Chapter 5: Writing Business Messages
To build, maintain, or repair your credibility, emphasize the following characteristics:
1. Honesty
2. Objectivity
3. Awareness of audience needs
4. Credentials, knowledge and expertise
5. Endorsements
6. Performance
7. Sincerity
You can achieve a tone that is conversational but still businesslike by following these guidelines:
1. Understand the difference between texting and writing
2. Avoid stale and pompous language
3. Avoid preaching and bragging
4. Be careful with intimacy
5. Be careful with humor
Finding words that communicate well:
1. Choose strong, precise words
2. Choose familiar words
3. Avoid clichés and be careful with buzzwords
4. Use jargon carefully
Transitional elements include:
1. Connecting words (conjunctions)
2. Repeated words or phrases
3. Pronouns
4. Words that are frequently paired
To write effectively for mobile devices:
1. Use a linear organization
2. Prioritize information
3. Write short, focused messages
4. Use short subject lines and headings
5. Use short paragraphs
• Abstract Word Word that expresses a concept, quality, or characteristic; abstractions are usually
broad
• Active Voice Sentence structure in which the subject performs the action and the object receives
the action
• Bias-Free Language Language that avoids words and phrases that categorize or stigmatize
people in ways related to gender, race, ethnicity, age, or disability
• Complex Sentence Sentence that expresses one main thought (the independent clause) and one
or more subordinate, related thoughts (dependent clauses that cannot stand alone as valid
sentences)
• Compound Sentence Sentence with two main clauses that express two or more independent but
related thoughts of equal importance, usually joined by a conjunction such as and, but, or or
• Compound-Complex Sentence Sentence with two main clauses, at least one of which contains a
subordinate clause
• Concrete Word Word that represents something you can touch, see, or visualize; most concrete
terms related to the tangible, material world
• Connotative Meaning All the associations and feelings evoked by a word
• Conversational Tone The tone used in most business communication; it uses plain language that
sounds businesslike without being stuffy at one extreme or too laidback and informal at the
other extreme
• Credibility A measure of your believability based on how reliable you are and how much trust
you evoke in others
• Denotative Meaning The literal, or dictionary, meaning of a word
• Euphemisms Words or phrases that express a thought in milder terms
• Passive Voice Sentence structure in which the subject receives the action
• Simple Sentence Sentence with one main clause (a single subject and a single predicate)
• Style The choices you make to express yourself: the words you select, the manner in which you
use those words in sentences, and the way you build paragraphs from individual sentences
• Tone The overall impression in your messages, created by the style you use
• Topic Sentence Sentence that introduces the topic of a paragraph
• Transitions Words or phrases that tie ideas together by showing how one thought is related to
another
