Transcript Communication Skills - Chapter 08

Chapter 8
Business document
writing
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PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia
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Learning objectives
On completion of this chapter students will know
how to:
• write a formal business letter using the full
block format
• differentiate between letters of inquiry, letters
of complaint, response letters and sales
letters
• recognise the features and purposes of
communicating via email
• construct a standard email
• use a range of practices to ensure
successful business email communication.
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Business letters
Business letters are written for many reasons:
• to initiate action
• to inform
• to request
• to persuade.
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Steps to a successful
business letter
• To write a successful business letter follow
these steps:
–
–
–
–
Determine the purpose of your letter.
Write a plan.
Draft and redraft the letter.
Edit and proofread.
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Qualities of a
business letter
• A business letter should have the following
six qualities:
–
–
–
–
–
–
clarity
concreteness
completeness
conviction
conciseness
courtesy.
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Standard components of a
business letter
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The letterhead (sender’s address)
The date
Receiver’s address
Salutation
Subject heading
Body of the letter
Sign off
Personal signature and name/title of sender
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Body of the letter
• The body of the letter should relate to the
subject heading.
• It should provide information logically
(i.e. in a sequence).
• Different issues should be discussed in
separate paragraphs.
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Style of letter
• Although there are several recognised styles
for a business letter, the full block style is
widely recognised.
• When working for an organisation ensure
that you are familiar with the in-house style
of the organisation, which may be a
variation of the full block style.
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Types of business letter
•
•
•
•
Letter of inquiry
Response to letter of inquiry
Purchase orders
Sales letter
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Letters of inquiry
• Provide a clear, specific question.
• Give a reason for the inquiry.
• Are polite, but not servile.
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Response to letter of
inquiry
• Use standard letter layout.
• Always use a subject heading.
• Begin by referring to the original inquiry
(be specific).
• Start with ‘Thank you for your inquiry …’
• Detail action you have taken in response to
the inquiry.
• If no action has (yet) been taken, still
respond immediately to the inquiry.
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Purchase orders
• Follow standard letter layout.
• Provide specific and complete information.
• Provide information about an acceptable
alternative.
• Give full instructions for delivery.
• Provide payment details.
• Start with ‘Please …’
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Sales letters
• Sales letters are different to other business
letters.
• They have two purposes: information and
advertising.
• Letters have to be persuasive but not
aggressive.
• A follow-up letter may be needed after a
certain period of time.
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Persuasive writing
• The AIDA principle:
A: Attention
I: Interest
D: Desire
A: Action
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Attention
•
•
•
•
•
•
Get the reader to pay attention.
State a problem that affects the reader.
Promise a benefit.
Use an emotional appeal.
Introduce your primary appeal.
Ask a question (that can’t be answered yes
or no).
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Interest
• Show the reader your answer to the problem
you raised in the first section.
• Provide a description of the reader enjoying
the benefits you mentioned in the first
section.
• Answer the questions you raised.
• Provide a clear transition from attention to
desire.
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Desire
• Move the reader from ‘like to have’ to ‘really
want’.
• Justify the reader’s desire with emotional
appeals (feelings) or rational appeals
(thinking ability) (e.g. clothes sold on the
basis of durability or fashion).
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Action
• Tell the reader what to do.
• Give a reason for acting now (e.g. free set of
steak knives).
• Provide aids (e.g. envelopes).
• Make reference to primary appeal to
convince the reader they are doing the right
thing.
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Receiver’s psychological
needs
• Letters cannot always provide good news
and fabulous opportunities!
• Sometimes letters are written to provide
unwelcome news.
• The following slides provide strategies for
writing letters that take into account the
receiver’s psychological needs.
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Make neutral comments
• Indicate some form of agreement that is
very general and will not alienate the reader.
• Let the reader know the subject of the letter
to add meaning to later information.
• Don’t imply ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
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Provide explanation
• Give your reasons for the decision (note that
reasons precede denial).
• Increase the chance of the reader
understanding and accepting your reasons.
• If possible, emphasise reasons that might
benefit the reader.
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Explain refusal
• Give clear and apparent reasons for refusal.
• Write refusal after a neutral statement
(e.g. ‘Thank you for your application. I regret
to inform you that your application was not
successful at this instance due to …’).
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End positively
•
•
•
•
End on an upbeat note.
Try to regain good feeling.
Can you suggest an alternative?
Show the reader you remain interested.
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What to avoid
• Avoid the following:
–
–
–
–
–
implying that the request will be granted
being overly apologetic
falling back on company policy
talking down to the reader
being so general that the reason does not relate
to the refusal
– emphasising the refusal more than is necessary
– making a direct negative statement of refusal
– using active voice (e.g. poor—‘I deny your
application for credit’, better—‘Credit was denied’)
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Letter of complaint
• A letter of complaint should be rational
rather than emotional.
• Give specific information about the issue
(e.g. the product, the particular fault).
• Be specific about how you want your
complaint dealt with (e.g. ask directly for a
refund or exchange).
• Be succinct.
• Avoid being rude or abusive.
• Stick to the facts.
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Responses to letters of
complaint
• Responses to letters of complaints should be
polite but also firm if need be.
• Acknowledge the error (if there is one).
• Be courteous.
• Provide background information about how the
error occurred (if appropriate).
• Offer to investigate the matter further.
• Provide specific information about how you will
rectify the problem.
• If the customer has made a mistake,
courteously provide the correct information
(right at the start).
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Cultural sensitivity and
business letters
• Businesses today are increasingly working
across cultural boundaries.
• The issue of cultural sensitivity has therefore
become significant.
• Awareness of cultural norms in business
writing in other cultures will assist in writing
appropriate documents.
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Email communication
• Email is a new form of business
communication.
• Communicating in a computer-mediated
environment requires different skills to
traditional document writing.
• Email is now the key communication
medium in contemporary workplaces.
• It is a ‘hybrid medium’, uniting elements of
both spoken and written communication
(Wood & Smith 2001, p. 9).
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Email communication (cont.)
• Communicators are less inhibited and show
less differentiation between people of
different status (cited in Wood & Smith 2001,
p. 72).
• The Internet is liberating because users can
play with various roles and disclose or not
disclose certain information (Wood & Smith
2001; Turkle 1995).
• Email has the potential to provide a new
type of communication.
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Email communication (cont.)
• Benefits of email include:
– speed
– the sense of identity afforded to the
communicators
– bridging the psychological gap between
communicators in ways which other channels of
communication do not allow (Sunderland 2002,
pp. 245–246).
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Activity 1
•
Working with another student, consider the
following questions:
1. On average, how many emails do you receive
every day?
2. How often do you write a letter and send it
using the traditional mail service?
3. How is your experience with business
documents different to your parents’ and
grandparents’ experiences when they were
studying or first started working?
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Email: new communication
• Many hard-copy business documents have been
superseded by the fast, efficient use of email.
• There is still a need for formality in all professional
communication.
• A more formal style is needed when:
– the receiver holds a more senior position in the
organisational hierarchy than you
– the receiver is outside your organisation
– the receiver is unlikely to be familiar with the jargon
or terminology used in your area of expertise
– there is a possibility that the email will be referred to
by others or archived for future use.
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Activity 2
• Complete activity 8 on pp. 184–185 of your
textbook.
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Five parts to an email
Emails can be divided into five main parts:
Subject line
• Use a verb phrase to briefly summarise the
content of the email message.
• Too wordy: ‘We will have our monthly meeting on
Wednesday to discuss the new occupational,
health and safety policy.’
• Too brief: ‘Meeting’.
• Appropriate: ‘Meeting on Wednesday to discuss
OH&S policy’.
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Five parts to an email (cont.)
Salutation
• Simple salutations are still important, even
when you know the recipient well
(e.g. Dear Kim, Hi John).
• Once an email ‘conversation’ has started, you
may omit the salutation.
• Salutations in emails still require some
acknowledgment of status
(e.g. use titles such as Dr).
• Salutations assist the reader to find the
beginning of messages in long email threads.
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Five parts to an email (cont.)
Opening
• State the main idea immediately in the
first line.
• This is known as ‘frontloading’, where the
key information is given immediately after
the salutation.
• Also referred to as a ‘direct opening’.
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Five parts to an email (cont.)
Body
• Provide any necessary background
information and logically explain the main
idea.
• Use short paragraphs, dot points and
headings.
• For complicated or very formal information,
provide an attachment.
• Sales letters are usually incorporated into
the body of the email.
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Five parts to an email (cont.)
Close
• Summarise key points.
• Request action or provide a closing thought.
• Include a ‘goodwill message’.
• See the annotated examples of emails
provided in Chapter 6: Writing genres.
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Activity 3
• Complete activity 9 on p. 186 of your
textbook.
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Common email errors
1. Hasty responses that have not been
carefully thought out.
2. Responses that do not take into account the
computer knowledge of the receiver.
3. A discourteous or overly familiar tone.
4. Traditional routine letter openings that
sound insincere.
5. Obscure, unfamiliar words or jargon.
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Common email errors (cont.)
6. Lengthy sentences, or text with no
paragraph breaks.
7. Negative, pessimistic content.
8. A closing that does not reiterate the key
purpose of the email.
9. An assumption that the receiver checks
their email inbox as often as the sender
does.
10. A sender who does not give a name and
can only be identified by a meaningless
email address (e.g. [email protected]).
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Email guidelines
• Make the subject line short and meaningful
(never leave it empty).
• Always include a salutation.
• Make your message inviting (use short line
lengths and paragraphs; edit typographical
errors).
• Be brief. Use only one screen.
• Place key information first.
• For business emails do not use emoticons,
initials or SMS abbreviations (e.g. ; FYI, R
U ok?). Use attachments carefully.
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Email guidelines (cont.)
• Hold your temper. Avoid using capitals for
emphasis, as this is like SHOUTING.
• Do not use email as a way of avoiding
contact.
• Resist using humour.
• Assume that all business emails are
monitored.
• Proofread carefully, as in all business
communication.
• Choose ‘reply’ or ‘reply all’ carefully.
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Email guidelines (cont.)
• Use identifying labels such as ‘urgent’ or
‘action’ with caution.
• Set the context for your email.
• Respect confidentiality.
• Never send spam.
• Email threads encourage brief responses.
• Always close your email appropriately.
• Create a standard signature block for all
emails. Include your full name and contact
details.
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Activities 4 and 5
• Complete Activities 10 and 11 on pp. 188–
189 of your textbook.
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Summary
• Formal business letters remain an important
medium for business communication.
• Most businesses prefer the full block style of
letter, which incorporates easy to remember
standard features.
• All business communication documents
need clarity, concreteness, completeness,
conviction, conciseness and courtesy.
• Business writers need to consider the
psychological needs of the receiver.
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Summary (cont.)
• The AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action)
model is useful for persuasive letter writing.
• Cultural sensitivity is important for all
business communication.
• Email has replaced many traditional business
documents but still needs to follow basic
principles of effective communication,
including following a standard format.
• Always consider the advantages and
disadvantages of email before using it over
traditional business documents.
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