Ch. 8 Summary Business Writing Design

One of the most important aspects of business communication is writing. You must have a good command of this or it will be difficult to succeed in the business world. Some of the typical written documents in business are proposals, reports, letters, contracts, forms, memos and manuals just to name a few. The writing process has four steps. The first step is generating ideas and the prewriting. You must know what purpose your writing for and what message goal you have. Freewriting, listing and clustering are prewriting strategies that may help you. In Freewriting, you just start writing all of the ideas that come to you without worrying about spelling, punctuation or grammar. In listing, you make a list of the items or ideas you want in your document or letter. Clustering is basically mind mapping. The second step in the writing process is the actual writing. This will be the first draft. It wont be perfect so don’t worry. The third step is revising and redrafting. In this part, you look over your first draft and make corrections and make the language more precise and clear if need be. The fourth step is editing and proofreading. In business writing, there are different styles. One style is the “you view”. In this, the writing is focused on the interests of the reader. Another style is positive expression. In this you emphasize what you can do instead of what you can’t do. When designing memos and letters, have a introduction, body and closing. Memos are internal written channels of communication. Internal meaning within the company and it’s employees. Letters are usually an external type of communication. The two common ways to write a business letter is Full Block style and Modified Block style. Full block style is when everything in the letter begins in the left margin and Modified block style is when the date and closing begin in the middle and everything else is on the left margin. The examples and sample memos and letters are helpful because I can always look back for help.