The source of bad writing is the

desire to be more than a person of

sense to be thought a genius.
If people would only say what they
have to say in plain terms, how
much more eloquent would they be.
~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Guidelines for Effective Written Communication:

Focus on CLARITY
Check facts, grammar, language for CORRECTNESS
Check all relevant data for COMPLETENESS
Build and maintain goodwill through COURTESY
Express and impress through CONCISENESS
Avoid

ambiguity,

vagueness

through

CONCRETENESS
Maintain relationships through CONSIDERATION

Avoid legalese/commercialese:
Enclosed herewith please find..
Your esteemed favor
For your kind perusal
Pursuant to
Beg to inform
Yours in hand
Thanking you in advance

Avoid Redundancies:
New innovation
Revert back
Proceed further
Cooperate together
Future plans
Please R.S.V.P.

Be careful of confusing one word with another:

Affect/effect
Allude/elude
Altar/alter
Seize/siege
Vain/vein
Between/among
Bizarre/bazaar
Jealous/zealous

Do not be wordy, be concise:

Instead of:
I wish to take this opportunity to thank you..
Say:
Thank you.
Instead of:
In accordance with your request
Say:
As requested by you

Avoid using passive voice:

Instead of:
The policy was rejected by the committee
Say:
The committee rejected the policy
Instead of:
A complete tour of the office was taken by the
president.
Say:
The president took a complete tour of the building

Avoid Repetitions:
The responsibility of preparing a work

schedule for the entire month is a

responsibility that HR managers must carry
out.
There were little little factors that delayed the

completion of the project.

Avoid Camouflaged Verbs:

Acquisition of the property made him happy.
The approval of the merger must be carried

out soon.

Use familiar words:

The recipients of your communiqu must be

able to comprehend its contents without much

ado.
Time is money
Using big words does not necessarily impress

your clients or employees

Reduce your fog index:

High fog index makes the writing more difficult to
read.
E.g.:
Platform Symphony is a leading enterprise-class
software
that
distributes
and
virtualizes
compute-intensive application services and
processes across existing heterogeneous IT
resources creating a shared, scalable and faulttolerant infrastructure, delivering faster, more
reliable application performance while reducing
cost.

What are the basic requirements of a business

letter?
1.Letterhead
2.Dateline
3.Inside address
4.Reference lines (attention, personal, confidential)
5.Salutation
6.Body of the letter
7.Complimentary close
8.Signature
9.Stenographic reference
10.Enclosure/copies

What is the format of a memo?

1.Company name
2.Senders name
3.To whom the message is sent
4.Dateline
5.Subjectline

Emails are fast becoming the most popular

and effective means of written communication.

Like other forms of written communication,

emails must have structure, however, it is

more informal in nature.
In class discussion:
What do you think is the structure of an
email memo sent to employees?

Some helpful tips regarding emails:

Keep your messages short
Limit each message to one subject area
Use the subject field
Proof read message
Attach files as required
Do not use all capital letters
You should have a signature for every email
Remember, email is not private