Effective Workplace Writing 1 Professional Writing How do you feel - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Professional Writing Effective Workplace Writing 1

Professional Writing How do you feel about this sentence? After establishing the efficacy of leveraging the capacities of the employee-management interface, management opportunities will be promulgated throughout the multilateral interface effected by the relevant corporations. 2

Professional Writing Johnny has a 7-page paper to write. He only has 5 pages worth of things to say. What does he do??? FLUFF 3

Professional Writing Fluff the following: Birds fly. Here’s a version: Members of the bird family may flap their wings to get into the air. Lard factor: 600% 4

Professional Writing Worse yet: Wings may be flapped by members of the bird family to enable them to get into the air. 700% Lard factor: 5

Professional Writing Sally forgot to study that section, and there’s an essay question on it. What does she do? B LU S TER 6

Professional Writing Bluster the following: Birds fly. (Okay, so it's not really a Here’s a version: Members of the bird family may perform certain actions whereby an effect is achieved. Lard factor: 600% 7

Professional Writing Tony the Classics major wants to impress the new boss with his intelligence and education. He forgets the boss is highly educated in engineering . What does he do? G(R)EEK (and Latin) 8

Professional Writing G(r)eek the following: Birds fly. Here’s a version: It is a fact that members of the avian species achieve an airborne condition through the means of feathered appendages. Lard factor: 900% P. S. Trojans suck! 9

Professional Writing Judas doesn’t want the clients to know he is up to no good. What does he do? WEASEL 10

Professional Writing Weasel the following: The $200M prototype plane doesn’t fly. Here’s a version: It has come to our attention that the aeronautical device in question has experienced unforeseen challenges in the area of meeting the expected parameters. Say what? Lard factor: 300% 11

Professional Writing What is the “official style”? 12

Professional Writing The official style uses too many passives, often imprecisely: 
 The report will be completed at the The report will be completed at the time when it is required to be time when it is required to be submitted. submitted. We will complete the report by the deadline . 13

Professional Writing The official style uses too many long, pompous words, often imprecisely: 
 Pertinent missives are characterized by a cacophonous plethora of obfuscation, obsequiousness, obliquity, etc. contumaciously obtruding on your time constraints. Lousy writing wastes time. 14

Professional Writing The official style uses too many long, pompous words, often imprecisely: 
 I say, that ursine juggernaut did assay to sup upon my person! (Russell Brand) GO BRUINS! 15

Professional Writing Pop Quiz! 
 Who said this? “I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request.” 16

Professional Writing The official style uses extra words, often confusing the reader: 
 You agree that by registering on LinkedIn, or by using the our website, including our mobile applications, developer platform, premium services, or other information provided as part of the LinkedIn services (collectively “LinkedIn” or the “Services”), you are entering into a legally binding agreement with LinkedIn Corporation, 2029 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, California 94043, USA if you reside in the United States, and with LinkedIn Ireland Limited if you reside anywhere else in the world (“we,” “us,” “our,” and “LinkedIn”) based on the terms of this LinkedIn User Agreement and the LinkedIn Privacy Policy, which is hereby incorporated by reference (collectively referred to as the “Agreement”) and become a LinkedIn user (“User”). —http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=user_agreement 17

Professional Writing The official style uses long embedded sentences, which both reader and writer can get lost in: 
 The CBC which discourages the use of unreinforced masonry because of the risk of failure of a structure due to seismic instabilities along the identified and unidentified fault lines. 18

Professional Writing The official style wastes ink, paper, bandwidth, time, money and patience. 
 19

Professional Writing How do we get rid of official style? Delete expletives: It is There is There are (Not *#%@!#%#) 20

Professional Writing Practice getting rid of expletives: There are too many textbooks that cost over $100. It is a fact that bears like pork. There is a bear prowling around at the bottom of this slide.

Professional Writing How do we get rid of official style? Avoid using more than one or two prepositions in a sentence: Prepositions: aboard, about, above, across, after, against, along, amid, among, anti, around, as, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, besides, between, beyond, but, by, concerning, considering, despite, down, during, except, excepting, excluding, following, for, from, in, inside, into, like, minus, near, of, off, on, onto, opposite, outside, over, past, per, plus, regarding, round, save, since, than, through, to, toward, towards, under, underneath, unlike, until, up, upon, versus, via, with, within, without 22

Professional Writing Limit prepositions. The CEO of the corporation that is under the The CEO of the corporation that is under the governance of the code that is used by every governance of the code that is used by every organization in a similar field as the one in organization in a similar field as the one in question was asked by the employees of said question was asked by the employees of said corporation to assist in the achievement of corporation to assist in the achievement of higher rates of pay. higher rates of pay. 23

Professional Writing Limit dependent clauses. The CEO of the corporation that is under the The CEO of the corporation that is under the governance of the code that is used by every governance of the code that is used by every organization in a similar field as the one in organization in a similar field as the one in question was asked by the employees of said question was asked by the employees of said corporation to assist in the achievement of corporation to assist in the achievement of higher rates of pay. higher rates of pay. The employees asked the CEO for a raise because other workers in their position have better pay. 23

Professional Writing How do we get rid of official style? Try to keep sentence length under 23 words. Remove unneeded words. Chop the sentence into pieces. into pieces. 24

Professional Writing Chop up this sentence: The CEO, after talking to the undersecretary and the boss after they return from their holiday where they networked with several potential clients and discussed contract issues with labor, will announce the delivery of the new computer systems, which will cost approximately $10, 000 due to inflation and special orders. 25

Professional Writing And now we'll consider some other aspects of professional writing. 26

Professional Writing Consider these words: • Posses • Costumers • Defiantly • Mangers • Apart of • aact.org, 2013 • Upmost 26

Professional Writing Use these words carefully: • Issues • Different (instead of various ) • Amount Prompting • Begging the question an argument taking for granted what it's trying to prove: "This class is popular because a lot of people want to take it." 26

Professional Writing Quick fact! Did you know you only have to space once after a period? Not: I like bears. They like honey. But: I like bears. They like honey. 26

Professional Writing Connotations Do these words mean the same thing? descending tumbling going down plummeting dropping plunging falling diving 26

Professional Writing Connotations Which would you rather hear from the cockpit? The airplane is Pan Am Flight 6, October 16, going down descending 1956 dropping beginning the descent for a diving water landing Pacific Ocean 27

Professional Writing The General You What’s the problem with this sentence? You can drink alcohol in public in Atascadero. 28

Professional Writing Save Your Readers Time Avoid vague words. A lot 29

Professional Writing Save Your Readers Time Avoid vague words. Large 29

Professional Writing Save Your Readers Time Avoid ambiguous statements. Although native to Japan, Manila clams are becoming increasingly popular in the United States and can be found in the seafood section of most supermarkets. — Bon Apétit, June 2010 30

Professional Writing Avoid ambiguous statements. I will call contractors to take the stumps out. Some of them are really thick. 36

Professional Writing Use jargon only for appropriate audiences: Elastic perfectly plastic Special moment connection Necking zone 35

Professional Writing Quick tip: In order to = To In order to eat a banana, you must peel it. To eat a banana, you must peel it. Other cuts The reason . . . is because . . . = because 31