for the week of 4 October 2017: Top Five on Style & Design in Professional Writing

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for the week of 4 October 2017: Top Five on Style & Design in Professional Writing

10/5/2017

Directly From the Syllabus. . .
READ: About style in professional writing here, about generally good writing in professional settings here, about making the “sale” in writing here. And watch this video about design here. POST TO OUR CLASS BLOG: Top Five post—same rules apply, one Top Five document for all the readings/video.

If you are still confused about what a Top Five should look like, consult the assignment page here.

5 Comments

Eso Kim

10/5/2017 12:36:21 pm

1. When is colloquial style preferable in business writing?
Colloquial writing does not seem to be a good choice for business writing since it can include slangs or regional expressions that make the writing seem very informal. However, there are some specific cases when it is preferable and suitable in business world. To give an example, if a marketing letter depicting a folksy product uses a colloquial style, it gives a familiar and relaxing feeling to audiences. You should still be careful to be clear to every possible audience and not to harm the prior meaning and purpose when using a colloquial writing style. I thought a colloquial style cannot be adapted in business writings so I selected this as important information to be aware of.

2. Good Business Writing
As Edward P. Bailey offered, good business writing should follow the rules well balanced between audience’s expectations and industry standards, be easy to read, and attract the reader. To add more, it should be concise, efficient and meet the reader’s expectations. Among these, the first two qualities that Bailey referred are what people might misunderstand easily. When saying that good writing follows the rules, it does not mean that the writing must be in the fixed form without exception. It can still be creative and sometimes creativity is mandated in areas such as advertising agency. Also, an easily readable document does not mean it is “dumbed down”, rather it should be straightforward, simple, and concise with slight different standards according to a type of audience.

3. Rhetorical Elements and Cognate Strategies
I thought that writing skills and communication skills are related so that improving writing helps developing communication skills and vice versa, but I didn’t know how I can verify it. Maybe this can be the answer; the criteria of good communication can be applied to defining good writing. The criteria are two well-known systems in communication, “Rhetorical Elements” and “Cognate strategies”. Logos, ethos, and pathos are three elements. Cognate Strategies are these; clarity, conciseness, and arrangement for logos, credibility, expectation, and reference for ethos, and tone, emphasis and engagement for pathos. In business writing, it is easy to overlook the importance of pathos if you just focus on containing technical and professional contents in your writing. Therefore, to be a good writer, you should make sure that you applied all of these rhetorical elements and according cognate strategies to your document.

4. Sales Message Strategies for Success
Since the audience’s main consideration is what kind of benefit they might gain from buying a product or using a service, you should mention it clearly on the attention statement and introduction of a sales message. The four strategies for the rest parts of it intrigued me. The first thing was to start with mentioning the greatest benefit the audience might obtain. Of course I should do background research on my potential audience. In addition, it is better to gain their attention with emotional sentences and follow with the facts (reason) to build up credibility (something to do with ethos). Finally, I should make sure that I am not providing too much information at once because too many options and extra information would result in confusion. I had a personal experience regarding this. When I saw two advertisements of new camera models from different companies in the magazine, I felt the ad with concise phrases and less but only necessary information seemed more reliable and luxurious than the other ad with a lot of fancy promotional sentences and too much information about its model.

5. C.R.A.P : The Principles of Design
The principles of graphic design are Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity that make or break the design. Contrast, Alignment, and Proximity were what I already have noticed and applied to my designs when making a poster or a ppt., however, “Repetition” was not a part that I did care about with intention (but maybe I have noticed its significance naturally). Considering all these four principles, an effective graphic design would consist of only a handful of colors used repeatedly, and keep related contents in same range. Also, every element in the design might have visual relationship with the other elements to create unity. If contrast colors are used, especially in a repeated pattern, it would make an important content in the page stand out. I think these principles are basic rules for graphic designs in that the designs created as marketing materials should be simple and remarkable at the same time.

5. C.R.A.P : The Principles of Design
The principles of graphic design are Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity that make or break the design. Contrast, Alignment, and Proximity were what I already have noticed and applied to my designs when making a poster or a p

Tong Wu

10/5/2017 02:00:16 pm

1.Choose the appropriate style when writing communication documents.
There are three common styles that carry their own particular sets of expectations for producing a communication writing: colloquial, casual and formal style. You are supposed to select a proper one according to your audience, in other word, it is essential to focus on he purpose in order to meet your readers’ needs in this sort of writings. This is the principle which also applies to professional writing that we mentioned at the first class. When we begin designing communication documents, taking both purpose-related and audience-centered factors into consideration and arranging the whole passage by using correct styles will definitely contribute to successful products.

2.Avoid making unexpected mistakes in your documents as much as possible.
One way to examine written communication is from a structural perspective, which means that you are supposed to use words properly and clearly even these words are combined to express complex and compound meanings. Based on this rule, self-correction seems to be a vital part of the writing process, which reminds writers to revise and proofread written communication carefully in order to decline misspellings or grammatical errors.

3.A benefit is what the buyer gains with the purchase and is central to your sales message.
Sales message is developed based on the objective which is used to engage readers or intended customers by clearly communicating the benefits of your product or service. One of the most important strategies of successful sales message is to start with your greatest benefit---to organize your message by highlighting the best feature first under the usage in the headline and caption. That is what we can do attract potential audience by anticipating their explicit wants and apply our sales message to meet their needs.

4.Follow the rules to produce good business writing.
The fundamental one is to balance audience expectations with industry standards for a document, which is decided by the understanding of reader. So writing should be easy to read by audience, which means that the eminent writer is expected to explain complex ideas in a common way that the reader can understand. This point of view is important to us because we are sparing no effort to write complicated sentences in order to complete the writing assignment without paying attention to the understanding of readers, and consequently the audience tend to feel confused about what we want they know exactly.

5.Principles of design are important keys to meet audience’s expectations in terms of organization.
Contrast represents a focal point and a useful image of main idea. Using contrast appropriately is essential to find balance between central point and repetition. Designers have the responsibility to remind audience the distinct center among certain repetition. The contrast and alignment are similar to the guidance of professional writing which also emphasizes the clear organization and the main point that should be distinguished to demonstrate the purpose of a document.

Jiayi Zhai

10/5/2017 04:37:11 pm

1. Three types of writing
In Style in Written Communication, Katelin mentions that colloquial, casual and formal writing are three common styles that carry their own particular sets of expectations. First, colloquial style contains informal and regional language which is different from standard business English. Using colloquial style is likely to mislead and confuse the audience. For example, if the audience are from the various region even countries, they probably misunderstand a particular word. But it is preferred and desirable in some context. Using colloquial style to describe a folksy product helps to create a feeling of relaxing at home. Second, casual style is utilized in a familiar group context, so it is not suitable for business writing. Third, formal style is the usual appropriate one, which focuses on professional expressions with attention to roles, protocol, and appearance. I include this point in my top five because it helps me to identify English writing style which messed up for me before I read this article. And I am surprised that colloquial and casual style can be used in professional writing to create a humorous and relaxing environment for some readers' needs.

2. Appropriate use of the three types of writing based on audience and purpose
Katelin talks about style depends on our audience. As a general rule, external communications tend to be more formal. For example, corporate letterhead and business card are shown to outside world, so formal language is expected to use. Furthermore, we should also decide the writing style on the basis of the purpose of the document. For example, if we are doing a feature interest article, we should combine graphics, pictures, and videos with words to get audience's attention. However, if we are working on an introductory article sent to potential customers, brief and concise words are the best. Audience and purpose are the core of professional writing, even when we have to decide the proper writing style.

3. Six basic qualities of good business writing
In Good Business Writing, Katelin lists six qualities: following the writing rules but keeping creativities, being easy to read base on different knowledge levels of audience, being interesting by meeting audience’s needs, meeting readers’ expectation, being clear and concise, being effective and efficient. It provides me a new direction to get the reads’ s attention which is always a problem for my writing is ordinary and vapid all the time.
4. Good writing should be Efficient and effective.
Each writing requires a clear understanding of the goals and desired results by knowing the audience and purpose clearly and making a habit of reading similar documents prior to beginning your process of writing, which can make our writing be successful the first time and avoid rewriting. I have a lot of reading material and writing assignment, so I have to make sure my first writing has the proper direction.
5. A sales message combines emotion and reason.
Every message has elements of ethos or credibility; pathos, or passion and enthusiasm; and logos, or logic and reason, which all increase the credibility of the message. But we have to use some emotional words to balance the hard and stiff words to appeal audience to become interested in the message. Both rational and emotional words help describe the services and commodities comprehensively.

Suzanne Chetwynd

10/7/2017 01:24:02 pm

Top Five Document #2
1. Sales Messages – Sales messages are often discussed in terms of reason versus emotion. Every message has elements of credibility, enthusiasm, and reason. If your sales message focuses solely on reason with cold, hard facts, you may appeal to some audiences, but certainly not the majority. In addition, if your sales message focuses solely on emotion, it may not be taken seriously. To balance the message, pique the emotion of the reader to get their attention, and make sure you add facts and reason so your reader can make sense of your message.

2. Writing Can Be Creative – Good business writing follows the rules, is easy to read, and attracts the reader. But that does not mean it cannot be creative. To do so, a writer needs to know the rules of language. This includes being well versed in how to use words correctly, form sentences with proper grammar, and build logical paragraphs. By following the rules of language, a writer can express creative ideas in a form that come through clearly and promotes understanding.

3. Clarity With Complex Ideas – An excellent writer is one who can explain complex ideas in a way that the reader can understand. This can come from the writer’s choice of a clear illustrative example to get the point across or the writer’s incorporation of definitions into the text so that the meaning of unfamiliar words is clear. It may also be a matter of choosing identifiable verbs that make it clear what is happening and who is carrying out the action.

4. Message Breakdown – This concept involves the goal of accurately communicating all the intended information with a minimum of message breakdown or misinterpretation. Errors can include those associated with production, from writing to editing, and reader response. Designing documents, including writing and presentation, to reduce message breakdown is an important part of effective business communication.

5. Appropriate Style – In business writing, the appropriate style may be formal or informal.

Formal – formal communication focuses on professional expression with attention to roles, procedures, and appearance. It is characterized by its vocabulary and grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence. Writers using a formal style tend to use a greater variety of words and more words with multiple syllables to enhance the formal mood of the document.

Informal – informal communication in the business environment is usually in the form of an email. The exchange may be informal in that it is fluid and relaxed, without much thought or fanfare, but it will still reflect the formality of the business. Even so, it is important to use an informative subject line such as a salutation including the supervisors name and always check your grammar and spelling before you hit send.

Chelsea Thornton

10/8/2017 02:38:30 pm

1. Three Styles of Writing
The three styles of writing include colloquial, casual, and formal writing. Each style of writing is used depending on the document being written, and its intended audience. Colloquial is a more informal style, and generally reserved for coworkers that know each other well. Casual writing is just as it sounds, and should be used with friends and family. This style is generally not used in the work place. Formal writing is the style to be used in the work place, where it has a professional appearance. I thought these styles were important to know because it is easy to fall in to a rhythm with some coworkers and your writing can become informal in times where it should stay formal.

2. Creativity in Good Business Writing
A quality of good business writing is to follow the rules, which have been taught to you throughout the years and experience of being a writer. Lessons from school, studies of authors you love, and audience expectations are all examples of how a writer would learn the rules of good writing. This, however, does not mean that there is no creativity in the writing. There will be times where the dry business writing is what is appropriate of the assignment. Then, there will be times where a certain amount of creativity and fresh ideas are expected to be in the assignment. I think this is important to remember. Sometimes it is easy to believe that because you are producing a professional document, that means it needs to be dry and all business, but that is not always the case.

3. Rhetorical Elements and Cognate Strategies
These two systems in communication can be used to define good writing. The rhetorical elements consist of logic (logos), ethics and credibility (ethos), and emotional appeal (pathos). Cognate strategies are the ways to promote understanding, and they line up with the rhetorical elements. Logos is aligned with clarity, conciseness, and arrangement. Ethos is compatible with credibility, expectation, and reference. Finally, pathos works with tone, emphasis, and engagement. These are crucial to remember because these elements specifically show each important factor of good writing.

4. Common Sales Message
The main parts for a persuasive message are an attention statement, introduction, body, conclusion, and residual message. These elements are not too different from the way students are taught to writing essays when in school. The hook should always be at the beginning of the introduction, then the body, followed by the conclusion. I think that remembering this in that way will help to use this format in the future. This will help to achieve a strong sales message since students have been practicing this method in a similar ways during their academic careers.

5. Strategies for Success in a Sales Message
The best way to write well is to practice and learn about any strategies that will be helpful. The strategies for a sales message are to start with your greatest benefit, take baby steps, know your audience, and lead with emotion while following with reason. A sales message can certainly help to sell a product or service, but only if it is written well. These strategies are important to remember because if the message is written poorly, then it can reflect in the sales.

for the week of 4 October 2017: Top Five on Style & Design in Professional Writing

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