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Your Memo

Your Memo. Correct memo format TONE ORGANIZATION Frontloading and common ground Conclusion: goodwill, gracious close Professionalism: proofreading, clarity. MAIB. Class 6: The Writing Process, Persuasion, and Reports.

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Your Memo

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  1. Your Memo • Correct memo format • TONE • ORGANIZATION • Frontloading and common ground • Conclusion: goodwill, gracious close • Professionalism: proofreading, clarity

  2. MAIB Class 6: The Writing Process, Persuasion, and Reports

  3. “Only 0.8% of the human race is capable of writing something that is instantly understandable.” H.L. Mencken

  4. THE WRITING PROCESS • Writing is a high-level intellectual activity: it takes time • Create your own system for writing: make this process a new habit • Divide your time equally between thinking, writing, and revising

  5. COMMON STEPS FOR WRITING • WORRYING AND PROCRASTINATING • LISTING IDEAS • ORGANIZING KEY POINTS • WRITING THE DRAFT • REVISING THE DRAFT • PROOFREADING

  6. WORRYING AND PROCRASTINATNG • These pre-writing “activities” can actually be productive • Let your subconscious deal with the problem but set a deadline, then start listing or writing

  7. LISTING AND ORGANIZING • Jot down ALL your ideas randomly • Come back to the list later and eliminate or add ideas • Organize these ideas into an order that best serves your purpose (define it NOW) and the reader’s needs (analyze them NOW) • These actions constitute the major decision-making and planning moves of the writing process

  8. WRITING THE DRAFT • Remember: this is a ROUGH draft. Do not stop to edit or perfect anything. • Simply put your ideas down on paper as quickly and thoroughly as you can: keep ideas flowing • Note where graphics and data should be inserted later

  9. The Importance of Revising

  10. REVISING THE DRAFT • Maintain your professional image by polishing the rough draft in this step • Try to read your document from the reader’s perspective • Analyze power of ideas and strength of structure • Test logic and progression of thinking • Rewrite weaker passages, paragraphs, and sentences

  11. PROOFREADING • Protect your credibility as a professional (writer and manager) by sweating the details • Check diction, tone, grammar, and punctuation • Enlist the help of an outside reader • Read aloud • Use mechanical tools like spellcheckers and grammar checkers

  12. SOME PRACTICAL WRITING TIPS • Talk about your ideas first as a warm up • Start with the easiest part of the document • Set yourself a time limit and write uninterruptedly for this period • Be uncritical at first to encourage ideas • Break big jobs into small chunks • Realize that the first draft will be rough and wait to edit until after larger revisions • Set drafts aside for a “cooling-off” period

  13. PERSUASION The ability to influence others to accept your point of view

  14. CLASSIC PERSUASIVE PRINCIPLES • LOGOS: your message (content, organization, format) • PATHOS: your reader’s needs • ETHOS: your credibility as writer/expert

  15. Facts and figures alone will never persuade anyone. If you can’t connect your facts to the dreams of the client, then all the statistics and charts in the world won’t make any impression. Rene Nourse, VP Investments: Prudential Securities, Inc.

  16. This CD-ROM can store 600 megabytes of information This CD-ROM can store 600 megabytes of information. With this capacity, you have enough space to store a complete set of encyclopedias and 15 minutes of informative videos. Present AND Interpret Facts

  17. DATA ALONE: Strengths - The business plan states that Green Dolphin’s current products are in a “very large and rapidly expanding cap market”.The American Apparel Manufacturer Association (AAMA) estimates that retail sales of baseball caps increased from 1991 by 11.5% to $1.75 billion in 1992. DATA INTERPRETED Strengths – Green Dolphin’s products will sell in tworapidly expanding markets: baseball style caps and licensed sports apparel. According to statistics cited in their business plan, the cap market expanded 11.5% from 1991 to 1992, while the professional sports league apparel market segment has been growing even faster. Clearly these have been very profitable markets in the recent past and give indications that they will continue to be successful in the future. In addition, a few successful companies, such as Lucky (apparel), Fossil (watches), and Coopers town (major league baseball caps and jerseys), are beginning to focus on vintage style apparel. I believe that Green Dolphin is positioned to enter these expanding markets at a very opportune time. Present AND Interpret Facts

  18. 3 Basics for a Persuasive Message • Know your idea/product/abilities • Know your audience • Know the end result/action you seek

  19. Successful Business Persuasive Strategies • Making money • Saving money • Increasing efficiency (saving time) • Making the best use of resources

  20. 3 Responses to Persuasion • Compliance: the least effective response. Those who comply do so for reward or punishment, without consensus • Identification: a better response. These people accept your message because they like or respect you • Internalization: the best response. Those who internalize your message will actively change their ideas to your way of thinking because they recognize the benefits of your ideas

  21. The Report From the beginning you should present • A clear purpose • A clear and consistent structure • A cohesive framework for evaluation • An idea of your report’s scope • Extensive supporting data and analysis

  22. Recommendation Reports • These reports analyze a problem/need/opportunity in detail • They evaluate the situation and the alternatives • They also recommend a solution/decision/or action based on the analysis and evaluation

  23. STRUCTURE OF YOUR REPORT • FRONT MATTER • ANALYSIS AND EVALUATIONS • RECOMMENDATIONS • END MATTER

  24. FRONT MATTER • Transmittal memo/letter (N/A) • TITLE PAGE • Table of Contents (N/A) • EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  25. ANALYSIS and EVALUATIONS • Orient your reader to topic and purpose • Give criteria for selection and frontloaded recommendations • Systematically analyze and evaluate data collected about other companies’ strategies

  26. Evaluation Criteria Depending on your report’s purpose, you will need to select from some of the following criteria: • Technical Strategies: why and how the proposed strategy will work • Cost Strategies: Why the plan is cost-effective and competitive and any risks involved • Management Strategies: How the company will carry out its plan (personnel, experience, facilities, quality control mechanisms)

  27. RECOMMENDATIONS • Summary of pros and cons, relating to your company’s needs • Recommendations re-presented in the light of the analysis • Action plan and agenda

  28. END MATTER • Appendixes (any extra data/reports in support of recommendations) • List of sources

  29. SIX STEPS TO WRITING A REPORT • Define the situation and need • Gather the necessary data and information • Interpret the data • Organize and evaluate the information • Write the report • Revise the report with your reader in mind

  30. The Importance of Document Design

  31. DOCUMENT DESIGN • Writing is purely VISUAL, so its arrangement and effect on the page are IMPORTANT

  32. DOCUMENT DESIGN VISUAL CLARITY HELPS VERBAL CLARITY

  33. DESIGN and LAYOUT HINTS • Use white space, varying paragraph lengths, and lists to emphasize ideas • Use headings to group ideas and lead the reader through your thinking • Limit use of capitals and number of typefaces • Put important elements in the top left and lower right quadrants of the page • Be sparing in use of highlighting and color

  34. Use Graphics Carefully

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