Effective Business Writing and Communications

Archive for November, 2009

From a methodological point of view a continuous process of communication may be categorized into several mutually conditioned stages. Among the most important parts of the process are the stages of formulating the message, encoding it in some characters, the direct transfer of coded messages through which as a rule,  is done by the sender, received by the addressee, as well as the backward steps of decoding and understanding the meaning. Typically, this communication process is considered complete. Such communication leads simply to an exchange (albeit with some distortions of the intrinsic process) of the information between the sender and receiver. But, is such an exchange of information real communication?

One of the paradoxes of communication in organizations is in the fact that we replace it to a closer in shape, but different in the core process which is the conversation. From the conversation we receive a lot, but not all. We exchange information, knowledge and emotions. We enrich each other; we can better understand the characteristics of people, their advantages and disadvantages. And as soon as the conversation was completed with some actions, we can daringly say, that was more than just a conversation – we communicated.

The meaning of business communications is to convey such a message, which is perceived by the recipient and contributes to the recipient’s desired, targeted actions. Here where the simple to understand and trivial to use the formula of communication in organizations comes from: when communicating, while conveying the message, there should be an opportunity to hear, understand and do.

As T. A. Murphy, a former chairman of General Motors said, the same common denominator in business and management are people and relationships with people; in the end, communication is most important: effective communication can ensure the success and failure, or at least determines the degree of success. Regardless of the type of organization in which you are now or will work in the future, the exchange of information is of a great importance. Communication is equally important for organizations and individuals.

Even the classic Frankenstein’s monster understood the importance of communication hiding in the woods for a few days watching the shepherd’s family.
Regardless of where the communication happens and who are involved, the main features of this process are identical. An example could be Frank Rhodes, who owned and operated a small wholesale company engaged in providing cleaning supplies. His staff consisted of five warehouse workers: one secretary and three part-time sales agents. He has been regularly confronted with problems related to the fact that its sales agents could not properly fill out order forms, workers lost waybills, and the secretary sutured important documents into the wrong folder. Frank was convinced that the more carefully he watched his workers and the more he talked to them, the less frequently encountered similar problems. But regardless of how carefully he worked on it, the problems associated with information, it seemed, did not stop occurring. Sometimes the letter did not reach them. In another case, the information was already outdated by the time it reached the prospective recipient.

Much of the information that people communicate at work is not directly related to work, but is vitally important to them. People are often treated as social animals, because they crave communication, even when they have no urgent messages. Indeed, most of the talking, at first glance may seem meaningless, but in fact these conversations meet people’s need to communicate. To understand the materiality of such communications it is sufficient to recall that one of the most severe punishments for a man is to be incarcerated in a cell where the man is absolutely deprived of the opportunity and the right to communicate with others. Since communication is considered a decisive factor for success, many organizations are training their staff to make them more literate in communication as more communicative people.

INTERNAL PROPOSAL

An internal proposal includes the following sections:

* title page, * cover page, * table of contents, * introduction, * discussion, * conclusion, * glossary

The introduction is a description of the purpose, problems and particular details necessary for improving the situation. The Internal Proposal discussion section gives detailed information about the problem or levels and implementation of the project or program. It includes detailed explanation of the benefits and drawbacks of the subject involved; technical descriptions, working instructions, the personnel directly involved in the project.  The writer needs to make sure the readers’ persuasion is achieved. Conclusion re-examines major concerns and makes improving recommendations.

EXTERNAL PROPOSAL

An external proposal includes the following sections:

* title page, * cover page, * table of contents, * graphics, * executive summary, * introduction, * discussion, * conclusion, * glossary, * works cited

The introduction states the purpose, describes the problems’ background information; gives an analysis of the reader’s needs and detailed specifications of the writer’s knowledge of the condition and circumstances. The External Proposal discussion section gives the list of options that compare and benefits and drawbacks of the problem, purchase and upgrades list, project schedules and costs. It includes tables that show the needs, purpose, costs and reasons of software purchase etc. Additionally, it gives detailed analysis for software distribution and technical descriptions. This part discusses the writer’s approach to the subject and includes the writer’s qualifications which persuade readers their needs are applied to the project. The conclusion calls for the understanding of the imposed proposal’s problem; sums up recommendations making emphasis on benefits.

Summary

The two types of proposals show a difference in the sections part included, as well as particularly in the content discussed and recommendations. An external proposal involves more profound explanations and descriptions. It also requires more clarity since it’s written for multiple audience and requires more thorough explanation of the problem and more tables of comparison with suggestions and recommendations. Unless the external proposal, the internal proposal is intended for high-tech audience which should be familiar with the subject as much as the writer is.  The external proposal requires deeper description and understanding of the problem. Therefore, more step-by-step information would be included. The external proposal would need to provide a works cited page so the reader could do further research for the problem and results. The internal proposal’ recommendations page is less descriptive as it provides a reduced summary of the projects’ concerns.

The use of outlines and including graphics and pictures are just some of the guidelines that can be useful for an academic paper. Outlines add an aspect of a better-organized material.  An outline constitutes of topics and clarifications one has intended to sum up in the document. Pictures are supposed to support a written portion of the document and should not be included just like an addition with any relatedness to the main topic.

Using Styles, Headers and Footers represent an important guideline for scholastic papers. The purpose of Styles is maintaining the work of each section of the document more regular. Every facet in the document is dependent on each other and there is no need to make a particular changed to just a part of it. The change may be done only switching to a different style. The use of Headers and Footers brings recognition of the pages’ sequence the sequence, differentiate the most important information, and make the date and name of the document noticeable.

When writing an academic paper it is vital to use Sufficient White Space for the reason that the paper design ultimate accomplishment is to create mental breaks for readers. Another reason is to add clarity and conciseness, which represent the major goals of business writing.  The document could be gradually improved if designed using proper margins, numbered and bulleted lists feature, and text boxes. These guidelines are mostly applicable to business papers. For a businessperson that reads many documents every day it is important to read a paper that’s quickly understandable. Headers and Footers are mostly used in academic papers because usually they have longer sizes. For example, without pages being numbered, the reader can easily get lost in the document.

Working as an Estimating Assistant for General Contractors has required the use of proposals which are called bids in construction.  Requests for bids would come in from customers which required the estimators to do what are called take offs of the project to determine the cost of completing a project and the full scope of the work that needs to be completed.  Most General Contractors subcontract out a major portion of a project which requires them to also request proposals from sub contractors outlining the scope of work that they intend to complete and the amount they intend to complete the project for.  After all the sub-contractors turn in the proposals to the estimators, they then create a larger proposal including every scope of a project.

It is very important not to leave out any portion of work because anything that is omitted could cost not only money to the general contractor but could possibly lose them the project.A standard report would not work for this type of situation because every step of a project must be included within the scope of the bid with a break-down of the costs, equipment, personnel, time, and a schedule of the projected completion of each scope of the job. It must also include a start date and end date which if not meet often involves heavy fines.

A proposal is used as an action oriented report intended to persuade the reader.  It is used to make recommendations, including all plans and steps of a task.  It contains procedures for completing the task, equipment needed, personnel and time necessary to complete the tasks.  It also includes a break down of completion of each task involved.

Reports are used for accounting professional events, occupational progress and accomplishments. Their intention is also to give information on job-related incidents. Using reports at the workplace gives many benefits. One of the benefits is the opportunity to perceive common actions while monitoring and reporting the information.

When using reports to present information a technical writer should consider the type of information that would be presented, the process, the audience, the situation under the circumstances of the report being conduction and the goal.

Technical writers must consider many things before writing a report. Considering the type of audience the report is being written for is the most important. A different type of audience can impact many things in a report such as the layout. Some international cultures might be costumed to reading the specifics of a proposal then move on to the conclusion, unlike in the United States where we discuss the general purpose then go into the particular details.

A report is used to assist management make decisions, document policies, procedures, and schedules.  It is also used as a written record of events involving an organization such as annual sales reports, expense reports ans so forth.

The purpose of a letter is a prompt delivery of the information to the reader. Writing business letters is mainly useful in the workforce since it represents a formal way of communication. Some of the benefits which letters can present are informing, promoting, persuading, motivating, asking and responding.

While memos apply to communicating inside, letters are used for outside the company. Letters can be used as a direct communication from one person to another, between clients or potential clients etc. They must have a specific format, proper tone, and be free of errors; it is required to include contact information and a signature. This type of communication is used for conveying good or bad news to a client. An example would be addressing a complaint concerning employees, service or product from an outside company.

A memo as an important form of technical writing is a simple way to communicate information as a notice posted in a commonplace with the intention of being addressed to multiple recipients who constitute the entire mass of the employees in a particular work setting. A memo format is an important way of conveying information that needs to show a professional appearance and the major updates to the topical information. A significant purpose of a well-written memo is smoothing the process and accentuating the importance of that topic.

Memos are written for different purposes of a flexible character. Their intended audience is employees within a company; memos are used to communicate inside the organization. The memo is a formal means of written communication in order to inform or make a request of some kind, formulate a report on a project, or summarize a situation or problems.  An example could be a company that has assigned its employees to build a new software program compatible with Windows. Along the way some elements of improvement are discovered. A memo would be created by the team manager for informing all team members about the enhancing element and including a meeting schedule in order to discuss the introduction of the new element into the software.

The four most widely accepted style conventions for professional paper documentation are:

1) Chicago style is system used for some of the humanities and fine arts such as history, philosophy, dance etc.

2) Modern Language Association (MLA) – a system used for language and literature.

3) American Psychological Association (APA Style) – an author/date system used for the social sciences with similar versions for the biological and earth sciences, education, linguistics, and business.

4) Number systems (CBE, ACS, AMS and AIP) – related systems used for the medical sciences (e.g. biomedicine), the biological and earth sciences, (e.g. agriculture), and the applied sciences (e.g. computer science).

I think that the most appropriate convention styles for technical writing are number systems and APA style because many technical writers not only write things that only needs APA style but often they do write other things for the medical, electrical fields etc. that require the number system.

Proper documentation serves several reasons in a document. First, it gives proper credit to authors for their work. It avoids plagiarism. Second, it gives strength to the view one is trying to show, and thirdly, it gives the reader of the document an avenue to pursue further information of a subject if he or she chooses to do so.

There are seven documentation styles that are the most popular. There is the APA style, the MLA style, and the Chicago style. There are also the four number styles which include the CBE, ACS, AMS and AIP styles.  After citing an author one has to use the authors last name and the year the book was published at the end of the cite. The only fault in using APA style would be if one has two books that is authored by someone with the same last name and published in the same year. It would be hard to distinguish which book was cited. The number style does not have this problem because every instance one cites an author a number is placed at the end of the cite. A main problem when using the number style is the addition of a cite in the middle of a paper when the paper is almost finished. One would have to go through the paper and change all the cite numbers after the addition so that one would not use two same cite numbers. Then one would have to change the numbers on the reference or notes page at the end of the paper.

Another reason is the ethical and professional acknowledgment of any source used in your writing will prevent unintentional plagiarism as well as any copyright infringements.
Documentation used properly, adds credibility to your document, and lends authority to your own personal ideas within your document. Documenting and citing your sources gives the document’s audience the ability to learn in addition to having quick access on where to read more from an author cited in the document.

Documentation is important in the technical writing process because it fulfills the ethical acknowledgment of authority and credibility, and efficiency for further study. Also, without proper documentation technical writers are dealing with issues such as conducting repeated research, going backwards to collect information from the same source with double time spent etc.