5 C's of Business Writing: Clarity, Courtesy, Conciseness, Consideration, Cordiality

good morning in the previous module we talked about advance writing skills and we through light on the various facets of effective writing which we required in our day to day life as well as while doing business transactions we also emphasized on the various patterns

that can be followed when we start writing we also realized how the background of the recipient or the receiver plays an important role and how keeping that into consideration we can draft our messages carefully but apart from the patterns what is of utmost importance

is to know the guiding principles behind business writing the writing that you do with your friends forms a part of your personal writing but you are to sign forth in the days to come with your excellence in terms of business

writing and hence it becomes quite mandatory to know the various principles that actually guide our business writing because when you are writing you are actually writing for audiences or recipients who are varied varied as i said in terms of their educational background their

age sex taste faith cultural beliefs and preferences but then in order knowing well that writing is between a writer and his readers it is moreover a sort of repo between the sender which is a writer and between the receiver who is the recipient

dear friends there are certain cs very important in terms of business writing if you remember the five cs of business writing and quite hopeful that your writing will carry a lot of weight in the days to come and you will become a force to reckon with in your organization

now what are these five cs the first is clarity i mean whatever you want to write it has to be clear of course sometimes you become ambiguous but as i have been saying ambiguity maybe a quality in terms of literature in terms of our everyday gossip but when it comes to

writing especially for business ambiguity is quite an unwelcome guest if your messages are ambiguous no action can be taken further hence you need to be clear moreover when you are writing you should also suppose you should also believe rather that you are writing for

people hence whatever you write must have a sort of curtsy i mean when your informing you are passing on information no doubt information may be at times dreidel morose but then if you have because message has to be conveyed

if you have some concerned and curtsy for the person at the receiving end your messages can be taken seriously then comes the consideration whenever we are writing we do not know who the reader will be sometimes it will be a young person sometimes it will be undealt

sometimes it will be a person who is quite ripe in in terms of age so whatever you write may have some effect on them and of course you as a careful writer would not like anyone to be hurt because of your writing hence the need for consideration arises and

then comes conciseness as in the previous lecture we have talked how concise this matters by concise this we mean sort by concise this we mean our messages has to be brief but then at the cost to briefness let us not try to put a message that becomes more abstruse that

becomes more difficult because as i have been repeating time and again no once sits with a dictionary our thesaurus while reading your message while receiving your letter while reading the report hence you need to be concise so when we talk about conciseness it means

be concise as much as you can but then dont see that you are crossing the limits of specifications you have to be specific no doubt but at the same time you also have to ensure that your reader or the recipient understand the intention or understands the essence of your message

then comes cordiality we stand when we give examples on all these actually many people often falling with the fact that when we are dealing in business we are actually dealing with people it is not only that you are simply carrying out the business but then you are

also carrying out with people hence the goal of business writing is to express and not to impress and you here i will rather give some emphasis on the difference between expressing and impressing at times you get impressed by somebody who has dressed beautifully but

then at times you are impressed by somebody who may not have dressed so beautifully but then the way he or she spoke that actually impressed you a lot but remember the fact that when you are dealing in business your major function is your major

aim is to express you have to tell people what its actually do you want because as a boss you are to give an instruction and if the instruction itself is not clear naturally no action will be taken likewise when you are trying to say something and you are actually

trying to be very impressive what you do is you are actually putting lot of words you are making use of words which are very difficult but remember that cannot impress unless people on stand us how can we be impressed or how can they be impressed

so the need is to make them understand and so when we say impressed you can impress people by your simplicity you can i impress people by your clarity a good flower impresses you a good flower impresses you because its so simple it is not closed in so many words likewise

when you are right in a message let it be very clear let the content me very clear a good writing does is very important and it should be clear concise and plain what i actually do you mean by plain i mean dear friends you come across different sort of

words and at times you also have a fancy for these words but what use are these words if they are not understood by people for whom you have written it hence it has been watched that unskilled writers those who are not having a lot of exposure those who are inexperienced

they often try to create a message or create a content that is foggy that is actually clouded that is not clear so we can say that unskilled writers they create foggy messages because they have not learnt the hard to communicate effectively and clearly you can come across

several examples where the writer drafts his message in such a manner that a particular word at a particular word you will find the sender suddenly stops because he doesnt know either the meaning of the word or in the context it is not suitable

say for example if we say employees have not been made sufficiently awared of the potentially adverse consequences involved regarding these chemicals now look at this sentence the sentence actually not is not only long but it actually has used words which are going to try remind

of the reader but if you said to be the dictionary and find the meaning of all these words the essence of the meaning that you will come across is very clear but for this sort of clarity audience cannot have the patience the audience cannot have that much of time

so ambiguous and unclear messages are actually a constant to your time to your energy and to your understanding so the same sentence can be written very clearly if we say warn your employees about these chemicals now this is the essence of this message but

in order to make it very cumbersome very difficult ah they they have said employees have not been made sufficiently our of the potentially adverse consequences involved regarding these chemicals so has it has the writer been clear in his purpose of follower whom he is writing

naturally he could have said word your employees about these chemicals dear friends when we talk about clarity it should always be taken into consideration that unclear words should be deleted you know as as you are going to be experienced in the days to come you will

realize from your own experiences that if another word could have been used in that place if another sentence could have used in that place that could perhaps been more forceful more effective so it is always advisable that unfamiliar

words should be substituted by should be changed by familiar words then only you can have a sort of impression that your reader or your recipient will understand in order to make it clear it is not necessary that you have to make it sort and in order to make it sort

you are going to make it difficult so it is always better to give examples sometimes you may have to use some more words but it is always better to use some more words then to use less words and be difficult so the piece of advice here is used words as per

their need and many people do not understand the need even if they understand the need they actually block the readers thoughts by making it very cumbersome i mean you receive a lot of letters you receive lots of mails you might receive lots of assignments but

when you look at them you will find they are having a lot of quantity but then there is no quality so try to make it qualitative by adding meaning and in order to add meaning remember the advice that ts eliot had given you know what eliot

said still holds true he had said dont use big words too big for the subject meaning thereby when you are writing for an audience let us not used too big words and dont say infinitely when you mean very you know sometimes people one to mean very but they use a word

like infinite what is what is the point of using infinite when the word very can serve the purpose and what eliots said is otherwise you will have no word left when you talk about something really infinite my dear young friends you will realize that words have actually

their significance in a context and you will find even though we say word search words have got synonyms but synonym is only a synonym it cannot replace the real word hence the need is to go for certain words go for words which are appropriate and not

simply in order to be impressive use big words but tired the mind of the readers hence it becomes quite pertinent to know through certain examples let me give you another example where you will also feel that why this sentence has become so long where it could have been

short let us take an example as in this sentence this is actually a part of a letter which was written by a customer we grew hot and cold when the customers complaint about the malfunctioning of the high priced acs supplied by your form now look at this sentence the

way this sentence has been planned we grew hot and cold and in the expression is very flowery growing hot and cold actually that means angry but why to use ah hot and cold and then again you are saying when the customers complaint about the malfunctioning of the

high priced acs supplied by your form i mean one such a sentence comes you can make it short try to understand what is the meaning and since you are writing it to a person who will respond to your letter why cant you be clear and why cant we say it in a different

manner look at the suggestion that i am going to give you suppose we could have said very directly we have received complaints about the acs we shall look forward to your suggestion please i mean i am saying the same thing but the

way i am saying i am actually the main thing is that you are you want to say about the complaints received by the customers and you want that something should be done so why cant we write it in a very polite manner by saying we have received several complaints

about the acs supplied by us we would look forward to know what can be done i mean this appears it is not only a sort of approach we can call the you approach i am in the audience approach rather this actually makes the situation a little better sometimes because you know

when you order for some goods and you receive them but not in the right manner you become angry no doubt but then why to carry further your anger to the other end you only want that you are grievances that your needs be fulfilled and that can be fulfilled

even by a nice reply also look at another sentence if you say will you let me know what should i do to recover my money for the acs bought at an exorbitant price from one of your distributors notorious for supplying the branded ones i may kindly be returned

the amount incurred on buying your product i mean again this is the pain of an angry customer but then the customer had he been a bit polite he could have said we had bought branded acs from you kindly let me know what can be done to get matters sort it out i mean

this also search the same purpose but the language that has been used there is not only polite it is actually seen from the point of view of the receiver so my advice to all of you is whenever you write something please think yourself as the

receiver in the place of the receiver and then perhaps you will be able to be in a better situation and you will write things better in order to be clear in order to be more candid there are certain things that you can practice first is reduce the number of words sometimes

you will feel that instead of four words you can use even one instead of three words you can use one instead of putting a big phrase you can simply right one word instead of putting a big clause you can put even a small fridge now how can we have that there are several

examples and i i can only give you some examples the rest you can think and sense you are all intelligent guys you will all be in a position to be careful when you are going to use them as per the need of the situation say when somebody writes the word like a number

of i mean there are three words and which he can simply substituted by saying many so this many is one word so instead of using three words let us use one word and that also serves the purpose sometimes people also used at your earliest possible convenience and

in see four words have been used and and see the essence the essence is that you want to say that it should be done soon so why not you soon in comparison with using at your earliest possible convenience so strike the word which actually is not only a specific

but at the same time salted sometimes we also come across the use of words like fullest possible extent and in fullest possible extent actually means fully so right fully and not right fullest possible extent then sometimes we have seen people using expressions like

it would be unreasonable to assume i mean actually you are assuming but then you then you say you try to be neutral and then in order to be neutral you actually become so cumbersome that you used it would be unreasonable to assume let us say i assume

and that will serve the matter right actually what is of utmost importance is people do not see it from the point of view of the receiver if they see it from the point of the view of receiver i think they will start writing simple plain effective and they will also

start writing in a very subtle manner but then it doesnt mean but that we cannot tied over such situations or we cannot improve we can improve as i said writing is a matter of practice and somebody has rightly said practice makes a man perfect imagine yourself

as an intranet in an organization and you have been given lots of loads and these loads carry writing loads you sometimes gets flabbergasted but there is nothing to be flabbergasted or to be confused rather you need to learn and you can learn by practice

actually many people sacrifice the quality of being courteous i mean the world comprises people who are very courteous also and if you were the receiver you would expect other people to be courteous when they are writing because you know people at times get very

touchy you when you are writing you do not see the mood of the person to whom you are writing hence the need is to maintain the curtsy because on the other side also there are people and all business today depends upon the sort of relationship as we have been

saying and relationships can be maintained only when the communication is courteous how can you be courteous that actually requires a little bit of a skill a little bit of intelligence say sometimes you go to an organization or an institute and you are in a great hurry

you want to meet the director but suppose the reception is simply tells you you call me the director dont you know that he is out of station i mean this could have been said even nicely why why is the need to say you cant meet the director dont you know he is

out of station i mean if we could have revised it and saying thanks for your interest thanks for the interest to meet a director but today is out of station we will give your call the moment he comes i mean you are actually speaking you are actually

speaking in such a manner that the other person doesnt feel hurt but then if your simply putting a placard there having these words you cannot meet the director dont you know that he is out of station that actually maybe hurting like that sometimes you also come across expressions

like will you send me one hundred and twenty five geysers at the official rate i mean you are direct no doubt but then you are having a sort of business transaction why cannot you say it in a different manner we required hundred twenty five geysers we

expect you would supply us these at the official rate or you can also say we would like to know about the rates as we want to buy hundred twenty five geysers i mean it doesnt cost much but it actually pays a lot sometimes you may also come across ah some

such expressions as the executive committee meeting is postponed i mean you you when there for a meeting and suddenly are you come across at the display the executive committee meeting is postponed i mean this could have been set in a different manner and the writing could

have been different we regret the inconvenienced caused to people since the meeting has been postponed because of some unavoidable reasons i mean if this is the approach people will feel better they will feel that they have been considered sometimes ah you also receive

a writing or an information like this you must know that time alone can make online tax procedure easy i mean this language also can be improved and we can say we will appreciate if you can send us or give us your pan number it will make the tax procedure is here or

smooth i mean you will find that whenever you find this sentence appears to be abstruse it can be split it can be divided into two short sentences and the choice of words there has to be soft the choice of words there has to be having some sort of curtsy otherwise

people will feel that they actually are there just to receive such comments and since you do not want to hurt others let us try to be courteous sometimes or rather on many occasions you will find you have applied for a post somewhere and you received ah some messages

you received a letter sometimes it is it it comes to you by post also but since you are going to write it i think you need to practice this sort of consideration you are too so consideration for people on the other side and this consideration is nothing but simply

the choice of your words simply the arrangement of your sentences say for example you had applied for a project and their came a response in in the words which are the following your project is being returned since there are no more funds this

year send it next year i mean the messages very clear that your project has not been approved but at the same time please do remember ah that you did not want to hurt others of the people who had submitted their projects so it could have been better had you said

it in a different manner like thanks for submitting a project to us we are sorry to tell you that we are lacking in funds this year however will let you know soon once we get more funds i mean you are not going to give people some amount of despair dear friends if you cannot

give anything to others let us try to give them some hope and that is how when we said when we are talking about a negative messages see that the negative message is put in the middle and the last sentence that is there should have some positivity as i said you

would soon let you know about our decisions once we have sufficient funds i mean the hope never dies hope is always alive and let us as writers try to sustain this hope for our recipients or readers we can have another example where this consideration has been

sacrificed please explain why you are not making adjustments for the cracks developed in the dvd players bought from your firm last month i mean once again your so your outburst of emotions and you are showing your anger in a very different manner

but it could have been said it could have been expressed in a more polite considerate manner had we said we had bought dvd players from you of late it has developed some cracks would like to know how it can be adjusted would you like to know the adjustments i mean

here you will find that even though you have a split the sentence but the approach is you the approach is considerate and we are actually trying for such a sort of consideration i mean business transactions as i have been repeating whatever form bit either in the

form of complain or in the form of grievance or in the form of reply let us see that we show our consideration we show our admiration for the recipient and once this is done i mean business transactions will become smooth we have also to see as a writer that our message

is concise as i said earlier concise this actually means being brief being short so in order to ensure conciseness what should we do let us try to remove the flabby frejus sometimes you will find if you if you have a revision as i said when you are writing

the last task in the revision last task in the writing is revision before finally you are writing is sent further so when you are revising see to it that can we delete a particular clause or a particular word or a particular preage in order to be more effective or in

order to be more concise sometimes you will find that there are some words which actually appear there as burdensome they are not adding to the meaning rather they are blocking the meaning we call them needless repetitions or redundant expressions such enable expressions

and needless repetitions can be sacrificed in order to be concise dear friends all of you have been hearing since your childhood your teachers might have been saying brevity is the soul of wit but how to be brief in order to be brief you

actually have to kick sometimes access of noun habit some sometimes excessive pompous words and sometimes lengthy expressions suppose let us take a very simple example if i say there three things i want you to do is a very simple sentence all the words are you know

having clearer meaning but even this sentence can be made shorter we can always say i want you to do three things i mean what did it cost it didnt cost much rather it simply sacrifice certain words which were not useful which were rather a sort of burden sometimes you

will find that this unnecessary burdening of words makes sentences tried and they actually make meanings chocked say for example if i say improper verification procedure in quality control division has bought a sea of complaints from our customers

and hence needs an investigation without any loss of time you see the sentence appears beautiful but yet the sentence is a burden for the readers i mean we can simply say we have received complaints from quality control division and investigation is needed i mean

here what we do it we actually said the same thing but in a very different manner in a very easy manner sometimes i mean we must always try to see problems of these sort of confusion in meaning in terms of receiver as i say put yourself in the place of the

receiver and you will have all the answers you are not the only person to have problems as he got deadlines you should not ignore the official instructions and should submit the report in no time i mean this is a sort of warning this is a sort of caution formal

organization but then the weight has been written you are not the only person to have problems as he got deadlines i mean this can be the language of a member we can all that say all of us follow the official timing the official timing is friday for submission of

reports i mean when you say like this or for example if you say all of us have problems all of us have constraints with time or we say we expect timely submission of reports i mean the need is to have a concern curtsy consideration

for others keeping into mind not the sacrifice of conciseness simply for the sake of conciseness as i said use words as many as you need use words as few as you can moreover while applying all this things one has also to be careful that cordiality is not lost all communication

is a blend of cordiality and cooperation whether it is a spoken or written and in written since there is no person pleasant or no writer pleasant it becomes more challenging hence see to it that you do not make your messages negative or lackadaisical i mean an interesting

towards readers because otherwise it may cost us heavily you know ah bad deal between a customer and an organization may cause the organization heavily that is why why you are making use of language while you are making use of your writing see to it that this cordiality

is not lost we can have some examples as we fail to understand what ails the progress of this firm i mean this is a language which can be reduced which can be revised in some less words and we can say we are anxious about the progress of our firm another sentence

we can also say as you are not a member we cannot entertain your demands this may affect others so in order even if you want to be direct you can always say this is for members we expect you to be entertained once you have the membership or you can also say that we

entertain our members we expect you to join us as members i think that is more cordial way of saying rather than saying it as you are not a member i mean what you should do is dont put negative words phrases in the beginning say for example you

submitted a report and then came the reaction your report doesnt sound satisfactory as it is silent on many aspects again you are becoming negative rather you could say we appreciate a detailed report dear friends the world is very harsh but then we need to be tender and

we need to show our tenderness through our communication whether it is written or spoken since all of us are human beings we can understand the sentiments and emotions of the other person who is sitting on the other side and who will be reading our messages hence the need is

to be optimistic because you never know when the tables turned sometimes you may be in the receivers position and somebody else maybe the writer and you will also come across the same sort of reaction that you had when you had a letter which will which was biting

hence let us not give them hur[ts]- give them people burns rather let us try our level best to give them some amount of optimism as oscar wilde says if you pretend to be good the world takes you very seriously i mean we are living in a world where we want that others should

be good of course when you pretend to be good people take you seriously but if you pretend to be bad dont know no fast want to be bad if you pretend to be bad it does not such is the astounding stupidity of optimism but then even then you know in business dealings

let us try to keep the hope alive let us try that the both the relationship should continue the rivers are there and the winds are also there the rivers maybe turbulent yet the sailor knows how he can drive better how he can drove better and as a communicator as a writer you

also will know how to write better how to make the journey smooth how to make our relationship with our customers better and that is all we need to practice in the days to come thank you very much