Business Communication Chapter 6 Completing Business Messages Highlight Box The Future Communication Haptic Technologies The Box

6: Completing Business Messages 6-12

HIGHLIGHT BOX: THE FUTURE OF COMMUNICATION

Haptic Technologies

As the box notes, haptic technologies present at least a couple of interesting possibilities that relate to

business communication in its broadest sense. First, adding touch to a human-machine interaction can

COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES AT TYPE TOGETHER

Individual Challenge

Note: For an exercise such as this, where students are tasked with repurposing a company’s published

information, it is acceptable for them to reuse short text sections verbatim.

The Info/About Us page has multiple key points that students should be able to identify. Here are four

points that summarize the company’s appeal to professional designers and other people shopping for

fonts:

• TypeTogether’s main interest is finding innovative and stylish solutions to old problems for the

professional market, with a focus on editorial use

• The aesthetic and functional efficiency of TT’s fonts are accompanied by excellence in technical

performance.

You may want to explain to students that editorial in this context refers to use in magazines, newspapers,

and other periodicals. In addition, the description should include the company’s URL (www.type–

together.com) so that potential customers can get more information.

The four bullet points above add up to 73 words, so the raw material is already near the word-count limit,

but students only need to stitch these components together to create the description. At 74 words, here is

one possible version:

TypeTogether develops innovative and stylish solutions to age-old challenges for the professional

market, with a focus on editorial use. These fonts offer aesthetic and functional efficiency with

6: Completing Business Messages 6-13

Team Challenge

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

6.1. The three main tasks involved in revising a business message are (1) evaluating content and

6.2. The two primary responsibilities one has when editing or revising the work of another writer are

to remember that your job is to help the other writer succeed at his or her task, not to impose your

6.3. Short sentences can be processed quickly and are easier for nonnative speakers to interpret.

6.4. Headings can serve as organizational tools, attention-getting devices, and links that help readers

follow the logic and organization of ideas. For example, the benefits of headings include

6.5. A document can be made more concise by including just what’s necessary and composing clear

6.6. Hedging sentences are sentences in which the writer pulls back from making an absolute or

confident statement about a particular subject. While they are sometimes necessary, using them

6.7. To format content for mobile devices, think in small chunks, make generous use of white space,

6.16. Messages for Analysis 6.B The document should be reformatted with attention to the following

details: [LO-4] AACSB: Written and oral communication

6.17. Messages for Analysis 6.C Here is one possible revision: [LO-1] AACSB: Written and oral

communication

Gross Domestic Product

The most commonly used measure of a country’s economic output is gross domestic product

6.18. Student evaluations will vary based on the blog posts they choose to analyze, but they should take

particular care to assess (or at least make intelligent guesses at) the first two questions from the

6.19. Here’s one example of how students might revise the paragraph for improved readability by

removing wordiness, shortening some sentences for clarity and others to vary tempo, and

eliminating extraneous information to shorten the paragraph overall: [LO-2] AACSB: Written

6.20. Revising for Readability (Sentence Length) Here are shortened versions of the originals:

[LO-2] AACSB: Written and oral communication

a. Next time you write a 100-word passage, check your average sentence length. If your

sentences average more than 16 to 20 words, try to break up some of them.

6.21. Editing for Conciseness (Unnecessary Words) Deleting all unnecessary words leaves the

following: [LO-3] AACSB: Written and oral communication

6.22. Editing for Conciseness (Long Words) Here are possible revisions: [LO-3] AACSB: Written

and oral communication

a. My old PC can’t solve challenging problems.

6.23. Editing for Conciseness (Lengthy Phrases) These infinitive substitutes shorten the sentences:

[LO-3] AACSB: Written and oral communication

6.24. Editing for Conciseness (Lengthy Phrases) Here are one-word replacements: [LO-3] AACSB:

Written and oral communication

a. soon (or a specific date)

6.25. Editing for Conciseness (Lengthy Phrases) Here are pared-down versions: [LO-3] AACSB:

Written and oral communication