COMPLETING BUSINESS MESSAGES CHAPTER 6 REVISING Evaluating content

COMPLETING BUSINESS MESSAGES CHAPTER 6

REVISING • Evaluating content and reviewing readability. • Editing for Clarity & Conciseness.

REVISING FOR READABILITY • There are indexes that have been developed to measure readability. • The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score computes reading difficulty relative to U. S. grade-level achievement. For instance, a score of 10 suggests that a document can be read and understood by the average 10 th grader. • The Flesch Reading Ease score, a similar scoring system, ranks documents on a 100 -point scale. Higher scores suggest that the document should be easier to read, based on word size and sentence length.

REVISING FOR READABILITY • Beyond using shorter words and simpler sentences, you can improve the readability of a message by making the document interesting and easy to skim. • Four techniques will make your message easier to read and easier to skim. 1. Varying sentence length, 2. Using shorter paragraphs, 3. Using lists and bullets instead of narrative and 4. Adding effective headings and subheadings.

REVISING FOR READABILITY: VARYING SENTENCE LENGTH • To keep readers’ interest, combine a variety of short, medium, and long sentences. • Try for a mixture of sentences that are short (up to 10 words), medium (11– 15 words), and long (more than 15 words). • However too many short sentences in a row can make your writing choppy. • Long sentences can be difficult to understand because they contain more information and usually have a more complicated structure. Because readers can absorb only a few words per glance, longer sentences are also more difficult to skim.

REVISING FOR READABILITY: KEEPING PARAGRAPHS SHORT • Large blocks of text can be visually daunting, particularly on screen and small mobile devices. • Unless you break up your thoughts, you’ll have lengthy paragraphs that might intimidate readers. • Short paragraphs (within 100 words) are easier to read and they make your writing look inviting. • However, don’t go overboard with short paragraphs. Be careful with one-sentence paragraphs. Use them only occasionally and usually for emphasis. • If you need to divide a subject into several pieces to keep paragraphs short, be sure to help your readers keep the ideas connected by guiding them with plenty of transitional

REVISING FOR READABILITY: USING LISTS TO CLARIFY & EMPHASIZE • Lists are effective tools for heightening visual impact, highlighting key points and simplifying material. Narrative Owning your own business has many potential advantages. One is the opportunity to pursue your own personal passion. Another advantage is the satisfaction of working for yourself. As a sole proprietor, you also have the advantage of privacy because you do not have to reveal your financial information or plans to anyone. List Owning your own business has three advantages: ●Opportunity to pursue personal passion ●Satisfaction of working for yourself ●Financial privacy

REVISING FOR READABILITY: USING LISTS TO CLARIFY & EMPHASIZE • You can separate list items with numbers, letters, or bullets (a general term for any kind of graphical element that precedes each item). • Bullets are generally preferred over numbers, unless the list is in some logical sequence or ranking or you need to refer to specific list items elsewhere in the document. • If you are using bullets for listing, use a uniform style throughout the whole document as opposed to mixing and matching varied ones.

REVISING FOR READABILITY: ADDING HEADINGS & SUBHEADINGS • A heading is a brief title that tells readers about the content of the section that follows. Subheadings are subordinate to headings, indicating subsections within a major section. • Headings and subheadings serve three important functions: • Organization- show readers at a glance how the document is organized. They act as labels to group related paragraphs and organize lengthy material into shorter sections. • Attention- Informative, inviting and intriguing headings grab the reader’s attention and help the reader find the parts he or she needs to read—or skip. • Connection- Using headings and subheadings visually indicate shifts from one idea to the next.

REVISING FOR READABILITY: ADDING HEADINGS & SUBHEADINGS • Headings and subheadings fall into two categories. • Descriptive headings are used to only identify the topic. • Such as “Cost Considerations, ” identify a topic but do little more. • Informative headings are more elaborate and divert reader attention towards a certain path • Such as “Redesigning Material Flow to Cut Production Costs, ” guide readers to think in a specific way about the topic.

EDITING FOR CLARITY AND CONCISENESS • Editing mean corrects for errors and improving on your writing • Clarity: Is your meaning clear? Is your writing conveying what it was supposed to? • In order to ensure clarity do the following 1. Break up overly long sentences-If you find yourself stuck in a long sentence, you’re probably trying to make the sentence do more than it reasonably can, such as expressing two dissimilar thoughts or peppering the reader with too many pieces of supporting evidence at once. 2. Correct dangling/misplaced modifiers- Be careful not to leave modifier dangling, with no connection to the subject of the sentence. (Walking to the office, a red sports car passed her. )

BREAKING UP OVERLY LONG SENTENCES Many consumers have expressed dissatisfaction with the relatively high prices of the new Japanese cars, but this has not prevented large numbers of people from purchasing these cars and pushing sales higher than many automotive experts had forecast, thus firmly entrenching the Japanese cars in a large segment of the automobile market. Many consumers have expressed dissatisfaction with the relatively high prices of the new Japanese cars. However, this has not prevented large numbers of people from purchasing these cars. This pushed sales higher than what many automotive experts had forecast. The Japanese cars have thus become entrenched in a large segment of the automobile market.

EDITING FOR CLARITY AND CONCISENESS 3. Replace camouflaged verbs- Watch for words that end in -ion, -tion, -ing, -ment, ant, -ence, -ance, and -ency. These endings often change verbs into nouns, requiring you to add a verb to get your point across. (give consideration to) 4. Impose parallelism- When you have two or more similar ideas to express, make them parallel by using the same grammatical construction. Parallelism shows that the ideas are related, of similar importance, and on the same level of generality. (Mr. Simms was drenched with rain, bombarded with telephone calls, and his boss was shouting at him )

EDITING FOR CLARITY AND CONCISENESS • Conciseness: Making your writing even shorter, without losing original meaning. Do the following to ensure conciseness. 1. Delete unnecessary wordy phrases- To test whether a phrase is essential, try to replace it by a shorter word. If the meaning doesn’t change, leave out the phrase. 1. 2. 3. 4. Cluttering Phrases At this point in time Due to the fact that In the near future With reference to 1. 2. 3. 4. Shorter Words Now Because Soon About

EDITING FOR CLARITY AND CONCISENESS 2. Shorten long, unfamiliar words - Short words are generally easier to read than long ones. Use familiar, everyday use words in a general setting. Unless the situation calls and the audience is such, avoid longer words that are not used on a regular basis. 1. 2. 3. 4. Longer words Discontinue Endeavor Initiate Demonstrate Shorter words 1. 2. 3. 4. Stop Try Start/Begin Show

EDITING FOR CLARITY AND CONCISENESS 3. Eliminate redundancies- In some word combinations, the words say the same thing. Redundancies 1. Visible to the eye 2. Important essentials 3. Repeat again Corrections 1. Visible 2. Essentials 3. Repeat

PRODUCING THE MESSAGE 1. Typefaces: Typeface/Fonts refers to the visual design of letters, numbers, and other text characters. • Typeface design influences the tone of your message, making it look authoritative or friendly, businesslike or casual, classic or modern. So be sure to choose fonts that are appropriate for your message. (Note that many of the fonts on your computer are not appropriate for normal business use. ) 2. Typestyles: Refers to any modification that lends contrast/emphasis, including size, boldface, italic, underlining, color, and other highlighting. • For most printed business messages, use a size of 10 -12 points for regular text and 12 -18 points for headings and subheadings. Resist the temptation to reduce type size too much in order to squeeze in extra text or to enlarge type to fill up space. Type that is too small or too large can be difficult to read. Be particularly careful with small type online.

PRODUCING THE MESSAGE 3. Margins: Margins define the space around text and between text columns. They can be set a. justified (which means they are flush, or aligned vertically, on both the left and the right) b. flush left with a ragged right margin c. flush right with a ragged left margin, or (rarely used) d. centered. (only headings) 4. Whitespace: Any space that doesn’t contain text or artwork, is considered white space. (Note that “white space” isn’t necessarily white; it is simply blank. ) These unused areas provide visual contrast and important resting points for your readers. However do not leave too much white space just for the sake of increasing document size.

PROOFREADING YOUR MESSAGE • Proofreading is the quality inspection stage for your documents, your last chance to make sure that your document is ready to carry your message—and your reputation— to the intended audience. • Look for two types of problems: 1. Undetected mistakes from the writing, design, and layout stages 2. Mistakes that crept in during production i. e. computer glitches such as missing fonts to broken web links to problems with the ink used in printing.

PROOFREADING YOUR MESSAGE • Use these techniques from professional proofreaders to help ensure high-quality output: 1. Make multiple passes- Go through the document several times, focusing on a different aspect each time. For instance, look for content errors the first time and layout errors the second time. 2. Give yourself some distance- If possible, don’t proofread immediately after finishing a document; let your mind wander off to new topics and then come back fresh later. 3. Take your time- Quick proofreading is not careful proofreading. 4. Review complex digital documents on paper- Some people have trouble proofreading webpages, online reports, and other digital documents on screen. If you have trouble, print the materials so you can review them on paper.

DISTRIBUTING: DESIGNING MESSAGES FOR CELLPHONES