CHAPTER 1:

CORPORATE CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION

(Lesson 1: The Principles of Professional Communication)

Pre-finals Week 1
What is corporate culture?

“the total sum of the values, customs,

traditions, and meanings that make a
company unique” –Patrick Montana and
Bruce Charnov (2008)
In simple terms it is the workplace or
professional culture, which may vary from
organization to organization.
 Register or Styles of Writers
1. In technical writing: A Practical Approach, William S. Pfeiffer (2013)
explains that while the purpose of academic writing is to generate
new knowledge in a particular academic branch, the purpose of
professional communication is to get something done with – or
within –an organization.
The writer’s knowledge of the subject also differs in two ways:
1. technical writing- know more about the subject than the intended
reader/audience. This audience often consists of more than just one
person; often, several people with differing technical backgrounds will
read memos, letters, emails, resumes, and other professional
documents. The focus of evaluation of academic papers is on depth,
logic, unity, grammar, and critical thinking.
2. professional writing- what matters more is the clear and simple
organization of ideas in a format that meets the needs of the busy
readers.
 Register or Styles of Writers
2. Locker and Kienzler (2013) in Business and administrative Communication,
further illustrate the stylistics differences between the language used in
conversations, traditional speech and professional writing.
1. Speech and writing: uses short, simple, slang expressions, and
contractions. It has a friendly and personal tone, uses the first or
second-person perspective, and can contain references to personal
experiences. Incomplete sentences may be used, and paragraphing may
be illogical or absent
2. The traditional term paper style: it is more formal. It features many
abstract, academic, or technical terms, and few or no contractions.
There is often no effort to make the style friendly; in fact first-and second-person
pronouns such as “I”, “we” and “you” are minimally used, and “one” may be
used as a substitute for these.
Sentences and paragraphs tend to be long in this style, and there is attention
paid to the use of Standard edited English and the visual impact of the written
text.
Register or Styles of Writers
2. Locker and Kienzler (2013) in Business and administrative Communication,
further illustrate the stylistics differences between the language used in
conversations, traditional speech and professional writing.
3. The Professional style: has features in between he first two mentioned
styles. The writing is meant to sound conversational, meaning, it “sounds
like a real person talking” (Locker and Kienzler, 2013)
Short and simple words may be used, as well as occasional contractions, but
local; expressions and slag are avoided. There is an attempt to sound friendly
in this style and to make a personal connection with the reader via the use of
personal pronouns.
Sentences and paragraphs tend to be short, but Standard Edited English is
used, and attention is paid to the professional document’s impact
 Basic Principles of Professional
Communications

1. Professional Purpose:
To record important workplace information (via minutes of the meeting, secretarial
notes, and official documentation of proceedings)
To give or ask for information form people within the company via memos, outside
the company via business letters, or either of the two via professional reports.
To persuade readers to take action - pay a fee, buy something, accept changes,
gives someone a job, etc., This purpose can be seen as professional proposals,
marketing or promotional materials, and job application letters.
A professional document may also be written with all three purposes in
mind:
Resume- which records a person’s skills and professional achievement's,
gives information about these and persuades a prospective employer to
hire him/her based on these.
Additional purpose on the third is to build an individual or company’s positive image
to establish rapport- essentially to build goodwill.
 Basic Principles of Professional
Communications
2. Audience and Professionals
Two Types of Readers: Homogeneous and heterogeneous
1. Homogeneous Readers: a discourse community with the same level of technical
knowledge;
A group people who share assumptions about what channels, formats, and styles to
use for communication, what topics to discuss and how to discuss them and what
constitutes evidence. (Use jargons )
2. Heterogeneous Readers: consists of members with differing technical
backgrounds, the writer should aim for diction or word choices that will be
understood by everyone. When technical terms are to sued these should be
explained.
 Basic Principles of Professional
Communications
3. The Style or Professional Writing
Professional writing is reader-centered, emphasize the positive and the uses bias-free
language,.
1. Adapting a professional style –adopting a reader perspective in writing
“You attitude” a style of writing which looks at things from reader’s point of view,
emphasizing what the reader’s intelligence, and protecting the reader’s ego (by using
expressions and passive verbs to avoid passing blame).

I-Attitude You -Attitude

If I can answer any of your queries , I’m If you have any questions, please ask.
perfectly willing to do so.
We delivered the order to the provided Your order was shipped to your address
address this morning. this morning

The writer should give the readers exactly information that he/she has requested or needs.
Readers questions should be anticipated and asnwered in an appropriate format.
 Basic Principles of Professional
Communications
3. The Style or Professional Writing
2. Emphasis on the positive- in order to build a positive rapport and
goodwill.
All information should be stated positively, which means that there is a
focus on what the reader can do rather than on what the writer will not or
cannot let the reader do

Negative Wording Positive Wording

We cannot process your Your reimbursement request will be
reimbursement request because your processed as soon as you submit all the
documents are not complete. required documents.
We do not reply emails on weekends. You may contact us via email at any
time from Monday to Friday.
 Basic Principles of Professional
Communications
3. The Style or Professional Writing
3. the uses bias-free language – Professional writers and speakers should
use language that does not discriminate against people on the basis of
sex, physical condition, race, age or any category
Biased Bias-free
Set 1
Chairman Chairperson/chair
Salesman Sales representative/rep/staff
Stewardess Flight attendant
Fireman firefighter
Set 2
Woman lawyer Lawyer
Woman doctor Doctor
Lady president President
Male nurse Nurse
 Basic Principles of Professional
Communications
4. Professional Language – language that is appropriate to the workplace
setting: polite, professional rather than overly personal, and grammatically
accurate.
1. Polite language is essential in a context wherein there are power asymmetries. Expressions like
“please”, “kindly” and “thank you” soften impositions of power, create a positive writer image, and
convey gratitude.
2. Both personal matters and overly friendly language should not appear in workplace
correspondence.
3. It should go without saying that professional writing should exhibit grammatical accuracy in the
use of the Standard English.
4. Professional writing can be made clear and direct by the avoidance of what is called “business
jargon” – these are overly technical and overused expressions that both obscure the writer’s
meaning and add clutter to writing. (hereto, herewith, whereupon )
change these expressions: “as per your request” to “as you requested”,
“enclosed please find” to “here is”, “pursuant to” to “according to”
“hoping for your kind consideration” change to “I hope you will consider this request”
Local or culture-bound expressions, if has something to do with religious beliefs, should be avoided
5. Emojis or emoticons and shortcuts that are commonly used in text message and electronic
communication have no place in professional writing.
 Genres of Professional Writing
Genre isn’t restricted only to creative writing, it is also commonplace in professional and
business correspondence. These include, but are not limited to, memos, business letter,
meeting minutes and, more recently, social media.
1. Memos: A memorandum may be used to make a request, announce an
upcoming meeting, or communicate some important facts. Memos need to have a
tone that is not only positive, but is also appropriate for the audience it is intended
for.
2. Business Letters: Business letters will always be one of the most important genres of
business writing. These formal pieces of correspondence deliver news or request
information and they rely on a specific set of guidelines in order to assist the reader in
obtaining relevant information quickly. Business letters can be sent via email or
directly through the post. Regardless of the medium of delivery chosen, the
formalized structure of these types of professional correspondences are extremely
important.
 BUSINESS LETTER TEMPLATE
Company Letter Head
(two or more of blank lines)
Date: Month, Day, Year
Name of Recipient
Position/Designation and Title in Organization
Address of Recipient
(one blank line)
Dear + courtesy title + Reader’s last name:
(one blank line)
First single-spaced paragraph
(one blank line)
Second single-spaced paragraph
(one blank line)
Third single-spaced paragraph
(one blank line)
Complementary close, such as “Respectively yours,”
(three blank lines for the sender’s signature)
Name of sender
Title/Designation of sender
 MEMO TEMPLATE
(two inches of blank space)
Memorandum or Memo
To: Name of Person and Title in Organization
(one blank line)
From: Your Name and designation/job title
(one blank line)
Date: Month, Day, Year
(one blank line)
Subject: Be very specific
(Two blank lines)
First single-spaced paragraph: an opening that grabs the attention and introduces the
purpose of the memo, the context and problem, and the specific assignment or task
(one blank line)
Second single-spaced paragraph: a body that explains the purpose and context in greater
detail; uses list, if necessary, for easy digestion of information
(one blank line)
Third single-spaced paragraph: a closing that includes a request for action, deadline, and
reasons; ends courteously
 Genres of Professional Writing
3. Meeting Minutes: Meeting minutes serve the purpose of providing a recording of
the most important parts of a professional meeting. If you were assigned the task of
recording meeting minutes, you would need to follow several basic steps.
Firstly, begin with the date and time information for the meeting, as well as the
location where the meeting occurred. If necessary, list the attendees. This information
will help both yourself and the reader stay organized and it will also make it easer for
readers to recall specific memories from the meeting itself.
Only note the most important information and details. Similar to other forms of
professional writing genres, you should stick with only the information that the
audience needs to know the most. It is unnecessary and time consuming to include
long descriptions of event or unimportant details – padding your paragraphs with
irrelevant information will cause important details to be lost. Only include basic points
and provide details where they might be useful in helping the audience develop a
clear understanding of the course of events.
Strive to maintain uniformity. All meeting minutes should follow a similar format. For
example, if you capitalize one name – you should capitalize all names. If data is
given using time stamps instead of numbered points, then time stamps should always
be used. You should also be following uniformity when referring to names and
locations.
 Genres of Professional Writing
4. Social Media: Social media is the newest genre in business writing, and has
become increasingly prevalent in world of business communication. If you are ever
asked to assist with maintaining commercial social media accounts, it is important to
understand how each platform works. For example, Twitter has a 140-character limit,
so the information you share will need to be concise and external links should be
carefully considered prior to adding them.
Writing for social media is typically more informal than most other types of business
writing, however, it still requires that you know your audience and that you are able
to communicate with them on the same level. For example, are you sharing
information for coworkers?
Potential customers? Students? Consider who you are speaking to and on what level
you should speak to them. You might find it helpful to browse other social media
posts to develop a firmer understanding of how the most popular social sharing
platforms can be used to reach target audiences.
 The Design Principles of Professional
Writing
Document Design
• White space: a document that is busy lots of text from margin to margin) looks
like a daunting task to your audience
• Block paragraphs: create block paragraphs by using single-spaces between lines
and double spaces between paragraphs. Not only does this make a text look
cleaner, it also reduces the amount of "publishing space" by almost one-half from
double-spacing. Double-spacing is for producing drafts and allows editors or
instructors to place comments in-between lines. Since you are practicing how to
produce professional documents, use block paragraphs
• Bullets & Numbers: use bulleted points for lists and numbers for sequenced lists;
this makes them easier to read and to determine what parts make up a whole or
what needs to be accomplished
 The Design Principles of Professional
Writing
Page Layout
• To produce a clean looking document, consider the following principles from Robin
William's Non-Designer's Design Book. Her principles are supported by research about the
eye's physiology.
Contrast Make visual elements headings, subheadings, text) that are different appear
different by adjusting font size, color, face, or style. Notice that the headings are a different
font face and style (Arial, bold) than the text (Georgia, normal). This makes it easy for your
audience to determine how the text is functioning.
Alignment Create invisible lines down your page to show relationships between items. Notice
that the text is all left aligned. The headings are consistently aligned with each other, as are
the bullets, and the subheadings; this allows the audience to clearly see hierarchies in the
text's organization.
Repetition Repeat visual elements throughout the document. Notice that the headings and
sub-headings all look the same. Notice the alignment is all the same. Again this orients your
audience to the hierarchies you are creating.
Proximity Place text next to corresponding elements. Notice that the headings and
subheadings are close to the descriptions of the principles being described; this helps the
audience to see relationships between what is written on the page.
Task 1: Revise the text to improve its you attitude and positive
language. Make any other changes necessary to improve the wording
of the letter

Dear Mr. Jacob:

As per your request of September 29, be advised that we have reviewed your
balance sheet and seller reference sheet. Based on this information, we have
decided to extend your credit to 50,000 pesos. Please be aware that paying beyond
30 days is not negotiable and we will expect your compliance. We grant a 2.5%
discount only if you pay within ten days.

I am looking forward to your orders of our high-quality standard motherboards and

custom-designed wiring. Hoping for your continuing interest

Yours truly,

Your Name,
Credit Representative, Quill electronics.
Task 2: Write a memo up to three paragraphs long for one of the following
scenarios. Decide who the memo should be sent to and what the subject of
the message is. Add your own information to the body of the memo.

Situation: Memo-writing checklist

You are the office manager and ❑ The memo is written in the proper format
want to remind everyone to (e.g., To, From, Date, Subject, etc.)
clean up after themselves in the ❑ The subject line clearly states the
lunchroom. There was recently purpose of the memo
an infestation of cockroaches.
The building has since been ❑ The first sentence of the memo states
fumigated but you still require the purpose
the cooperation of staff to ❑ The message of the memo is clear
prevent a re-infestation. State ❑ Attachments included with the memo
the purpose of the memo, your are referred to in the body of the memo
reason(s) for sending it (i.e. the ❑ There are no grammar, spelling or
kind of behavior you have punctuation errors
noticed) and what actions you
want taken.