Summary: Improving My Writing Style

Assuming the words that you are using are not hurtful in whatever you may be writing, whether that be an email to Karen from finance, a ten-page paper about the Civil War, a speech for your child’s seventh grade class, an article for the New York Times or a blog post about tone in writing for your Strategic Writing ADPR class, you always want to sound helpful instead of condescending otherwise people will not want to listen to what you have to say and you should want people to listen to what you have to say! So how do you not sound like a condescending jerk in your writing you may ask? Tone, it’s all about watching out for the tone that you are using when you write. Are you surprised? Hopefully not because tone is one of the most overlooked

The way the writer communicates is through their style. It appeals to the audiences emotions, it can make the message more artistic and memorable.

Define and describe its key features and share a time when you used one of these methods of communication in a business setting.

As this assignment is a critical evaluation of my own practice, elements of it will be written in the first person. Webb (1992) considers writing in the first person acceptable when personal experiences and opinions have played a significant role in shaping the ideas presented.

Alright, if I can't rule the entire universe of discourse, then I'll settle for a social realm in it. I want to be the king of academic discourse! Now, I've shown that the Official Style isn't an effective style for communicating with every audience, but I would contend that it is the "superior style" for an academic audience. An educated audience wouldn't be deterred by the frequent use of the "shun" words and the passive sentences, they'd probably be elated to read such a text! For example, every respectable and sagacious scholar would prefer:

Some professionals may use technical terms (jargons) resulting to lack of understanding about the roles of different partners.

In both Text a and Text b, each student wrote persuasively. Yet, both had different tones. Tone is the feeling or attitude a reader gets when comprehending an essay or story. The tone in each text is polar opposites because of the advancement and maturity. Since they are so different, there is one text with a strong tone and one with a weak tone.

The tone of a paper is often the reflection of how a writer feels about the subject they’re telling an audience about. Academic tone is a formal way of writing and uses the third person perspective. In third person perspective you should never use personal pronouns and try to rarely ever use the word “you.” Academic tone also requires that one does not use slang words, jargon, or abbreviations in their writing. It is intended to be serious and informative to the audience. An example of this is when someone writes a letter to his school’s principal about improvements that should be made to school events. This person wants to sound formal and well-mannered rather than informal and ill-mannered, and they also want their approach to be respectful

To excel at his craft, a writer must be in control of the words he chooses, and then use those words in ways that will both appeal to the reader and deliver his message. Linguistic elements, such as diction and dialogue, work together to define the author’s style. Diction requires a search for the perfect word, and is a meticulous practice that cannot be underestimated; it involves “choosing the right words for calculated effects [which] is at the heart of writing. Accuracy of description or exposition and force of persuasion depend absolutely on the words in which ideas, attitudes, perspectives, and feelings are conveyed” (Curzan and Adams 292). One way an author can make use of his carefully chosen words is through dialogue,

Business writing should be in active voice. In active voice, the person acting is clear: "The supervisor wrote the report yesterday." Active voice is more direct and concise, and usually produces more powerful sentences.

In the first situation, I could say that the team is passive due to the member who borrowed the Team manual for two weeks without returning until she was questioned. They choose to keep quiet instead of confronting the person and tell her that she wrong. The other team members have just decided to condone the situation silently. The team avoids the problem while on the other hand; the other team members does not care about it. The assertive response to the situation would be approaching the member and point out to her that she was wrong to hold the manual for that long. Instead of languishing while waiting for the manual, it will be wise to approach the member and inform her how the team members are suffering because of her faults.

As previously mentioned, the use of the first- and second-person pronoun can be useful in academic writing. This effectiveness is largely because of the following benefits provided by this pronoun:

When it comes to commanding a room and capturing the attention of an audience, one of the main actions necessary is communicating in a fashion that relates to everyone that is present. In the empowerment novel entitled How to wow: Proven strategies for presenting your ideas, persuading your audience, and perfecting your image, by Frances Cole Jones, a rule by Albert Mehrabian is discussed. This rule is called the 7-38-55 Rule of Personal Communication. The rule is broken down as such; 7 percent of our influence comes from the words we say, 38 percent from our tonal quality while saying it, 55 percent by what our body is doing while we’re saying it (Jones, 2008). This rule seems to be the root to communication and is vital to commanding a room for more reasons than one. This piece will be an exploration of how the 7-38-55 rule is relevant to matters of presence and delivery.

In oral communication, meaningless speech can mislead the main effects of the communication. But when the information comes out in written, we take it seriously.

Audience-centered communication allows successful communication between the speaker and the audience. The speaker evaluates the audience to ascertain the subject matter, what the audience expects and the appropriate language usage to promote a connection. This allows the speaker to customize the message so the audience’s needs are addressed. “Your job is to express your ideas so clearly that your audience cannot misinterpret them.” (Oliu, 2013, p. 7)