Business communication

1. AGENDA
Written Communication
Do’s and Don’ts of written Communication
E-mails
Reports
Meetings
4
Day
Minutes of Meeting

2. Written Communication
Pen is mightier than Sword
Two broad principles of writing are:
Write to express, not to impress Keep it short and simple

3. Five ways to Effective Writing
Put the readers first
Use simple words and short sentences
Communication = Understanding
Use words readers can picture
Tie in to the reader’s experience
What’s in it for me
In order to (to)
Due to the fact that (because)
In the event that (if)
During the time that (when, while)
in the amount of (for)

4. Use jargon only when necessary
What is Jargon?
Format to improve readability
Use lists, bullets, charts, tables,
indents, italics, bold, heading etc...
Write with verbs and nouns
Use the active voice
When it is okay to use passive voice
Five ways to Effective Writing

5. Do’s and Don’t of Written Business Communication
DO
DON’T
Keep writing as simple and succinct
as possible
Structure and organize your
business writing
Choose an appropriate tone for
your business writing
Save your best written documents
as templates for future use
Write with the reader in mind
Forget to include a call to action if
a response is needed
Be careless when writing a
recipient’s name, gender or title
Be tempted to use sarcasm jokingly
in written communication
Become over-reliant on your
computer’s spelling / grammar
checking facility
Be unprofessional in your writing

6. Emails
Be prompt and respond to
important email
Decide carefully who should be cc-
ed on email.
Use a clear subject line to clarify
what your email is about
Include an email “signature”
Be clear and specific
Capitalization
Avoid fancy look and special
characters
Refrain from using BCC
USE BLOCK or BOLD
Include non work related material
Use “Reply to All” for chain mails
Use unfriendly tone

7. Reports
Convey Information
A document that provides a strong base for planning and control in an organization,
i.e., reports give information which can be utilized by the management team in an
organization for making plans and for solving complex issues in the organization.
Purpose of business reports
Assist in decision-making
Actual Solution
Past Information – future planning
Business Concept
Management Model
Etc.

8. Written Communication
Writing Style for Reports
Be clear and effective. Never use
long sentences
Know the objective of report and
be focused.
Intelligently use graphs, pie-charts
etc to represent data.
Avoid jagrons
Make the information visually easy
to read

9. Meeting
A meeting is a gathering of two or more people that has been convened for the purpose
of achieving a common goal through verbal interaction, such as sharing information or
reaching agreement.
Do more work up front
Get the right people in the room
Gather the right materials
Pre-wire any key decisions
In the meeting focus
Strong long tangents
Avoid solving
Assign actions
How to make meeting effective?
Follow up on the assignments

10. Meeting
Make the meeting purpose clear
Send an agenda out along with the
meeting invitation ahead of time
Start and end meeting on time.
Send out a follow-up email after the
meeting that lists next steps, who’s
responsible for them, and when they’ll
get done
Do try to keep the meeting short not
more than an hour.
Schedule meetings at peak hours.
Move on to a new topic until everyone
feels they’ve been heard.
Let the group get distracted by tangents
— ask if you can address unrelated
topics another time.
Feel obliged to invite lots of people —
only include those who are critical to
making progress - fewer the better.

11. Minutes of Meeting
What should be included in MoM:
Announcements
Open issues
Agenda for next meeting
Minutes Approved By
Date/Time of meeting
Location of meeting
Members present
Agenda#1
o Discussion Points
o Action/Conclusion
Minutes Prepared By

12. Minutes of Meeting
How to effectively prepare MoM:
Review before sharing the MoM with the attendees and other participants not
present during the meeting.
Be attentive during the meeting
Take notes
Be objective while preparing MoM.
Try and cover all the points discussed during the meeting.

13. The
END !!