Harty pg 207-275

Creating Visuals
Designing and Integrating Visuals with Text
- consider graphics before you begin to write
Ask:
- Why include you visual?- explain why you've included visuals in the text
- Is the information in your visual accurate?- gather info from reliable sources
- Is your visual focused?- eliminate unnecessary labels, arrows, boxes, lines
- Are terms and symbols in your visual defined and consistent?- define anything that is not self-explanatory
- Does your visual specify measurements and distances?
- Is the lettering readable? - position labels.
- Is the caption clear?
- Is there a figure or table number?- Ex: Figure 1. Projected Sales for 2007-2010
- Is there a list of figures or tables needed?-
- Are figure or table numbers referred to in your text?
- Are visuals appropriately placed?- Place illustrations as close as possible and following the text where they are discussed.
- Do visuals stand out from surrounding text? Allow adequate white space.
Tables
- numerical or verbal
- Table number.
- Table title.
- Boxhead. (beneath title) column headings that are brief/descriptive
- Stub. (left-hand vertical column of a table) list all items to be shown in the body of the table
- Body.
- Rules. (lines) used to separate various parts of table
- Source line. (below the table) identify where you obtained data
- Footnotes. (to explain items in table)
- Continuing Tables. repeat column headings when you need to divide table onto multiple pages
Graphs
- numerical data in visual form
- less accurate than tables, usually accompanied by tables
Line Graphs
- relationship between two or more sets of figures
- include enough points to accurately depict the data
- present horizontally if possible
Bar Graphs
- show:
- different types of info during different periods of time
- quantities of the same kind of info a diff periods of time
- quantities of diff kinds of info during a fixed period of time
- quantities of the different parts that make up a whole
Ethics Note: Do not distort or omit the data in your visuals
Pie Graphs
-wedges represent various parts into which the whole is divided
- usually general information, so often accompanied by table
- begin at 12:00 position
- sequence wedges largest to smallest
- labels should be horizontal
- if more than5/6 wedges, looks crowded
Picture Graphs
- Use simple symbols
- Show larger quantities by increasing number of symbols rather than creating a larger symbol
Dimensional-Column Graph
- depict columns a 3D pillars
- clear visual
Drawings
- when reader needs impression of object's general appearance
Maps
- show geographic features of an area
- clearly identify boundaries
- include scale
Strategies of Persuasion
1) Consider whether your views will make problems for readers.
2) Don't offer new ideas, directives, or recommendations for change until your readers are prepared for them.
- more change- slower you should proceed
- if of little personal interest to boss, proceed
- use common sense
3) Your credibility with readers affects your strategy
- communicator's authority with readers determines chance for opinion change
- insert a few lines of biographical data
given credibility- result from position in an organization
acquired credibility- earned through thoughts and facts in the written message
4) If your audience disagrees with your ideas or is uncertain about them, present both sides of the argument
5) Win respect by making your opinion or recommendation clear.
- set clear proposals and conclusions
6) Put your strongest points last if the audience is very interested in the argument, first if it is not so interested.
- if disinterested audience, put strongest point first to draw them in
7) Don't count on changing attitudes by offering information alone
- if viewers already agree, strictly facts can reassure them
8)"Testimonials" are most likely to be persuasive if drawn from people with whom readers associate.
- people's opinions are influenced by the groups they belong to
9) Be wary of using extreme or "sensational"claims and facts.
- only works in journalism- not business
10) Tailor your presentation to the reasons for readers' attitudes if you know them.
11) Never mention other people without considering the possible effect on the reader.
- people's opinions of the other people mentioned can shape their opinion about your proposal
Sizing Up Your Readers
Are they?
- deeply or only mildly interested in the subject?
- familiar or unfamiliar with your views, competence, and feelings about them?
- knowledgeable or ignorant of your authority in the area discussed, your status, and your associations of possible importance to them?
- committed or uncommitted to a viewpoint, opinion, or course of action other than the one you favor in your letter, etc?
- likely or unlikely to find your proposal, idea,finding, or conclusion threatening or requireing considerable change in their thought or behavior?
- included or uninclined to think and feel the way they do about the subject because of identifiable reasons, prejudices, or experiences?
- associated formally or informally with groups or organizations involved in some way with the idea or proposal you deal with?
Proposals
1) Approach writing a proposal as a problem-solving activity.
2) Regard your audience as skeptical readers.
3) Research your proposal carefully.
4) Prove that your proposal is workable.
5) Be sure that your proposal is financially realistic.
6) Package your proposal attractively.
Internal Proposal
- offer realistic/constructive plan to help company
- informal, brief
- be aware of/sensitive to office politics
Organization
-introduction
-background of problem
-solution or plan
-conclusion
Sales Proposals
1) how well it meets audience's needs
2) how well it compares with proposals submitted by competitors
Organization
Intro
1) statement of purpose and subject of proposal
2) background of the problem you propose to solve
Description of Proposed Product or Service
1)Carefully show your potential customers that your product or service is right for them
2) Describe your work in suitable detail- what it looks like, what it does, and how consistently and well it will perform in the readers' office, plant, hospital, or agency.
3) Stress any special features, maintenance advantages, warranties, or service benefits.
Timetable
Costs
Qualification of Your Company
Conclusion
Writing Proposals With Style
What is Style?
- makes is easier to read/more persuasive
Writing plain sentences
1) The subject should be what the sentence is about.
2) Make the "doer" the subject.
3) State the action of the verb.
4) Put the subject early in the sentence.
5) Eliminate nominalizations.
nominalizations- perfectly good verbs and adjectives that have been turned into awkward nouns
6) Avoid excessive prepositional phrases.
7) Eliminate redundancy.
8) Make sentences "breathing length"
Six Steps to Writing Plainer Sentences
1) Identify who or what the sentence is about.
2) Turn that who or what into the subject, and then move the subject to an early place in the sentence.
3) Identify what the subject is doing, and move that action into the verb slot.
4) Eliminate prepositional phrases, where appropriate, by turning them into adjectives.
5) Eliminate unnecessary nominalizations and redundancies.
6) Shorten, lengthen, combine, or divide sentences to make them breathing length.
Writing Plainer Paragraphs
The Elements of a Paragraph (4 Kinds of Sentences)
Transition Sentence- make smooth bridge
Topic Sentence- claim or statement that the rest of the paragraph is going to prove or support
Support Sentence- in body of paragraph, many forms
Point Sentences- restate topic sentence