Ch. 4: Writing Business Messages – Flashcards
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______ 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.
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Bias-free Language
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______ is a measure of your believability and is based on how reliable you are and how much trust you evoke in others.
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Credibility
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An audience will look at your? __________ to see if you have whatever it takes to back up your message.
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Credentials, Knowledge, and Expertise
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Your ______ involves 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 paragraphs from individual sentences.
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Communication Style
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In a sentence written in the ______, the subject performs the action and the object receives the? action: "Jasper painted the? house."
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Active Voice
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In a sentence written in the ______, the subject receives the action.
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Passive Voice
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An ______ expresses a? concept, quality, or characteristic.
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Abstract Word
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______ are usually? broad, encompassing a category of? ideas, and are often? intellectual, academic, or philosophical.
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Abstractions
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A ______ stands for something you can? touch, see, or visualize.
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Concrete Word
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A ______ has one main clause? (a single subject and a single? predicate), although it may be expanded by nouns and pronouns serving as objects of the action and by modifying phrases.
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Simple Sentence
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A ______ expresses one main thought? (the independent? clause) and one or more subordinate thoughts? (dependent clauses) related to? it, often separated by a comma.? (Independent clauses can stand alone. Dependent clauses? cannot.)
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Complex Sentence
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______ connect ideas by showing how one thought is related to another. They also help alert the reader to what lies ahead so that shifts and changes? don't cause confusion.
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Transitions
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The ______, usually the first one in the? paragraph, gives readers a summary of the general idea that will be covered in the rest of the paragraph. In most? paragraphs, the ______ needs to be? explained, justified, or extended with one or more support sentences.
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Topic Sentence
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To simplify reading on a ______, organize with a linear flow from the top to the bottom of the message or article. Not doing so makes reading slower and raises the odds that readers will get disoriented and lose the thread of the message because they? can't see the big picture.
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Mobile Device
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The ______ style of writing can be used to reveal the most important information briefly at first and the writer can provide successive layers of detail that readers can consume if they want. This style is used for many types of business communication.
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Inverted Pyramid
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You can improve ______ by adopting the "you" attitude, maintaining good standards of etiquette, emphasizing the positive, and using bias-free language.
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Audience Sensitivity
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Adopting the ______ means speaking and writing in terms of your audience's wishes, interests, hopes, and preferences.
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"You" Attitude
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Avoid using ______ when doing so: 1) Makes you sound dictatorial 2) Makes someone else feel guilty 3) Goes against your organization's style
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You and Your
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Use ______ when communicating with people higher up the organization chart or outside the company.
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Extra Tact
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______ are milder synonyms that can express an idea while triggering fewer negative connotations, but they should never be used to obscure the truth.
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Euphemisms
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An ______ is a statement on your behalf by someone who is accepted by your audience as an expert.
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Endorsement
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To ______, emphasize such factors as honesty, objectivity, and awareness of audience needs.
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Enhance Your Credibility
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A ______ is plain language that sounds businesslike without being stuffy at one extreme or too laid-back and informal at the other extreme.
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Conversational Tone
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______ is language that recipients can read, understand and act upon the first time they read it.
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Plain Language
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______ is the first consideration when choosing words.
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Correctness
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______ is the second consideration when choosing words.
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Effectiveness
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______ are terms and phrases so common that they have lost some of their power to communicate.
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Clichés
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______ are newly coined terms often associated with technology, business, or cultural changes.
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Buzzwords
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______ is the specialized language of a particular profession or industry.
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Jargon
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A ______ has two main clauses, at least one of which contains a subordinate clause.
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Compound-Complex Sentence
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Maintain some variety among the ______ to keep your writing from getting choppy (too many short, simple sentences) or exhausting (too many long sentences).
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Four Sentence Types
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Most ______ consist of: 1) A topic sentence that reveals the subject of the paragraph. 2) Related sentences that support and expand the topic. 3) Transitions that help readers move between sentences and paragraphs.
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Paragraphs
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______ include: 1) Connecting words (conjunctions) 2) Repeated words or phrases 3) Pronouns 4) Words that are frequently paired
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Transitional Elements
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Five ways to ______: 1) Illustration 2) Comparison or contrast 3) Cause and effect 4) Classification 5) Problem and solution
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Develop Paragraphs
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To write effectively for ______: 1) Use a linear organization 2) Prioritize information 3) Write short, focused messages 4) Use short subject lines and headings 5) Use short paragraphs
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Mobile Devices
