Chapter 1 Why Writing Skills Matter More Than Ever Today s workplace revolves around communication Stay connected through spoken and written messages Businesses today generate a wide range of messages in a variety of media What Employers Want Professionalism Soft Skills communication working well with others solve problems make ethical decisions and appreciate diversity Increased emphasis on self directed work groups and virtual teams How Your Education Drives Your Income Advancing in a Challenging World of Work Heightened global competition Flattened management hierarchies Innovative communication technologies Anytime anywhere and nonterritorial offices Renewed emphasis on ethics Understanding the Communication Process 1 Sender has an idea 2 Sender encodes the idea in a message 3 Message travels over a channel 4 Receiver decodes the message 5 Feedback travels to the sender Overcoming Barriers to Effective Listening 1 Physical Barriers 2 Psychological Barriers 3 Language Problems 4 Nonverbal Distractions 5 Thought Speed 6 Faking attention 7 Grandstanding Building Powerful Listening Skills Stop Talking Control your surroundings Establish a receptive mind set Keep an open mind Listen for main points Capitalize on lag time Listen between the lines Judge ideas not appearances Your Body Sends Silent Messages Hold your fire Take selective notes Provide Feedback Eye Contact Facial Expression Posture and Gestures Time Space and Territory Send Silent Messages Time How we structure and use time Space How we order space around us Territory Certain area that is our own territory Appearance sends silent messages Eye appeal of business documents Personal appearance Building Strong Non Verbal Skills Establish and maintain eye contact Use posture to show interest Improve your decoding skills Probe for more information Avoid assigning non verbal meanings out of context Associate with people from diverse cultures Appreciate the power of appearance Understanding How Culture Affects Communication Observe yourself on video Enlist friends and family Context Individualism Formality Communication Style Time Orientation Conquering Ethnocentrism and Stereotyping Ethnocentrism Superiority of one s own culture Stereotypes Oversimplified perception of a behavioral pattern or characteristic applied to entire groups Tolerance Flexible attitudes Successful Oral Communication With Intercultural Audiences Use simple English Speak slowly and enunciate clearly Encourage accurate feedback Check frequently for comprehension Observe eye messages Accept blame Successful Written Communication with Intercultural Audiences Listen without interrupting Smile when appropriate Follow up in writing Consider local styles Consider hiring a translator Use short sentences and short paragraphs Avoid ambiguous wording Cite numbers carefully Tips for Communicating with Diverse Audiences on the Job Understand the value of differences Seek training Learn about your cultural self Make fewer assumptions Build on similarities Chapter 11 Defining Professional Behavior Civility Polish Business and Dining Etiquette Social Intelligence Soft Skills Six Dimensions of Professional Behavior Courtesy Respect Appearance Appeal Tolerance Tact Honesty Ethics Reliability Responsibility Diligence Collegiality Knowing What Recruiters Want Team Skills skills Required competencies People Skills Chapter 2 Purposeful Persuasive Economical Audience oriented Strong Verbal and Written Communication Skills and presentational Interpersonal organizational and teamwork skills Understanding Business Writing Goals and the Writing Process Following a Writing Process for Better Messages and Presentations Prewriting Analyzing and anticipating how an audience will react Writing Researching organizing and composing the message Revising Proofreading and evaluating the letter Revising 50 45 revising and 5 proofreading Scheduling the Writing Process Prewriting 25 Writing 25 Analyzing Your Purpose Identifying your purpose Selecting the Best Channel Switching to faster channels Anticipating the Audience Profiling the audience Responding to the profile Adapting to the Task and Audience Stressing audience benefits Cultivating the You view Developing Skillful Writing Techniques Being conversational but Professional Expressing yourself positively Being courteous Choosing bias free language Using plain language and familiar words Employing precise vigorous words Chapter 3 Composing Messages on the Job Formal Research Methods Search manually Access electronically Go to the source Conduct scientific experiments Informal Research and Idea Generation Look in the files Talk with your boss Interview the target audience Conduct an informal survey Brainstorm for ideas Organizing to Show Relationships The Direct Strategy Saves the readers time Sets a proper frame of mind Prevents frustration The Indirect Strategy Respects the feelings of the audience Encourages a fair hearing Minimizes a negative reaction Constructing Effective Sentences Using Four Sentence Types to Achieve Variety Simple Sentence Compound Sentence Complex sentence Compound complex sentence Controlling sentence Length Avoiding three common sentence faults Fragments Run on fused sentences Comma splice sentences Improving Writing Techniques Developing Emphasis Using active and passive voice Achieving parallelism Drafting Powerful Paragraphs Crafting topic sentences Developing support sentences Avoiding dangling and misplaced modifiers Dropping unnecessary there is are and it is was fillers Building paragraph coherence Controlling paragraph length Composing the First Draft Chapter 4 Managing the Process of Revision Revising for Conciseness Eliminating flabby expressions Limiting long lead ins Rejecting redundancies Revising for Clarity Dumping trite business phrases Avoiding jargon and slang Dropping clich s Revising for Vigor and Directness Unburying verbs Controlling exuberance Choosing clear precise words Plain writing movement Designing Documents for Readability Employing white space Understanding margins and text alignments Choosing appropriate typefaces fonts Capitalizing on type fonts and sizes Numbering and bulleting lists for quick comprehension Adding headings for visual impact Category headings Recording Proofreading Edits Manually and Digitally What to watch for in proofreading Spelling grammar punctuation names and numbers format