Tips for Business Writing/email (UNH)

You are asked to bring examples of email messages from work for use during some of the classroom exercises.

Tuesday, March 22

9:30 a.m.-4 p.m.

University of New Hampshire

Pease International Tradeport, Portsmouth

Email in the workplace is still business writing, a form that offers unprecedented speed and simplicity. Yet, its special characteristics make miscommunication and missed communication occur much for easily, often with unintended results.

This workshop deals first with the general principles and practices of business writing, which is NOT some mysterious form of complex science. It is a means of communication specifically intended to effectively accomplish certain kinds of results. It is a common-sense set of practices organized into a process, and you’ll be a good writer if you follow the process.

We will introduce the steps of the process and try them out. Then we’ll apply them to the tricky email form. We’ll examine how the business writing principles apply to email, and how it differs from other approaches. You’ll determine when to use email and when not to, how to express yourself so you will be understood and what to avoid.

Here is how the workshop is organized:

Introduction

Pressing Problems Clinic

Structure of the Writing Process

Establishing PURPOSE

Analyzing READERSHIP

Setting ORGANIZATION

DRAFTING

REVISING

EDITING

Email as a Business Writing Form

Email Essentials

Lessons for the Business Writer

When Email . . . When Not?

Evaluating Email Samples

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There is no obligation, financial or otherwise, arising from a preliminary discussion of consultation or training solutions.