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Know your recipient: “? % dsct” may be a clear way to ask a close associate what discount to offer a certain customer, but if you are writing a text to your boss, it might be wiser to write, “What % discount does Murray get on $1K order?”
Adjusting the tone and clarity depending on who is being texted.
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Texting is not useful for long or complicated messages, and careful consideration should be given to the audience.
Similar to memos and emails, it is always crucial to know your audience. Texting is good for brief, simple messages and not communications that are detailed.
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Memos are a place for just the facts, and should have an objective tone without personal bias, preference, or interest on display.
keeping the tone neutral and professional keeps opinions and emotional language from appearing in emails.
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A memo must be concise, well organized (following the guidelines given in the next section), and addressed to specific audiences with standard subject lines.
Revision of my memo is important for clarity and structure, and the correct audience targeting.
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Version 2 of Jane Doe’s Email:
Version two stands out because there is a clear subject line, there is a bulleted listen, and a polite greeting and tone, and also the email is short and direct.
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Version 1 of Jane Doe’s Email:
Version one requires proofreading and it could lead to confusion or mistakes because of this poor formating.
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Email from Student 2:
This email is a lot more polite, and respectful and professional. It uses the correct capitalization and they use complete sentences and has some thoughtfulness.
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Email from Student 1:
This email is overly casual, it is impersonal and rushed, there is no formal greeting and no context and it lacks punctuation and formality.
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Be aware of the uses and ethics associated with Reply All and Carbon Copy functions.
This is crucial for a polished and professional email.
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A clear structure (header/address information, greeting, body, and closing) is expected.
This is a strong reminder that structure does indeed matter, and it helps guide my revision.
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Basically, you should adhere to the same polite standards of behavior online that you follow in real life
A good rule of thumb for me in regards to tone and clarity is that my email should be respectful, direct, helpful, and exactly as if I was having a face to face professional conversation
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Avoid assumptions about your readers.
It is important to be specific and not assume that the reader knows the background information or context unless I specifically state it.
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Make sure you include a clear, brief, and specific subject line.
Subject lines are important, they matter. In a memo, titles or headers serve similar functions.
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a well-crafted email helps to establish credibility with an audience by showing awareness of the genre’s conventions, or its standard moves and expectations.
Similar to memos, using the correct structure and tone proves professionalism, it is imperative to revise my memo and to follow the standard expectations.
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The information itself is emotionally charged. For example, if you must communicate bad news to someone, it is better to deliver it in person.
In short if the first memo includes bad news or issues that are sensitive, it is important to revise it to soften the tone of the memo.
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Email is NEVER private!
It is important to remember that content and tone matter, and that no one should be writing anything in their memo that they would not want widely shared or seen.
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You need to distribute information quickly to many people (for example, a memo that needs to be sent to the entire office staff)
This speaks directly to memos, I should revise my memos and they should be structured for a quick read by my audience.
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The information you want to share is not time-sensitive. Email is instantaneous, but it does not guarantee an instantaneous response.
Memos should remain clear and not rely on urgency.
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A clear structure with a greeting, message body, and closing is also expected of this genre.
Although greetings and closings are not required for memos like emails, this strongly reminds me to structure my memos logically and transparently.
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Email can be very useful for messages that have more content than a text message, but conciseness remains one of its major features.
This is an important reminder that even the most detailed workplace communication should remain to the point.
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Strong subject lines, clear formatting, and concise writing are all characteristics of a well-written email.
Key elements for clarity and professionalism.
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- Mar 2025
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Add cross-references to important information.
Using resources such as links, glossaries, appendices helps guide the reader without overwhelming them and overloading the main text.
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Edit for sentence clarity and economy
Precise and shorter sentences enhance readability.
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Change the organization of your information.
The way that the information flows, affects the comprehension of the content. It is important to adjust the placement of background and instructions for better clarity.
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Omit unnecessary information.
Too much details tends to overwhelm the reader, it is important to focus on subjects that are relevant and focus on crucial content.
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Draft your document with your audience’s needs in mind, but remember that writing can be refined over many drafts
This form of writing is a process that requires revision for better clarity and effectiveness.
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You may realize that, although you have an audience that fits into only one category, its background varies widely.
It is very possible that a single audience has diverse levels of expertise and point of views.
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Culture and values
How do shared beliefs and principles impact and influence how content is interpreted?
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Once you have identified the types of readers for a specific document, it is important to determine some of the qualities of these groups
Knowing the background, knowledge and expectations of your audience is to know more than the role of my audience.
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If you believe the document will likely be used by multiple audiences or you are unsure who the primary audience is, you can then write the document so that all the audiences can understand it.
When in doubt, go for accessibility.
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The secondary audience(s
Who else might reference this document?
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Most documents you write will have multiple or mixed audiences.
I should know that documents rarely have just one audience type. Primary and secondary audiences should always be considered.
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Gatekeepers
These are legal reviewers, instructors ensuring compliance, and supervisors.
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Identifying what type of reader may be interested in your document will help you create an improved, more effective document
Audience analysis is important in technical writing as it shapes clarity, content and tone.
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Another way to distinguish among cultural groups is to consider decision-making and the predominant communication modes.
Cultures vary in the way they make decision processes, from storytelling decisions to reliance on generations before.
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High-context cultures are so closely tied together that behavioral norms are implicit, or not talked about directly;
This is an explanation of how certain cultures rely heavily on unspoken communication, which makes implicit understanding extremely important.
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The terms collectivist and individualistic are sometimes used to discuss cultural differences
These are cultural paradigms that impact values, decision-making, and communication styles.
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Diversity includes many different factors, ranging from race and ethnicity to culture and worldview.
Emphasizes that societal/cultural diversity is multi-faced and impacts the ways in which we communicate and form our expectations.
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Culture is part of the very fabric of our thought, and we cannot separate ourselves from it.
Culture forms and shapes the perception and communications we have, which in turn makes it a crucial factor in technical writing.
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You will probably write more in your technical-writing course than in any other course you have ever taken, and the writing is expected to look professional.
A warning to students that this form of writing is rigorous and insists on professionalism, content and representational professionalism.
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One of the most important skills you will practice is analyzing and understanding the rhetorical situation of your writing task.
Technical writing requires acknowledgement and awareness of context, purpose and audience, similar to academic writing.
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Technical writing is an audience-centered means of communication that provides a reader with clear and easy access to information so they understand both the document’s and the author’s purpose and respond accordingly.
Technical writing isn't merely about a writer rather it is about producing accessible information to an audience.
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