Write a 150 word reflection in email format about what you learned in the attached files

Assignment is due by 6:00 PM Eastern Time (about 8 hours from now)

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Assignment Task:  You are to write a 150 words email.  Detail on an aspect(s) of the unit that personally surprised you, changed your thinking and how will you use it in your professional writing.  Your reflection should not be an academic rephrasing!  It is a reflection.  Your email must be professional and not overly casual.

How to Write a Reflection

 

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Writing a reflection is multifaceted.  The writer needs to do so much before writing, and in the moment of the writing (and editing), the author must stay on track to his/her focus while giving plenty of detail for the reader to FEEL the message.  It’s as much about thinking and thinking about thinking as it is to feeling.

Reflection is a combination of cognition, emotion, and body sensations.  Here is an approach to help you reflect well.  Not only will you learn the information, but the process of reflection actually boosts the brain’s ability to make decisions.

 

1.  Using a quiet mind and a quiet environment, be quiet and listen to your thoughts.  Reflection is quiet.

 

2. Step One is Critical Thinking: Ask questions like…

 

  • What did I learn that I expected?  What did I learn that I didn’t expect?
  • How am I changed?
  • What will I do with this information?
  • How will I influence others with this information?

 

3. Step Two:  Examine your own thinking.  How was I thinking that?  What was I thinking?  Why?  What were my biases, assumptions, etc?

 

4.  Step Four (We skip gathering information.): After confidence to your learning based on the content covered, decide a writing core – a focus.

 

5. Write in first person.  Write with depth – no surface only comments.  Write with specificity.  What exactly did you learn and what will you do with that new you?

Business Writing Differs

Visuals

Academic writing is mostly narrative.

Business writing employs multiple strategies to convey a message – tables, charts, Powerpoints, and more.

Visuals
Academic writing is mostly narrative. This is the essay style we talked about.
Business writing uses the best (and many different) medium to convey the message. Business writing is meant to be attractive and persuasive. It’s written to get the reader’s attention. So, go ahead, use lots of visuals to convey your message. May be charts, graphs, visual images or pictures, appropriate clip arts, But, NOT get too cutesy. Learn to stay professional and polish your work.

1

Business Writing Checklist/Rubric

In Blackboard usually in the Course Documents folder, you’ll find the Business Writing Checklist/Rubric which details items in business writing. Review this list, compare the items to the mentions in your text and in all the content in Blackboard. Contact me for any expansion of information that you need. Use this document as a reminder of all the requirements for this new way of writing and thinking.
2

Good Business Writing…
Is clear & concise
Is complete
Is correct
Saves the reader’s time
Builds goodwill

Effective business writing is clear and concise. The language is easily understood by the reader. Use as many words as you need to convey your message – no more and no less.
Be complete. This means include everything the reader needs to know and no more. Too little information is upsetting to the reader and causes a need for him/her to follow up with you. Too much information causes the reader to get bored and stop reading. This is a critical business writing factor to employ.
Correct. It should go without saying, your document is to be error free. If you have errors in your work, you loose credibility. If you loose credibility in business, you have harmed your ability to get ‘things’ done.
Saves the reader’s time. You are to create documents that are quick and easy to read. Don’t make the reader work hard to understand…because they won’t. They’ll stop reading and feel dis-engaged from you.
Goodwill. Business is relationships. We get work done through each other and with each other. So, when you communicate both in writing and orally, you need to work to build goodwill. Keep your relationships with your readers/audience solid. This applies to even in academic writing. You must maintain good relationship with all your instructors who are your readers. Remember, we care that you do well.

http://www.canadaone.com/ezine/jan08/persuasive_communication2.html
3

Controlling Sentence Length
Sentence Length
8 words
15 words
19 words
28 words
Comprehension Rate
100%
90%
80%
50%

In the beginning of moving from academic to business style writing, I often find sentences made of 50 or more words. Yikes. As you can see from the table on the slide, this is not helpful to the reader.
According to Guffey, The American Press Institute data, states that sentences that are 8 words in length are understood by the reader at 100% comprehension. The more words in the sentence the more we don’t comprehend. Notice that at 28 words our comprehension has dropped to 50%.
4

Conventional Formatting
Use 11 font size
Standard margins
Single-spaced
Times News Roman, Veranda, Arial
Follow cultural conventions

Conventional (typical) business writing is in 11 (Times News Roman, Veranda or Arial), using Microsoft’s standard margins and is single-spaced. Be careful not to choose fonts that cause the reader to feel the message is too formal or too casual.
Most importantly, follow cultural conventions in your place of employment. They vary from organizations to organizations. Its not one size fits all. That is to say, whatever that particular organization uses as protocol is the format of appropriate choice.
5

Academic-Writing to Business-Writing
Business Communication, MGT309
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Writing that Works (2010). Oliu, Brusaw, & Alred

Business writing requires new thinking. It’s takes know-how and it takes practice. I look forward to receiving your works, watching you grow and be a better business writer.
6

Business Writing Differs

Visuals

Academic writing is mostly narrative.

Business writing employs multiple strategies to convey a message – tables, charts, Powerpoints, and more.

Visuals
Academic writing is mostly narrative. This is the essay style we talked about.
Business writing uses the best (and many different) medium to convey the message. Business writing is meant to be attractive and persuasive. It’s written to get the reader’s attention. So, go ahead, use lots of visuals to convey your message. May be charts, graphs, visual images or pictures, appropriate clip arts, But, NOT get too cutesy. Learn to stay professional and polish your work.

1

Business Writing Checklist/Rubric

In Blackboard in your Course Documents folder for this, you’ll find the Business Writing Checklist/Rubric which details items in business writing. Review this list, compare the items to the mentions in your text and in all the content in Blackboard. Contact me for any expansion of information that you need. Use this document as a reminder of all the requirements for this new way of writing and thinking.
2

Good Business Writing…
Is clear & concise
Is complete
Is correct
Saves the reader’s time
Builds goodwill

Effective business writing is clear and concise. The language is easily understood by the reader. Use as many words as you need to convey your message – no more and no less.
Be complete. This means include everything the reader needs to know and no more. Too little information is upsetting to the reader and causes a need for him/her to follow up with you. Too much information causes the reader to get bored and stop reading. This is a critical business writing factor to employ.
Correct. It should go without saying, your document is to be error free. If you have errors in your work, you loose credibility. If you loose credibility in business, you have harmed your ability to get ‘things’ done.
Saves the reader’s time. You are to create documents that are quick and easy to read. Don’t make the reader work hard to understand…because they won’t. They’ll stop reading and feel dis-engaged from you.
Goodwill. Business is relationships. We get work done through each other and with each other. So, when you communicate both in writing and orally, you need to work to build goodwill. Keep your relationships with your readers/audience solid. This applies to even in academic writing. You must maintain good relationship with all your instructors who are your readers. Remember, we care that you do well.

http://www.canadaone.com/ezine/jan08/persuasive_communication2.html
3

Controlling Sentence Length
Sentence Length
8 words
15 words
19 words
28 words
Comprehension Rate
100%
90%
80%
50%

In the beginning of moving from academic to business style writing, I often find sentences made of 50 or more words. Yikes. As you can see from the table on the slide, this is not helpful to the reader.
According to Guffey, The American Press Institute data, states that sentences that are 8 words in length are understood by the reader at 100% comprehension. The more words in the sentence the more we don’t comprehend. Notice that at 28 words our comprehension has dropped to 50%.
4

Conventional Formatting
Use 11 font size
Standard margins
Single-spaced
Times News Roman, Veranda, Arial
Follow cultural conventions

Conventional (typical) business writing is in 11 (Times News Roman, Veranda or Arial), using Microsoft’s standard margins and is single-spaced. Be careful not to choose fonts that cause the reader to feel the message is too formal or too casual.
Most importantly, follow cultural conventions in your place of employment. They vary from organizations to organizations. Its not one size fits all. That is to say, whatever that particular organization uses as protocol is the format of appropriate choice.
5

Academic-Writing to Business-Writing
Business Communication, MGT309
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Writing that Works (2010). Oliu, Brusaw, & Alred

Business writing requires new thinking. It’s takes know-how and it takes practice. I look forward to receiving your works, watching you grow and be a better business writer.
6

IIIlDi:ImId BY CHRIS BIELASZKA-DUVERNAY

Is Following the Rules
Tripping Up Your Message?

Some grammar rules you learned in school
aren’t rules at all. Here are the most troublesome.

WILL THE SKY FALL if you end asentence with a preposition? Will
gravity fail if you split an infinitive?
No, of course not.

In fact, your most sophisticated read-
ers won’t even bat an eye. And it’s not
because they’ve become so accus-
tomed to the shortcuts and improvisa-
tions of e-mail that they don’t notice
when someone breaks a rule. They
still notice, all right. It’s just that they
know that some “rules” aren’t rules at
all-and never were.

These nonrules are known as “super-
stitions” among the grammar and
usage set, and they may be preventing
your writing from being as strong,
direct, and effective as it can be. Here
are the four most common:

o Never end a sentence with a
preposition. This is one of the most
enduring of superstitions, despite cen-
turies of commentary trying to dispel it.

The origins of this bugaboo lie in ety-
mology and the origins of English
grammar, explains Bryan A. Garner,
widely respected language authority
and author of the excellent A Dictio-
nary of Modern American Usage.

In Latin, preposition means “stand
before,” and in Latin a preposition
does indeed stand before other words;
it’s the one part of speech that can’t
end a Latin sentence.

But English is not Latin. Aliliough
English grammar is modeled on Latin
grammar, the languages are very dif-
ferent and some rules just don’t trans-
late well.

Criticized for ending a sentence with a
preposition, Winston Churchill is said
to have quipped, “That is the type of
arrant pedantry up with which I shall
not put.” As this absurdly stilted sen-
tence demonstrates, the syntactical
contortions necessary to keep a sen-
tence ending preposition-free result in
awkward, turgid prose-not the best
vehicle for your message.

@ Never split an infinitive. The fact
is, some infinitives beg to be split.
Consider this sentence: Our CEO
expects to more than double revenues
this year.

Try rewriting it so as to eliminate the
split infinitive; there’s no way to do it
without losing the precise meaning of
the original.

Here is another example: We are try-
ing to immediately solve any cus-
tomer-service problems that arise.

Transposing to and immediately con-
fuses the meaning-immediately
seems to modify are trying. Placing
immediately after solve makes the
sentence stilted. And moving immedi-
ately to the end of the sentence is no
good, because there it appears to mod-
ifyarise.

With split infinitives, the best bet is to
steer a middle course. If you can avoid
a split infinitive without altering
meaning, introducing ambiguity, or
interrupting flow, you should do so,
advises Gamer.

8 Never begin a sentence with
and or but. Go ahead and do it-
you’ll be in good company. The

Copyright © 2002 by Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.

Oxford English Dictionary cites sen-
tences beginning with and that date
back to the 10th century.

A scholar in the 1960s, says Garner,
studied the work of top-flight writ-
ers-H.L. Mencken and Lionel
Trilling among them-and found that
nearly 9% of their sentences began
with and or but. Garner’s own
research has turned up similar results.

Some writers substitute however for
but at the beginning of a sentence,
believing that by so doing they’re
hewing to the grammatical line. What
they’re doing is stalling the progress
of their prose. But at the beginning of
a sentence keeps things zipping nicely
along, while however-followed by
its obligatory comma-is a verbal
speed bump, jarring the reader and
slowing him down.

e Never write a one-sentence
paragraph. Varied paragraph length,
like varied sentence length, is a hall-
mark of a skilled stylist. Writing a
one-sentence paragraph is an excel-
lent way to grab the reader’s attention
or emphasize an important point.

Just don’t overdo it. 0

Chris Bielaszka-DuVernay can be reached at
cduvernay@hbsp.harvard.edu

—« FURTHER READING )1—

A Dictionary of Modern
American Usage

by Bryan A. Garner
Oxford University Press’ 1998

—1( WEB RESOURCES )1—-
To access two modern usage guides, The

American Heritage Book of English Usage (1996)
and The Columbia Guide to Standard American
English (199

3

), as well as two classics, William

Strunk, Jr.s The Elements of Style (1918) and H.w.
Fowler’s The King’s English (2nd ed.; 1908), go to

www.bartleby.com/usage/

3

good butler-it works smoothly in the service of the reader
without calling attention to itself. Second, organization is
critical. Whatever particular analysis you make or actions
you advocate, how compelling readers will find your report
or memo depends largely on how logically you order and
present information and ideas.

The Best Memo You’ll Ever Write
Every memo-or report or e-mail-is important in today’s business environment. If you keep in mind
that readers are content driven, time pressed, and decision focused, you can write right-every time.

THERE IS A LOT OF ADVICE out there about what definesgood business writing, much of it conflicting. Busi-
ness readers like writing that is clear, but writers are often
encouraged to make their information “sound good.”
Readers want their information served up simply and
directly, but writers are pushed to make their copy “stand
out.” Readers want to get to the bottom line fast, but writ-
ers are criticized if they leave out background detail that
someone might look for.

Conflicting advice is hard to follow, and clarity can be
the first standard to fall. Not because the writer’s thinking
is fuzzy-a frequent disparagement-or because the
writer is intellectually dishonest and trying to hide the
truth behind smudgy language, but because the writer is
trying to juggle contradictory ideas about style, presenta-
tion, and level of detail.

The truth is that there is a better way to approach busi-
ness writing, and that is to start from these three realities:
business readers are content driven, time pressed, and in
search of solutions.

What does that mean to writers? First, they should get
out of the impressive-language business. To content-driven
readers, language simply carries information, ideas, and the
relationships among them. Good language is rather like a

by HollyWeeks

The starting point
From your introduction the content-driven reader judges
whether the rest of your memo is worth his time. Yet the
beginning is where many writers ease in and build slowly.

This is a mistake. Your opening must answer the
reader’s question “Why am I reading this?” To do so, it
needs to establish the relevance and the utility of the doc-
ument as a whole. Here is where the classic business writ-
ing text The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing,
Thinking and Problem Solving, by Barbara Minto (Minto
International, 1996) is particularly helpful. An effective
introduction, Minto says, briskly tells a story built around
four elements:

1. The situation: A quick, factual sketch of the
current business situation that serves to anchor
the reader.

READER·FRIENDLY STYLE

Writing clear, content-driven sentences can be tough on
people who want their writing to “flow.” Think of it: the
reason lullabies flow is that you are trying to get a child to
fall asleep. Flowing sentences tend to be long, dense, and
rhythmic. Choppy sentences are not better-too many
of them can be distracting. Readers want the middle
ground-brisk, hardworking sentences that carry good
content. Brevity is not a virtue in business writing, con-
ciseness is.

Reader-oriented business writing is also tough on
people who think complex phrasing makes them look
smarter. When a content-driven reader gets bogged
down in your phrasing, you don’t look elegant or smart.

You look pompous and self-absorbed.
Surprisingly, jargon-the specialized language of a

particular field-is not inimical to good business writ-
ing, if it’s suitable to your primary audience. Using jar-
gon, like using acronyms, is a tight and efficient way to
communicate among experts. But there are three situa-
tions in which you shouldn’t use jargon: when it’s mean-
ingless, when you don’t understand it, or when your
readers aren’t familiar with it. If you have multiple audi-
ences and you want to use professional terminology
because your primary audience uses it, define your term
the first time you use it. For a long report, consider
adding a glossary.

Copyright © 2005 by Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. 3

ORGANIZING IDEAS
INA PYRAMI

D

Better Memos and Reports (continued)

2. The complication: A problem that unsettles the
situation in the story you’re telling. It’s why you’re
writing the memo or report.

3. The question: This might be “What should we do?”
“How can we do it?” or “What’s wrong with what we
tried?” The question does not necessarily have to be
spelled out; it may be implied.

4. The answer: Your response to
the question and your solution
to the complication.

The order in which the elements appear
can vary. Here are two examples:

Situation-Complication-Solution
(the question “What should we do?”
is implicit)
Mediation’s popularity has increased

over the last quarter-century as people
have sought alternative methods of dis-
pute resolution that do not entail litiga-
tion’s high cost and adversarial approach. But concern is
growing that because mediators possess varying levels of
training, the quality of mediation is unpredictable. I suggest
that we use our organization’s stature to spearhead a move-
ment to professionalize the standards of practice for media-
tion so that mediators can get consistent, high-quality
preparation in every state, and individuals or communities
submitting to mediation will have confidence in their media-
tors’ qualifications.

from sentences initially and diagram your arguments and
data as small, digestible chunks of information. Second,
working from the top down, cluster and hang those
chunks in a pyramid shape, with the information below
developing and supporting the points above (see “Orga-
nizing Ideas in a Pyramid”). An argument can travel hori-

zontally across the chunks on its own
level, but always in support of the
chunk from which it hangs on the level
above. Your thinking may have pro-
gressed from bottom up in the pyra-
mid, but your writing is going to
progress from top down.

Say you have just joined a midsize
processed-food company. As the new
vice president of business develop-
ment, you are charged with identifying
new markets and leading the creation
of products for them.

Sales growth in the company’s main
product line, frozen dinners, has been stagnant for three
years running. But you have identified a promising new
target market: working parents between the ages of 35 and
55 who have sophisticated tastes and avoid preservatives
and artificial ingredients. You want to convince your com-
pany’s executive committee to create an upmarket line of
organic frozen dinners with a Continental flair.

Here is how you would arrange the chunks in one sec-
tion of your pyramid:

D

From The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Wriljng, Thinking and
Problem Solving by Barbara Minto. © 1996 by Barbara Minto.

Question-Situation-Complication-Solution
What can we do to professionalize mediation so that the

momentum gained over the last half-century is not lost?
Individuals and communities turned to mediation in the first
place to avoid the expense and conflict of litigation. But the
increase in the number of mediators with varying levels of
training makes the quality of mediation unpredictable,
which causes dissatisfaction. I suggest that we use our organi-
zation’s stature to spearhead a movement to establish stan-
dards of practice for mediation so that mediators can get
high-quality training wherever they live, and individuals or
communities submitting to mediation can have confidence in
their mediators’ qualifications.

Notice that shifting the order of the elements still satis-
fies the reader’s expectation for the introduction. But it
changes the tone, with the second example sounding
more assertive,

Constructing the pyramid
Now it’s time to make the case for the solution you advo-
cate. Minto has two recommendations, First, stay away

4 Harvard Management Communication Letter

Create a high-end
line of organic gour-
met frozen dinners

Why?

DoutJle-income
parents ages 35-55

constitute a large
and growing market
that would respond
to this product line

To grow,
we need to target

a new market

Sales in our
main product

line are flat

Why?

Most frozen dinners
contain additives

and preservatives
that they don’t want
to consume them-

selves and that they
especially don’t

want their children
to consume

They are too busy
to cook from

scratch every night

They have
sophisticated tastes

and the income to
indulge them

Once you’ve arranged the chunks of your argument in
this way, the actual writing is easy.

Better Memos and Reports (continued)

Some final tips
• Put the weight at the front of each section. Readers

like the journalistic approach-even if the story will
break the hearts of millions, journalists give it away
in the headline. But writers want to lead the reader,
hand-in-hand, through their points and arguments
to their conclusion. Except in murder mysteries,
readers hate that.

• Use reader-oriented judgment to decide the right
level of detail. Many overwriters pride themselves on
their thoroughness, while underwriters congratulate
themselves for being admirably brief. Both do a dis-
service to their readers and hence to themselves.
Overwriters risk losing readers in a flood of detail,
while underwriters may come across as superficial
thinkers. From the reader’s point of view, thorough
means “exhaustive” and brief means “short”; the goal
should be to be concise, which means “as tight as pos-
sible, but complete.”

• Revise by principle; there is no template. Business
writers beg for template sentences, but a template
will distort a reader-oriented, content-driven memo
or report every time. The principles of good organi-
zation-fast, focused openings, the weight at the
front of each section, a well-judged level of detail,
and Minto’s pyramid structure of logic-will serve
you better than twisting your content to fit a
generic template. Revising by principle will also
help you more than the old standby advice: “Set it
aside for 48 hours and come back to it.” That’s an
effective way to give you a fresh eye for your writing,
but when was the last time you had 48 hours
to spare? >.<

HollyWeeks is a Cambridge, Mass.-based communications
consultant. She can be reached at hmcl@hbsp.harvard.edu.

Spring 2005 5

MGT 309

The Differences in Academic Writing to Business Writing

Academic writing in its purity is to create knowledge and depart new knowledge. Therefore there is a need for critical examination and some conformity. Academic writing leaves lots of room for the examination of differing possibilities, although ending with a recommendation. Business writing has a completely different reason for being.

Business is about action; therefore we start where academia leaves off. We take the recommendations and do something with the information.

Review this document for the differences. Most often they are complete mirror images of one another.

Academic Writing

(values: distance, process and content, consistency in essay style)

VS

Business Writing

(Values: relationship, purpose, presentation, content)

ITEM

TOPIC

ITEM

Distant and objective

tone

Personal to audience and author

Formal and big words

Tone

Conversational (not casual)

Neutral and distant

Tone

emotional

Hidden/Do not express opinion

Tone/Words

Express opinion

Wordy

Words

Concise

Consistent sentence lengths

Words

Vary sentence lengths

Longer Consistent sized paragraphs

Words

Shorter length-varied paragraph lengths

Lengthy

Words

Complete – say only what need to be said, no more no less

Passive voice

Words

Active Voice

Essay style

Organization

Audience-centered

Indirect Approach

Organization

Most often Direct Approach

Recommendations at the end

Organization

Most often starts with Recommendations/solution

Essay style – to the content

Organization

Organized to the reader/situation

Hook – story- definition

Thesis (last in paragraph)

Introduction

First sentence = purpose/thesis/hook with scope and why

Content full using more words/filler words

Body

Content rich using fewer words

Summary – reflection of introduction

Conclusion

Goodwill, often offer of connection

Essay style

Format

Multi-formatting

Disregard time considerations

Format

Quick to read

Essay style

Presentation

Intended to be attractive

Essay style with supportive diagrams/charts

Presentation

Visuals are welcome – pictures, charts, audio, video, etc.

The Three Step Writing Process

One: Plan it!

Two: Write it!

Three: Review, Revise, and Tweak it!


One: Plan It

Consider this a personal note to you.

________

____________________________

Dear ___fill_in_your_name__,

I ask you “Do you know how to plan a message?”  My teaching experience tells me that the majority of you really don’t know how to plan.  You do, however, remember writing strategies that you were taught years ago like  – an introduction is 3 -5 sentences with the last sentence being the thesis.  (BYW – this is academic style not business style).  You can puts lots and lots of valuable information about a topic on paper, but my experience is that you just dump out everything you know in the way an authority person told you to.  Now, at this level in your college experience, you need to be making the decisions, such as what the document looks like (which includes organization), the content (not too much or too little), and the appropriate tone for the audience and purpose as you are no longer just writing to a professor to prove you know something.

So, the purpose here is to get you to slow down and THINK.  THINK BEFORE you write.  That is what the Communication Strategy Document is for: 

Communication Strategy Worksheet Updated Sept 2012

.  I encourage you (and require you) to use this document to help you make planning easier for you and subsequently, through practice, a habit.

Here is my approach:

1.  Explore – What is the ‘real’ question of your assignment.  What is the core?  Make SURE you understand the question you are answering.  Don’t write until you can say your purpose in one or two sentences (at the most.)  When you are sure you understand the topic….

2.  Review – Do you know all that you need to know to convey your message (information).  If you cannot answer the question, it’s time to research.  Gather.  (Remember, this is Step Three of Critical Thinking.)  Be sure that you keep good records as you collect information.

3.  Narrow the focus in story format.  As you collect information and then compare it to the question, a story, a focus will start to emerge.  When you write you need to create a flow – a beginning, a middle and an end – just like a story.  It is in fact a story.  Think that way.    When you narrow the focus and feel good about your approach, then start your writing.

________

First – Write the introduction.  Write it over and over till it’s clean enough to frame in the rest of the message.  Then frame in the document

Introduction – with scope 1, 2 & 3.

Topic 1

List here the ‘things’ that relate to this topic.  These items, once organized into a flow, become a story  – the natural order of your paragraph topics.

Topic 2

List here the ‘things’ that relate to this topic.  These items, once organized into a flow, become a story  – the natural order of your paragraph topics.

Topic 3

List here the ‘things’ that relate to this topic.  These items, once organized into a flow, become a story  – the natural order of your paragraph topics.

Two: Write it

Stage Two:  Write it.

Start with the template you created and fill in the content.  Don’t forget to take breaks as they help your brain work well.

Three: Review, Revise & Tweak It

Step Three in the Writing Process is the polishing.  And done thoroughly, takes considerable time.  You need to check

1. to ensure you have written to the topic.

2. for fluidity.  Did you walk-the-little-girl-across-the-street?

3. for transitions.

4. for completeness.  Did you say all that needed to be said and nothing more?

5. to ensure that you stated the obvious where necessary.

6. to ensure you wrote in the tone that you deemed was fitting.  In other words, did you use the best words for emotional expression?

7. for proper grammar use?

Do your best to clean up the document – your credibility is at stake.

MGT 309_Spring 2013

TOP 15 ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING

Self-editing is a difficult task. Good news is usually the first work does contain WHAT you want to say. The problem is that the key points are buried or jumbled in the sea of words. The following is a set of activities that applied, significantly change your work.

Directions:

Choose a paragraph, and carry out each activity to that paragraph. Treat each paragraph as if was a story.

Activity

Because

1

Remove As, Like, To, When, If, Although, This, Once, At, (prepositions) from the beginning of each sentence.

This is because the subject, your main point, your argument is in the middle of the sentence, ‘hidden’ from the eye of the reader. These sentences are not easy to read, and makes ‘navigation’ of the text difficult. Check every one of your sentences and move the middle section of the sentence to the front.

2

Break up long sentences.

Make sure there is only one idea, concept, or fact per sentence. We comprehend sentences at 8 words, after that reading comprehension falls.

3

Make sure each sentence has the most important idea of key words at the front of the sentence.

4

Remove any unnecessary words.

Get rid of the clutter – which, when, in case of….

5

Be more explicit; don’t let the reader have to guess too much.

State the obvious.

6

Remove sentence starts with a word ending in …ing

For example, During my career….

7

Use Active Verbs

I study; I discovered. Eliminate the passive verb construction like I was taught, I have been writing

8

Walk around reading the paragraph out loud. Revise what is awkward.

9

Review the paragraph structure.

Take the main idea in the last paragraph and make sure the reader knows the connection to the first sentence .

10

Walk around reading the paragraph out loud. Revise what is awkward.

11

Repeat for every paragraph.

12

Repeat for each section.

13

Repeat for the whole paper.

14

Read from back to front to spot punctuation errors.

15

Read from back to front to spot spelling errors.

Dr. Mike Howard, Programme Advisor, Institute for Work Based Learning

Adapted from ‘Middlesex Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, Engaging the Digital Generation in Academic Literacy, 29th June 2010. The Self-Editor: a strategy for improving reflective writing.

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