TECHNIQUES OF EFFECTIVE WRITING

THE FIVE CS OF EFFECTIVE WRITING

Your reader……
…..must be able to see exactly what you mean
so your letters should be clear.
…must be given all the necessary information
so your letters should be complete.
…is a probably a busy person
so your letters should be concise.
…must be written in a sincere, polite tone
so your letters should be courteous.
…should not be distracted by mistakes in grammar, punctuation or spelling,
so your letters should be correct.

ACHIEVING CLARITY

To achieve clarity choose your words with care

• Use familiar words
• Use specific/ concrete words
• Use single words in place of circumlocution.
• Use short words in place of long words.
• Use modern words rather than outdated ones.
• Avoid jargon/ slang/ colloquial.
• Use strong words.
• Use active verbs
• Use precise words and idioms
• Use conversational language

Use Familiar Words

• Endeavour Try
• Ascertain Find out
• Terminate End
• Demonstrate Show
• Utilize Use
• Utilizable Useful
• Salience Importance
• Approbation Approval
• Approximately About
• Ameliorate Improve
• Incorporate Include
 • Interrogate Ask
• Promulgate Publish
• Peruse Read
• Engrossment Attention
• Expectancy Hope

Use specific/ concrete words

Abstract Words Concrete Words

• Soon 3 pm, Wednesday
• Most 64.3%
• Often 18 out of 20 times
• Significant rise 150% rise
• Foreseeable future by Sunday evening
• Substantial gain 25% interest

Use single words in place of circumlocution

Instead of Why not use

• A job that has no emoluments: honorary job
• Words with several meanings and interpretations: ambiguous words

Use modern words

Instead of Why not use

• Corpse dead body
• Animate living
• Loquacious talkative

Outdated Words and Phrases

Some of these phrases are as follows :-

• Enclosed herewith
• Enclosed herewith please find
• We beg to call your kind attention to
• Kindly be advised
• In reply to your recent favor we wish to state
• Thanking you for your kind attention
• The same being at hand I wish to state

Avoid Slang, colloquial, or regional expressions; trite words or phrases

Words and phrases inappropriate for most business writing

Too informal More appropriate
 • Hassle struggle, difficulty
• Bread, dough, green stuff money
• Mix-up, foul-up, snafu confusion, chaos
• Kiddies children
• Hubby husband
• Kibitz confer, consult
• Tip, two cents’ worth advice
• Sweet talk, soft soap exaggeration, flattery
• Hang in there, stick it out persevere
• Steer clear of, not touch with a ten-foot pole avoid, evade,
• Hankering, pining yearning
• Wild about enthusiastic

Use strong words

Strong words make an immediate impact and the communication becomes

forceful. e.g.
• Tycoon in place of successful businessman
• Boom in place of period of prosperity
• Slump in place of decline in business

Use Active Verbs

• Verbs in active voice are the strongest parts of speech. e.g.

 Your efforts are highly appreciated by the management.
 The management highly appreciates your efforts.
• The second sentence in active voice has a greater impact.

Avoid Camouflaged Verbs

• Camouflaged verbs are essentially verbs unnecessarily turned into nouns.

• This tendency turns easy, straight construction into lengthy, camouflaged
and somewhat abstract constructions. E.g.
1. We are giving all our consideration to your application.
We are actively considering your application.
2. Through proper utilization of our resources we can effect elimination of
poverty in the next ten years.
By properly using our resources we can eliminate poverty in the next ten
years.

Use Precise Words and Collocations

• Look at, look up, look up to, look towards, look down, look down upon, look
after, look into.
• Take up, take down, take on, take over, and take off.
 • Set out, set off, set up,

Use conversational language

Dear Mr. Joshi,

Your policy (975-123) is still in force. It has a 31 day grace period: so you
may pay your August 20 premium any time up to September 20.

Very truly yours,

Neerja Bajaj

BEING CONCISE

‘Being concise’ means to reduce your message to a precise statement. This can be
done by paying attention to:
• Sentence Construction
• Paragraph Design

Sentence Construction

• Make short sentences

• Limit sentence content
• Economize on words
• Avoid surplus words
• Avoid cluttering phrases
• Avoid roundabout constructions
• Avoid unnecessary repetition
• Maintain sentence Unity
• Adhere to rules of Grammar

Paragraph Construction

• Aim at unity: a single idea in one paragraph

• Make effective use of topic sentence which expresses the main idea of the
paragraph.
• Omit unnecessary information
• Keep the paragraph short
• Make the paragraph move forward through logically connected sentences.

Wordy to Lean
1. She took the test and passed it.
She passed the test.
2. The auditor reviewed the figures and concluded that they were accurate.
 The auditor concluded that the figures were accurate.

3. In the near future, we will meet and confer and establish our goals and aims.
We will establish our goals this month.
4. The accountant is in the process of reviewing the reports.
The accountant is reviewing the reports.
5. In the field of marketing, each and every customer must be given
individualized, personalized attention.
In marketing each customer must be given personalized attention.

BEING COURTEOUS

The following five aspects of your communication will help you incorporate a
courteous tone:
• Maintaining good interpersonal relationships
• Incorporating positive words
• Presenting a you-approach
• Softening negative statements

Maintaining Good Interpersonal Relations

• Request, don’t command.

• Be polite and use the magic words: Please, Sorry, Thank you.
• Be pleasant, not blunt.
• Avoid insinuations that might cause hurt feelings.

Incorporating positive words

• Words have an emotional reaction, so replace negative words with positive

ones.
• Negative Words: blame, cheap, damage, defective, delay, failure, impossible
inferior, mistake, ruin, unfortunate, waste, wrong.
• Positive Words: advantage, benefit, easy, encourage, excellent, fortunate,
grateful, merit, pleasure, profit, reliable, satisfaction, willing

Presenting a you-approach

You approach means putting the reader’s interest before your own. E.g.
1. We are open till 8 pm to serve your banking needs.
You can do your banking till 8 pm.
2. We pay 12% interest on our savings account.
You can earn 12% interest on our savings account.

Softening negative statements

 Positive statements not only promote good will, they also give complete
information. E.g.
1. We cannot ship the order until Friday.
The order will be shipped on Friday.
2. The contract was dated incorrectly.
The contract should have been dated Nov.20, 1999.
3. You failed to respond before the May1 deadline.
Your response was received on May 5, four days after the due date.

ACHIEVING CORRECTNESS

• Correct messages are of paramount importance because:

 Errors can provide incorrect information
 Errors can block the flow of your ideas
 Errors can create an poor impression of you and your
company
• Correctness is judged from the standpoint of:
 Grammatical correctness
 Accuracy of information

GRAMMATICAL ERRORS

• Grammatical Errors may occur because of:

 Subject-Verb Disagreement
 Wrong Case of Pronoun
 Faulty Sentence Structure
 Incorrect Punctuation

Subject-Verb Agreement

Examples
• The box, together with the baskets, was sent to the shipping room.
• The box and the baskets were sent to the shipping room.
• Neither the box nor the basket was sent to the shipping room.
• Neither the box nor the baskets were sent to the shipping room.

The Wrong Case of the Pronoun

Using the wrong case of the pronoun is an error that seems to occur more in speech
than in writing.
• Me and Jim are friends.
• Jim and I are friends.
• Jim and he are good friends of Mary and I.
 • He and Jim are good friends of Mary and me.

Faulty Sentence Structure

This information is presented here. Because it is necessary to the understanding

of the following pages. (Fragmentation of Sentence)
It should be:
This information is presented here because it is necessary to the understanding
of the following pages.

English is the principal language of international business, it is taught in schools

throughout the world.
It should be:
English, the principal language of international business, is taught in schools
throughout the world.

Incorrect Punctuation

Use of commas
The boss, said the typist, was very understanding.
The boss said the typist was understanding.
Use of hyphen
The job requires ten-gallon containers.
The job requires ten gallon containers.

Accuracy of Information

• Write objectively.
• Base your interpretations and decisions on facts, not on your personal desires
or unsupported beliefs.

ENSURING COMPLETENESS

• It is our responsibility to ensure that our message is complete.

• Give all information diplomatically and convincingly.
• Provide answers to Who? What? Where? Why? When? How?

ENHANCING READABILITY

Readability can be enhanced by:

• Leaving plenty of white space by way of margins and space between
paragraphs.
• Giving sub-headings
 • Making lists and tabulations
• Writing sentences of varying length and construction.
• Writing short paragraphs
• Giving an over-all attractive appearance.
Achieving Emphasis

Emphasis in written communication can be achieved by:

• Position: The beginning position is the most emphatic one.
• Sentence and paragraph construction.
• Word Choice
• Space
• Mechanical means of emphasis (bullets, underlining, bold, all caps,
indenting)
• Summarizing