Page 182 - DENG102_COMMUNICATION_SKILLS_II

Unit 12: Basics of Official Correspondence

notes

Task rewrite the given case study in a brief and concise form
It won’t do to say that the snoozing reader is too dumb or too lazy to keep pace with the
train of thought. My sympathies are with him. If the reader is lost, it is generally because
the writer has not been careful enough to keep him on the path.
This carelessness can take any number of forms. Perhaps a sentence is so excessively cluttered
that the reader, hacking his way through the verbiage, simply doesn’t know what it means.
Perhaps a sentence has been so shoddily constructed that the reader could read it in any of
several ways. Perhaps the writer has switched pronouns in mid – sentence, or has switched
tenses, so the reader loses track of who is talking or when the action took place. Perhaps
Sentence B is not a logical sequel to Sentence A—the writer, in whose head the connection is
clear, has not bothered to provide the missing link. Perhaps the writer has used an important
word incorrectly by not taking the trouble to look it up. He may think that ‘sanguine’ and
‘sanguinary’ mean the same thing, but the difference is a bloody big one. The reader can only
infer (speaking of big differences) what the writer is trying to imply.
Faced with these obstacles, the reader is at first a remarkably tenacious bird. He blames
himself – he obviously’ ‘lacks’ something, and he goes back over mystifying sentence, or
over the paragraph, piecing it out like an ancient rune making guesses and moving on. But
he won’t do this for long. The writer must work hard, and the reader will look for one who
is better at his craft. The writer, therefore, must constantly ask himself: What am I trying
to say? Surprisingly often, he doesn’t know. Then he must look at what he has written
and ask: Have I said it? Is it clear to someone encountering the subject for the first time? If
it’s not, it is because some fuzz worked its way into the machinery. The writer is a person
clear-headed enough to see this stuff for what it is—fuzz.
I don’t mean that some people are born -clear-headed and are therefore, natural writers,
whereas others are naturally fuzzy and ‘will never write well. Thinking clearly is a
conscious act that the writer must force upon himself, just as if he were embarking on any
other project that requires logic: adding up a laundry list or doing an algebra problem.
Good writing doesn’t come naturally, though most people obviously think it does.
(Source: Internet/ William Zinsser, New York, Harper, 1998)

12.4.1 General Guidelines

There are certain general guidelines that have to be followed by all while formulating business
correspondence:

l The major purpose of most business messages is to inform or persuade.
l Getting a strong mental picture of your receiver helps you tailor the message to the needs
of a specific audience.
l Empathy helps you anticipate the receiver’s reaction to your message.
l “You attitude” increases clarity and builds relationships.

l Avoid sexist language.
l Avoid language that reflects bias for race and ethnic group, age, religion, and disability.
l Insincere compliments are detrimental to good communication.

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