Tag Archives: email

How to write a 5-paragraph report

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Initial Criteria for Writing Reports

Writing Conventions:

These are the basic parts of your writing: the spelling, punctuation, grammar, and
sentence structure. Do errors make it hard to understand your writing?

Logic:

Logic determines the order of your writing and how easy it is to follow your ideas. Proper logic determines how well your introduction, body, and conclusion work together and how logical your order of ideas are inside each paragraph.

Style:

Here, your sentence variety and use of idioms and vocabulary are very important. How fluent is your language? Are your sentences precise? Good reports exhibit a varied repertoire of sentence types, along with an extensive vocabulary.

Meaning:

Is the topic and ideas specific to your own experience and have they been conveyed well. Did you show with details exactly what you mean? Did you save your assertions for the topic and “statement making” sentences? Are your ideas convincing? Are they explained logically or systematically?

Originality

Originality can dramatically improve the reader’s experience but can be an unnecessary distraction for some topics. Is there a balance between accuracy, statements for effect and originality based on the topic?

Titles

A title should be an exciting and accurate label of the contents of your report.

Simple, short and clear so it is understood quickly.

Directly connected to the reports main ideas.

Interesting, to make the reader want to read the report.

Capitalize all words except the small words (a, the, an, for and so on) or, capitalize the whole word.

Remember a topic is not a title!

Introduction

An introduction contains a topic sentence that conveys the main idea or statement of the report. This is the most important sentence of your whole report and needs to be the most carefully written.

Introductions are general compared to the ideas in the report, but related directly to the ideas in the report. Don’t give away too much. Save the details for the body.

Body Paragraphs (3)

The body is the center of the sandwich. Body paragraphs are a standard design: topic sentence, detailed examples with a concluding sentence. The body paragraphs support the topic and provides supportive examples with descriptions, and details.

Make it easy for the reader to follow from sentence to sentence and from paragraph to paragraph. Keep to one idea in one paragraph. Each of these ideas relates directly to the topic.

Put your best paragraph first, weakest in the middle and your second best paragraph last.

Conclusion

The conclusion is usually larger than the introduction.

Restate your topic as the first sentence of the conclusion.

Summarize the ideas of the body paragraphs without repeating everything point-by-point.

Conclusions often contains a final opinion, suggestion or prediction related to the topic that ends the report.

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A Sandwich Needs Bread Too!

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I am surprised by the number of emails I get where a new contact i.e. a stranger is emailing me for the first time and they just send me a one-liner, with no polite introduction or sign-off. For example:

Hi,

I need to improve my English – what should I do?

Or

Hello,

How can coaching help me? Please explain.

Now I can appreciate that, as the old idiom states, Time is Money. And I realize that in some busy offices or cultures there is little time for ‘fluff’ and people speak directly to each other. HOWEVER in international business communications, it is vital to learn how the other party expects to be communicated with and on what level of formality or politeness to use, especially for the first contact.

Don’t get me wrong – I am not angry or personally offended by these short emails. I can read between the lines and realize that these are people who genuinely are asking for my help, so that they can achieve greater success in their personal and professional lives. I appreciate that and am happy to respond. But my job is to teach communication skills, so today the message is this: Don’t forget the bread when making your sandwich!

When we eat a delicious sandwich we savour the meat or cheese or whatever garnishes are inside, but we need the bread to hold it together from top to bottom, right?

The same is true in polite, professional, positive communications, even emails.

The bread is the polite intro and ending. For example, let’s improve the above emails:

Hi Ric,

I am happy to receive your newsletters, and have learned some interesting communication tips from you. However as English is not my first language, I need to improve it. What should I do?

Any suggestions or resources would be appreciated.

Best regards,

XXXXXXX

Or

Hello Sir,

I am intrigued by your website and broadcasts, and am interested to improve my personal communications, however I am not really sure how coaching can really help me personally. I wonder, could you explain the coaching process in a bit more detail to me, or send me a resource to read?

Thank you very much,

XXXXXXXX

By using the sandwich analogy it serves as a quick reminder to be polite in the beginning and end of your communications, whether speaking or writing, especially when you are communicating with a new person. You want to set the right tone and make a winning first impression.

Thank you and have a good lunch!

Talk to Trusted Friends and Mentors

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As a Communication Coach I get the opportunity to meet and work with people from all walks of life. Sometimes what they are lacking, in addition to “ideal” interpersonal or professional communication skills, is a person or two in their life who they can ‘bounce things off of’, before they go ahead and make a decision that involves others.

Often I fill in for that roll. People ask me if what they are saying matches what they intended to say. They want my opinion on their email or proposal before they send it out. Others ask me to check their speeches (in written form) to see if they can’t be spiced up a bit. The list goes on.

I am honoured and happy to help in these requests, and it reminds me that all of us, even communication coaches, need a trusted friend, family member or mentor to bounce things off of first before communicating the idea to others.

I am lucky I guess, as I have in my ‘circle of influence’ a pool of knowledge to draw from on subjects such as entrepreneurialism, teaching English as second language, marketing, the H.R. profession and so much more. I talk to these few but oh so important people often about my ideas, conflicts, business ambitions and goals in life.

My advice to you today is to ask yourself who can be in your ‘circle of influence’ to help you with your communications. Who do you know and trust to bounce ideas off, to check your emails for content and appropriate messages, or discuss your interview or meetings. They may not call themselves ‘communication coaches’ but they certainly can offer valuable insight and life experience.

Go ahead, don’t be shy – bug them, and bug them often. Just make sure you return the favour to them!

Have a great week!

Further to your request…

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“Further to your request, I have attached my resume.”
“Further to your request, I am faxing you the contract immediately.”
“Further to your request, I am happy to join you for lunch.”

Which sentence does not fit in? If you said the last one, you are correct. This is a great expression to use, but only in the office. And it is only used in writing and emailing, not in speaking over the phone or in person. It is an older, more formal business English expression, and a good one.

My advice is to use it often, but not always with the same person. If you do, you may sound ‘canned.’ Understand that expression? It means fake and too well-prepared.

If your job requires a lot of business correspondence (i.e. writing) then it is a good idea to have a list of useful expressions (like this one) or even templates available to you on your computer or at your desk. That will help you be more efficient and sound professional!

Just don’t forget to leave it at the office!

That is all for now. Have a good weekend!

“What is NLP and how can I use it to improve my communications?”

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This was a valid question given to me recently by one of my coachees. At first NLP can seem (and sound) daunting and scientifically complicated, but I can help you simplify it and use it everyday.

First of all, NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. If you are thinking “brain-language training” you are correct. NLP assists in re-programming or re-conditioning your sub-conscious responses to certain words and situations. Actually it has been around for a while in the coaching world. Richard Bandler and John Grinder founded it in the mid-seventies, heavily based on hypnotherapist Milton H. Erickson’s work.

Do you know the name Anthony (Tony) Robbins? This self-help life coach and motivational speaker (although he hates to be called that) uses the same techniques, but calls them neuro-associative conditioning. I remember seeing Tony Robbins live at a Toronto conference last year. He was amazing, and certainly knew how to ‘condition’ the audience with excitement and energy!

Okay, history lesson over – here is the NLP lesson for today:

…because…

This pattern is useful to help influence, persuade or sell things. Why? Because we are conditioned since childhood to believe whatever answer comes after ‘because’ must be the truth. Think about your childhood. When you did not know an answer to a question, you asked your parents, your teacher, your religious leader. When you asked Why… they answered Because… and it was good enough for you. So even today, as an adult, we are still conditioned to accept the reasons given after this key word as truth. Here is an example of it in use:

Taking your communication skill-set to the next level is beneficial to you because you are aware of the strong need for soft skills in today’s workforce.

OR

Because you know excellent personal communications will benefit your career, you will sign up for Ric’s communication training immediately. (ha ha!)

That is it for now. This is just one example of an NLP word-pattern. As we go along I will introduce more to you, or you can do some research on your own. Now go and practice your new pattern-word on someone, and please check out the coaching programs on this site if you think it will benefit you or someone you know.

Thank you all!

PS – for those of you using English as a second language, I have almost finished creating a new ebook on English idioms, and how to use them wisely. Stay tuned for this new resource.

Thanks again to all of you!

Accents & Emails

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Did you know that a person’s email style is often as culturally-specific as their accent?

Some times we come to think of English as a standardized tool that everyone is using for business, travel, pleasure etc. and we forget that it is a living, evolving stylized language. We obviously can see this (rather “hear this”) in the different regional accents all over the world.

There really is no such thing as “American” English. Does that mean the New York accent or the Boston one? The Californian or Texan? Did you realize that even in Canada, a country with a relatively small population (almost 35 million) that we have regional accents? Some newcomers take a while to pick up on this. For example there’s the broken, choppy French-Canadian accent, the tight and enunciated Toronto-business accent, the typical relaxed and casual small-town accent, the native Canadian or Inuit accent, the East coast accents…etc.

When we write emails our choice of vocabulary comes out as well as our attitude. With friends and family this is fine but in business there needs to be a professional tone and word choice – without going over the top with vocabulary from the stock exchange every time!  🙂

This brings me to my final note. Please be aware that the Americans and Canadians typically write short, direct emails in business, and expect the same from you. Do not be offended! It is actually viewed as being polite not to waste other people’s precious time. But remember that the British typically are still writing as they speak – longer drawn out “indirect” speech, so their emails are longer. Often they too think that the North Americans are being rude or lazy, but it’s just a difference of culture!

Until next time, consider your recipient before pressing the “send” button!