1. BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION
LECTURE 7
THE WRITING PROCESS
By Ms. Glynnis

2. The writing process has 3
parts :
1. Pre-writing
2. Writing
3. Revising

3. 1. Pre-writing
 Analyzing
 Analyzed your audience
 analyzed purpose of writing
 Anticipating
 how audience will react to your
message
 Adapting
 try to think of the right words
and right tone to win approval

4. 2. writing
 researching
 investigate your customer or
audience
Organizing
 how you want your letter
Composing
 save your writing in your
computer

5. 3. Revising
 revising
 check clarity, conciseness,
tone and readability
Proofreading
 ensure correct spelling,
grammar, punctuation and
format.
Evaluating
 decide whether it
accomplishes your goal

6. SELECTING THE BEST CHANNEL
 Face to face conversation
 Telephone call
 Voicemail messages
 Fax
 Email
 Face to face group meeting
 Video or teleconference
 Memo
 Letter
 Report or proposal

7. Choosing the best channel
depends on some of the following
factors :
 importance of the message
 Amount and speed of the
feedback required
 Necessity of a permanent
record
 Cost of the channel
 Degree of formality desired

8. In preparing business messages and oral
presentations, you’ll find that your writing
need to be :
 Audience – oriented
 concentrate on looking at a problem
from the receiver’s perspective instead
of seeing fron your own.
 Purposeful
 to solve problem and convey
information
 Economical
 try to present ideas clearly but
concisely.
 length is not rewarded

9. IMPORTANCE OF PROOFREADING
 Proofreading before a document is
completed is generally a waste of
time.
 What to watch for in proofreading :
 spelling
 Grammar
 Punctuation
 Names
 Numbers
 format

10.  How to proofread routine documents
 needs a light proofreading
 How to proofread complex documents
 Techniques :
• print a copy, double spaced
• allow adequate time to proofread
carefully
• Be prepared to find errors
• read message at least twice
• reduce your reading speed
• use standard proofreading marks to
indicate changes

11. ESTABLISHING CREDABILITY AND
REVIEWING THE WRITING
1. EFFECTIVE SENTENCES
 Sentence must have subject and make sense
 Clauses have subject and
verbs, but phrases do not.
 Independent clauses may stand
alone but dependent could not.
 Fragment are broken-off parts of
sentences and should not be
punctuated as sentences.
 When two independent clauses are joined by a
comma without conjunction, a comma splice result.
 Sentences with 20 or fewer words have the most
impact.

12. 2. Emphasis
 emphasize an idea mechanically by
using underlining, italics, boldface,
font changes, all caps, dashes and
tabulations.
 emphasize ideas stylistically by
using vivid words, labeling the main
idea, and positioning the main idea
strategically.
 deemphasize ideas by using general
words and placing the idea in
dependent clauses.

13. 3. Active and passive voice
 active –voice sentences are
preferred because the subject is
the doer of the action.
 although active-voice verbs are
preferred, passive-voice verbs
perform useful function.

14. 4. Parallelism
 balanced wording helps the reader
anticipate and comprehend your
meaning
 all items in the list should be
expressed in balanced
constructions.

15. 5. unity
united sentences contain only related
ideas.
6. Zigzag writing
 sentences often should be broken into
two sentences
7. Mixed constructions
 mixed grammatical constructions confuse
readers
8. Dangling and misplaced modifiers
 modifiers must be close to the words they
describe or limit

16. 9. Paragraph coherence
 three ways to create paragraph
coherence are :
 repetition of key ideas
 use of pronouns
 use of transiti
 onal expressions
 used wisely, transitional expressions
guide readers smoothly from idea to
idea
the most readable paragraphs contain
eight or fewer printed lines.