Easier to Read Written Communication

by JeanetteMarceau
Published on: May 12, 2011
Categories: Communication, ENT630
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The 10 points in the book Business and Administrative Communication by Kitty Locker for Making Your Writing Easier to Read are:

  1. Choose words that are accurate, appropriate, and familiar.
  2. Choose words that do not include technical jargon unless it is essential and known to the reader.  Eliminate business jargon.
  3. As you write and revise – use active words in sentences.
  4. As you write and revise – use verbs – not nouns – to carry the weight of the sentence.
  5. As you write and revise – eliminate wordiness in sentences.
  6. As you write and revise – vary sentence length and sentence structure.
  7. As you write and revise – use parallel structure in sentences.  Use the same grammatical form for ideas that have the same logical function.
  8. As you write and revise – put your readers in your sentences.
  9. As you write and revise – begin most paragraphs with topic sentence so the readers know what to expect in the paragraph.
  10. As you write and revise – use transitions to link ideas in paragraphs.

 

Eliminating wordiness is very important along with having clear concise sentences.  When receiving an email the less words the better.  In today’s environment with people having very little time and much to do in that amount of time they do not want to waste time.  People prefer a concise clear email over a wordy email if they both achieve the same objective.

 

Another point of this book is to eliminate the “I” word.  Make the focus of your communications to be toward the reader not the writer.  Instead of saying “I am sending you the brochure”, say “Your requested brochure is enclosed.”  Also do not include words like “this writer”.  If you do need to reverence yourself do so but try to be aware your intentions.  If it is about or for the reader reference them.  If is truly about the writer then you can use “I”.  An example would be “I need a new computer.”  You are informing the reader your needs.  You could also follow up with “I need a new computer, could you provide me with a quote?”  This informs the reader what the writer needs but then puts focus back to the reader since the writer is requesting something from the reader.  Try to keep the focus on the reader.

 

This book also talks about What I Really Mean Is with the acronym WIRMI.  When proofing your sentence write another sentence that says “What I really mean is” then complete the sentence.  Are you getting your point across in your rough draft or do you need to revise the sentence?

 

Another hint the book gives is to read the draft out loud to someone else.  When reading communication out loud is it sound awkward then you can make revision so that your written communication will sound clearer and more concise.

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