Improving Business Writing: How to Write Communications That Are Retrieved, Read and Remembered

©2014 International Institute for Learning, Inc., All rights reserved. 1Intelligence, Integrity and Innovation©2014 International Institute for Learning, Inc., All rights reserved.
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This webinar is brought to you by IIL a global leader in:
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Microsoft® Project and Project Server
Lean Six Sigma | Business Analysis
PRINCE2® | ITIL®
Leadership and Interpersonal Skills
Improving Business Writing
How to Write Communications That Are Retrieved, Read
and Remembered

©2014 International Institute for Learning, Inc., All rights reserved. 2Intelligence, Integrity and Innovation
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The goal of this session is to
provide participants with
techniques for improving the
likelihood of business
communications being retrieved,
read and remembered.
Session Goal

At the end of this session, you should be able to:
Utilize Four Stage Process Of Business Writing
Write Better E-Mail Subject Lines (Headlining)
Organize Messages
Bottom lining
Chunking
Session Objectives

Have you ever sat down to write a memo, e-mail or report
and stared at the blank screen or paper with no idea of how
to start?
Writers Block

What’s the difference? Let’s
start with school writing.
What is the primary goal of
school writing?
School Writing Versus Business Writing

The audience is broader with varying
expectations.
Business audiences are less patient.
Business writing has a different goal.
What are the common goals of
business communications?
Business Writing Demands Different Skills

Key writing situations: status reporting and
day-to-day process communications
There is an art and science to effective writing
Content changes depending on the audience – why?
The Project and Program Environment

The Art and Science of Business Writing
Effective
Business
Writing
Science (Clarity)
Purpose
Point of
View
Organization Support Coherence

Writing is a series of decisions and choices
Four stages:
1. Pre-writing
2. Drafting
3. Revising
4. Proofreading
Stages often overlap; each calls for a
particular kind of attention and skill
Writing in Stages

Key activities:
Gather information
Conduct research
Take notes
Outline your thoughts
Assess your reader’s needs
Stage 1 – Pre-writing: Prepare to Write

Focus on purpose, audience, and subject.
Don’t edit and revise as you go.
Write first draft quickly and freely.
The first sentence should be based on what you want to
accomplish with this communication. It will be removed when
the correspondence is complete.
Stage 2 – Drafting: Get It Down

Scenario:
You are a program manager who has just assumed responsibility for a new business-
related program that is not in your core knowledge area. While you are a proven
program manager on the IT side, your experience with leading business related
projects is limited. Your program sponsor, who is the Senior Vice President of Global
Operations, has requested your game plan for approaching this upcoming challenge.
In her e-mail to you, she has asked you to provide her with an overview of your
philosophy for managing projects and your ideas on how to best kick off this incentive.
She is well aware of your exemplary track record of results. However, she is concerned
about the issues your “IT background” is likely to cause with the business team
members. She expects your response to be e-mailed to her within the next week.
Begin with a first sentence that tells “you” what you want to say. This will be
removed later.
“I want to convince you that my program management experience is more
important than my background.”
For Example:

Reconsider broad issues:
Your approach
Point of view
Organization
Persuasive strategy
Concentrate on what you are saying and how you are saying it.
Revisit underlying questions relating to purpose, audience, and
subject.
Check for surface issues – word choice, clarity, word structure,
spelling, and grammar.
Stage 3 – Revise

Now concentrate on accuracy
Typical problems:
Misspelled words
Omitted numbers in enumerated lists
Cut and paste text landed in the wrong location
Proofread by making multiple passes:
Pass 1 – Does it look right?
Pass 2 – Is it effective and complete?
Pass 3 – Does it sound right?
Pass 4 – Is it correct?
Stage 4 – Proofreading: Make It Presentable

E-mail is the medium of the
millennium, so it is an important
business skill to be able to write
good e-mails. What are the pros
and of using e-mail for project
communication?
Class Discussion – E-Mail Pros and Cons

Cons
Gets rid of phone tag
Removes distance and time
barriers with a keystroke
Reduces isolation
Is conveniently quick
Can transmit routine
administrative details for
wide distribution
If not misused, can increase
productivity
Pros
Often resembles unedited
speech more than polished
writing
Speed of response often
gets preference over
correctness
Tone is hard to discern
Can also eat up a lot of time
Pros and Cons of E-mail

Don’t just state the broad topic
area but get your readers
attention and move their mind in
the direction you are thinking.
Provide your reader the outcome
Play the Journalist: turn your
subject line into the headline
Think of yourself as selling your
business correspondence to the
reader.
E-mail Subject Lines: Headlining
Bland Better
Business Climate Freeze Prices
Need Approval Surefire way to
cut costs
Task Force
Report
Uncovered Issue
Needs Attention
Examples

Current Subject Line: System XYZ
Due to a recent performance issue, the IT team will be
upgrading System XYZ at 11pm EDT tonight. This upgrade will
require a three minute download by each user, before you can
use the system. Please sign in to System XYZ first thing
tomorrow morning, and download this upgrade. If you have
an issue with the download or usage of the system after the
upgrade, e-mail the issue to
xyzadministrator@systemupgrade.
Does this subject line give any indication as to the importance of
the intended action?
How could it be improved?
For Example:

Do’s Don’ts
Write an attention getting subject line Hide behind your screen
Bottom-line your message Send an e-mail you wouldn’t want others
to read
Be brief Leave your subject line blank
Use short words, phrases and appropriate
abbreviations – not Text speak
Flame at your reader – meaning don’t use
all capital letters
Make it easy for readers to reply Forward messages without a comment
Make it easy to read – good combination
of Upper and lower case, white space and
legible font
Overrun your e-mails with smiley faces or
other emotions
End well – with an appropriate next step Use offensive, sexist or inappropriate
language. This can be career ending.
Take Away – Do’s and Don’ts of Emails

Bottom Lining – summarizing your major points at the
outset. Spend the rest of the time supporting them.
Organization: Bottom Lining
Journalism’s Inverted Pyramid
Present most important
information early
Support
information
comes next

Chunking – If your correspondence has a lot of clutter, your
reader will often scan it or skip it and this leads to
communication breakdowns. To avoid this, divide your
message into chunks.
Organization: Chunking

Example: Before Chunking
Subject Line: Field Report – Five Percent Growth
Sales
We are very happy to report that the efforts of our sales team on products XYZ produced
a 5% growth in sales for the month. While products J and K remained flat, we are
optimistic about the future growth of these sales. Overall, we are pleased with our
financial attainment.
Several of our customers are complaining about back-order problems. However, we were
able to catch up all back-orders by month end but I have just received another complaint
from Company 123 that their order this week has been put into back-order status.
During this month, Karen King resigned from our sales team. She accepted a position with
Alpha Labs. The reason she gave for leaving was compensation. We have already started
the search to replace her. Major competition during this month remains Alpha Labs. Their
sales compensation is said to be 10% higher than ours. Should I do more research on this
issue?
The marketing department is in the final stages of developing collateral materials to
support the sales effort. They have missed two deadlines for these materials and are
telling me that we will have them next month.
This concludes the Field Report for February. Please let me know if questions or concerns.

Subject Line: Field Report – Five Percent Growth
Sales – Strong growth for Products XYZ
We are very happy to report that the efforts of our sales team on products XYZ produced a 5%
growth in sales for the month. While products J and K remained flat, we are optimistic about the
future growth of these sales. Overall, we are pleased with our financial attainment.
Back-Orders – No solution in sight?
Several of our customers are complaining about back-order problems. However, we were able to
catch up all back-orders by month end but I have just received another complaint from Company
123 that their order this week has been put into back-order status.
Staffing – Where competition is hurting us
During this month, Karen King resigned from our sales team. She accepted a position with Alpha
Labs. The reason she gave for leaving was compensation. We have already started the search to
replace her. Major competition during this month remains Alpha Labs. Their sales compensation is
said to be 10% higher than ours. Should I do more research on this issue?
Marketing – Working with outdated collateral materials
The marketing department is in the final stages of developing collateral materials to support the
sales effort. They have missed two deadlines for these materials and are telling me that we will
have them next month.
This concludes the Field Report for February. Please let me know if questions or concerns.
Example: After Chunking

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