Transcript The Writing Process

The Writing Process
• The writing process may be viewed as a three-step
process:
– Planning
• Who is your audience, what is your purpose, what do you want to
convey?
– Writing
• Organize your ideas, choose the direct or indirect approach, and
• compose your message by deciding on formality of writing level and
tone, word selection, writing mechanics
– Completing
• Revision, readability, editing, rewriting
• Message format, design, and delivery
• Message mechanics (proofreading, spelling, correct data)
General purpose of Writing
• To inform
• To persuade
• To collaborate
Oral Communication Channel
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Face-to-face conversations
Speeches
Videotapes
Voice mail
Phone conversations
Written Channels
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Letters
Reports
E-mail
Faxes
Flyers
Advantages of oral and written communication
• Oral communication gives the opportunity for immediate
feedback
– Use oral communication when:
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You want the audience to ask questions, make comments
You are trying to reach a group decision
You are trying to relate and emotional message
You want to read the audience’s body language, hear the tone of their
response
• Written communication gives the ability to plan and
control the message
– Use written communication when:
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Your information is complex
You need a permanent record of the message
Your audience is large and geographically dispersed
You don’t need or want immediate interaction with your audience
The “You” Attitude
• To establish a good relationship with your
audience, project the audience-centered
approach by using the “you” attitude—
speaking and writing in terms of your
audiences wishes, interests, hopes, and
preferences.
Adoption of the “You” Attitude
• Replace terms that refer to yourself and
your company with terms that refer to the
audience (use you, yours instead of I, me,
we, us, ours)
• Avoid the word you when its use would be
impolite or accusatory
• Sincerely and genuinely empathize with
your audience
Style, anyone?
• Style is the way you use words to achieve a certain
tone (the impression made by your words).
• To achieve a conversational tone
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Avoid obsolete and pompous language
Avoid intimacy
Avoid humor
Avoid preaching and bragging
Strive for the right level of formality
Use plain English whenever appropriate
Words, words, words
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Denotative meaning
Connotative meaning
Abstract vs. concrete words
Cliches
Jargon
Euphemisms
Pet expressions
Biased expressions
Trite expressions
Sexist expressions
Redundant expressions
Active voice vs Passive voice
• To achieve straightforward simplicity, clarity, and
efficiency, be sure to:
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Select active or passive voice
Emphasize key thoughts
Vary sentence length
Use bullets and lists
• Even though active voice yields shorter, stronger
sentences, passive voice is best when:
– You need to be diplomatic
– You want to avoid taking or attributing the credit or the blame
– You want to avoid personal pronouns to create an objective
Readability
• Use of the Fog Index
• Elimination of ambiguous words
• Knowledge of writing level for targeted
audience