Chapter 6 Completing Business Messages

Chapter 6: Completing Business Messages LECTURE NOTES Section 1: Revising Your Message: Evaluating the First Draft Learning Objective 1: Discuss the value of careful revision, and describe the tasks involved in evaluating your first drafts and the work of other writers. Since the first draft is rarely good enough, recognize that you’ll need to revise the document. Careful revision can mean the difference between a rambling, unfocused message and a lively, direct message that gets results. The third step of the three-step writing process involves four key tasks:  Revising your message to achieve optimum quality  Producing your message  Proofreading your message  Distributing your message The nature of revision will vary according to the medium you’re using and the nature of each message. Audiences are likely to equate the quality of your writing with the quality of your thinking. 

For informal messages to internal audiences, particularly when using instant messaging, text messaging, email, or blogging, the revision process is often as simple as quickly looking over your message to correct any mistakes before sending or posting it.  With more complex messages, try to put your draft aside for a day or two before you begin the revision process so that you can approach the material with a fresh eye. After letting the document sit for a day or so, start with the “big picture,” making sure that the document accomplishes your overall goals before moving to finer points, such as readability, clarity, and conciseness.

Evaluating Your Content, Organization, Style, and Tone To evaluate content, ask:  Is the information accurate?  Is the information relevant to the audience?  Is there enough information to satisfy the readers’ needs? 1. Is there a good balance between general information and specific information?

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To review organization, ask:  Are all your points covered in the most logical order?  Do the most important ideas receive the most space, and are they placed in the most prominent positions?  Would the message be more convincing if it were arranged in another sequence?  Are any points repeated unnecessarily? 2. Are details grouped together logically, or are some still scattered throughout the document? 3. Ask whether you have achieved the right style and tone for your audience by answering these questions:  Is your writing formal enough to meet the audience’s expectations, without being too formal or academic?  Is it too casual for a serious subject? 4. Does your message emphasize the audience’s needs over your own? Spend a few extra moments on the beginning and end of your message.  Be sure that the opening is relevant, interesting, and geared to the reader’s probable reaction. 5. Make sure your conclusion summarizes the main idea and leaves the audience with a positive impression. 6. Evaluating, Editing, and Revising the Work of Others Before you dive into someone else’s work, recognize the dual responsibility that doing so entails:  Unless you’ve been specifically asked to rewrite something in your own style or change the emphasis of the message, remember that your job is to help the other writer succeed at his or her task, not to impose your writing style or pursue your own agenda. 7. Make sure you understand the writer’s intent before you begin suggesting or making changes.

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Answer the following questions as you evaluate someone else’s writing:  What is the purpose of this document or message?  Who is the target audience?  What information does the audience need?  Does the document provide this information in a well-organized way?  Does the writing demonstrate the “you” attitude toward the audience?  Is the tone of the writing appropriate for the audience?  Can the readability be improved?  Is the writing clear? If not, how can it be improved?  Is the writing as concise as it could be? 8. Does the design support the intended message? Section 2: Revising to Improve Readability Learning Objective 2: List four techniques you can use to improve the readability of your messages. After confirming the content, organization, style, and tone of your message, make a second pass to improve readability. During your second pass, focus on readability:  Readers will save time and understand your messages better.  Your reputation for well-crafted documents will garner more attention for your work. Readability formulas offer a useful reference point but are limited by what they are able to measure:  They can measure word length, number of syllables, sentence length, and paragraph length.  They cannot measure document design, the “you” attitude, clear sentence structure, smooth transitions, and proper word usage. Help readers skim your message by  Varying the sentence length  Using shorter paragraphs  Using lists and bullets instead of narrative  Adding effective headings and subheadings

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Varying Your Sentence Length By varying sentence length, you can create a rhythm that  Emphasizes important points  Enlivens your writing style 9. Makes your information appealing to your reader Each sentence length has its advantages:  Short sentences can be processed quickly and are easier for nonnative speakers to interpret.  Medium-length sentences are useful for showing the relationships among ideas. 10. Long sentences are often the best way to convey complex ideas, list multiple related points, or summarize or preview information. Each sentence length also has disadvantages:  Too many short sentences in a row can make your writing choppy.  Medium sentences lack the punch of short sentences and the informative power of longer ones. 11. Long sentences are usually harder to skim and harder to understand than short sentences because they are packed with information that must all be absorbed at once. Keeping Your Paragraphs Short Try to keep paragraph length short to medium:  Short paragraphs of 100 words or fewer are easier to read than long ones.  They make your writing look inviting. 12. You can emphasize an idea by isolating it in a short, forceful paragraph. Don’t go overboard with short paragraphs; for example, use one-sentence paragraphs only occasionally and only for emphasis. Using Lists to Clarify and Emphasize By using bulleted or numbered lists, you can  Show the sequence of your ideas  Heighten the impact of list items 13. Increase the likelihood the reader will find key points Listed items can be separated by numbers, letters, or bullets, and they are easier to find if the entire numbered or bulleted section is set off by a blank line before and after it. Introduce lists clearly so that people know what they’re about to read:

 Make the list a part of the introductory sentence. 14. Precede the list with a complete introductory sentence, followed by a colon. 

Items in lists should be phrased in parallel form.

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Adding Headings and Subheadings Headings (brief titles that tell readers about the content of the section that follows) serve several important functions:  Organization—showing readers at a glance how the document is organized  Attention—grabbing the reader’s attention, making the text easier to read, and helping readers find the parts they need 15. Connection—helping readers see the relationships between subordinate and main ideas Headings may be  Descriptive—merely identify the topic 16. Informative— are self-contained and guide readers to think in a certain way Headings should be brief and parallel throughout the entire document. Section 3: Editing for Clarity and Conciseness Learning Objective 3: Describe eight steps you can take to improve the clarity of your writing, and give four tips on making your writing more concise. 

After you’ve reviewed and revised your message for readability, your next step is to make sure your message is as clear and as concise as possible.

Editing for Clarity Ask yourself whether your message is as clear and as concise as possible by focusing on your  Paragraph organization  Sentence structure 17. Word choices When editing for clarity, be sure to  Break up overly long sentences  Rewrite hedging sentences  Impose parallelism  Correct dangling modifiers  Reword long noun sequences  Replace camouflaged verbs  Clarify sentence structure 18. Clarify awkward references

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When editing for conciseness, remember to  Delete unnecessary words and phrases  Shorten long words and phrases  Eliminate redundancies  Recast “It is/There are” starters if shorter alternatives are available 19. Remove every adverb that adds nothing to the meaning already carried in the verb As you rewrite, concentrate on  How each word contributes to an effective sentence 20. How each sentence develops a coherent paragraph Using Technology to Revise Your Message Various programs and systems offer numerous features for entering and revising text, including  Cut and paste  Search and replace  Revision tracking  Spell checker  Thesaurus  Grammar checker 21. Style checker Section 4: Producing Your Message Learning Objective 4: List four principles of effective design, and explain the role of major design elements in document readability. Production quality of your message—the total effect of page or screen design, graphical elements, typography  Plays an important role in the effectiveness of your message 22. Makes your material easier to read but also conveys a sense of professionalism and importance Designing for Readability Document presentation can help or hurt readability in two ways:  Carefully done design elements can improve the effectiveness of your message (and thus poorly done design elements can act as barriers, blocking your communication). 23. The design itself sends a nonverbal message to the audience, influencing their perceptions of the communication before they read a single word.

Effective design helps you

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 Establish the tone of your document 24. Guide your readers through your message Make your design elements effective by paying careful attention to the following design elements:     

Consistency Balance Restraint Detail White space

 Is space of any color that is free of text and artwork  Provides contrast 25. Offers readers a visual resting point White space includes  The open area surrounding headings  The space in margins  The space in paragraph indents  The space around images  The vertical space between columns 26. The horizontal space between paragraphs or lines of text Lines of type can be set  Justified (flush on both the left and right margins)  Flush left with a ragged-right margin  Flush right with a ragged-left margin 27. Centered with ragged-left and ragged-right margins Justified type  Creates a denser look because the uniform line lengths decrease the amount of white space along the right margin  Produces a more formal and less personalized look 28. Is more difficult to read because it can produce large gaps between words and excessive hyphenation at the ends of lines Flush-left–ragged-right type  Produces a less formal and more contemporary look  Gives a document an informal, contemporary feeling of openness  Is easier to read (because the spacing between words is the same) 29. Reduces hyphenation (because only long words are hyphenated at the end of lines)

Centered type is

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 Rarely used for text paragraphs 30. Commonly used for headings and subheadings Flush-right–ragged-left type is rarely used in business documents. The term typeface refers to the physical design of letters, numbers, and other characters. Font and typeface are often used interchangeably, although strictly speaking, a font is a set of characters in a given typeface. Each typeface influences the tone of your message. Serif typefaces such as Times Roman  Have small crosslines (serifs) at the ends of each letter stroke  Are commonly used for regular paragraph text 31. Can look busy and cluttered when set in large sizes for headings and other display type Sans serif typefaces such as Helvetica and Arial  Have no serifs  Are ideal for larger sized font  Can be difficult to read in long blocks of text unless set with generous leading 32. Look best when surrounded by plenty of white space The classic style of document design uses a sans serif typeface for headings and a serif typeface for regular paragraph text; however, many contemporary documents now use all sans serif.

Avoid using more than two typefaces in most documents. Type style is any modification that lends contrast or emphasis to type, such as  Boldface  Italics  Underlining  Color 33. Other highlighting and decorative styles 

Use boldface type for subheads, but avoid overuse of boldface within the text.

Use italic type for emphasis as well as for highlighting quotations and indicating foreign words, irony, humor, book and movie titles, and unconventional usage.

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Underlining, all upper case, and shadowed or outlined type can hinder legibility and slow your readers’ progress. When completing your business message, choose your type size to match the importance of your message and the space allotted:  Use a size of 10 to 12 points for regular text and 12 to 18 points for headings and subheadings  Small type is hard to read. 34. Extra-large type looks unprofessional in most applications. Designing Multimedia Documents Multimedia documents contain a combination of text, graphics, photographs, audio, animation, video, and interactivity. As rich media, multimedia documents can  Convey large amounts of information quickly  Engage people in multiple ways  Express emotions 35. Allow recipients to personalize the communication process to their own needs However, they are more difficult to create than documents that contain only text and static images. To design and create multimedia documents, you need to consider the following factors:  Creative and technical skills  Tools  Time and cost  Content  Message structure 36. Compatibility Using Technology to Produce Your Message Desktop publishing software goes beyond word processing with more advanced layout capabilities that accommodate photos, technical drawings, and other elements. For online content, web-publishing systems make it easy to produce great-looking web pages quickly. At a minimum, try to be familiar with the following word-processing features:  Templates, themes, and style sheets  Page setup  Column formatting  Paragraph formatting  Numbered and bulleted lists  Tables 37. Pictures, text boxes, and objects Formatting Formal Letters and Memos

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Formal business letters usually follow certain design conventions. Most are printed on letterhead stationery, which includes the company’s name, address, and other contact information. Other parts of the letter include:  Date  Inside address  Salutation  Message  Complimentary close 38. Signature block Like letters, business memos usually follow a preset design. Memos usually don’t use a salutation, complimentary close, or signature, although signing your initials next to your name on the “From” line is standard practice in most companies. (See Appendix A: “Format and Layout of Business Documents” for details.) Section 5: Proofreading Your Message Learning Objective 5: Explain the importance of proofreading, and give eight tips for successful proofreading. Proofreading is the quality inspection stage for your documents, your last chance to make sure that your document is ready to carry your message—and your reputation—to the intended audience. Review your document for  Undetected mistakes from the writing, design, and layout stages  Mistakes that crept in during production Several techniques can help you proofread more effectively:  Make multiple passes.  Use perceptual tricks (such as reading each page backward).  Double-check high-priority items.  Give yourself some distance.  Be vigilant.  Stay focused.  Consider reviewing complex electronic documents on paper if possible.  Take your time.

The amount of time you need to spend on proofreading depends on  Document length

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Document complexity Situation

Section 6: Distributing Your Message Learning Objective 6: Discuss the most important issues to consider when distributing your messages. When planning your distribution consider  Cost  Convenience  Time 39. Security and privacy HIGHLIGHT BOX: COMMUNICATING ACROSS CULTURES (p. 161) Protecting Patients with Reader-Friendly Prescription Labels 1. When it comes to labeling medications, prioritizing information effectively can be a matter of life or death. For example, information on how many prescription refills are allowed should never distract patients from information on the potentially serious side effects of a prescription drug. While it’s important for patients to be aware of refill information, it’s far more vital for them to be well-informed about how taking the drug may affect them in undesirable ways. 2. Answers will vary, but some examples might include traffic signs that are obscured by vegetation, missing, or difficult to read; or confusing instructions on how to assemble recreational equipment such as a bicycle rack. It is important for students to recognize that completing a business message involves more than simply evaluating words and punctuation: it requires taking an audience-centered approach to every aspect of the message, including its format and readability. HIGHLIGHT BOX: Sharpening Your Career Skills (p. 172) Proofread Like a Pro to Create Perfect Documents 1. It’s a good idea to have other people proofread your documents so that you have a fresh set of eyes looking at the material. Not only will they have a different expertise (they might be better at grammar or usage than you!), but also they might catch errors that you have a “mental block” against. In addition, someone who has a sense of design might notice problems with the layout, typography, or graphics. The more important the project, the more important it would be to have others look it over. 2. Here’s a corrected version: Application of these methods in stores in San Diego and Cincinnati has resulted in a 30 percent drop in robberies and a 50 percent decline in violence there, according to the developers of the security system, Hanover Brothers, Inc. COMMUNICATION DILEMMAS AT JEFFERSON RABB WEB DESIGN (p. 173) 1 You received some draft copy for an author’s website that contains the

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following rather long sentence: Alexander McCall Smith was born in what is now Zimbabwe and was educated there and in Scotland before becoming a law professor in Scotland and later returning to Africa to help set up a new law school at the University of Botswana. Which of these four alternatives does the best job of revising the material to improve its readability without losing any of the original information or introducing any new information? a. No. This version is similar to (d), but the first sentence in (d) is smoother and more direct. b. No. This version fails to state where McCall Smith was born. c. No. This version overemphasizes his return to Africa, a single event in a long career. It also doesn’t state clearly that McCall Smith was a law professor, which is a key aspect of his professional biography. d. Yes. This version breaks the lengthy original into two clear and direct sentences, preserving all the original information without adding additional material. 2 Like many popular authors, Anita Shreve offers guides that help reading groups or book groups explore and discuss her novels. A typical reading guide might contain a dozen or so questions that relate to events or themes from a novel. Groups can use these questions to structure their discussions of a novel. Which of the following navigational link titles would be the most effective to use on Shreve’s website? a. Yes. This is the only version that indicates that guides are available and that they are specifically for book groups. b. No. This version indicates that guides are available, but doesn’t indicate that the guides are for book groups specifically. c. No. “Discuss” is too vague and suggests there might be an online discussion forum or some other venue waiting after the link. d. No. This version is also too vague. 3 The following sentence appears on the website for Tom Vanderbilt’s Traffic , a study of the technical and social evolution of traffic and the neverending attempts to making driving less dangerous and more efficient: Based on exhaustive research and interviews with driving experts and traffic officials around the globe, Traffic gets under the hood of the everyday activity of driving to uncover the surprisingly complex web of physical, psychological, and technical factors that explain how traffic works, why we drive the way we do, and what our driving says about us. [57 words]

Which of the following does the best job of reducing the length and complexity of this sentence without significantly altering its meaning?

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a. No. This version loses the essential information about the extensive research behind the book. b. Yes. This version retains all the essential information while cutting 20 words. c. No. This version isn’t bad, but the simplified phrase “how traffic works” lose the key words of “the physical, psychological, and technical factors that explain how traffic works.” d. No. This all this version did was lose the first sentence, which emphasizes the extensive research on which the book is based. 4 A number of authors reach out to their reader bases by offering to participate in book group discussions via Skype. If you wanted to get the word out that a new author was available to talk with book groups via Skype, which of the following distribution methods would you choose? (For this exercise, assume that you can choose only one of these.) a. No. Many readers will access the book through online bookstores or libraries, so a message in brick-and-mortar bookstores will fail to reach these target audience members. b. Yes. People who are in possession of the book, having either purchased it or borrowed it, are the most likely to want to discuss it, and printing the message on the book itself ensures that the message reaches these interested audience members. However, note that this response does have a significant weakness, which is that it doesn’t address the rise of e-book sales. To reach all readers, the message should be printed on the physical editions and embedded in the e-book editions. c. No. A Twitter update is a great way to reach those people who follow the author on Twitter, but it will not reach the broadest spectrum of readers. d. No. Like (c), this is a good way to reach a limited portion of the audience, but not to reach the broadest possible audience. Note: In today’s fragmented media environment, the most effective strategy would be to take all four of these steps as part of an integrated promotional campaign, rather than selecting just one of these options. However, the exercise was designed to have students evaluate the options individually.

APPLY YOUR KNOWLEDGE (p. 177) 1 Setting a document aside lets you approach the revision process with a fresh eye. During the break, you may think of something you should include or exclude. With a fresh perspective, you’re more apt to catch Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

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errors or recognize unclear language. And, if you’re feeling angry or emotional, time away allows you to think more logically and remove any emotion from your message. It is worthwhile to spend extra time on the beginning and ending of a message because these sections have the greatest impact on your audience. Chapter 1 defines ethical communication as that which includes all relevant information, is true in every sense, and is not deceptive in any way. By making sure patients get the information they need to take medications safely, Target’s actions most obviously fit the first of these three criteria. However, by making the effort to be clear, Target also meets the third criteria, of not being deceptive. Of course, no retail pharmacy would likely ever intentionally deceive customers, but a careless and uncaring attitude could result in unintentional deception. By actively putting the needs of its customers first in this regard, Target further demonstrates its commitment to ethical communication. Limiting the number of typefaces and type styles in most business documents is good practice for both perceptual and functional reasons. Using too many faces and styles tends to look amateurish, which lowers the writer’s credibility. And the more faces and styles, the more decoding readers are forced to do in order to assign meaning to each style choice (or to determine that a style choice doesn’t have any meaning, which takes just as much work). Writers demonstrate good business sense in their message distribution choices by matching the cost and complexity of their choices with the needs of their audiences and the demands of the particular situation at hand. For example, using expensive overnight delivery services for documents that aren’t time-critical shows poor judgment.

PRACTICE YOUR SKILLS (p. 177) Messages for Analysis Message 6.A Here is one possible revision: The North American Personal Motorsports Marketing Association (NAPMMA) is committed to helping our members achieve their business objectives. We assist dealers of motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, and personal watercraft by communicating with

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government agencies about important issues. We also educate the public on the safe and enjoyable operation of personal motorsports vehicles. Message 6.B The document should be reformatted with attention to the following details:  Consistent use of fonts  Fewer fonts  Consistent paragraph formatting, including left alignment  Better balance on the page  Optionally, a subtler, more professional logo Message 6.C Here is one possible revision: Gross Domestic Product The most commonly used measure of a country’s economic output is gross domestic product (GDP). GDP measures a country’s output—the production, distribution, and use of goods and services. The products may be produced by either domestic or foreign companies as long as the production takes place within a nation’s boundaries. Sales from a Honda assembly plant in California, for instance, would be included in the U.S. GDP, even though Honda is a Japanese company. GDP has largely replaced an earlier measure called the gross national product (GNP), which excludes the value of production from foreign-owned businesses within a nation’s boundaries and includes receipts from the overseas operations of domestic companies. GNP considers who is responsible for the production; GDP considers where the production occurs. Exercises 1 Student evaluations will vary based on the blog posts they choose to analyze, but they should take particular care to assess (or at least make intelligent guesses at) the first two questions from the list on page 148, regarding purpose and target audience. These two factors influence the other eight. 2 Here’s one example of how students might revise the paragraph for improved readability by removing wordiness, shortening some sentences for clarity and others to vary tempo, and eliminating extraneous information to shorten the paragraph overall: Although major league baseball remains popular, more people are attending minor league games. They can save on admission, snacks, and parking and still enjoy the excitement of America’s pastime. Connecticut, for example, has three AA minor league teams. They play in relatively small stadiums, so fans get a close-up experience of everything from the swing of the bat connecting with the ball to the thud of that ball landing in an outfielder’s glove. Best of all, it costs less to take the whole family. They can watch baseball’s rising stars for just a fraction of what they’d pay to attend a major league game. 4. Here is one possible version: Forensic accounting services provide the insights you need in four important areas:  Insurance Claims Accounting and Preparation: the help you Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

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need to maximize recovery of insured value  Dispute Advisory: assistance with discovery, expert witness testimony, and economic analysis  Construction Consulting: support you can count on when large-scale construction projects fail to meet schedule or budget requirements 40. General Investigative and Forensic Accounting Services: fraud detection and proof of loss analysis 5. Here are shortened versions of the originals: a. Next time you write a 100-word passage, check your average sentence length. If your sentences average more than 16 to 20 words, try to break up some of them. b. Don’t do what the village blacksmith did. He instructed his apprentice as follows: “When I take the shoe out of the fire, I’ll lay it on the anvil. When I nod my head, hit it with the hammer.” The apprentice did as he was told. Now he’s the village blacksmith. c. Unfortunately, no gadget will produce excellent writing. But using a yardstick like the Fog Index gives us some guidelines to follow for making writing easier to read. Its two factors remind us to use short sentences and simple words. d. Know the flexibility of the written word and its power to convey an idea. Know how to make your words behave so that your readers will understand. e. Words mean different things to different people. A word such as block may mean city block, butcher block, engine block, auction block, or several other things. 6. Deleting all unnecessary words leaves the following: a. consensus b. innovations c. long time d. at $50 e. remains

7. Here a. b. c.

are possible revisions: The old calculator isn’t good for solving hard problems. The pay increases must be stopped before an unusually large debt mounts. The executives all agreed that Ms. Jackson’s strange ways were cause for a required meeting with the company’s personnel director. d. The upcoming sale of the company’s assets delighted the company’s competitors. e. The facts indicated that the company’s finances were in good shape, and so the president became more convinced that there would be a stock dividend. 8. These infinitive substitutes shorten the sentences: a. I need money to live.

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b. They saw no reason to believe in the future. c. To destroy a dream is tragic. 9. Here are one-word replacements: a. soon (or a specific date) b. if c. so d. for e. about f. perhaps g. seldom h. about i. now j. doubtless (or undoubtedly or no doubt) 10. Here are pared-down versions: a. Writing is important. b. Prices are likely to increase. c. We’ll decide that soon. d. I will summarize this experiment when it’s over. e. After she satisfactorily completed a three-week trial period, we offered her a full-time job. 11. With the unnecessary modifiers removed, the sentences read as follows: a. High pay increases were given to the skilled and conscientious employees. b. The union’s proposals were inflationary, demanding, and bold.

12.

The following versions contain no hedging: a. Someone has entered illegally. b. Things will get better soon. c. Your report shows we are losing money. d. Nancy has more influence over employees in the e-marketing department. e. I see by your letter that you’re leaving us.

13. With the indefinite starters removed, the sentences might read as follows: a. Several examples here show that Elaine can’t hold a position very long.

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b. A generous contribution to Mildred Cook’s retirement party would be appreciated. c. Generally reliable sources in Washington report today that the White House will soon make an important announcement. d. According to the rule, we cannot work overtime without permission. e. Your working late the next three Saturdays would be great. 14. Rewritten with parallel construction, the sentences might read as follows: a. Mr. Hill is expected to lecture three days a week, counsel two days a week, and write for publication in his spare time. b. She not only knows accounting but also reads Latin. c. Both applicants had families, were college graduates, were in their thirties, and had considerable experience; but they lacked social connections. d. This book was exciting, well written, and interesting. e. Don works hard and knows bookkeeping. 15.

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Here are the variations with the awkward pointers removed: a. The vice president in charge of sales is responsible for the key to 34A; the production manager is responsible for the key to 35A. b. The key to 34A belongs to the vice president in charge of sales, and the key to 35A belongs to the production manager. c. The gold-embossed keys to 34A and 35A have been given to the production manager. d. John received his laser printer, and Megan got her dot matrix printer. e. The walnut desk cost $300 more than the oak desk. These versions have the modifiers in the right places: a. We left Dallas on an airplane that was full of trash and ripped-up newspapers. b. Ruby saw the seashell lying on the shelf. c. Judging by the plumbing and wiring, I don’t think we should buy the property. d. Sandy took the whole afternoon to clean up her desk, which was cluttered and filthy. e. The letter was ready to be signed after every word had been proofread.

The long strings of nouns may be broken up as follows: a. The focus of the meeting was a discussion of deregulation of bank interest rates. b. Following the recommendations of the government task force, we are revising our evaluation procedures for job applicants. c. The components of the production department’s program for quality assurance include employee training, supplier cooperation, and computerized detection equipment. d. The plan for reducing inventory in the supermarket warehouse will be implemented next month. e. The graduate placement program of State University’s business school is one of the

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best in the country. 18.

Here the subjects are closer to the verbs: a. Trudy ran when she saw the bull pawing the ground. b. According to Ted, who is probably the worst gossip in the office (Tom excepted), it was Terri who mailed the wrong order. c. In his book Investment Capital Reconsidered, William Oberstreet writes of the mistakes made by bankers through the decades. d. After passing up several sensible investment opportunities, Judy Schimmel invested her inheritance in a jojoba plantation, despite the warnings of her friends and family. e. After the warehouse fire, the worst tragedy in company history, the president of UStor-It prepared an announcement for the press: The company was on the brink of bankruptcy. 19. The following versions no longer have camouflaged verbs: a. The employees adapted easily to the new rules. b. The assessor will determine the tax due. c. The employees’ identity must be verified daily. d. The board of directors recommended that Mr. Ronson be assigned to a new division. e. The vice president audited the books. 20. Students should comment on the use of typefaces, white space, headings, and other design elements on the Bloomberg and MarketWatch websites. They may offer various suggestions for improving readability, including larger type size, more white space, and other ideas. 21. Even though your company does not sell products in the local area, you still have an ethical obligation to add the information to the website. The construction delays alone could compromise your company’s relationship with the community, and withholding information about the delays would almost certainly tarnish the organization’s image. Doing all you can to minimize any negative effects of the construction will also aid employees who live in the local area, since they are likely to receive questions and comments about the project from their neighbors. Finally, posting information about the construction may help to reduce the amount of traffic (and, ideally, the number of accidents) in the area around the plant. 22. 23. Here is a corrected version of the email: Our final company orientation of the year will be held on December 20. In preparation for this session, please order 20 copies each of the policy handbook, the confidentiality agreement, and the employee benefits manual. Please let me know if you anticipate any delays in obtaining these materials.

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