Completing Business Messages

Revising Your Message: Evaluating the First Draft

Successful communicators recognize that the first draft is rarely as tight, clear, and compelling as it needs to be. Careful revision can mean the difference between a rambling, unfocused message and lively, direct message that gets results. The third step of the three-step writing process involves four key tasks: revising your message to achieve optimum quality and then producing, proofreading, and distributing. With more complex messages, try to put your draft aside for a day or two before you begin the revision process so that you can approach the material with a fresh eye.

Evaluating Your Content, Organizing, Style, And Tone

When you begin the revision process, focus your attention on content, organization, style, and tone. To evaluate the content of your message, answer these questions:

• Is the information accurate?
• Is the information relevant to the audience?
• Is there enough information to satisfy the reader's needs?
• Is there good balance between general information and specific information? When you are satisfied with the content of your message, you can review its organization. Answer another set of questions:

When you are satisfied with the content of your message, you can review its organization. Answer another set of questions:

• Are all points covered in the most logical order?
• Do the most important ideas receive the most space, and are they placed in the most prominent positions?
• Would the message be more convincing if it were arranged in another sequence?
• Are there any points repeated unnecessarily?
• Are details grouped together logically, or are some still scattered through the document?

With the content in place and effectively organized, next consider whether you have achieved the right tone for your audience. Is your writing formal enough to meet the audience's expectations?

The beginning and end of a message usually have the greatest impact on your readers, so make sure they are clear, concise, and compelling.

Evaluating, Editing, And Revising The Work Of Others

There will be times in your career when you will be asked to evaluate, edit, or revise the work of others. Whether you're suggesting improvements or actually making the improvements yourself, you can make a contribution by using all the skills ive mentioned to you in the previous post. Evaluating and revising the work of others is an important responsibility. With this in mind, answer the following questions as you evaluate someone else’s Writing:

• What is the purpose of this document or message?
• Who is the target audience?
• What information does the audience need?
• Does the document provide this information in a well-organized way?
• Does the writing demonstrate the "you" attitude toward the audience?
• Is the tone of the writing appropriate for the audience?
• Can the readability be improved?
• Is the writing as concise as it could be?
• Does the design support intend message?

Revising to Improve Readability

After confirming the content, organization, style, and tone of your message, make a second pass to improve readability. Most professionals are inundated with more material than pass to improve readability. Most professionals are inundated with more reading material than they can ever hope to consume, and they'll appreciate your efforts to make your document easier to read. You'll benefit from this too: If you earn a reputation for creating well-crafted documents that respect the audience's time, people will pay more attention to your work. Readability formulas can give you a helpful indication, but they can’t measure everything that affects readability.

Varying Your Sentence Length 

Varying the length of your sentences is a creative way to make your messages interesting and readable. By choosing words and sentence structure with care, you can create a rhythm that emphasizes important points, enlivens your writing style, and makes information more appealing to your reader.

For example, a short sentence that highlights a conclusion at the end of a substantial paragraph of evidence makes your key message stand out. Try for a mixture of sentences that are short, medium, and long. 

Keeping Your Paragraph Short 

Long paragraphs are visually intimidating and can be difficult to read. However, don't go overboard with short paragraphs. In particular, be careful to use one-sentence paragraphs only occasionally and only emphasis. Also, if you need to divide a subject into several pieces in order to keep paragraphs short, be sure to help your readers keep the ideas connected by guiding them with plenty transition elements. 

Using List To Clarify And Emphasize 

List can show the  sequence of your ideas, heighten their impact visually, and increase the likelihood that a reader will find key points. In addition lists help simplify complex subjects, highlight main points, break up a page or screen visually, ease the skimming process for busy readers, and give readers a breather. 

You can separate list items with numbers, letters, or bullets or graphical element that precedes each element. For example, the following three steps need to be performed in the order indicated, and the numbers make that clear:

1. Find out how many would like on site day-care facilities.
2. Determine how much space the day-care center would require.
3. Estimate the cost converting a conference room for the on-site facility.

List are easier to locate and read if the entire numbered or bulleted section is set off by a blank line before and after, as the preceding examples demonstrate . One way to introduce lists is make them apart of the introductory sentence:

The board of directors met to discuss the revised annual budget. To keep expenses in line with declining sales, the directors voted to 

• Cut everyone's pay
• Close the employee cafeteria
• Reduce travel expenses 

Another way to introduce a list to precede it with a complete introductory sentence, followed by a colon:

The decline in company profit is attributing to four factors:

• Slower holiday sales
• Increased transportation and fuel costs 
• Higher employee wages
• Slower inventory turnover

Regardless of the format you choose, the items in a list should be parallel: that is, they should all use the same grammatical pattern. 

Adding Headings And Subheadings:

Use headings and subheadings to show the organization of your material, draw the reader's attention to key points, and show connections between ideas. 

• Organization- Headings show your reader at a glance how the document is organized. They act as labels to group related paragraphs together and organize lengthy material into short sections.
• Attention-Informative, inviting, and in some cases intriguing headings grab the reader's attention, make the text easier to read, and help the reader find the parts he or she needs to read or skip. 
• Connection- Using headings and subheadings together helps readers see the relationship between main ideas and subordinate ones so that they can understand your message more easily. 

Headings fall into two categories, Descriptive headings such as "cost considerations", identify a topic but do little more. Informative headings such as "Redesigning Material Flow to cut production costs", guide readers to think a certain way about the topic. 

Using Technology to Revise Your Message

• Revision marks and commenting features are great ways to track the revision process when multiple reviewers are involved. 
• Spell checkers, grammar checkers, and computerized thesauruses can all help with revision process, but they can’t take the place of good writing and editing skills. 

Producing Your Message

Now its time to put your hard work on display. The production quality of your message- the total effect of page or screen design, graphical elements, typography, and so on- plays an important role in the effectiveness of your message. 

Designing for Readability

Production quality affects readability and audience perceptions of you and your message and document design needs strong nonverbal signals. Make sure they are positive and appropriate signals.  To achieve an effective design, pay attention to the following details:

• Consistency- Be consistent throughout each message with your margins, size, typeface, and space
• Balance-One document may have a formal rigid design in which the various elements are placed in a grid pattern whereas another may have less formal design in which elements flow more freely across the page. 
• Restraint- Strive for simplicity in design. Don't clutter your message with too many design elements, too much highlighting, too many colors, and too many decorative touches. 
• Detail- pay attention to details that affect your design and thus your message .