Effective Writing. Elizabeth Manning Murphy

have difficulty with any activity, go back and revise the relevant section before trying the activity again.

      1.2 What is effective writing?

      Effective writing is writing that works. It does its job without anyone having to ask for further explanation. If it informs, it does so clearly – the reader does not have to ask for more information. If it replies to a question or a request, it does so fully – all the reader’s points are dealt with in one way or another. If it asks for information, it gives the reader sufficient background and asks understandable questions so that the correct information will be elicited.

      Effective writing in the workplace gets its message through quickly, economically, clearly and correctly. People at all levels in the workplace are busy and do not have time to decipher unclear messages, cope with poor grammar or spelling, or look up dictionary meanings of obscure expressions.

      1.3 What to avoid

      We have all had to try to read a document that is not clear. What made it unclear? There are many causes – here are a few that readers usually quote:

       consistently poor spelling

       insufficient or incorrect punctuation

       poor proofreading

       long, involved or incomplete sentences

       illogical paragraphing and poor internal paragraph structure

       misuse of parts of speech, such as using adjectives for adverbs

       ambiguity

       not getting to the point

       overuse of passive verbs

       mixing tenses of verbs

       use of clichés, buzz-words and jargon without explanation

       insufficient or incorrect information.

      Figures 1.1 and 1.2 show two emails, the first ineffective, followed by an effective email on the same subject.

      Figure 1.1 Example of an ineffective email

      TO All staff

      SUBJECT Workshop

      A workshop will be held in J-6 next Monday and Tuesday for staff. To help you develop writing skills.

      Keyboard operators, admin assistants, field supervisors who feel the necessity to upgrade said skills are hereby encouraged to see that an application is submitted to be considered for inclusion. Or anyone else.

      The procedural practices concerning the writing of emails and short reports will be learned if advantage is taken of this opportunity by phoning my assistant before c.o.b. on Wednesday, however you must hurry due to the fact that only 22 places exist.

      P Jones

      Figure 1.2 Example of an effective email

      TO All staff [insert appropriate email list]

      SUBJECT EFFECTIVE WRITING WORKSHOP

      A workshop on Effective Writing will be held in the training room next Monday and Tuesday from 9 am to 5 pm.

      The purpose of this workshop is to help staff who do not normally write documents themselves to develop their writing skills. Target groups include all keyboard operators, administrative assistants, field supervisors and any others who would like to take advantage of the opportunity. I hope that, as a result, many of you will feel more confident about writing simple documents such as emails and short reports.

      If you would like to participate in the workshop, please phone my assistant, Lyn, on the number given below, before 5 pm on Wednesday. There is a limit of 22 places on the workshop, so act promptly if you are interested.

      P Jones

      Phone: [phone]

      Compare these two emails. Why is the first one ineffective? It has several of the faults mentioned in the list above – which faults? Why is the second one more effective? It is more informative, more friendly in style, and grammatically more acceptable. You might like to try writing an even better email. The whole purpose of this book, in fact, is to explain how these examples differ. To begin answering these questions, and to outline the principles of effective writing, we need to look at the background to communication.

      1.4 Writing is communication – how does it work?

      Writing is a means of communication. For communication to occur at all, there has to be:

       an idea

       a reason for wanting to pass the idea on – a purpose

       a means of doing so – for example, writing

       actual encoding, or writing, the message

       the sending of the message.

      These are the responsibilities of the sender of the message. But communication is not complete until a receiver has received and understood it. So the receiver:

       receives the message and

       decodes it – that is, understands the writing if writing is the code used.

      So far, so good; but the sender still does not know that the receiver has got the message correctly, if at all. There has to be feedback to complete the communication cycle. The receiver has to respond.

      Figure 1.3 Communication cycle

      If the response is what the sender expected, the communication has been effective. For example:

       Sender issues instructions for the factory to close at 3 pm.

       Response: factory ‘knock-off’ whistle blows at 3 pm.

      or

       Sender asks for a particular file.

       Response: the file duly appears on the sender’s desk.

      If the response is not what the sender expected, communication is ineffective: the communication cycle has broken down somewhere. For example:

       Sender writes guidelines to accompany a complicated form.

       Response: public constantly phone to seek clarification.

       Possible cause: language of form or guidelines is too complex for general public users.

      Communication breakdown can be avoided by making sure that you:

       stick to one topic whenever possible – if you really must write about two topics in the one email, for example, label them clearly with appropriate subject and side headings

       keep your purpose in mind while writing – be clear about whether you are writing to inform or to get information

       make sure that both you and your reader understand the relevance of the document – that is, where it fits into a wider social context or into a set of similar documents. For example:Consider the audience who will read or use the document – who they are, what they know, and what you want them to know or do.Use language that is appropriate to the audience, the purpose and the topic.Package your document attractively and professionally (see Chapter 13, Principles of effective writing and document design).