© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 1

Completing Completing Business MessagesBusiness Messages

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 2

The Three-Step ProcessThe Three-Step Process

• Planning

• Writing

• Completing

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 3

Moving Beyond the First Moving Beyond the First DraftDraft

• Evaluating content, organization,

style and tone

• Reviewing for readability

• Editing for clarity and conciseness

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 4

Evaluating ContentEvaluating Content

• Is the information accurate?

• Is the information relevant?

• Is there enough information?

• Are generalities balanced with specific information?

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 5

Evaluating OrganizationEvaluating Organization

• Are all points covered logically?

• Do important ideas receive sufficient space and are they placed properly?

• Could the message be arranged in a more convincing sequence?

• Are points repeated unnecessarily?

• Are details grouped together logically?

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 6

Evaluating Style and Evaluating Style and ToneTone

• Does the writing meet the audience’s expectations?

• Is the writing too formal or academic?

• Is the writing too casual?

• Does the message focus on the audience’s needs?

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 7

Reviewing for Reviewing for ReadabilityReadability

• Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Score

• Flesch Reading Ease Score

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 8

Increasing “Skim” ValueIncreasing “Skim” Value

• Sentence length

• Short paragraphs

• Lists and bullets

• Headings and subheadings

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 9

Editing for ClarityEditing for Clarity

• Break up overly long sentences

• Rewrite hedging sentences

• Impose parallelism

• Correct dangling modifiers

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 10

Editing for ClarityEditing for Clarity

• Reword long noun sequences

• Replace camouflaged verbs

• Clarify sentence structure

• Clarify awkward references

• Moderate your enthusiasm

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 11

Editing for ConcisenessEditing for Conciseness

• Delete unnecessary words and phrases

• Shorten long words and phrases

• Eliminate redundancies

• Recast “It is/There are” starters

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 12

Revising with Revising with TechnologyTechnology

• Revision tools

• Spell checker

• Grammar checker

• Thesaurus

• Style checker

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 13

Producing the MessageProducing the Message

• Multimedia elements

• Design elements

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 14

Multimedia ElementsMultimedia Elements

• Presentation software

• Graphics software

• Video clips and sound bites

• Hypertext markup language

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 15

Designing for ReadabilityDesigning for Readability

• Improve the effectiveness of your message

• Influence the perceptions of your audience

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 16

Design ElementsDesign Elements

• Consistency

• Balance

• Restraint

• Detail

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 17

Design TechniquesDesign Techniques

• White space

• Margins

• Justification

• Typefaces

• Typestyles

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 18

Using TechnologyUsing Technology

• Templates and style sheets

• Page setup

• Column formatting

• Paragraph formatting

• Numbered and bulleted lists

• Tables and textboxes

• Pictures and objects

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 19

Business Letter FormatBusiness Letter Format

• Letterhead stationery

• Date

• Inside address

• Salutation

• The message

• Complimentary close

• Signature block

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 20

Memo FormatMemo Format

• Memo title

• Headings

• The message

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 21

Proofreading Your Proofreading Your MessageMessage

• Quality assurance– Undetected mistakes from the writing,

design, and layout stages–Mistakes that crept in during production

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 22

Proofreading AdviceProofreading Advice

• Make multiple passes

• Use perceptual tricks

• Double-check high-priority items

• Get some distance

• Stay focused and vigilant

• Print out electronic documents

• Take your time

© Prentice Hall, 2008 Excellence in Business Communication, 8e Chapter 6 - 23

Distributing Your Distributing Your MessageMessage

• Cost concerns

• Convenience

• Time constraints

• Security and privacy