978-0073403267 Chapter 4 Key Lecture Points, Teaching Tips, and In-Class Exercises

Type

Quiz

Book Title

Business Communication: Building Critical Skills 6th Edition

ISBN 13

978-0073403267

April 6, 2019

Module 04 - Planning, Writing, and Revising

Module 4

Planning, Writing, and Revising

LO 4-1 Apply processes for writing quality improvement.

LO 4-2 Manage time for writing projects.

LO 4-3 Plan writing and speaking projects for increased success.

LO 4-4 Apply strategies for revision.

LO 4-5 Support writing with grammar and spell-checkers.

LO 4-6 Apply strategies for feedback and revision with it.

LO 4-7 Apply strategies for form letter use.

LO 4-8 Apply strategies for writer’s block and procrastination solutions.

Module Overview

Many students imagine writing effective documents in one sitting, but

the reality is that a process approach involving planning, writing, and

revising is more likely to be successful. Students who routinely

confront “writer’s block” may find that breaking the overall writing

process down into manageable steps increases their performance and

satisfaction.

As PP 4-4 through PP 4-8 show, writing can involve these distinct

activities:

Planning

Gathering

Writing

Evaluating

Getting Feedback

Revising

Editing

Proofreading

Not all writers use all the steps, nor do all writers use the same order

of steps for every document they write. However, you should caution

your students to avoid editing before revising—it makes little sense to spend time correcting

grammar in document sections that might be cut or altered significantly.

Make clear distinctions among revising (accepting or rejecting words, sentences, or ideas),

editing (checking for grammar and usage), and proofreading (checking for typos and spelling

errors).

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Module 04 - Planning, Writing, and Revising

Teaching Tip: Given all the demands on many students’ time—work, school,

family—some may resist the process approach or see it as unrealistic. However,

ask these students to reflect on how much time it took to write their last several

documents. Was it really done in “one sitting”? How successful were the

documents? What was their level of frustration versus satisfaction? Might they

already be using a form of the process approach without realizing it?

What’s in This Supplement

This supplement is organized around the major questions posed in Module 4. It covers

Part 1: Key Lecture Points, Teaching Tips, and In-Class Exercises Page 59

Part 2: Answers to Textbook Assignments Page 70

Part 3: Appendixes of Handouts/Transparency Masters Page 72

PowerPoint presentations can be found at our Web page at www.mhhe.com/bcs6e.

Questions (with answers) suitable for quizzes are in the Instructor’s Test Bank. For

student practice quizzes with answers, see our Web page.

Part 1: Key Lecture Points, Teaching Tips, and In-Class Exercises

Does it matter what process I use? LO 4-1

Using expert processes will improve your writing.

No single writing process works for all writers all of the time. But finding the process that

works for the student is an important first step in writing better documents.

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Module 04 - Planning, Writing, and Revising

As PP 4-9 and PP 4-10 suggest, expert writers

Realize that the first draft can be revised.

Write regularly.

Break big jobs into small chunks.

Have clear goals focusing on purpose and audience.

Have several different strategies to choose from.

Use rules flexibly.

Wait to edit until after the draft is complete.

In-Class Exercise: Have students spend 10-15 minutes

individually reflecting on their own writing. In particular,

ask students to consider what processes they use. Ask them

where and when they write and for how long. Are they

satisfied with this approach? What could they do to improve it?

Use PP 4-9 and PP 4-10 to let students compare some of the writing process options that

can make it harder or easier to compose a message. Use them to show students how their

manipulation of the variables can lead to smoother writing processes.

I don’t have much time. How should I use it? LO 4-2

Save two-thirds of your time for planning and revising.

Kitty and Steve recommend as a “rule of thumb” breaking the process

down into thirds.

As PP 4-11 through PP 4-13 show, spend one third analyzing the

situation and audience, gathering information, and organizing what to

say. Spend the next third actually writing. Spend the last third

evaluating the message, revising drafts, and editing and proofreading.

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Module 04 - Planning, Writing, and Revising

Teaching Tip: Have students consider other aspects of their lives where

preparation and follow-through are important. For instance, would they make a

major purchase, such as a house, without first researching where they might like

to live, what price range is comfortable for them, and how they might finance the

purchase? After the initial purchase, would they expect to also plan for such

needs as furniture, lawn care equipment, and property taxes? Draw a parallel

between such processes and the writing process, where work before and after

actually writing is critical to success.

Figure 4.1 (p. 62) shows a breakdown of how to allocate time when writing a memo.

Students can use this as a model for their own planning.

What planning should I do before I begin writing or speaking? LO 4-3

As much as you can!

The better a student is at planning for a document, the fewer drafts are

likely to be needed. Analyzing audience is discussed in detail in Module

2, and Module 8 helps students to develop reader benefits. Gathering

research is discussed in Module 22. Many students face writer’s block

even at this stage. To help them, use PP 4-14 to show students

Brainstorming

Freewriting

Clustering

Talking to Their Audiences

Storyboard

Teaching Tip: While many students will have learned these techniques in

composition courses, consider spending 15-20 minutes demonstrating each at the

board. Some students will have forgotten the specifics of invention techniques,

and others may not have learned them at all. Showing students how to use

invention techniques—spending no more than about five minutes with each

technique—can also reassure them that experienced writers actually use them.

Teaching Tip: Remind students that any time they face writer’s block, they can

return to one of the invention techniques to help them. Using invention

techniques is akin to a runner stretching before the race and stopping to stretch if

he or she gets a cramp along the way. Brainstorming, freewriting, clustering, and

talking to the audience are ways to “stretch” the brain.

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Module 04 - Planning, Writing, and Revising

What is revision? How do I do it? LO 4-4

Revision means “re-seeing” the document.

Students often confuse “revision” with “editing” and “proofreading.”

Revision means making changes that will better satisfy the writer’s

purposes and audience. Editing means making surface-level changes

that make the document grammatically correct. Proofreading means

checking to be sure the document is free from typographical errors.

Use PP 4-17 and PP4-18 to show these differences.

Students should plan on revising more than once, up to three times

when writing to a new audience or when solving a particularly difficult

problem. Therefore, it’s critical they build time into the writing process

for what may be substantial revision.

When revising, students should check for content and clarity,

organization and layout, style and tone, and flow.

In-Class Exercise: Have students spend 10-15 minutes individually reflecting on

their own writing. In particular, ask students to consider what processes they

use. Ask them where and when they write and for how long. Are they satisfied

with this approach? What could they do to improve it?

Teaching Tip: Remind students that revising may take more time than they have

taken to write documents in the past. However, many writers find it time well

spent because the documents they produce are better and more successful.

Sometimes students also believe that the more time they spend on a document,

the better it is automatically—students must remember that there is no

correlation between time and document quality. It’s how that time is spent that

affects the quality of the final product.

Can a grammar checker do my editing for me? LO 4-5

No. You have to decide whether to make each change.

Grammar checkers that come with many word processing programs

suggest possible errors but leave the final judgment up to the writer.

Therefore, students who indiscriminately use grammar checkers are

still likely to have errors in their documents (PP 4-21).

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Module 04 - Planning, Writing, and Revising

Students should take time to learn common rules of grammar and also manually scan

documents for any errors. As Appendix 4-A shows, they should pay attention to

Sentence Structure

Subject–Verb and Noun–Pronoun Agreement

Punctuation

Word Usage

Spelling—including the spelling of names

Numbers

Editing should come after revision. There’s no point in fixing grammatical errors in

sentences that may be altered or cut.

Teaching Tip: If students have particular difficulty with grammar, have them

work with you during office hours or with your college or university writing

center starting early in the quarter or semester. Establish a routine for them so

that throughout the upcoming weeks, they can develop skills, rather than repeat

the same errors from document to document. While you should discuss grammar

issues in the classroom, students with significant problems will likely require

more individualized instruction, which can take time away from more rhetorical

issues of writing.

I spell-check. Do I still need to proofread? LO 4-5

Yes.

Proofreading is critical! Students who’ve become accustomed to using

a computer spell- checker often overlook the fact that spell-checkers

simply compare patterns of letters to determine if a word exists—

spell-checkers don’t decide whether the word is correctly used.

As PP 4-22 shows, to proofread:

Read once quickly for meaning to see

that nothing has been left out.

Read a second time slowly. When you

find an error, correct it and then reread the line for additional errors.

Read lines backwards or pages out of

order when you know the document well.

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Module 04 - Planning, Writing, and Revising

Revising after feedback LO 4-6

Feedback can provide writers with excellent information on how to

proceed with revision. But writers must first understand and agree with

it.

As PP 4-26 and PP 4-27 suggest, strategies for getting the most out of

feedback include:

When you get feedback that you understand and agree with,

make the change.

If you get feedback you don’t understand, ask for clarification.

Paraphrase.

Ask for more information.

Test your inference.

When you get feedback that you don’t agree with,

If it’s an issue of grammatical correctness, check this

book.

If it’s a matter of content, recognize that something about the draft isn’t as

good as it could be.

If the reader thinks a fact is wrong (and you know it’s right), show where the

fact came from.

If the reader suggests a change in wording you don’t like, try another option.

If the reader seems to have misunderstood or misread the text, think about

ways to make the meaning clearer.

How can I get better feedback? LO 4-6

Ask for the kind of feedback you need.

Getting better feedback can help to produce better documents. As PP

4-23 illustrates, cycling is when documents pass from person to person,

accumulating feedback at each stage. Poor feedback or inefficient

cycling can actually make writing the document more difficult. To

ensure getting good feedback, writers should be specific about what

aspects of the document they’d like comments about, as well as take the

feedback as constructive criticism.

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Module 04 - Planning, Writing, and Revising

Can I use form letters? LO 4-7

Yes. But make sure they’re good.

Fundamentally, there’s nothing wrong with form letters—except that most

are limited to very specific situations and fail in others (PP 4-25). Of more

use is boilerplate, or language that can be lifted from one document and

placed in another without change. Many contracts use boilerplate for

common legal issues and clauses because the language has been approved

by the legal department.

Care must be taken in using boilerplate. As Glenn Broadhead and Richard Freed point out

Using unrevised boilerplate can create a document with incompatible styles and

tones.

Form letters and boilerplate can encourage writers to see situations and audiences as

identical when in fact they differ.

Students should exercise good judgment when using form letters or boilerplate. Audiences

usually recognize flaws in each quickly. The time the writer initially saves in using a form

letter or boilerplate is quickly lost if another communication must be sent to correct problems

from the first.

In-Class Exercise: Have students bring in documents they believe are form

letters (e.g., credit card offers) and let them spend 10-15 minutes completing

Exercise 4.7 (p. 70). Have them identify specific language and document

features that suggest it is a form letter. How do they know? What is their

reaction? Would they purchase the product or service? Why or why not? Next,

let the students spend another 10 minutes revising these sections. Ask them to

share their revisions with the class.

How can I overcome writer’s block and procrastination? LO 4-8

Talk, participate, and practice. Reward yourself for activities that lead to writing.

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Module 04 - Planning, Writing, and Revising

Even accomplished writers get writer’s block or find themselves

procrastinating from time to time. As shown on PP 4-28, five actions

work best to overcome writer’s block:

Participate actively in the organization and the community.

Practice writing regularly and in moderation.

Learn as many strategies as you can.

Talk positively to yourself.

Talk about writing to other people.

Modifying behavior is the best way to avoid procrastination. As shown on PP 4-29, writers

should

Set a regular time to write.

Develop a ritual for writing.

Try freewriting.

Write down the thoughts and fears you have as you write.

Identify the problem that keeps you from writing.

Set modest goals and reward yourself for reaching them.

Last Word: Most large projects are simply a series of smaller and more

manageable tasks. Encourage students to think of planning, writing, and revising

in these terms. By following through, students are likely to discover the writing

process to be less daunting. Share with students Appendix 4-B, which gives a

thorough revision checklist for students to use.

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