Effective Business Communication: Perfecting Your Draft

1. Ch 4: Revising the draft Business Communication Dr. Rodgers

2. Relevance • Any document can benefit from revision • Letter, memo, email, report

3. Revision strategies • Time • Stance • Multiple passes • Read out loud • Objective reader

4. Coherence • Are paragraphs connected • Progression of ideas • Transition words • Are paragraphs focused on one idea

5. Emphasis • The reader should see the most important words first. • Active voice • The first words contain the agent of the action • Rajesh Patel prepared the design for the new pump.

6. Passive voice • The first words contain the recipient of the action • The design for the new pump was prepared by Rajesh Patel.

7. Examples • USAO will build a $4 million rock climbing wall. • A $4 million rock climbing wall will be built by USAO. This is not true. Sorry.

8. Using lists • List comparable items • Use the same grammatical structure • Use words, phrases, or short sentences • Lead into the list with an introduction • Use a transition after the list • Use numbers when rank or sequence is important

9. Language • Clear • Concise • Unbiased • Plain

10. Avoid affectation • Don’t use pretentious language to impress • Don’t use a lot of words to cover up a lack of knowledge • Don’t imitate the poor writing of supervisors • Don’t talk over the knowledge level of your readers

11. PROOFREAD