The audience, purpose and method of communication influence the writing style and tone of the text document. The audience can be internal customers or external customers. The type of audience also reflects the material used in the document. Hence, depending on the type of audience the tone of the text document is determined. The purpose defines the reason of writing the document and hence depending on the type of reason the tone changes. There are many methods of writing a document for example, report, letter, email and all these types of documents are written with a different format and for different audience (Taylor, 2016).
For each of the following examples listed in the table below, explain the key inclusions for a text document. You are required to recreate the table below and list at least three (3) key points for inclusion in each document.
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Situation
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Key points for inclusion
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You need to seek permission from your manager about whether you can attend a two (2) day course to improve that will improve your sales skills
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1.Important facts of the course
2.Argument why you want to attend the course
3.Outcome of attending the course
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You have been asked by your manager to contact a client and organise a meeting with a client who returned a large amount of stock recently because it was faulty. Your manager is available any day other than Monday after 2:00pm
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1.Key messages
2.Complaint and a brief feedback of the faulty stock
3.Arguments of the meeting
4.Outcome of the meeting
5.Availability for the meeting
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The four different policies or procedures an organisation may have regarding document creation are as follows:
- Style Guides and Templates- The organisation follow a particular style guides and templates policies i.e. they use their own style guides to increase the productivity and provides consistent presentation. The organisations make use of correct font, headings, margins, images, charts and graphs. The organisation also keeps a check on the spelling and grammar and makes use of document layout and structure. Apart from this, they also use number and bullet lists in their documents and uses innovative writing styles.
- Mostly the organisations make an authorized set of authorities who review the documents on the regular basis before delivering the document. They also ensure that the requirements are cleared before the creation of the document.
- The organisations make protocols and seek the copyright legislation for any sort of non-discriminatory language. This means that the organisations seek that no discriminatory languages are used in the document creation and seeks that all copyrights are getting fulfilled.
- The organisation also places the document requirements at few locations so that the employees can look for the requirements easily and do not make any mistake. Few such locations are: workplace manuals, employment contract, supervisor, recommended procedures guide and many more(Lotich, 2016).
Passive languages are languages in which the subject is acted upon by the action done to it. Example of passive language is, “The tax return was completed before the April 15 deadline by Mr. Johnson.
Active languages are languages in which the subject acts by performing the action expresses in the verb. For example, Mr. Johnson completed the tax return before the April 15 deadline.
Active languages should be utilised when writing business documents because it makes the documents stronger by showing responsibility or giving credit for an action. Active language makes the meaning clearer to the reader as it precisely identifies the action and who is performing the action (Jerz, 2008).
- Work emails should always be written using a formal style because this style is appropriate for the audience of work emails. Formal style is an effective way of communicating with the intended audience. The way an organisation writes the document reflects its professional reputation. Apart from this, formal style is always used while writing documents to the business. As, the work emails are a part of the organisation hence a professional environment should exist. The formal style in work mails also describes the attitude of the person towards the receiver. Therefore, to maintain professionalism work emails should always follow a formal style(Wilson, 2010).
- “Hi Joe. How are you these days? I have a request that, Can you please let the marketing branch of your company know that we have received their information? I just found it in my mail and I had a look on it. Thank you Bill Have a good day.”
The four different means of communication which can be used to produce a text document are:
- A word processing program which produces document
- Email programs for example Microsoft Outlook
- PowerPoint presentations for preparing presentations
- Spread sheet programs which produces spread sheets
To give a business presentation, the PowerPoint presentations can come into use. Secondly, the spread sheets can be used to analyse the data and for making calculations. Word processing documents are used to prepare business reports and email programs are used to send emails be it formal emails or informal emails.
The actions which a person would take to write the first draft of a document are:
- By establishing the key points and information in the document into meaningful sentences and paragraphs
- By placing the document in a logical and meaningful sequence
- By following the format which is required for a specific document
Suitable Document Formats for Different Purposes and Audiences
To write the document clearly a person has to ensure few things like,
- The purpose of the document should be explained
- The information must be arranged in order of priority
- Concluding in a way that the reader understands the core concept
To ensure that the person has obtained and included all the necessary information which is required in that document the work can be reviewed by the supervisor or any other colleague. It is necessary to get the document proof read before the final draft.
After completing a final edit of the draft work, following things need to be done,
A ) Check for the suitability of tone for audience, purpose, format and communication style because each and every document is created for different types of audience hence it is mandatory to seek that the reason of drafting the document is clear or not. Along with this, it is mandatory to ensure that each and every document has clear specifications i.e. the communication should be clearing, targeted, precise and professional. The tone and style should be clear so that it is easy for the recipient to understand and interpret the document easily.
- B) Spelling mistakes has to be checked by a spell checker so that there is no error in the document. The punctuations should be at right places and should have clear meaning. The spell checker should also ensure that there are no grammatical errors in the sentences. The flow and accuracy along with the readability should be precise. Readability is improved by adding or cutting the words, by replacing complex words with simple words, and by checking the sentence structure and the flow of the document.
The sentences should start with a capital letter and should end with a full stop. They should also contain three components i.e. a thought which is complete, a subject and an action. Each and every paragraph should have an idea which should be highlighted at the beginning or in the middle of the paragraph. All the paragraphs should be linked with each other and should have a logical development.
The sequencing and structuring of the document is an important part because the document should be user friendly and hence the content should have good sequence along with a good flow of the information. Sections, headings, subheadings, bullet points, key numbering into the text should be in a adaptable structure. The main key points of the document should be highlighted at the beginning and then should build up into more detail as one proceeds with the document.
- C) The document should be reviewed after the final edit of the document to see that the document meets the organisations requirements and standards. The document should withstand all the procedures and policies of the organisation. This proof read must be done by a reliable person so that they give genuine feedbacks and the person can work upon the mistakes.
If the draft documents and the work are proofread by another person then it gets easy to find the mistakes. Proof read done by another reliable person will reduce mistakes as they will provide honest feedbacks intended to be audience. Another person will easily figure out whether the message is clear or not and is the purpose of the document clearly understood or not.
Few of the reliable people that may proof-read a draft copy are the supervisor, the manager, the senior staff members, or the designated editor.
I disagree with this statement because it is important to re check the document again after making the changes and look for second proofreaders. The document should be proof-read again because if someone else sees the document for the first time it is very easy for them to find errors and mistakes. With the help of their feedback, the document can be made more precise and user-friendly. Once again the document should be checked for spelling mistakes, readability, sentence and paragraph checking along with the organisational standards. The document can be reviewed by using manuals and user-documentation.
The steps taken to ensure that any document which is created is received by the intended recipient are:
- By printing the document- Before sending the document to the intended recipients the document, print the document. The document should also be sent to primary as well as to the secondary recipients.
- By forwarding the document- Forward the document to all the staff members and seek approval and signature in case the document is not written by you(Thill, 2008).
- Filling is not one of the important parts of the business operations but it has been observed that it is important for an organisation to follow the filling procedures. As the filling system provides an authenticate and well-organized storage for records, hence it is easy to identify the document and then retrieve it. The filling procedure can be implemented by manual filing systems and computer filing systems. The naming convention of the documents should be feasible so that they can be easily used after a long period of time.
- Global Star Enterprises (GSE) has definite requirements when naming and saving the electronic documents and files. The documents and files are named in accordance with the content of the document. The folders are also named with respect to the content. For example, if there is a complaint response se from a person then the document should be named as person’s name_complaint_response and then the response should be saved in a folder named as Complaint Response.
Along with this at Global Star Enterprises the files and folders are saved on the S:network drive. GSE’s network is shared on this drive and hence all the GSE staff members can easily access the documents, files and the folders. At the time of induction programme, the staff members are given access to this drive. The work is saved before closing the files so that the next time a person uses the document he can look for the file in the directory with the name.
The documents and files are meant to handle with care to ensure that there is no loss of materials. It is also important that the document meets the business needs. If any staff member has any problem they can ask for advices and feedbacks from their colleagues and seniors (Price, 2006).
Basically, the files have few extensions to sort all the files according to the information present in the document. Few examples of these extensions are: .doc, .html, .jpeg, .txt and many more.
References
Bove?e, C., & Thill, J. (2008). Business communication essentials. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Communication Specialists of America.
Ford, N. (2009). BSBWRT301A. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.
Heeps, S. (2016). Writing an Effective Business Document. Retrieved 28 January 2018, from https://www.writeexpress.com/writing-business.html
Jerz, D. (2008). Active and Passive Voice (Why It’s Important to Prefer Active Verbs) | Jerz's Literacy Weblog. Retrieved 28 January 2018, from https://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/grammar-and-syntax/active-and-passive-verbs/
Lotich, P. (2016). 7 Reasons to Write Business Policies and Procedures — The Thriving Small Business. Retrieved 28 January 2018, from https://thethrivingsmallbusiness.com/7-advantages-to-writing-business-policies-and-procedures/
Price, C., & Wix, J. (2006). Write simple documents, BSBWRT301T. Chatswood, N.S.W.: Software Publications Internatioal Pty. Ltd.
Taylor, S., & Gartside, L. (2016) Model business letters, emails and other business documents. USA:John Wiley and Sons.
Staff Intranet - Global Star Enterprises. (2018). Retrieved 28 January 2018, from https://www.globalstarenterprises.com/staff/intranet/
Wilson, K., & Wauson, J. (2010). The AMA handbook of business writing. New York: AMACOM/American Management Association.
