Chapter 4 The Writing Process. Sending Written Messages That Work Atlee Corporation is a consulting company with offices in several major cities in the.

Chapter 4

The Writing Process

Sending Written Messages That Work

• Atlee Corporation is a consulting company with offices in several major cities in the United States. An old firm, it is considered conservative and somewhat elite. The company directors have finally bowed to pressure and agreed to institute a casual dress day for employees, The directors issued the following memo

Case Study Questions

1. Is this business message receiver-oriented? What is the messages objective?

2. Does this message contain any bias? What evidence do you find?

3. What is the tone of this message? Are the sentences easy to read, or do they contain unnecessary elements?

4. Does this message contain opening, developmental and closing paragraphs? Are they effective?

5. Does this memo include the five W’s. If so, what are they? If not, what is missing?

6. What content and mechanical errors does this memo contain?

The Writing Process

Prewriting

Planning Business Messages

Organizing Messages

Lets go back to questions 1 of the case study.

Is this business message receiver oriented? What is the messages object?

Drafting

• Cad drafting

Courteous words

Appropriate Words

http://www.world-english.org/facts.htm

Lets go back to questions 2 of the case study.

2. Does this message contain any bias? What evidence do you find?

Revising

Unnecessary Elements

Complete Paragraphs

Paragraph Structure in Business Communications

Necessary Information

Lets go back to questions 3,4 and 5 of the case study.

3. What is the tone of this message? Are the sentences easy to read, or do they contain unnecessary elements?

4. Does this message contain opening, developmental and closing paragraphs? Are they effective?

5. Does this memo include the five W’s. If so, what are they? If not, what is missing?

Editing

• The cutting edge

Proofreading

Lets go back to questions 6 of the case study.

6. What content and mechanical errors does this memo contain?

Publishing/Presenting

• Facebook publishing numbers

Enhancing Your Message

• Excel

The Final Document

• The crevasse

Case 4 Summary The Board of Directors of Atlee Corporation sends a strong sender

oriented message. It almost seems as if the memo has a negative message. The positive message is clouded in the boards own misgivings about the need for a casual day and about the possible abuses or so the Board thinks of casual day. In addition, the writers of the memo do not include anything to promote goodwill among the employees.

It is appropriate for a company to establish guidelines for a policy such as a causal day. The guidelines should be laid out in an easy to read list in a positive or at least a neutral manner. If violation of the guidelines must result in disciplinary action, the possible disciplinary actions should also be stated in detail.

Naming a contact person for questions or follow up is helpful. However, the closing paragraph would benefit from a restatement of the main idea, as well as from an expression of goodwill. If the Board members had used the writing process or if they had at least edited thoughtfully, they would likely have produced a more effective memo.

Setting Up Shop: Case Study

• Page 143 of Textbook

• Must be typed in Times Roman Numeral Font.

• Complete Sentences!

• Don’t start a sentence with yes, no or maybe.