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Transcript of Www.iSpeak.com Proprietary and Confidential Business Writing iSpeak Foundation Series Month day,...
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Business Writing
iSpeak Foundation SeriesMonth day, 2012Instructor Name
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Agenda
• Introductions – What do you want to learn?
• Itinerary
• Ground Rules
–Phones on Silent
–Ask Questions
–Participate & Respect others
–Respect our schedule
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Satori
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Business WritingUnit One: Business Writing Foundation
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The Pweor of the hmuan mnid
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaern what oredr the ltteers in a word are. The only iprmoetnt thing is that the first and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuseae the human mind deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe.
Amzanig huh?
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What people judge by your writing
• Your perceived competence
• Your perceived confidence
• Your status and power
• Your organization
• How important or unimportant you find your reader
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Communication Channels
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Public
Permanent
Written Communication
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Effective Business Writing
• Succinct
• Poignant
• Direct
• Relative
• Persuasive
• Informative
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Exercise: Ineffective Business Writing
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Readability concepts
• Count words to 100, then keep counting until you reach the end of the sentence
• What’s a syllable?– “Beats” in a word
– Look for 3 or more beats
– Don’t count: proper nouns or any words made three beats by adding the suffixes like -es, -ed, or -ing.
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Readability Statistics
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Readability Index
• The Economist 13 (difficult)• The Wall Street Journal 11• The New York Times 10• Reader’s Digest 8• USA Today 7• People Magazine 6• Tabloid Newspapers 6 (easy)
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iSpeak Business Writing Model
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Satori
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Business WritingUnit Two: Letters, Emails, and Memos
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Brief Document Types
Memo
Business letter
Internal External
Formal
Informal
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Exercise: Appropriate Document Type
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Delivering good news
• State good news immediately
• Provide support or details
• Close cordially
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Why write good news?
• Reminder of excellent customer service• Builds credits• Allows boss or client to
pass it on• Creates history for your
performance review• Gives your accomplishments exposure to upper
management
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Delivering bad news
• Begin with a buffer or neutral statement
• State the bad news• Note specific actions to be
taken to correct the situation• Commit to a communication plan• Assert your desire to continue the relationship
and close positively and sincerely
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The Buffer
A statement or two that softens the blow of the bad news.
1.Acknowledges the customer’s situation
2.Indicates the ways in which you’ve analyzed the situation
3.Reiterates that you have the same goal as the customer
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Exercise: Compose a bad news message
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Who is Your Audience?
• What’s in it for me? (WIIFM)
• What do they already know about the subject? Knowing this will help you provide just enough detail so that you are neither talking over their heads nor down to them.
• How do they feel about it?
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Visual Appeal
• Spacing
• Formatting
• Bullets and Lists
• Bold and Italics
• Headings
• Table of Contents
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Email in Business
• Reading and interpreting email– Look for the facts
– Request clarification
• Responding to email– Respond in short paragraphs
– Utilize bulleted lists
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Exercise: Reading and Interpreting Emails
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Email Etiquette
• Do these– Customize every email
– Answer every question or concern
• Don’t do these– Use stock or canned responses
– Reply to all
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Satori
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Business WritingUnit Three: Developing Proposals
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Writing Proposals
• Prepare
• Develop
• Write
• Review
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Prepare Proposal Objective
• What do I want the reader to:– Know?
– Feel?
– Do?
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Exercise: Message Purpose
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Audience Analysis
• Status
• Common characteristics
• Expertise
• Interest
• Concerns
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Exercise: Audience Analysis
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Best Opportunity for Persuasion
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Idea Mapping
Poor Customer Service Rating
Call Center
PoorProduct
Retail Centers
Auto Attendant
Lack of Training
Not 24 hrs
Lack ofTraining
Unprofessionalattendants
NotKnowledgeable
No WebPortal
PoorHiring
Poor Customer Service Rating
Call Center
PoorProduct
Retail Centers
Auto Attendant
Lack of Training
Not 24 hrs
Lack ofTraining
Unprofessionalattendants
NotKnowledgeable
No WebPortal
PoorHiring
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Why Vacation in Cancun?
• Why spend the money?
• Why go to the beach instead of the mountains?
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Exercise: Argument or Premise?
1. This is the best course of action.
2. The centrifuge is broken.
3. It will cost $500,000 to fix.
4. It requires 1200 rpm.
5. We should bring in a new contractor.
6. Our engineers are superior to our competition’s.
7. Our engineers are all college-educated.
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Deductive vs. Inductive
• Deductive – Provide the premises which lead to the conclusion– 2+2=4 approach– Why before What
• Inductive – State the conclusion, then provide the supporting premises– 4 = 2+2 approach– What before Why
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Counter-arguing
• Anticipate the likely doubts or objections
• Use language, “You might be thinking…”
• Verbalize the doubt
• Formulate a positive response
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Features, Advantages, Benefits
Feature Advantage Benefit (so what?)
Childcare onsite Onsite – no commute More work time available to FutureTech employee and company
Provide power through umbilical
More control over installation and operation of pumps
Improves the level of service to clients, makes FutureTech more of a “one-stop shop”
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Exercise: Turning Features into Advantages and Benefits
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Exercise: Plan your Evidence
What evidence can you provide to influence your audience?
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Call to Action
• Related to purpose• Actionable steps
– Immediate
– Longer term
• Make it SMART:– Specific
– Measureable
– Actionable
– Realistic
– Time-bound
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Exercise: Call to Action
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Proposal Structure
• Inductive (Answer First Approach)
• Deductive (Building to an inevitable conclusion)
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Exercise: Write your persuasive appeal
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Executive Summary
• Follow the same structure as the report
• Include summary and conclusions
• Be proportionate to the report
• Utilize an inductive or deductive approach
• Contain headings and developed transitions
• Provide the essentials of the report to the reader
• Cover all the important points of the report
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Business WritingUnit Four: Review and Proofread
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What does 99.9% accuracy mean?
What does 99.9% accuracy really mean?
Every Hour
- 22,000 debits would occur from the wrong bank account
- 18,322 pieces of mail would be mishandled
Every day
- 12 newborn babies would be handed to the wrong parents
- 55 incorrect prescriptions would be filled
Every year
- 2 million documents would be lost by the IRS
- 320 entries in Webster’s dictionary would be misspelled
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Proofreading
• Take your time
• Limit your time
• Iterations
• Grammar
• Take a break
• Typos
• Third party
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Satori
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Business WritingImplement to Improve
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iSpeak Learning Methodology
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” - Johann Goethe
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Satori
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Kaizen
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Continue Your Learning At iSpeak University!
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