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W1 Basics of Strong Writing

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9 views

W1 Basics of Strong Writing

Uploaded by

Harloi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Basics of

Strong Writing
Business English Writing
ENGL 3221
Ajarn Haha
Learning
Outcomes
▪ Differentiate business and
academic writing;
▪ Identify the 8CS of
professional good
communication; and,
▪ Apply those principles in
business writing.
Our
communication
says
something
about us…
ACADEMIC WRITING BUSINESS WRITING
The information is often highly Ideas are expressed as simply and
complex. concisely as possible.
The language is often highly Specialized words and jargon are

Different
specialized. avoided if possible .
Sentences tend to be long and Sentences have one main idea, with
complex, in keeping with the complex perhaps one or at most two supporting

styles subject
matter.
ideas.

because of Paragraphs are long enough to


explore each complex idea deeply
Paragraphs are short—four to eight
lines would be typical.
The style is formal—it avoids “I” and The style is more informal than in
audiences “you,” although “we” is sometimes
acceptable, and it doesn’t use
academic writing; first (“I,” “me,” “we”),
second (“you”), and third person (“he,”

and
contractions “her,” “they,” etc.) are all allowed, as are
contractions (“don’t” rather than “do not”
is acceptable).

purposes. Academic citation and works-cited


styles, like APA, MLA, or other
N/A

academic formats, are highly detailed


and strictly followed.
Grammar rules are strictly followed Grammar rules are somehow relaxed
(sentence fragments are sometimes
allowed)
Clear Concise

8cs of Concrete
and specific
Complete

Professional
Good Courteous Coherent

Communication
Constructive Correct
Clear
▪ Avoid jargon and technical or obscure words.
▪ Make your writing concrete and specific.
▪ Use active rather than passive verbs.
▪ Avoid long strings of prepositional phrases (“word salads”)
× The results of the chemistry tests of the students at the University of Vermont were excellent.
✓ Student chemistry test results at the University of Vermont were excellent.
▪ Make pronoun references crystal clear.
× The manager asked her executive assistant to finish the report before she left for the day.
✓ The manager asked her executive assistant to finish the report before the assistant left for the day.
× Each cabinet member must be responsible for the security of their briefcase.
✓ Cabinet members must be responsible for the security of their briefcases.
✓ Each cabinet member must be responsible for the security of his or her briefcase.
✓ Briefcase security is every cabinet member’s responsibility
Clear

▪ Avoid dangling and misplaced modifiers.


× Flying into Seattle, the mountains were beautiful.
✓ Flying into Seattle, we/Simon/the passengers thought the
mountains were beautiful.
Concise
▪ Use active verbs.
▪ Avoid the verb “to be” whenever possible.
× The meeting is going to be attended by students in the economics faculty
next week.
✓ Economics students will attend the meeting next week.
× The gardener is of the opinion that we should prune the roses.
✓ The gardener thinks we should prune the roses.
× There are five ducks in the pond
✓ Five ducks are in the pond.
✓ Five ducks splashed in the pond
Concise
▪ Don’t turn verbs into nouns (“nominalizations”).
× The teacher made the comment that the class was sleepy.
✓ The teacher commented that the class was sleepy.
× Morgan asked the managers to make a decision about the new sales strategy.
✓ Morgan asked the managers to decide on a new sales strategy.

▪ Avoid long strings of prepositions (those “word salads” again).


▪ Avoid repetition and redundancy
× In order to finish this job, we need to work overtime.
✓ To finish this job, we need to work overtime
Concrete and specific
NOT ENCOURAGED ENCOURAGED

This is a lot of fun! Riding a zip line in the rainforest is a lot of fun!

A lot of fun…. is exhilarating….

Small town A rural prairie town of 2,000 people…

Old man A 50/ 60/ 70-year-old man

The fire was huge… Towers of flame rose 60 feet above the treetops, throwing
off vast billows of smoke and ash.

Nitrogen is the most common gas in At 78 percent of the air by volume, nitrogen is the most
Earth’s atmosphere. common gas in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Who?

What?

Where?

Complete When?

Why?

How? The finance committee will meet at 10 a.m.

The finance committee will meet in Room 232 at 10 a.m. on


Tuesday, Nov. 18.
Be gender neutral.
• Chair or chairperson instead of chairman or
chairwoman.
• Use “his or her” and “he or she” instead of “his” or “her”
and “he” or “she” only.
• Use “their” and make the subject plural instead of
singular. Use “their” as singular (but grammatically
controversial)
• Take the gender reference out entirely.
Courteous Put the audience first (“you” rather than “we”).
• Focusing all your attention on the client.
× We will send your shipment of pencils to arrive on
November 25.
✓ You will receive your shipment of pencils on
November 25.
× You forgot to include your check with your order, so
we can’t send you the merchandise.
✓ We will be happy to send the merchandise when we
receive your check.
▪ Be tactful.
▪ Follow the traditional
forms of courtesy.
Courteous ▪ Dear Name, Yours
Truly, Your Sincerely
▪ Use a reader-friendly
format.
Construct paragraphs carefully about one
topic.
• Break long paragraphs into more short paragraphs.

Write sentences with one main idea.

× Miriam Parker was planning to write about her


Coherent recent trip to Beijing, where she saw many
examples of Chinese painting through the
centuries, examples that, she felt, reflected the
changing social conditions in China over time.
✓Miriam Parker was planning to write about her
recent trip to Beijing, where she saw many
examples of Chinese painting through the
centuries. These paintings, she felt, reflected the
changing social conditions in China over time.
Coherent
▪ Use transitional words to unite
sentences and paragraphs into a
logical and coherent whole.
▪ “for example”, “First of all”, “such as”, “also”,
“Furthermore”, “secondly”, “in addition”,
“although”, “however”, “on the contrary”, “on
the other hand”, “in the same way”,
“similarly”, “just as”, “because”,
“consequently”, “as a result”, “therefore”,
“after”, “before”, “in front of”, “next to”, and
etc.,
Be consistent in formatting numbers.
• Spell out the numbers one to ten; use numerals for numbers
11 and above.
• In general, for technical documents such as engineering,
scientific, or economic reports, feel free to break the above
rule
• Never start a sentence with a numeral.
• Don’t start a sentence with a large, written-out number.

Coherent
• Spell out numbers that aren’t precise figures.
• Use figures for currency
• Use numerals for ages, years, dates, percentages, and
addresses.
• Use decimals if fractions are hard to read in print.

Begin lists with the same grammatical


construction. (Parallelism)
• stay within the lines, don’t break the crayons, and colors
should be vivid.
• stay within the lines, don’t break the crayons, and choose
only vivid colors.
Constructive
▪ emphasizes the positive,
▪ states what you can do, not what
you can’t do,
▪ avoids negative words such as
“unfortunately,” “sorry,” and the
like,
▪ focuses on how to improve when
delivering criticism, and
▪ says sorry when necessary!
Correct - Grammar
Exercises
Exercises

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