ENG 1131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Positive Tone, Internal Communications
29 Aug 2016
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Good News Messages
February 8, 2016
Routine and good news messages
• Informative
• Positive tone
• Clear, direct, purpose driven
Memo:
• Refers to internal communications within a business
• Differences between a memo and a letter:
o Less formal
o No salutation or complimentary close necessary
o No address because it is within the company
Common types of routine messages
• Direct inquiries soliciting input or information
• Responses providing information
• Emails about scheduling, meetings, and work shifts
• Claims
• Instructions
Common types of routine memos
• Policy directives
• Regulations
• Work rules
• Procedures and instructions
Structure
• Provide background or context (only if necessary)
• State purpose clearly and precisely
• Provide any necessary details: be specific
• Close with a good will statement
• Use list format wherever appropriate, especially for routine messages
Instructions or process
• Informative explaining how to do something, or how something is done
1. Understand the process well
2. Make the purpose of the process clear
3. Give clear but not overly detailed instructions
4. Divide the process into simple steps and list in chronological order
5. Adopt a friendly tone
Routine correspondence
• Parallelism: all items in the list begin with the same grammatical form
• For example:
o All nouns
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Document Summary
Informative: positive tone, clear, direct, purpose driven. Memo: refers to internal communications within a business, differences between a memo and a letter, less formal, no salutation or complimentary close necessary, no address because it is within the company. Common types of routine messages: direct inquiries soliciting input or information, responses providing information, emails about scheduling, meetings, and work shifts, claims. Common types of routine memos: policy directives, regulations, work rules, procedures and instructions. Structure: provide background or context (only if necessary, state purpose clearly and precisely, provide any necessary details: be specific, close with a good will statement, use list format wherever appropriate, especially for routine messages. Routine correspondence: parallelism: all items in the list begin with the same grammatical form, for example, all nouns. February 8, 2016: all present participles, all verbs in the past tense, second person singular, all adjectives.
