Qualities of Written Communication in Business

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 425.

Written business communication comes in a variety of forms. Letters, memos, proposals, and reports are familiar fixtures in almost everybody's carrier.

Written messages have a different set of advantages and drawbacks than their spoken counterparts have. Unlike speech, written communication is permanent. Once your words are down on paper, they are saved for future reference, either to your delight or your undying embarrassment and chagrin.

Along with its permanence, written communication can be easier to understand than speech. Readers can study complex passages as many times as necessary. They can take a break if their interest wanes, and come back to what they were reading refreshed and ready to go on.

Perhaps the greatest advantage of written communication is that you can compose it in advance. You can take as much time as necessary to shape a message just as you want it, pondering every word if necessary. You can try out several versions on test readers to anticipate the reactions of your real audience, and you can make changes until you get the desired response.

Finally, written messages are less prone to errors. Even the best-rehearsed oral presentations can go awry. You can misplace an important set of papers or forget to mention a key idea. Your attempt to improvise might sound confusing or lame. When you communicate in writing, you have time to choose exactly the right words.

The business letter is the basic means of communication between two companies. It is estimated that close to 100 million business letters are written each workday. You will write business letters to inform readers of specific information, to persuade others to take action or to propose your ideas. Business letters even serve as advertisements at times. In addition to a general purpose, business letters also have a specific purpose. Six common types of business letters exist:

· The Order Letter

· The Inquiry Letter

· The Response to an Inquiry Letter

· The Sales Letter

· The Claim Letter

· The Adjustment Letter.

Letters frequently go to outsiders, and they perform an important public relations function in addition to conveying a particular message. Many organizations rely on form letters to save time and money on routine communication. A variation of the form letter is the boilerplate, a standard paragraph that can be selected to suit an occasion or audience. When you write a Business Letter, you will follow a general format. However, your instructor or your company may have specific requirements that you must use. For instance, a company might have a particular way of presenting a salutation or may even use a specific type of letterhead.

The following elements normally make up a business letter's format:

· Heading or Return Address

· Inside Address

· Attention Line

· Subject Line

· Salutation

· Body

· Complimentary Close and Signature

· Reference and Enclosure Lines

· Copy Line.

Memos are the workhorses of business communication, used for routine, day-to-day exchange of information within an organization. You often use memos to designate responsibility, communicate the same material to many people, communicate policy and procedure, confirm oral agreements or decisions, and place specific information on record. In general, memos lack a salutation and use a TO, FROM, DATE and SUBJECT format to emphasize the needs of readers who most likely have time only to skim messages. Good memos discuss only one topic, and their tone is conversational. Because of their open construction and informal method of delivery (e-mail or interoffice mail), memos are less private than letters. Most memos as well as letters are relatively brief documents, generally one or two pages.

Reports and proposals are factual, objective documents that may be distributed to either insiders or outsiders, depending on their purpose and subject. They come in many formats, including preprinted forms, letters, memos, and manuscripts. In length, they range from a few to several hundred pages, and they are generally more formal in tone than a typical business letter or memo.

Two kinds of written communication deserve special mention. Facsimiles (most commonly called “faxes”) are documents that have been transmitted electronically over telephone lines. They share most of the features of other written documents, but the speed with which they can be sent and received makes them more similar to oral messages delivered in person or over the phone. In fact, faxes can be thought of as print versions of voice-mail messages. Because they can put a huge amount of detail in the hands of a receiver almost instantly, faxes can be an ideal complement to phone conversations.

Electronic mail (or e-mail) is another unique communication channel. It allows communicators to send and respond to one another's written messages via computer. Like the telephone and faxes, e-mail is virtually instantaneous. Along with being a tool for external communication, e-mail is often used as an alternative to telephones and personal contacts within an office, where it is often labeled as part of an intranet – an infrastructure that allows people within an organization to exchange information in digital form.

E-mail possesses some characteristics of voice mail. Besides its speed, it allows you to leave messages for others to pick up at their convenience. However, because your ideas appear in writing, e-mail (like letters and faxes) makes it easier to comprehend lengthy, detailed messages. Because it is easy to send a message to several people virtually anywhere in the world, e-mail can expedite communication. You can revise hurriedly if you see you have used the wrong word and offended or confused your audience.

Along with speed, e-mail provides an astonishing degree of access to people you otherwise might not be able to reach. Once you have located someone's address, your messages zip by secretaries and other gatekeepers to the important person you are trying to reach.

E-mail differs from most other forms of written communication in one important way: its informal, almost spontaneous nature. Communicators using e-mail have almost no concerns with the kind of formatting that is important in other business correspondence, and ease of logging on and sending a message increases the frequency and informality of contracts. For this reason, some users have termed e-mail a “conveyer belt for ideas.”

The speed and easy-to-use nature of e-mail also make it a tool for improving personal relationships on the job. Speeding up routine communication leaves more time for personal contacts, which the medium also makes more possible.