Formatting is also an important element of business communication. The document must be signed, addressed and correctly attributed. Whenever the title of the addressee is unknown, the gender-neutral Dear Sir or Madam is preferred to Dear Sirs. The same also applies to the use of salutations and gender-specific pronouns such as he and she, which should be avoided whenever possible. The pluralized pronoun everyone is grammatically incorrect, and its use is not recommended. In a similar vein, grammar, word selection, sentence structure and conformation to writing codes and styles should reflect the nature of the format. Blunt and verbose statements should be avoided (Hulbert 2-3). Critically, a liberal use of the active voice is imperative
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According to Michael Egan in Total quality business writing, up to 70% of the typical employee’s day is spent writing- in fact “writing is the single most widespread activity in business today” (1). So central is business writing that managers are now spending, according to Egan, fewer than 30% of their work hours fulfilling their job descriptions. This is because corporations and governments are vastly interested in disseminating and institutionalizing information, not only in a quest for standards and efficiency, but so as to enforce accountability and transparency as well. Despite this importance, business writing is a source of frequent corporate frustration and losses. Poor quality writing is a huge cost to the American economy. Notable, Egan talks about case studies that prove this statement include US $35 million that bankrupted Coleco, classified monetary losses up to US $57 at the US Navy. So endemic is the scourge of poor writing that top level executives from the “top managers in two hundred Fortune 1000 companies” (Egan 1) assess that only 3%, according to “ A 1991 survey,” of their colleagues were excellent in their writing. The value of good corporate communication, internal or external, is not just in the monetary benefits. There are other less tangible …show more content…
Business Writing These moves are not category-specific and Harris’ Rewriting, though emphasizing the role of genre knowledge, does not make the mistake of assuming that genres are static. Indeed, the goal of Harris’ work is to trigger and sustain the initiative if stylistic experimentation. Whereas this text has already enumerated the differences between academic and business writing, it has also conceded that there are similarities. After all, these two genres share similar rhetoric foundations. As such, it is not implausible to imagine that the moves of academic writing can be applied to business writing as well.
On reflection, one area does have an implication on how to apply Harris’ prescription. Unlike academic writing, which seldom involves direct conversation to others “ you are less entering into conversation with him … than with fellow readers of his work …you are recirculating his writing” (36), business writing can have a predefined user. As a result, genre awareness is required to limit one’s rhetoric agility when it comes to conventions- knowing when to adhere to, flex or break the rules so to speak. In conclusion, these moves are true for business as they are for academic
According to Michael Egan in Total quality business writing, up to 70% of the typical employee’s day is spent writing- in fact “writing is the single most widespread activity in business today” (1). So central is business writing that managers are now spending, according to Egan, fewer than 30% of their work hours fulfilling their job descriptions. This is because corporations and governments are vastly interested in disseminating and institutionalizing information, not only in a quest for standards and efficiency, but so as to enforce accountability and transparency as well. Despite this importance, business writing is a source of frequent corporate frustration and losses. Poor quality writing is a huge cost to the American economy. Notable, Egan talks about case studies that prove this statement include US $35 million that bankrupted Coleco, classified monetary losses up to US $57 at the US Navy. So endemic is the scourge of poor writing that top level executives from the “top managers in two hundred Fortune 1000 companies” (Egan 1) assess that only 3%, according to “ A 1991 survey,” of their colleagues were excellent in their writing. The value of good corporate communication, internal or external, is not just in the monetary benefits. There are other less tangible …show more content…
Business Writing These moves are not category-specific and Harris’ Rewriting, though emphasizing the role of genre knowledge, does not make the mistake of assuming that genres are static. Indeed, the goal of Harris’ work is to trigger and sustain the initiative if stylistic experimentation. Whereas this text has already enumerated the differences between academic and business writing, it has also conceded that there are similarities. After all, these two genres share similar rhetoric foundations. As such, it is not implausible to imagine that the moves of academic writing can be applied to business writing as well.
On reflection, one area does have an implication on how to apply Harris’ prescription. Unlike academic writing, which seldom involves direct conversation to others “ you are less entering into conversation with him … than with fellow readers of his work …you are recirculating his writing” (36), business writing can have a predefined user. As a result, genre awareness is required to limit one’s rhetoric agility when it comes to conventions- knowing when to adhere to, flex or break the rules so to speak. In conclusion, these moves are true for business as they are for academic