Resumo de Business Writing

.INTRODUCTIONSome people write to put their thoughts on paper. Others write to discover what their thoughts are. Most people do both to varying degrees, depending on what they?re writing about. Whatever your approach, this book provides tools that will streamline the process and enhance its effectiveness.Many people find business writing to be a challenge. It's not surprising. Business writing requires making decisions about a surprising number of factors, consciously or unconsciously. For routine messages, it is often not a problem if you make those decisions unconsciously. For more complex messages, however, it can become an overwhelming problem.Heny Ford said, "Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small tasks." The purpose of this book is do just that for business writing. The premise of this book is that writing can be broken down into a series of manageable tasks in a step-by-step model. Clear writing requires clear thinking, and clear thinking requires directing your mind at the right task at the right time. The step-by-step model provides the tools needed to do this for any type of writing in an office setting. It will help you to focus on the right task at the right time. It will also help to avoid the futility of trying to solve a problem with one approach when in fact the real problem lies elsewhere.Select the MediumOnce you have an idea of the content of your message, you will be able to select the best medium or media to convey it. Here, you will be making a choice between:oral media; written media; and combinations of oral and written media. Prepare the MessageIf you have selected a written medium, the final step is to prepare the message itself. This involves:organizing the content and writing initial drafts; designing or applying a format that makes the organization structure visible to the reader; refining the style; refining the grammar; and applying finishing touches.
ObjectiveThe objective of your message is its most important element. If you cannot define an objective for your message, there is no point in taking up your time and your audience's time over it. The objective should be stated in terms of something that you need to achieve, as opposed to simply conveying a message of some sort.AudienceThe best audience for a given message may not always be the first audience that come to mind. For example, sometimes the best audience might be someone who influences your ultimate audience. Thus, your message might have both an intermediate audience and an ultimate audience..Barriers and CompetitionMake a list of the barriers and competition that your message must overcome to succeed. These could include information overload (time pressures), prior views, financial constraints, human resource constraints, equipment constraints, political constraints or competing messages from other sources.SELECT THE MEDIUMOnce you have gathered the content for your message, it is time to consider which medium to use to deliver it. You could deliver it orally in, say, a meeting. You could deliver it in writing in a memo, a letter or a report. Or you could deliver it with both oral and written media.As with the content, keep your frame of reference firmly in mind when selecting the medium or media.Oral MediaOral media offer opportunities to:reach a small audience quickly and inexpensively; gain instant feedback on whether your message is getting through; change your strategy mid-stream if your audience raises unexpected points; convey enthusiasm or other emotions that cannot or should not be conveyed on paper; and build on the personal relationships that are so important to our day-to-day work. Written MediaWritten media offer:access to readers whom you might not be able to address orally; a relatively inexpensive way to reach a large audience; a permanent, indisputable record of what you?ve said ? for both you and your audience; and a chance to think your message through carefully and double-check it before you diver it. GrammarGrammar involves using the conventions most people follow to ensure that the words you put on paper are understood by others the way you want them to be understood. The conventions of grammar evolve over time, sometimes rapidly. However, it is not a good idea in business writing to test new conventions to their limits. Instead, it is best to be conservative and stick with the tried-and-true. The last thing you need is to have an audience distracted by thoughts that your grammar is poor. That can bring disrespect to your whole message.As with style, many volumes have been written on grammar, and there is no point in trying to reproduce them here.

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