Digital Communication

DIGITAL COMMUNICATION
MICHELLE AMES, MBA
MARKETING DIVA
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER
MICHELLE@MARKETEDBYMICHELLE.COM
585-749-5059

HOW TO WRITE GOOD
1. Always avoid alliteration.
2. A preposition isn’t good to end a sentence with.
3. Avoid clichés like the plague. They’re old hat.
4. Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
5. Be more or less specific.
6. Writers should never generalize.
Seven. Be consistent.
8. Don’t be redundant. Never repeat yourself.
9. Don’t use more words than necessary. It’s really
annoying when people go on and on saying way
more
than they need to. Keep it succinct. Shorter really is
better.
10. Always use spillcheck.
11. Who needs rhetorical questions?
12. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than
understatement.
13. Try not to use abbrev.’s.
14. Use “quotation marks” appropriately.
15. Use, commas, correctly.
16. Acronyms aren’t really GTU.
16. Pay attention to detail.
Michelle Ames, MBA  Marketed by Michelle

THE #1 CHALLENGE WITH THE WRITTEN WORD
You cannot guarantee tone.

WHY DOES WRITING NEED TO BE PROFESSIONAL?
 Professional Writing:
 Is taken more seriously
 Is viewed as being more intelligent
 Has a higher response rate
 Inspires confidence
 Makes YOU and YOUR SCHOOL look good

COMPONENTS OF GOOD DIGITAL COMMUNICATION
 Subject Line
 Greeting
 Body (purpose)
 Closing Remarks
 Signature Line

COMPONENTS OF GOOD DIGITAL COMMUNICATION
 Proper Spelling
 No Slang
 Proper Grammar
 Proper Punctuation
 Conciseness
 No Contractions
 Few or No Abbreviations
 Proper Use of Capitalization
 Attachments are Named Appropriately
 Proper Use of “Reply All” and BCC when
necessary
 No Religious Comments (i.e. “God bless
you.”)
 Use of “Urgent” Only When it is
 Use of Please and Thank You
 Appropriate Font Size
 Proofed Before Being Sent

SIMPLE FORMATTING IS BEST
 No background colors
 No background photos/graphics
 Appropriate font (Arial, Times New Roman)
 Appropriate font color

SUBJECT LINES
 Your subject/memo line should be:
 Informational
 Brief
 Spelled Properly
 Contain no abbreviations
 Contain no contractions
 Never left blank

GREETING
Good
 Dear
 Hello
 Greetings
 To Whom It May Concern (when you
do not know the person’s name)
Bad
 Hey
 Hi
 Dude, Girl, etc.

BODY (PURPOSE)
 Be polite, but get to the point
 Be clear – are you asking for a response? Do you need something? Are you sharing an
opportunity? Make it clear.
 Stick to the matter at hand. Do not add unrelated questions or information. Use a separate
communication for those.
 Keep it brief. Communication that gets to the point and only includes pertinent information
is more likely to be read.
 Many people read email on their phones. This makes your email look ten times longer than
it is.

CLOSING REMARKS
 Restate the purpose briefly if necessary.
 Ask for what you need.
 Reply?
 Information?
 Action?
 Signature.

SIGNATURE LINE
 Sincerely,
 Regards,
 Best wishes,
 Thank you,
 Warm regards,
 Best,
Include your contact information.
• Name
• Title
• Address
• Phone
• Fax
• Email
• Website
• Any other information required by your
school
Do not put quotations in your signature, no matter how profound or cute they are.
(Like “Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” ~Malcolm
Forbes)

SPELLING
 Always check your spelling
 Watch for the misspelling indicator – red wavy line
 Double-check items that are special spellings…like acronyms
 For example “PBIS” won’t appear in the email dictionary, unless you add it., so make sure
you are spelling it correctly.
 The biggest spelling error is misspelling people’s names
 Make sure you are spelling their name correctly.
 Double check to be safe.

SLANG AND INFORMAL LANGUAGE LOOKS BAD
Bad
 Hey
 Check out…
 Emoticons of any kind 
 Awesome
 Cool
 UR
 Plz
 Yeah
Better
 Dear
 Have you seen…
 Do not use them at all
 Great
 Very nice
 You are
 Please
 Yes

BUZZ WORDS
Can Be…
 Pretentious
 Trite
 Overused
 Even eye-rolling
Education Buzzwords
• Lens
• Data-driven
• Grit
• Flipped classroom

USE PROPER GRAMMAR
Bad
 Double negative
 Sentence fragments
 Singular/plural mistakes
 Subject/verb mistakes
 Mistaken pronouns
Example
 I didn’t have nothing to send today.
 Because we are the best.
 You and them is working hard.
 The company offer new options.
 Between you and I.
Call Tom or I.
Sheila and me will make the
presentation.

USE PROPER PUNCTUATION
 Avoid exclamation points!
 When an exclamation point is necessary, use only one!!!!
 Commas are often overused and underused, so be careful on how many you use,
and use them appropriately.
 “Let’s eat, Grandma.” (This invites her to join you in a meal.)
 “Let’s eat Grandma.” (This means that Grandma is the main course.)

USE PROPER PUNCTUATION
 Use semicolons in lists where the word “and” is used within groupings.
 For example: “Available side options include: peas, fries and gravy, baked potato
and sour cream, and salad.”
 Easier to understand: “Available side options include: peas; fries and gravy;
baked potato and sour cream; and salad.”
 Only use an ampersand (&) where necessary (usually only in a direct quotation),
otherwise it appears informal.
 Asterisks always need to refer the reader to another point.*
*An asterisk usually refers the reader to a footnote with a point that
is better defined outside of the context.

AVOID CONTRACTIONS
 Contractions are Informal
 “Can’t” should be written “cannot” or “can not” (either are correct)
 “Won’t” should be written “will not”
 “Couldn’t” should be written “could not”
 “Wouldn’t” should be written “would not”
 “Shouldn’t” should be written “should not”
 “Ain’t” should never be written at all

FEW OR NO ABBREVIATIONS
 Abbreviations are Informal and may Lead to Misinformation
 Spell out weekdays: “Mon” should be “Monday”
 Spell out months: “Jan” should be “January”
 Spell out measurements: “Ft” should be “Feet”
 The Exception is in a Person’s Title
 Ms., Mrs., Mr., and Dr. are fine
 Other Exceptions Include:
 Etc., Et. al., I.e., E.g.

PROPER USE OF CAPITALIZATION
 NEVER WRITE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. IT APPEARS AS IF YOU ARE
YELLING.
 never write in all lower case. it is not professional at all. save it for texting family.
 Capitalize proper names (including product names).
 Capitalize the first word of every sentence.
 Capitalize people’s titles (like Mr. , Mrs. or President).
 Do not capitalize a person’s position. (For example you would capitalize “President
Smith” when it is his title, but not “the president” when referring to his position.)
 Capitalize place names (like Rochester or Chicago).

NEVER USE TEXTING LANGUAGE
Texting language is too informal.
 UR should be “your” or “you are”
 LMK should be “let me know”
 IMO should be “in my opinion”
 Etc.

BE CAREFUL WHEN USING ACRONYMS
Education acronyms may be well-known in the schools, but
remember that students, parents and other constituents may not
know them.
 PBIS
 UPK
 DI
 IEP
 DIT/SIT

IN EMAIL, USE “REPLY ALL” AND “BCC” APPROPRIATELY
 Before you click “reply all,” ask yourself:
 Is my reply really for all, or just to the person who sent it to me?
 Is my reply an angry response? An appropriate response? An attempt at humor?
 Use BCC when you send to a large group
 This allows for privacy of email addresses
 This truncates the email so that the list of addresses won’t appear in the replies
 It looks better

IN EMAIL, USE “REPLY ALL” AND “BCC” APPROPRIATELY

NO RELIGIOUS COMMENTS
 Regardless of your personal beliefs or feelings, it is never appropriate to
include religion in professional correspondence.
 God bless you.
 Praying for you.
 Go with God.
 Blessings.
 Etc.

EMAIL FORWARDING
Forwarding Email. Ask the following questions…
 Is it necessary?
 Is it confidential?
 Should it be re-worded, redacted, or edited in some way?
 Will it compromise someone (student or co-worker)?
 What are the school’s policies in dealing with a breach?

CONFIDENTIALITY
 State so in the subject line.
 State so in the opening.
 Remind in the closing.
 If your school requires a confidentiality clause in correspondence, then make
sure you are compliant.

CHECK YOUR FONT SIZE
If font size is too large it appears as
yelling.
 If font size is too small it is difficult to read.
 Most often, a font size of “10” or “12” is best.

PROOFREADING
 Check spelling.
 Check grammar.
 Check “to” and “cc” lines.
 Check content.

WHEN IN DOUBT…ASK FOR HELP
 If it is important and you are unsure…ask someone to check it for you.
 It is better to have someone proofread your work than to send out bad writing.

THE EMAIL CHAIN: KNOW WHEN TO STOP

MASS EMAIL
 Is it really for the masses?
 Yes
 Make sure that it is generic enough to appeal to all who receive it.
 Use BCC or an email program (like Constant Contact, or Word’s Email Merge).
 Keep it brief.
 No
 Then don’t send it as a mass email.

USE SCHOOL EMAIL FOR WORK ONLY
 Avoid using school email for personal communication.
 You may not always have that job.
 Your email is discoverable.
 Do not use your school email to:
 Sell girl scout cookies or boy scout popcorn, etc.
 Complain about coworkers
 Set up an outside/non-work get-together.

USE OF “RECALL”
 This only alerts the recipient that you would like to recall an email. It does not
delete it from the user’s email account, and is usually still accessible.
 Rather than recall – it is often better to send another email with corrections,
noted in the subject line. (But adhere to school policy where it may exist.)

USE EMAIL TO SUMMARIZE IN-PERSON/PHONE
CONVERSATIONS
 Because email is “permanent” it is a good record-keeping device.
 Did you have a meeting where follow-up is expected? Summarize in an email
to ensure that you are all on the same page.
 Did you set expectations at a staff meeting? Follow up with email.
 Use email as a record of verbal correspondence.

COMMONLY MISUSED WORDS – KNOW THE DIFFERENCE
 “Your” shows possession. “You’re” is a contraction of “you are.”
 “There” is a place or idea. “Their” shows possession. “They’re” is a contraction of
“they are.”
 “To” is directional. “Two” is a number. “Too” indicates volume.
 “Lose” is to misplace something. “Loose” indicates level of tightness.
 “It’s” is a contraction of “it is.” “Its” shows possession.
 “Then” is used for time. “Than” is used for comparison.
 “Alot” is not a word. “A lot” shows volume.
“Allot” means distribution.

COMMONLY MISUSED WORDS – KNOW THE DIFFERENCE
 “Whether” applies to conditions. “Weather” refers to rain or sun.
 “Irregardless” is not a word. It is “regardless.”
 “Another” should never be broken up. It is “A whole other” or “Another whole”
not “A whole nother.” (There is no such word as “nother.”)

REWRITE THE FOLLOWING…
 On the afternoon of June 12 at the most recent meeting of the ad hoc
committee on workplace communication policies, each and every member of
the committee was in agreement with one another that first and foremost it is
imperative that all forms of workplace communications be completely
accurate and perfectly clear.
 Extended discussion of an improved and more robust mission statement that
is aligned with the basic fundamental business objectives of this organization
will require clearly structured facilitated sessions conducted in full
transparency and with the active participation of designated representatives
from all departments.

QUESTIONS?
Michelle Ames, MBA
michelle@marketedbymichelle.com
585-749-5059
Slides and Handouts at marketedbymichelle.com/GVSBI
Thank you!

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