion of
Prior to

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In anticipation of

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It is important that
It is necessary that

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In order to

Until such time of

With regard to

In the neighborhood of
Had an effect on

2007, www.velsoft.com

Advanced Writing Skills

Writing Correctly

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What sources have you used to ensure that your work is correct?

Style

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There are two components of correctness.

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The first component of correctness is style. If you are writing a document that must
conform to particular style specifications (such as Chicago or the American
Psychological Association, or a style guide created by your organization), you must also
ensure that your document meets those specifications. You will also ensure that your
document is free of spelling and grammar errors.

How can we ensure that our document is stylistically correct?

2007, www.velsoft.com

Advanced Writing Skills

Factual

The second component of correctness is factual correctness. Did the budget actually
come in at $5,671? Was the temperature actually 67 degrees? Were the test results really
positive?
There are a few ways to ensure that your document is factually correct. When writing,
make sure you list the source whenever you include a fact. These sources can be for your
own reference and not part of the final document, but they will help you when editing.
These references will also help you answer any questions that readers may have later on.

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If at all possible, make sure you go to the original source. If you find a newspaper article
that quotes a particular study, for example, go back and find that study. In some cases,
you may want to find multiple sources to confirm a particular fact. It depends on your
audience and what kind of document you are writing.

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It can also be a good idea to include excerpts from your source. For example, rather than
try to explain a graph, it might be easier to include the graph itself. Make sure that you
have the appropriate permissions and that the source is quoted if you choose to do this.

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What kinds of sources might we use to check for factual correctness?

If you are going to use the Internet as a reference source, remember these points.
Make sure you are using a reputable Web site. Companies like Encarta or
Encyclopedia Britannica are well-known for their reference products. Other Web
sites, like Wikipedia, are user-created and not necessarily accurate.
If you are in doubt of the accuracy of the site, find another way of checking the
fact.
If at all possible, go back to the original source and use it as a reference.
Always keep notes of the name of the site, the URL, and the date you visited it.
You may even want to save a copy of the Web page to your local computer.

2007, www.velsoft.com

Advanced Writing Skills

Choosing Your Sources

What are some possible resources for each of these projects?

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University paper on dinosaurs

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Brochure with time management tips

Newspaper article on the emergence of Internet fraud

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Advanced Writing Skills

Internal company e-mail on budget items

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Company memo recommending a product

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Training presentation on goal setting

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Advanced Writing Skills

Session Three: Grammar and Writing Mechanics

Seven Ways to Simplify Your Writing

Parallelism

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Parallelism is a writing technique that involves balanced writing, such as using similar
structures to express similar ideas. It is the writers word for consistency. Once you start
doing something one way, you should keep doing it that way. Use identical noun,
adjective, or verb forms so that writing is easy to read and understand.

Style/Tone

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Change this sentence to preserve parallelism: We need more laboratory space,

additional personnel are required, and we also need a bigger slice of the budget.

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Style and tone are nearly the same thing, and the words really mean the emotional mood
of the writing. Style is famously described as the way of saying it. Style is what makes
the same song sound different when it is sung by Michael Jackson or by Aretha Franklin.

Tone isnt determined by topic, nor by the writers personality. Nor is tone always
determined by the audience. Tone is most often determined by purpose: what are you
trying to do?
Every piece of writing, like every person, has an emotional feel, an unstated message. To
appreciate the large part that tone plays in writing, become sensitive to it in everything
you readparticularly everything you read from your director or the person for whom
you write letters and memos most often.
Most business letters, memos, and reports replace conversation. Thus they are most
effective when they convey their message in an informal, conversational tone. Many
writers tend toward a formal or distant writing style, depersonalizing the message by
using third-person constructions such as the undersigned or the writer.

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