Unit 2
Basic Writing Skills
Simply learning the Five C's does not make you a skilled business writer. To master the Five C's or to be able to write business messages containing all these characteristics, you must study business writing techniques or skills and practice them. Needless to say, good English is the important foundation of the writing skills we discuss.
1. Create an Appropriate Tone
Tone may be defined as the overall impression or feeling a message conveys to its reader. In writing business messages you should match tone to purpose. Try to strike a balance between being formal and being familiar. Be confident, but not aggressive. Be courteous but not stuffy. Try to sound natural without becoming too chummy. Try to create a friendly and sincere tone so that your readers will understand that you sincerely wish to be of service. Your purpose in writing is to persuade them to agree with you. Therefore, adopt a tone that will allow you to be convincing. Remember what is said is often not as significant as how it is said. Compare:
(1) a. We received our order No. CL 818 yesterday. But when we turned on the machine, it did not work. Because of this bad experience, we doubt your company's ability to make high quality products. (Angry tone)
b. I am writing with reference to order No. CL 818 which we received yesterday. When we turned on the machine, it did not work. It seems that the machine was not tested before dispatch. Please let us know what you intend to do in this matter. (Better tone)
(2) (When turning down an offer)
a. Unfortunately, we got a better offer. (Poor tone)
b. We were pleased to receive your offer, but ... (Better tone)
From the above examples, you can see clearly how a poor tone can offend your reader.
2. Cultivate the "You" Attitude
Effective business writing should show "you", the reader, what the writer can do for "you"--- how "you" will profit and why. The business message written from the point of view of the reader is known as the "you" attitude. If you can see things from the point of view of your reader and express your ideas in terms of his experience, you can most readily create an appropriate tone and produce a favorable impression. Therefore, the purpose of the message will be achieved.
Employ the "you" attitude and stay away from the “I” attitude by emphasizing such words as “you”, “your” and “yours”, to make your message more effective. For example,
a. The "I" attitude: I need a lot of information on the way business people react to the current crises in our colleges, and I selected you and some others to send this questionnaire to because your names were mentioned in the newspapers.
b. The "You" attitude: You and several other prominent business people were recently quoted in the newspapers concerning the current crises in our colleges and your comments so interested me that I decided to send this questionnaire to you.
3 Consider the Level of Diction
Diction may be defined as the manner or style of expression. Generally, there are four levels of diction: learned, popular, colloquial, and slang.
While there are special times and places for all these levels, you will generally choose the popular level of diction for your business writing.
Popular diction is the language used by the mass media: TV, radio and newspapers. These are the words most often used in business world.
Business people have given up the stiff, formal and obsequious style of past generations in favor of the natural, conversational, unpretentious and inconspicuous modern style. The old-fashioned business language which made use of many ornate, formal phrases has become obsolete.
Arranging plain English words in concise sentences that say clearly what you mean will leave a favorable impression.
4. Select the Appropriate Writing Style
Essentially, two writing styles can be created: the personal and impersonal.
The personal writing style places emphasis on the person who will receive the message, to create the "you" attitude. Since many business messages are written to assure a certain action on the part of the reader (whether it's buying from your company or granting you a credit), the personal style is preferred. You should use this style in memos, letters, and some kinds of reports, those in which you want the reader to feel a part of your activities.
The impersonal writing style is used when more distance is needed in a message. For example, job descriptions, policy statements and many reports.
Personal style is characterized by the use of first and second person pronouns "I, we, us, ours, you, yours" and so forth. The impersonal can be created in three ways: (a) the use of the impersonal pronoun "one" (This is seldom used in business because of its formality); (b) the use of third person pronouns: "he, she, their, its" and so on, and (c) the use of job titles such as electrical engineer, sales representative and so on.
One final point should be made about writing styles: do not mix the two. The result will sound garbled: friendly one moment, detached the next.
5. Outline and Organize the Material Before Writing
If you want your writing to be clear and easy to follow, you should decide what you are going to say before you start to write.
You can't let your readers get confused when you move from one point to the next or when you change the direction of your ideas. In other words, your message should be so well organized that there is unity and coherence in it. A good method to achieve unity and coherence is to make a mental or written outline before writing. There are two basic patterns to follow in organizing your ideas.
5.1. Two basic patterns of organization
Two basic patterns of organization are available for outlining ideas: inductive and deductive.
Inductive organization is also known as the indirect pattern outline that means beginning with the specific facts that are obvious and moving to a general conclusion. The following example shows how this pattern functions.
Facts: a. Today, the outdoor temperature is 33.
b: The temperature in my office today is 30.
c. No air is circulating in my office.
Conclusion: The air-conditioner in my office isn't functioning today.
Deduction organization is also called the direct pattern outline. This pattern begins with a conclusion, and works backward to try to find the facts on which the conclusions are based. For the same situation, the deductive pattern would be:
Conclusion: The air-conditioner in my office isn't functioning today because ...
Facts: a. No air is circulating in my office.
b. The temperature in my office today is 30.
c. Today, the outdoor temperature is 33.
There are many variations of the inductive and deductive patterns: the cause/effect development, the problem/solution development, the comparison/contrast development and so on. Here, we won’t analyze which pattern or which variation we will use. We simply know that for certain types of information, one pattern or variation is better than the other. For example, favorable messages follow the deductive or direct method, while unfavorable messages use inductive or indirect method.
Be aware of the two basic patterns and variations and choose a suitable one in organizing your ideas to assure that your reader will understand how each idea relates to the others in your message.
5.2. Careful paragraphing
Once you have decided on a pattern of organization for your message, you must construct paragraphs carefully. Clear paragraphing promotes comprehension and is particularly necessary when a message deals with a number of things.
Good paragraphing is easy to master. Essentially, a paragraph should contain only one main, complete idea. A topic subheading or the initial sentence usually indicates the principal idea. Each sentence in the paragraph should contribute to the main idea.
Short paragraphs are preferable. But avoid too many short, jerky paragraphs.
Exercise
Improve the following sentences:
1. Mr. Smith wrote to Mr. Wang that he had received his order.
2. We have duly received your order, for which please accept our thanks.
3. We have ordered the goods, and they will be received by us in two weeks.
4. We hope to receive your catalogue by return mail. Thanking you in advance.
5. Your letter of recent date to hand and contents noted with thanks. We shall appreciate a line from you at an earliest date.
