WRITING BUSINESS MESSAGES

HOW?

• Choosing Powerful Words

• Creating Effective Sentences
COMPOSE • Crafting Unified, Coherent Paragraphs

ADAPT • Sensitive to your audience needs

• Building Strong Relationships
• Controlling Your Style and Tone
 ADAPTING TO YOUR AUDIENCE:
BEING SENSITIVE TO AUDIENCE NEEDS
INSTEAD OF THIS
USING THE “YOU” ATTITUDE We offer MP3 players with 50, 75, or
100 gigabytes of storage capacity.
Once again, you’ve managed to bring
MAINTAINING STANDARDS OF down the entire website through your
ETIQUETTE incompetent programming.
It is impossible to repair your laptop
EMPHASIZING THE POSITIVE today.
Mario M. Cuomo, Italian-American
USING BIAS-FREE LANGUAGE politician and ex-governor of
New York
WRITE THIS
You can choose an MP3 player with 50,
75, or 100 gigabytes of storage.
Let’s review the last website update to
explore ways to improve the process.
Your computer can be ready by Tuesday.
Would you like a loaner until then?
Mario M. Cuomo, politician and ex-
governor of New York
ADAPTING TO YOUR AUDIENCE:
BUILD STRONG RELATIONSHIP
1. ESTABLISHING YOUR CREDIBILITY
2. PROJECTING YOUR COMPANY’S IMAGE

INSTEAD OF THIS WRITE THIS

We hope this recommendation will We’re pleased to make this
be helpful. recommendation.

We trust that you’ll want to extend By extending your service contract,

your service contract. you can continue to enjoy top-notch
performance from your equipment.
 ADAPTING TO YOUR AUDIENCE:
CONTROLLING YOUR STYLE AND TONE
USING A SELECTING THE USING PLAIN
CONVERSATIONAL ACTIVE OR PASSIVE LANGUAGE
TONE VOICE
• Understand the difference • In a sentence written in the •Plain language presents
between texting and writing. active voice, the subject information in a simple,
• Avoid stale and pompous performs the action and the unadorned style that allows
language. object receives the action your audience to easily
• Avoid preaching and • In a sentence written in the grasp your meaning—
bragging passive voice, the subject language that recipients
• Be careful with intimacy receives the action “can read, understand and
• Be careful with humor. act upon the first time they
read it
COMPOSING YOUR MESSAGE:
CHOOSING POWERFUL WORDS
UNDERSTANDING DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION

denotative meaning is the literal, or dictionary, meaning.

connotative meaning includes all the associations and
feelings evoked by the word.
Many words have both a denotative (explicit, speciffc)
meaning and a connotative (implicit, associative) meaning.
COMPOSING YOUR MESSAGE:
CHOOSING POWERFUL WORDS
BALANCING ABSTRACT AND CONCRETE WORDS

An abstract word expresses a concept, quality, or

characteristic. Abstractions are usually broad,
encompassing a category of ideas, and they are o en
intellectual, academic, or philosophical.
The more abstract a word is,
the more it is removed from the tangible, objective world
that can be perceived with the senses.
COMPOSING YOUR MESSAGE:
CHOOSING POWERFUL WORDS
FINDING WORDS THAT COMMUNICATE WELL

Choose strong, precise words.

Choose familiar words.
Avoid clichés and use buzzwords carefully
Use jargon carefully.
 simple sentence
COMPOSING YOUR
MESSAGE: Profits increased in the past year.

CREATING EFFECTIVE
SENTENCES compound sentence
Wage rates have declined by 5 percent, and employee turnover has been
high.

complex sentence
Although you may question Gerald’s conclusions, you must admit that his
research is thorough.

compound–complex sentence
Profits increased 35 percent in the past year, so although the company faces
long-term challenges, I agree that its short-term prospects look quite positive.
USING SENTENCE
STYLE TO EMPHASIZE
KEY THOUGHTS Devoting more words to them

Putting them at the beginning

or at the end of the sentence

Making them the subject of the

sentence
COMPOSING YOUR MESSAGE:
CRAFTING UNIFIED, COHERENT PARAGRAPHS

Support
• sentence that Sentences •connect ideas by
introduces that topic showing how one
is called the topic •the topic sentence thought is related to
sentence. needs to be another.
explained, justified, or
extended with one or
more support
Topic sentences.
Transitions
Sentence
THANK YOU