Business Communications: Chapter 4-Writing Business Messages – Flashcards
Unlock all answers in this set
Unlock answersquestion
"You" Attitude
answer
Speaking and writing in terms of your audience's wishes, interests, hopes and preferences
question
Euphemisms
answer
Milder synonyms (To convey your meaning without carrying negative connotations)
question
Bias-free language
answer
Avoids words and phrases that unfairly and even unethically categorize or stigmatize people in ways related to gender, race, ethnicity, age, disability or other personal characteristics
question
Credibility
answer
A measure of your believability and is based on how reliable you are and how much trust you evoke in others
question
Style
answer
The choices you make to express yourself: the words you select, the manner in which you use those words in sentences, and the way you build your paragraphs from individual sentences
question
Tone
answer
Overall impression
question
Conversational Tone
answer
Palin language that sounds businesslike without being stuffy at one extreme or too laid-back and informal at the other extreme (Use Plain Language when creating a conversational tone... Plain language presents information in a simple, unadorned style that allows your audience to easily grasp your meaning)
question
Active Voice
answer
The subject performs the action and the object receives the action Example: "Jodi sent the email message"
question
Passive Voice
answer
The subject receives the action Example: "The email message was sent by Jodi"
question
Abstract word
answer
Expresses a concept, quality or characteristic
question
Concrete word
answer
Stands for something you can touch, see or visualize
question
Cliches
answer
Terms and phrases so common that they have lost some of their power to communicate
question
Buzzwords
answer
Newly coined terms often associated with technology, business or cultural changes
question
Jargon
answer
Specialized language of a particular profession or industry
question
Simple sentence
answer
Has one main clause (a single subject and single predicate)
question
Compound sentence
answer
Has two main classes that express two or more independent but related thoughts of equal importance, usually joined by and, but, or or.
question
Complex sentence
answer
Expresses one main though (the independent clause) and one or more subordinate thoughts (dependent clauses), often separated by a comma.
question
Compound-complex sentence
answer
Has two main clauses, at least one of which contain a subordinate clause.
question
Topic sentence
answer
Reveals the subject of the paragraph
question
Transitions
answer
Connect ideas by showing how one thought is related to another
question
Inverted Pyramid
answer
Which you reveal the most important information briefly at first and then provide successive layers of detail that readers can consume if they want
question
Executive summary
answer
For mobile use: users like it short and simple Requires you to write two documents: 1. Executive Summary- shorter document for mobile use 2. Longer supporting document that readers can access with their PCs if they want more details
