1 Business Writing Midterm Notes Chapter 1 Assessing Audience Purpose and Medium Checklist for planning your document Determining your purpose Assess your audience s needs Consider the context of your writing Generate gather and record ideas and facts Establish the scope of coverage for your topic Organize your ideas Select the medium Determining purpose My primary purpose is to so that my audience Assessing audience needs Consider what you know about 1 the company 2 your reader s position in the company and 3 his her responsibilities regarding the topic I m writing about Writing for your reader considering audience and purpose Who is your audience What do you want your audience to know believe be able to do after reading your content Have you narrowed your topic to the best focus on what you want your audience to know What are your audience s needs in relation to the subject What does your audience know about the subject Do you have more than one audience If you have multiple audiences do they have different levels of knowledge about your subject What are your audience s feelings about your subject sympathetic Hostile Neutral Does your writing acknowledge other or contrary points of view about the subject Is your tone respectful Have you selected the right medium for your audience Does your format enhance audience understanding Checklist for assessing context What is your professional relationship with your readers and how might that affect the tone style and scope of your writing What is the story behind the immediate reason you are writing that is what series of events or previous communications led to your need to write 2 What specific factors or values such as business competition financing and regulatory environment are important to your reader s organization or environment What is the corporate culture in which your readers work What recent or current events within or outside an organization or a department may influence how readers interpret your writing What national or cultural differences might affect your readers expectations for or interpretations of a document What medium do your readers prefer Establishing scope The scope is the degree of detail necessary to cover each item in the list based on the purpose and the needs of the audience Selecting your medium Audience preferences and expectations The technological resources available How widely information needs to be distributed What kind of record you need to keep The urgency of the communication The sensitivity or confidentiality required The organizational practices or regulations Checklist of ethical considerations Is the communication honest and truthful Am I ethically consistent in my communications Am I acting in the best interest of my employer What would happen if everybody acted or communicated in this way Does the action or communication violate anyone s rights Am I willing to take responsibility for the communication publicly and privately Chapter 2 Organizing Your Information Outlining Organizing your information before you write Benefits of outlining It forces you to reexamine the information you plan to include So you are sure that you have sufficient facts and details to satisfy your audiences needs To achieve the purpose of your writing It forces you to order the information in a sequence that your audience will understand as clearly as you do 3 Use of outlines by good and poor writers More than three times the number of good writers as compared with poor writers create a written outline 36 of the poor writers said they never use an outline written or mental Types of outlines Traditional Roman Numeral Outline Decimal Numbering System Outline Checklist for creating an outline Break a large topic into its major divisions and type or write them down Does the sequence fit your organizing pattern If not reorganize and label the topics with Roman numerals Repeat the process for each major topic Break each into its logical subtopics and list them under each major topic Then sequence the subtopics to fit your pattern of development and label them with capital letters If necessary repeat the process for each third level topic and label the topics with Arabic numbers Key each of your notes to the appropriate place in your outline Merge your notes and your outline placing every note under the appropriate head subhead or sub subhead in your outline Then organize the notes under each head in the most logical sequence To convert your detailed outline into your first draft put the first head on your computer screen and expand the notes listed under it into sentences and paragraphs Relationship of audience and purpose to organization your outline s information and organization will vary according to your purposes for writing and audience s needs Types of outline organizations Sequential step by step ideal when the purpose is instruction and not persuasion General to specific ideal when the purpose is persuasion and not only information Organizing Information organizational patterns Sequence explains a process step by step in order of time user s manual Chronology explains a process step by step through the stages it occurs in schedules Spatial explain dimension shape direction etc a vehicle accident report Division divide a complex subject into subgroups description of social networking Classification disparate units into categories recognizable for your audience grouping exchange traded funds by their investment sector 4 Decreasing order of importance most important least important news story Increasing order of importance least important most important persuasive presentation General to specific overview detailed explanation memo that begins with recommendation Specific to general detailed explanation broad overview report that ends with overview Comparison compare traits from different items feasibility report Chapter 3 Writing the Draft Checklist for developing confidence as a writer Nothing builds a writer s confidence more than adequate preparation Remember past writing project you have completed something before and you will finish this time Don t wait for inspiration to write the rough draft treat writing the draft as you would any on the job task Think of writing a rough draft as simply transcribing and expanding the notes from your outline into paragraphs Concentrate on ideas without attempting to polish or revise Ignore grammar precise word choices and spelling until you have completed the draft Keep