Business Communication

DMBA102_U5_V1 General Principles of Writing

Hi and welcome to this video on General Principles of Writing. Written messages must be made as
readable as possible so that even an average person can understand their meaning. Let's take a look
at some guidelines to be followed in writing. At the end of this video, you will be able to classify the
general principles of writing. Written skills: written skills are crucial in business communication as,
errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and typing can affect the business communication. A letter
going out from an organization with any of these errors shows a very casual attitude of the business
firm. Inconsistency in writing, results in misunderstanding or miscommunication, which leads to a lot
of problems later in an organization's life. Clarity and concreteness of the message is very vital.
Messages must be simple and readable that can be understood by an average person. You have to
understand your audience before you start to write your message. Readability is determined by the
length of words, sentences and paragraphs. A long sentence often leads to confusion and ambiguity
of a message. Flowery and oratory style of writing is not suitable for business communication
because, most of the communication is formal and has to be written in a formal style.

The principles of writing, there are two broad principles of writing. First is to write to express, not
impress, and kiss it as they say, keep it short and sweet. The writing methodology follows three
stages: prewriting, writing, and reviewing. Let's take a look at each of these steps in greater detail.
Prewriting: this is the first stage in pre writing where you start to play around with your ideas,
discover new and original ideas. Every time you set out to write a piece, you always have a particular
audience in mind, and it is always fair to analyze this audience so that you're writing also is catered
to their needs. Anticipate the audience knowledge. Do not overrate or underrate your audience,
when you start to write a piece, adapt accordingly. The second step is writing. The actual writing
happens with the research of the topic. We have to read up a lot before we start writing. Then you
start to organize your content so that there is a flow of thought. Compose or write the first draft,
after you write the first draft, there is a lot of editing that happens in terms of the language used, in
terms of organizing your ideas, or reorganizing them. Check and improve the intended meaning.
Very often we fail to put across to the audience what we actually intend them to understand. So, it is
fair for us to check and improve the intended meaning.

The final stage is reviewing, review for strategy. What is a kind of style that you have adopted? Have
you got your message across? Has it been crisp and clear? Review for strategy at the first stage,
review for macro issues These are the broad aspects that have gone into the research before you
started writing. Review for micro issues, which are the minor points that you have to look at, which
to pin point more towards the topic that you have written and finally review for correctness in terms
of grammar, your punctuation, and your general mechanics of writing. Key points discussed in this
video: That there should be no grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors, that there has to be
consistency while writing. Two principles are, 'write to express, not to impress' and 'keep it short and
sweet.' And the three stages of writing are, prewriting, writing, and reviewing. Now, how can you
use this information? By following the guidelines and sequential steps in writing, you can ensure that
the readability of your message increases.

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Business Communication

DMBA102_U5_V2 Tips on Writing Style Part 1

Hi and welcome to Tips On Writing Style, Part One. In this video, we will discuss some tips on how to
improve your writing skills. At the end of this video, you will be able to: identify the common errors
in English usage. Improving writing skills. Writing skills can be improved by choosing the right words.
In terms of spelling, in terms of tenses, in terms of parts of speech, we have to choose the right word
to suit the context. Common problems. Some of the common problems in writing include use of
complicated words in business writing. Some examples. The complex word approximately, a simpler
equivalent is about. Instead of using approximately in a sentence, about would make more sense to
a layman. Similarly is accomplish. Accomplish as against do. Instead of saying accomplish the task,
you could say, "Do the task." Ameliorate. Now, you must be confused looking at this word. It only
means improve. So, you can use simpler words to make your message more understandable to a
layman. Use of Jargon, slang, and colorful language. Jargon. Technical terms that belong to a
particular subject or area. For example, a person very well versed in computers would understand
the term cookies or bytes.

Whereas for a layperson, cookies and byte is completely different. It would relate to a bakery
maybe. Slang. These are casual words that are not recognized in the dictionary, just like you can see
in the slide, just sayin is a slang. Metaphors. Colorful comparisons which evoke visual messages.
Normally not used in business writing because the sound is very casual. Mistakes in using parts of
speech. Let's quickly take a look at the different parts of speech. Noun, I am sure all of you have
played the game name, place, animal thing in school. Well, these were all nouns that we were
dealing with. A message will be understood more clearly if concrete nouns are used as subjects in a
sentence.

Let's take a look at the following example. 'That decision can be made only by the supervisor.' Here
in this sentence, the word decision is an abstract noun. While the sentence is grammatically correct,
using a concrete noun, as in this sentence would be more clear. As in, only the supervisor can make
that decision. Pronoun. Pronoun as we know are words that are used instead of a noun as in terms
of he, she. Using the masculine form of a pronoun may be very offensive and create an impression of
being sexist. For example, it is wrong to say you need to consult your professor on that subject, but
he has to be a specialist in the area of finance. Instead of this, you could say, "You need to consult
your professor on that subject but the professor has to be a specialist in the area of finance." So,
now we see he has been replaced by a neutral word, the professor. Verb. Verbs are action words
and they indicate the time of the action which could be past, present, or future. When we're using
words, we have to take a look at the number. 'Only one of the students are present.'

Here, we're talking of one student, but we're using the plural are, which is wrong. The correct one
would be, 'only one of the students is present.' Person. "He don't like to work late" is wrong. "He
doesn't like to work late" is right. Adjective. A common tendency to use very strong adjectives and
too many adjectives or superlative. Adjectives, as we all know, described the noun. For example,
"Ours is the best product in the market today." Well, the word, 'the best' becomes a very strong

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adjective, and this claim has to be supported by adequate proof. Adverbs. The same principles apply
when using adverbs. Avoid the use of adverbs that are too strong or are superlatives. Example, this
secretary types the fastest. Instead of which, you could say, "This secretary is one of the fast typists
that we have here." The key points discussed in this video. Business writing style can be improved by
using simple words as against complex words, avoiding jargons, slang, and metaphors. The parts of
speech include: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. So, how can you use this
information? By following the tips discussed in this video, you can improve your writing style by
choosing the right words for conveying the meaning.

DMBA102_U5_V3 Tips on Writing Style Part 2

Hi and welcome to Tips on Writing Style, part 2. In this video, we will discuss some tips on how to
improve writing skills. At the end of this video, you will be able to adapt appropriate grammar while
writing. Active vs passive voice. Active voice is preferable to passive voice since it conveys ideas
more vividly. Let's take a look at the example. In active voice the subject is the doer of the action.
Example: John wrote the report. Here, John is the doer of the action of writing the report. Passive
voice; the subject is the receiver of the action.

The report was written by John. John is the subject and was written was the action that he has
received. So, to have more clarity in writing, active voice is always better. Spellings. Differences in
spellings can convey different meanings. Let's look at some of the situations. British versus
American. Generally, British spelling should be used unless you're specifically addressing an
American audience. Noun form versus verb form. Very often we make the mistake of using advice
instead of advise. Advise as ending in 'vise' is an action, so you can advise someone not to jump, but
that person is receiving advice, which is the noun form. Words with the same sound but different
meanings. Very often we end up making these mistakes: stationary and stationery. The stationary
ending in 'ery' denotes paper, pen, files. The stationary ending in 'ary' denotes not moving.
Punctuation; a very critical part of written communication. Correct use of punctuation is important
in both general writing and business writing. Let's take a look at a few. Apostrophe. An apostrophe is
used to form the possessive, singular form of words. For example, the company's profits. The
company's apostrophe 's' means the profits belong to the company. Parenthesis, or brackets. These
separate a phrase from the main section of the sentence, example: Bill shook hands with in brackets,
we've used his son Al.

Now, even if we do not use the words within the bracket, the sentence will still make complete
sense. Bill shook hands with Al. 'His son,' which is in brackets only denotes more stress in the
sentence. Colon. A colon is used to suggest that a list will follow a statement, example: three reasons
we have decided to expand our market:. The moment a person sees a colon, they expect a list of
things to follow, as in this example, we have 1, 2, 3. The comma. This is used to separate words in a
series, to separate two adjectives that modify the same noun. For example, we would say, "She is
strong, beautiful, and active. Full stop. A full stop is used at the end of a sentence, or after
abbreviation. It's used at the end of a sentence to show the end of a particular thought after

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abbreviation as in M.B.A, it is a short form for master of business administration. Quotation marks.
Quotation marks are used to enclose what is stated by others of verbatim. Verbatim means word for
word. 2) To enclose these titles of magazines and newspaper articles. Semicolon. Semicolon is able
to express a pause that is longer than that expressed by a comma.

Examples: "He got what he worked for; a promotion." Common errors in English are redundancies. A
phrase which contains repetitive or unnecessary words to express the same meaning. For example,
the professor taught the basic fundamentals of marketing. The word basic also means fundamental,
so the sentence could have been said as the professor taught basics of marketing, or fundamentals
of marketing. Cliches. These are phrases that are overused and should be avoided. Example, "We
very often hear people saying last but not least, I would like to thank all the students for attending
the session." The cliche, last but not least, has been overused and should be avoided. The key points
discussed in this video: written business communication can be improved by using active voice
instead of passive voice, using correct spelling, avoiding redundancies and cliches and using the right
punctuation. Types of punctuation are, apostrophe, parenthesis, or brackets, colon, comma, full
stop, quotation mark, and semicolon. How can you use this information? By following the tips
discussed in this video, you can improve your writing style by choosing the right words for conveying
the meaning.

DMBA102_U5_V4 Principles of Business Writing

Hi and welcome to this video on the principles of business writing. We will now discuss the specifics
of business writing in terms of the language, style and tone to be used. At the end of this video, you
will be able to explain the principles of business writing. Specifics of business writing include, the
language, style and the tone of business writing is very different from general writing. It is formal, as
most of the business writing is for formal purposes. The right use of tone, emphasis and
subordination adds value to the communication and increases the clarity. The use of the right tone is
important so that you can be assertive as and when needed to be. The tone of business writing
should be positive, confident, courteous and sincere. A manager writing keeping this in mind can be
assured that his writing will be as effective as can be. Do's and don'ts. The do's and don'ts of
business writing include, you have to use personal titles and salutations as and when it's required,
avoid exaggeration and flattery. Techniques that can be adopted, list the idea in the first paragraph,
or in the last paragraph. This will ensure to get the attention of the reader. Put the word that you
wish to emphasize the first, or last.

This will create the right impact, that has been required. Use, compare and contrast to convey
similarities and differences, as this will make the message more readable and understandable. Use
the active voice as against passive voice. Use the repetition and visual elements to give more clarity
to the messages. Tailor your writing to your audience and to make it simple enough. Readability is
determined by the length of words and sentences. Let's take a look at something called the Fog
Index, which assures us good readability. Readers between the 8th grade and 11th grade should be
able to understand our written messages without difficulty. The Fog index is a indicator saying that

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our messages are readable. Key points discussed in this video. The tone of business communications
should be positive, confident, courteous and sincere. Exaggeration and flattery must be avoided. Use
personal titles and salutations. The techniques for emphasis are, list the idea in the first, or last
paragraph to get attention. Use the active voice, repetition, visual elements, compare and contrast.
And the fog index, or a readability formula measures the readability of a piece of writing, which
should be 8 and 11 in business writing. How can you use all this information? This video has given
insight into the tone and language to be used to make written communication effective and
meaningful.