Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012. Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012 Overview...
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Transcript of Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012. Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012 Overview...
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
OverviewLast week we talked about policy and
procedure documents.These documents govern the internal
operations and rules of an organization.Clarity is the highest virtue of these
documents.Why?
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
OverviewAvoid disputes!A poorly written instructions or policy
guidelines can cause costly and time-consuming disputes.
Not to mention animosity, annoyance, and frustration.
Organizations work better when everyone has the same understanding of policies and procedures.
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
Clarity in word choiceSo how do you achieve clarity in writing a
policy/procedure document?Last week we observed how writers of these
documents make use of defined terms and obvious words of obligation.
But individual word choices in your documents also contribute to clarity or confusion.
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
Obvious actorsIn all cases in which you place an obligation
on someone, you should be clear about who that someone is.
If they are identified as a group, think carefully about how you are defining the group.
Who is included and excluded? What term can you use to define it at a proper scope?
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
Obvious actorsConsider this instruction:
Travel expense forms must be submitted by the first Friday of every month.
What’s the problem in terms of the actor?
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
Obvious actorsAn improvement:
Everyone must submit their travel expense forms by the first Friday of every month.
Ok, but who is “everyone”? Silly question? Maybe, maybe not.What if this rule were written between two sections
on hourly employees? Could “everyone” be interpreted to mean “all hourly employees.”
What if “everyone” is supposed to mean all non-exempt salaried employees?
How could we do better?
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
Obvious actorsOne solution:
All employees must submit their travel expense forms by the first Friday of every month.
Then include a defined term at the beginning of the document: As used in this manual, “employee” means all non-exempt, salaried employees of Big Corp.
Or your rule could state the subject more precisely:All non-exempt, salaried employees of Big Corp. must
submit their travel expense forms by the first Friday of every month.
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
Who is the actor in the first sentence?Does it mean each employee who supervises people
and each employee who prepares district financial reports or transactions?
Or does it mean each employee who supervises district financial reports and who prepares district financial reports?
Could this matter? How could we rewrite it?
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
Obvious objects and predicatesAs with your subject actors, you should clearly
identify the objects and other predicate words of your sentence.
Thinking carefully about what level of description is necessary to identify your concepts.
Be careful about using pronouns: “it” This is a balancing act. You don’t want to go
overboard with precision and make the document too difficult to read.
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
Obvious objects and predicatesConsider this sentence:
Any employee requesting more than one week of leave must submit their paperwork at least two weeks prior.
What interpretative problems does this sentence present?
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
Obvious objects and predicatesFirst, what is “paperwork”?Second, prior to what?How could we improve the sentence:
Any employee requesting more than one week of leave must submit their paperwork at least two weeks prior.
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
Obvious objects and predicatesThis illustration also shows the importance of
defining deadlines carefully.Good practice is to tie them to some definite,
objective date.First Friday of each month. Yes.By the beginning of the week. No.By close of business … Yes.As soon as practicable. ???
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
Obvious objects and predicatesThe following is an example from the Cy-Fair
School District’s handbook on employee use of electronic media.
You can see how this rule was drafted with carefully defined terms.
Perhaps indicating how much of an issue this has become in recent times.
Does this show that rapidly changing environments (like electronic media) make it difficult to keep policies up-to-date?
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
Ambiguity versus vaguenessAs you strive to write clearly, it is helpful to
understand the difference between ambiguity and vagueness.
You want to avoid both.Ambiguity is a word that is susceptible to two or
more meanings. When you can’t pin a word down to any
particular meaning, it is vague.Ambiguity = This can mean either x or y.Vagueness = I can’t tell what this means.
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
Ambiguity versus vaguenessOur example above has a vague requirement:
Any employee requesting more than one week of leave must submit their paperwork at least two weeks prior.
“Two week prior” is vague, not ambiguous, because we simply cannot tell what it refers to.
More examples:The contest will be open to young people.Excessive errors in employee expense reports will
subject the employee to a performance audit.
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
Ambiguity versus vaguenessEasiest way to see ambiguity is to look at
dictionary entries. Many words have multiple meanings listed.
Each one of those is a potentially ambiguous term.We often rely on context to resolve questions of
ambiguity. But in some cases, two or more possible meanings might apply.
Think carefully about the terms you are using and whether they could be subject to different meanings in the same situation.
Advanced Business Communication Spring 2012
Ambiguity versus vaguenessExamples of ambiguity:
Mug container for coffee or a person’s face.
Account Noun: a record of debit and credit entries Noun: a statement regarding an event. Verb: to take into consideration. Etc.