Business Communication

January 4, 2014

Presented by Priscilla Young Senior Lecturer

Business English Course, Fall 2013 Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School PHBS MBA Program

The information on these slides is from

Business Communication: Process & Product

Guffy, M.E. (2000). Business Communication: Process & Product. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western College Publishing

Business writing is different from academic and other writing because it is:



Purposeful





Economical

Reader oriented

(p. 102)

 Purposeful

Writing to solve problems, share information. Each message has a specific purpose.

 Economical

Write clearly and concisely. Quality, not quantity, should be your goal.

“Less is more.”

Use no more nor fewer words than it takes to deliver

the message!

 Reader

oriented

Look at the message from the reader’s point of view, not your own.

1. 2. 3.

Prewriting Writing Revising

 Analyze

(break down into parts) (expect)

 Anticipate  Adapt

(make something fit (p. 103)

another purpose, situation)

Analyze the situation & decide on the appropriate message.

Anticipate the reader’s response…

Adapt your message to minimize resistance, negative reactions, etc.

Suppose you must write a letter to a

department store buyer about an order that

you, as a manufacturer of jeans, cannot fill.

In analyzing the situation, you decide to focus your letter on retaining the order, to persuade the buyer to accept a different jeans model.

You anticipate that the buyer will be

disappointed and will probably be reluctant (not want to) to switch (change to something else). So you must find ways to adapt your message to reduce her reluctance and convince her to switch. (p. 102)



Research Organize Compose







Revise Proofread Evaluate





25% worrying and planning 25% writing

(phase 1) (phase 2)

45% revising & 5% proofreading

(phase 3)

Good writers spend...