Chapter 6: Completing Flashcards
How to revise 3 types of documents
Informal: Although causal check for grammar, spelling, and clarity
Digital: Likewise check, digital messages as they can affect your reputation
Complex: Take time off, look at it again with “fresh eyes”. Ensure words convey general message, before refining its conciseness and clarity
What is the importance of careful revision:
-Prevents mistakes that harm your reputation, and also prevents confusion, frustration and costly delays
What are the tasks involved in evaluating your first drafts?
Look at :
- Content: Clarity and Accuracy; Relevance and Completeness( giving enough info to appreciate the message)
- Organization:
Order and Emphasis-main points in the right place, receive most space;
Repetition and Grouping(are details grouped logically) - Tone: Too casual vs Too Formal
What is involved in evaluating someone else’s work?
Right motive: Promote Writer’s success, not impose your own style/agenda
Then Support the Writer’s Intent: Learn what the writer wanted to Accomplish
Find out audience and their needs, and Seek to improve: clarity, readability, and organization
What are 4 techniques we can use to improve readability of messages?
Vary Sentence Length: Short 0-14:- Easy read, Medium15-25: more detail, long over 25: more expansive- can share facts, ideas
Use shorter paragraphs: up to 100 words- don’t go overboard with short paragraphs
Using lists and bullets: uses less words, makes it easier to read and pick out main ideas and details that can be skipped.
Adding effective headings and subheadings: Helps readers see flow of content, and see relationship between main content and subordinate ones
What are the types of heading and subheadings?
Descriptive: Identifies what content is with no added details
Informative: Gives more information that can influence the readers’ thinking
Example:
Descriptive- Demand for cookies
Informative- Decline in Demand due to Cow deaths
What are eight steps to improve the clarity of your writing?
- Break Up Overly Long Sentences-
- Rewrite Hedging Sentences- be sure, don’t use may, seem, likely, probable etc.
- Impose Parallelism- use same grammatical structure
- Correct Dangling Modifiers- place them next to what they are modifying
- Reword Long Noun Sequences
- Replace Camouflaged Verbs: Verbs changed to nouns- eg. verification
- Clarify structure- Place subject close to predicate as close as possible
- Clarify awkward References: linking ideas in a way that takes more energy to understand. Law office and Accounting office
Give 4 tips on being concise
- Delete Unnecessary Words and Phrases
- Shorten Long Words and Phrases
- Eliminate Redundancies
- Rewrite “It is/There are” starters. “It is believed to be common knowledge” vs “We all know”
What are the 4 principles of effective design for readability?
Consistency- Consistent patterns of design features- fonts, colours, typeface
Balance- Having the right amount and right mixture of elements on a page
Restraint- Be simple
Detail- Look at details that affect overall design- wide columns look daunting to read
Explain the role of 5 major design elements in document readability
White space: Can make doc look less intimidating for the reader, too much makes text look disjointed
Margins: Space around text can also affect its appearance to the reader
Justification: This deals with alignment- Justified is more dense and professional looking
Typefaces: Choose fonts that allow readers to clearly see letters. Font styles affect tone: Times- formal, Jokerman- informal
Typestyles: Bold, Italics, Underline- highlights critical points, too much make it hard to decide what is important.
What are items needed in letter format?
- Letterhead
- To Address
- Date (1 double space from sender’s address)
- Body
- Solution
Design for mobile devices- give 4 considerations
Think in Small Chunks- Don’t put too much in one message. And do not send multiple small messages that can be compiled into 1
Use White Space Generously- More spacing makes the message look less intimidating to read.
Format Simply- Outline the message in a simple way, using simple features
Experiment With Layouts- many devices can rotate screen so make content compatible for that
What kind of errors do proofreading catch?
Language Errors- affects your impression
Missing Material- Missing info may make the document harder to read and understand.
Design Errors- Like in Posters, letter heads etc. Ensure the correct idea is given off, should be easy to understand; avoid unethical/controversial items that may offend.
Typographical Errors- Happens all the time. Makes reading and understanding more difficult
Give eight tips for successful proofreading.
- Make Multiple Passes- look at one aspect at a time- eg. grammar errors, clarity, conciseness
- Use Perceptual Tricks- Sometimes you miss errors as your brain makes you see what was supposed to be on the page. Combat this by reading each word silently, or reading aloud, pronouncing each word carefully
- Double-check High Priority Items
- Give Yourself Some Distance- Give your mind time to breeze out then come back and proofread.
- Be Vigilant- don’t read large chunks in one sitting; don’t read when tired
- Stay Focused- block out distractions
- Review Complex Digital Documents on Paper- Paper makes it easier for some people
- Take Your Time
Discuss the most important issues to consider when distributing your messages
Cost: Consider the most cost-effective way of getting the message across. Eg. Printing memos vs sending one to employee email.
Convenience: The distribution method should be easily accessible for the reader. Eg. Aeorion provide recordings so that the student can access the info at their convenience
Time: How soon does the message need to reach the audience? Don’t mark messages as urgent if they are not.
Security: Sensitive info must be sent directly. Use software to prevent transmission of viruses in documents.
