Writing That Works, 3e_ How to Communicate Effectively in Business - Kenneth Roman [29]
It can let your reader know what’s happening, and demonstrate your thoroughness.
Dear Ms. Pruitt:
Half your shipment went out this morning, air express. The other half follows next Monday, parcel post, as you requested.
It can say thank you.
Dear Helen:
I hope you can keep Dan Murphy on our account forever. He’s the best sales representative I’ve ever dealt with.
Important decisions, however, are seldom made impersonally in memos or letters or e-mail. “The people who remember that something meaningful and constructive happens when two people are in the same room having a face-to-face communication — and conversely that something destructive happens when people hide behind technology to communicate — will be happiest and most successful in the new environment,” says Mark McCormack, president and CEO of International Management Group, the leading sports marketing company. Even as electronic communication continues to spread, talking to the other person is still decisive.
Churchill’s memos got into the subject fast:
Prime Minister to General Ismay 8 August 1943
I have crossed out on the attached paper many unsuitable names. Operations in which large numbers of men may lose their lives ought not to be described by code-words which imply a boastful and overconfident sentiment, such as “Triumphant,” or, conversely, which are calculated to invest the plan with an air of despondency, such as “Woebetide,” “Massacre,” “Jumble,” “Trouble,” “Fidget,” “Flimsy,” “Pathetic,” and “Jaundice.” They ought not to be names of a frivolous character, such as “Bunnyhug,” “Billingsgate,” “Aperitif,” and “Ballyhoo.” They should not be ordinary words often used in other connections, such as “Flood,” “Smooth,” “Sudden,” “Supreme,” “Full-force,” and “Fullspeed.” Names of living people — Ministers or Commanders- — should be avoided; e.g., “Bracken.”
After all, the world is wide, and intelligent thought will readily supply an unlimited number of well-sounding names which do not suggest the character of the operation or disparage it in any way and do not enable some widow or mother to say that her son was killed in an operation called “Bunnyhug” or “Ballyhoo.”
Proper names are good in this field. The heroes of antiquity, figures from Greek and Roman mythology, the constellations and stars, famous racehorses, names of British and American war heroes, could be used, provided they fall within the rules above. There are no doubt many other themes that could be suggested.
Care should be taken in all this process. An efficient and a successful administration manifests itself equally in small as in great matters.
6 Writing for an Audience: Presentations and Speeches
People have come to listen. You have their attention, at least at the start. If you don’t want to lose it, don’t waste their time. Don’t bore them. Talk to them, not at them.
When preparing any kind of presentation or speech, the most basic principle is to think about the audience. Each is different and has special interests. What are the backgrounds of the people, and why are they there? What’s on their collective mind? Is the setting formal or relaxed? Are you speaking in the middle of a busy workday or after a heavy evening meal? It all makes a difference in what you say and how you say it. Writing for an audience is different from writing to be read.
The logic of business communication
In the business world, there is a logic — a discipline of thinking and communication — that pushes projects, solves problems, sets plans, and moves ideas to action. To those in government or education and nonprofit institutions, it is identified and welcomed as “businesslike.” In business, it is taken for granted.
The form of communication evolves. The internal memo is fading, replaced in many cases by e-mail. For major recommendations and proposals, formal papers have been displaced for the most part by presentations — face-to-face. Instead of writing for a reader, it is writing for an audience.
The principal