CHAMBERS An imprint of Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd CONTENTS 7 Hopetoun Crescent Edinburgh EH7 4AY First published by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd 2007 Introduction v © Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd 2007 Glossary of grammatical terms viii Part One: The Basics Sentences and paragraphs 3 We have made every effort to mark as such all words which we believe Clear and effective writing 19 to be trademarks. We should also like to make it clear that the presence of Common misunderstandings 33 a word in this book, whether marked or unmarked, in no way affects Good punctuation 37 its legal status as a trademark. Common mistakes 54 Quiz 77 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, Part Two: Everyday Communication stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of Letters 81 E-mails 91 the publisher. Faxes and memos 99 Materials for meetings 102 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Reports 109 Sales proposals 120 ISBN 978 0550 10325 3 Business plans and programmes 123 Electronic presentations 125 Editor: Ian Brookes Prepress Controller: Becky Pickard Part Three: Marketing and Corporate Communications Press releases 133 Leaflets and brochures 139 Direct mail 143 Newsletters 148 Websites 151 Financial communications 154 Designed and typeset by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh Printed and bound in Spain by GraphyCems Part Four: Perfecting Your Work Introduction Planning and drafting 157 Revising and reworking 162 Proofreading 166 Suggested style rules 171 Everyone studies English at school, but when people try to put this Solutions 183 learning into practice in the workplace, it often seems that they are Index 197 not properly equipped to communicate effectively. Both knowledge and practical ability are missing, and this can not only damage the organization you work for but also hamper your career path. This book is designed to address those gaps and weaknesses. It aims to equip you with the tools and skills you need to be able to write all the different types of documents you are likely to produce during your working life - and to write them clearly and effectively It is packed with examples so you can see words in action. There are lots of exercises, so you can test your knowledge as you go. But, perhaps most important of all, it aims to give you confidence in your writing and in your knowledge of the written word, so you can not only produce documents of a far higher quality but can also contribute to other people’s work. Why is English important in business? Any organization needs to communicate to a variety of audiences: to its staff, its customers, its suppliers, its shareholders and any other stakeholder group. And writing remains the primary method of communication: perhaps even more so today, with e- mail supplanting the telephone for much internal and external communication. If you get that communication wrong, relationships may be damaged, orders may be lost, investment may be refused, staff may become demotivated, and suppliers may be alienated. What you write doesn’t go away. Unlike a conversation, it can be revisited time and again. So any mistakes are magnified and any lack of understanding soon becomes common knowledge. But get it right and it can make a positive impression. v INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION How to use this book Part Three looks at other communications which your organization Business English is broken down into four separate but comple- may create. They may not be your specific responsibility, but if you mentary units. understand them, you are better placed to contribute and comment on them. This section looks at how they are produced and the Part One is all about the language you use and the way you write. questions you should ask when reviewing them. It covers: It is split into five sections: • Press releases: the mysterious world of communicating with the • Sentences and paragraphs: how these basic building blocks of public via the press. writing work; how to make them clear and effective. • Leaflets and brochures: planning content; getting the tone right; • Effective writing style: choosing the best word; cutting out using persuasive words. unnecessary words; making sure your writing says what you • Direct mail: taking letters a stage further to create powerful mean it to say selling tools. • Common misunderstandings about grammar: debunking a few • Newsletters: identifying the right tone and the best content. myths about what you can and can’t write. • Websites: every organization has one, but how can you make it • Good punctuation: from apostrophes to commas to quotation really work for you? marks, and all points in between. • Financial communications: a word of warning. • Confusing words: avoiding some common vocabulary mistakes which would lessen the impact of your work. Part Four takes your writing skills a stage further, to help you plan, structure, review and revise. Taking time over your work will make Throughout Part One there are exercises to test your knowledge as it more powerful and more successful. This section looks at: you go along. • Planning: how to get over those first hurdles before you even put finger to keyboard. Part Two focuses on the key documents you will produce during your working life. These comprise: • Drafting: getting started and then filling in the substance around your plan. • Letters, e-mails, faxes and memos: helping you to improve • Reviewing and revising: changing and improving your work. structure, tone and impact of the most fundamental written communications. • Shortening: how do you cut it back if it’s too long for the purpose? • Materials for meetings: how to prepare agendas which lead to • Summarizing: the steps you need to take to produce a summary successful meetings; and how to write minutes and contact reports which might make all the difference as to whether the reader which accurately reflect and clearly summarize proceedings. looks at the rest of a document. • Reports, proposals and plans: how to plan, structure and write • Proofreading and house style: helping you to achieve accuracy these extended pieces of work. and consistency not only in your own documents but also across • Electronic presentations: how to prepare presentations which your entire organization. will support rather than distract when using software such as Microsoft Office PowerPoint®. By the end, you will be better equipped to produce clear, concise and effective business English. vi Glossary of grammatical terms adjective a word used to describe a noun: a warm day; a happy man adverb a word used to describe a verb: he ran fast; the products sold well clause a unit of words which may or may not stand alone as a sentence conjunction a linking word, such as and, but, whether, although noun a naming word, such as man, woman, company, proposal, office paragraph a group of sentences that stand together phrase any unit of words, not necessarily capable of standing alone as a sentence preposition a word that links with a noun, such as up, with, down, by pronoun something that replaces a noun but refers to it: it, he, she, they sentence the largest unit to which the rules of grammar apply; this is a group of words which is complete and needs nothing else to make it complete verb a word that expresses an action, mental process or state of being, such as run, walk, sell, buy, think, stand THE BASICS Before you can expect to produce good and clear English in letters, Sentences and paragraphs reports or e-mails, you need to get the basics right. So the place to start is with the building blocks of writing: sentences and paragraphs. Once you understand what they are, how they work and how best to structure them, you can then move on to producing documents which communicate effectively. What is a sentence? This opening section will start by explaining how to construct Firstly, what is a sentence? A definition that might be familiar to you correct sentences and paragraphs so that your documents are clear is that it is something ‘which starts with a capital letter and ends and easy to read. with a full stop’. However, this can be misleading; the following phrases follow these criteria but they are not sentences: It will then look at the words you use: how to choose the most No parking. effective words and phrases and how to be economical with the number of words you use. It will also debunk some grammatical Traditional food purveyor myths, before looking at that fundamental part of sentences and Gentlemen's outfitters. paragraphs: good punctuation. A sentence is something more: it is a grammatical construction which Finally, there is an exploration of some vocabulary which is often can stand alone without feeling incomplete. It is built according to misused: confusing words and words used in error. Making these the agreed rules of grammar, and it is the largest unit to which the mistakes can undermine your writing, so it’s vital to avoid them. By rules of grammar apply. (We’ll see later that a paragraph is merely a increasing your understanding and knowledge of what is right and collection of sentences rather than a grammatical construction.) wrong in the English language, your confidence will grow and this will be reflected in the style and tone of your writing. The shortest sentence has a subject and a finite verb (a verb that describes a complete action): You’ll find plenty of exercises to test your knowledge throughout this section. At the very end, there is a quiz which will bring together Peter cried. many of the areas covered. It will help you assess how much you Peter is the subject; cried is the verb. have absorbed. Most simple sentences have a subject, a verb and an object: John trimmed the hedge. John is the subject; trimmed is the verb; the hedge is the object. SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS A sentence is not to be confused with a fragment, which needs Placing a support unit first sets the scene for the sentence, as in something else to complete it, as in this example: these examples: Rising and falling as they went. To tell you the truth, I couldn't care less. This needs something more to make it a full sentence: His argument in tatters, Peter walked out of the room. Rising and falling as they went, the horses slowly With so many leads, the client was delighted. swam across the river. By splitting open the control unit and placing the support unit in The sentence now has two parts: a ‘main clause’ and a ‘secondary the middle, you can give more information to the reader. You should clause’. The main clause can stand by itself as a complete sentence; generally put this type of support unit between two commas, the secondary clause cannot. brackets or dashes: ✓ The horses slowly swam across the river. The new admin assistant - a very efficient X Rising and falling as they went. woman - soon found herself in demand. The old mansion, our company's HQ since 1958, was Another way of looking at this is to think of the two separate clauses on fire. as a control unit and a support unit. Look at this clause: The car park (which can take 150 cars) is in danger The shop sells furniture of flooding. This is a control unit and a complete sentence. Placing the support unit at the end of the control unit gives it more impact and a stronger feeling of adding extra information: Now consider this clause: Telnet’s workers get free lunches, sometimes twice a Especially hand-crafted chairs week. This is a support unit and not a complete sentence. Jon went home, although he didn't want to. But see what happens when we put the two together: Practice exercise Identify the complete sentences (control units) and the fragments The shop sells furniture, especially hand-crafted chairs. (support units). Check your answers on page 183. 1 The staff took their holidays. Now we have a control unit plus a support unit and so the support 2 At the quietest time of the year. unit can stand as part of a complete sentence. 3 Holding on to the desk for support. 4 Peter stood to make the presentation. Support units can be used at different places in a sentence, either 5 The office will open at 10am. before, after, or in the middle of a control unit. 6 To allow for cleaning. SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS This sentence runs to 38 words and is very difficult to follow: it is Sentence length full of separate clauses which don’t quite fit together smoothly. It Short, concise sentences communicate your point more clearly than can be improved by splitting it into two and changing the order of sentences which ramble on and on. As a guide, sentences should be no the information to make it more logical: more than 15 to 20 words long. However, while short sentences have a sense of vigour and urgency and keep your readers on their toes, a Resources such as the online InfoBank further assist succession of short sentences soon becomes repetitive and boring. So in our goal of providing all developers with a superior variety is the answer: keep most sentences short, but also include the level of support. InfoBank, which is only available to occasional longer sentence to add variety and improve the flow supported customers, contains almost 500 technical articles on all aspects of using our software. Keeping sentences short There are several techniques you can use to make a long, flabby Another way of keeping sentences short and snappy is to cut out sentence shorter and more punchy. It may be that you can split it unnecessary words. Look at this example: into separate sentences. Look at this example: An example of financial advisory services at Jumbo The technology is called the Advanced Dispensing Bank is the provision of these services to low-income System (ADS) and provides high levels of security households. for dispensing drugs, while also enabling clinicians to remotely monitor and, if required, remotely control The sentence could be rewritten using 11 words rather than 18: drug usage in real time. For example, Jumbo Bank provides financial advisory services to low-income households. This sentence contains 35 words. The meaning would be far clearer if it were split into two, by simply making the first clause into a Note the changes that have been made to shorten the sentence: separate sentence and adding a subject for the verb at the beginning • An example of has become For example. of the new second sentence to make it stand by itself: • The subject of the sentence has changed from An example to The technology is called the Advanced Dispensing Jumbo Bank. System (ADS). It provides high levels of security for • The provision of has become provides. dispensing drugs, while also enabling clinicians to remotely monitor and, if required, remotely control • The repetition of services has been removed. drug usage in real time. The last paragraph demonstrates a further technique for avoiding Now look at this example: excessively long sentences: using bullet points. Sometimes sentences become too long because they comprise what is in effect a list. If so, Resources such as the online InfoBank (only available you can make your meaning much clearer through using bullets. to supported customers), containing almost 500 technical articles on all aspects of using our software, further assist in our goal of providing all developers with a superior level of support. SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS Consider this example: Joining sentences together While clear English is often achieved through using short sentences, The range has many benefits, which include corrosion- excessive use of short sentences can make your writing seem resistant components and panels, scratch-resistant unsophisticated and weak. It is sometimes better to join two short surfaces, concealed fixings, double-fixed locks to sentences together to make one, more sophisticated, unit. prevent removal, overhead modesty screens to deter peeping Toms and rounded internal corners to aid Look at the following simple sentences: cleaning. The cat sat on the desk. By splitting this down into bullets, these benefits become much The dog ran down the road. clearer: The lorry drove away. The range has many benefits, which include: • corrosion-resistant components and panels The delegates laughed at their mistakes. • scratch-resistant surfaces The trainer wasn't happy • concealed fixings • double-fixed locks to prevent removal The observer felt uncomfortable. • overhead modesty screens to deter peeping Toms • rounded internal corners to aid cleaning You can join simple sentences together using words such as and, but, whereas and although. (These ‘joining words’ are called conjunctions.) Practice exercise 1 Break the following long sentence into shorter sentences. Check In these examples, simple sentences have been joined together your answers on page 183. using conjunctions to make longer ones: We seek to grow our business by offering innovative The cat sat on the desk and the dog ran down the road. leathers which are differentiated from competing The delegates laughed at their mistakes but the products by their performance, quality and trainer wasn't happy. consistency and which are backed by the highest standards of customer service. The delegates laughed at their mistakes although the observer felt uncomfortable. 2 Break the following long sentence into shorter sentences: A key point to remember is that it is not enough to use just a comma Smith's share price is down, sales are under pressure, to join complete sentences together: it has withdrawn some of its promotional activities and the Health Protection Agency has linked the X The cat sat on the desk, the dog ran down the road. company to an outbreak of a rare strain of salmonella X The delegates laughed at their mistakes, the trainer among 45 people by describing it as 'an exact match wasn't happy. of that [strain] found in the product SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS If you join three sentences together, you can use a comma to make In this example Peter is the subject; opened is the verb; his diary is the first link, but you need at least one conjunction: the object. The cat sat on the desk, the dog ran down the road but the lorry drove away In a passive sentence the subject has something done to it. A passive sentence usually follows the pattern of subject + passive The delegates laughed at their mistakes, although verb + agent: the trainer wasn't happy and the observer felt uncomfortable. The diary was opened by Peter. Once again, using just commas is not enough: In this example the diary is the subject; was opened is the verb; Peter is the agent. X The cat sat on the desk, the dog ran down the road, the lorry drove away Active sentences are far more punchy and tend to be shorter. It is The delegates laughed at their mistakes, the trainer good practice to use active sentences rather than passive. It will wasn't happy, the observer felt uncomfortable. make your writing clearer and more succinct. Practice exercise However, there are some occasions when using the passive can help to Join these sentences together to make a more sophisticated communicate what you are trying to say more effectively. The passive sentence. Check your answers on page 183. can be used as a more tactful way of writing, taking the full impact 1 It was a bright evening. The birds chirped in the trees. away from something you do not want to stress or draw attention to: 2 It was a bright evening. The birds chirped in the trees. Annie sat Journal entry errors were made in the books. in the garden. 3 It was a bright evening. The house was dark when they arrived. By using the active (Our accountant made journal entry errors in the They turned on the lights. books), all the blame goes on a named person - but perhaps this 4 We need to develop a new programme which will attract new is not what you want to stress. By using the passive, the person customers. We need to assure existing clients that this will not remains anonymous and the focus of the sentence is on simply affect them. admitting there were errors. 5 We need to develop a new programme which will attract new customers. We need to assure existing clients that this will not The passive can be used to deal with tricky matters, such as being affect them. We need to prove this to them. courteous when asking staff to do something. An active sentence structure here might come across as authoritarian: Active and passive sentences In an active sentence the subject carries out the action described by You have not completed your timesheets. the verb. An active sentence usually follows the pattern of subject + verb + object: Turning it around into the passive takes some of the sting out of the reminder or rebuke: Peter opened his diary. Timesheets have not been completed. 10