EFFECTIVE WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
By Chris Birch
Copyright (c) 1991 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
What sets your correspondence apart from the typical business letters you receive? For a start your letters are probably not as well written or designed. It's a question of skills that no amount of powerful word processing software can compensate for.
The ability to adjust a grey scale splash screen in increasing left to right intensity or the built-in power of your Personal LaserWriter SC is not much use if you cannot politely request payment, tactfully reject an application or softly sell your product.
A well stocked book store will have volumes of publications to choose from. They generally fall into two categories. One covering the basic wordsmithing skills and the other desktop publishing design techniques. Those attempting to cover all the necessary skills generally provide inadequate treatment of the basic letter writing and report writing skills. The sample documents generally emphasise placement at the expense of content.
My library includes "Contemporary Business Letters with Apple Writer II". Its 1984 vintage means its not likely to cover the use of multiple fonts, business logos or the incorporation of clip art yet its coverage of letter writing fundamentals is relatively timeless. Punctuation, salutations, addresses, beginnings and endings are covered in sufficient detail for every day use.
It's this attention to detail that's so important when conducting business or when tackling a government department. If you communicate regularly with the armed services, the diplomatic corps or members of parliament then a book of protocols and procedures might also be a good investment. Or you could do as I do. Get the recipient's secretary to do the addressing and salutations for you!
Any book should include sample letters for typical situations such as collection, rejection, goodwill, announcement and request letters. They need to be thoughtfully designed and adaptable with the rationale behind the use of certain words and paragraphs fully explained. "Contemporary Business Letters" also includes alternative wordings to assist you in fine tuning your intentions.
There is nothing more distracting than receiving an important letter that does not follow the generally understood communication procedures. If you cared to examine the letter closely it may have been printed on a laser printer. For the sake of an outlay under $50 the writer has crueled any chances of creating a positive reception. Yet the letter was printed on a computer system costing in excess of 100 times that amount.
It is probably because "Contemporary Business Letters" preceded the Macintosh and laser printer boom that the authors have not lost sight of what really constitutes
effective written communication. The emphasis on supporting a rudimentary monospaced 9 pin dot matrix reinforces this point. A book such as this would also be found in a second hand book store for around $10.
With the fundamentals of letter construction out of the way you are now ready to extract the best from your computer. Whether you are running QuarkXPress on a Mac II or AppleWorks on an Apple II a small additional investment is still required if you wish to realise the potential of your system. What you require now is a DTP design skills book that caters for your present and future printing requirements, computer and software.
I decided to get a book that concentrates entirely on design skills. There are many publications catering specifically to utilising the power of a certain printer or software. I recently spent an hour or two comparing DTP handbooks. I found the most thorough and useful treatment was one not offering machine or application specificity.
At $39.95 the "Make-Over Book" was one of the cheapest. It's only deficiency is the absence of colour. This could be an important consideration to Apple II or Mac II owners with colour monitors and an ImageWriter. If you need application specificity then I would suggest a tutorial publication is a better investment. There are many Word, AppleWorks, etc. Handbooks to choose from.
"The Make-Over Book" is categorised into typical projects such as newsletters, business correspondence, reports and resumes. I cannot over emphasise the wealth of design tips contained in any of these sections. All the common traps are ingloriously included as "before" samples. With the application of appropriate design techniques the "after" sample then appears along side.
Simplicity of design is the general theme with this book. There is no attempt to turn out a graphic artist. Just effective communication of your ideas. Some examples include oblique rotations or molded headings which are only capable on the most expensive Mac DTP packages. Almost without exception there is no recourse to font styles beyond bold or italicisation. The font families are all standard with Helvetica relied upon.
You could be forgiven for thinking your grey scales and shadowed fonts are there to be used. They are so convenient to pull in from your Mac or Apple IIgs menu bar. I couldn't find one example of a shadowed font in one of the "after" samples. Time and again the "after" sample would use fewer "tools of emphasis" such as font families, font styles and ruled lines. White space was always used to maximum effect.
If you are presently preparing resumes or advertisements then the cost of "The Make-Over Book" is easily justified as an investment in your future or your business. You will pay much more for a professionally prepared resume or advertisement which will probably not suit your exact requirements.
Bibliography:
"Contemporary business letters with Apple Writer II" by Jane E. Robbins and Kate Lee Johnson, 1984, Van Nostrand Reinhold, Victoria. ISBN 0-930764-80-3. Try a secondhand bookstore or the library.
"The makeover book" by Roger C. Parker, 1989, Ventana Press, NC. ISBN 0-940087-20-0. $39.95 from Dymocks.

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