Lecture 3.

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: SPECIFICITY

List of Issues Discussed:

1. Business Communication: Importance of Business Communication in
Modern World.
2. Business Communication: Business Writing.

References
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міжнародних документах і дипломатичній кореспонденції: навч. посіб. Київ:
Логос, 1999. 416 с.
2. Козик В. В., Панкова Л. А., Карп’як Я. С. Зовнішньоекономічні операції і
контракти: навч. посіб. Київ: Центр видавничої літератури, 2004. 698 с.
3. Кирсанова М. В., Анодина Н. Н., Аксенов Ю. М. Деловая переписка:
учеб.-практич. пособ. Москва: ИНФРА-М, 2006. 98 с.
4. Коленченко А. М. Комерційне листування. Секретарь-референт. 2006. № 2.
С. 42–47.
5. Коновченко О. В. Міжнародне листування: навч. посіб. Харків: Нац.
аерокосм. ун-т ім. М. Є. Жуковського ≪ХАІ≫, 2012. 98 с.
6. Корунець І. В. Theory and Practice of Translation. Вінниця: Нова книга, 2001.
447 с.
7. Мамрак А.В. Вступ до теорії перекладу: навч. посіб. Київ: Центр учбової
літератури, 2009. 304 с.
8. Maginot Ch. A Translator’s Reflections on Translation and “Untranslatability”.
URL: [Link]
9. Munday J. Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. London:
Routledge, 2010. 253 p.

1. Business Communication: Importance of Business Communication in

Modern World
Business communication involves coordinating various tasks between the
various tiers in a company, and it also involves all the interactions that the company
makes with the outside world. Corporate success is impossible without effective
means of business communication.
With the advent of technology to previously unimaginable heights, the
importance of workplace and business communication has become even more
profound. Gone are the days when businessmen would reach their office and find
stacks of letters and notices lying on their desk. This is the digital era, and the
presence of BlackBerry’s and other mail exchange devices means that these same
businessmen are never out of the loop, at any point of the day now. Communication is
a pretty generic term and it takes up different meanings in different scenarios. When
we speak of business communication we literally mean the channels of exchange of
thoughts and opinions and orders that exist within a business organization, and also
the channels that pass from one organization to another. The two communicating
parties can be partners or one of them can be a vendor of the other one. And in
today’s highly globalized marketplace, these are relationships that are not uncommon
by any means.
Latest Communication Technology As already mentioned, the digital era has
brought with it many new facets and means for the purpose of business
communication. ‘Snail Mail’ is no longer an option for the parties involved, and
today one can reach a colleague or a superior instantly with the touch of a button.
BlackBerry smart phones are what started this trend on a big scale, and these gave
businessmen the opportunity to check their emails at any time, speak on the phone
and text each other at any time, and also make video calls at any time. The Apple
iPhone soon found its way into corporate hands, and this eventually led to the
introduction of Android based phones as well.
The latest entrant in the field is the Apple iPad and other competing tablets, and
these perform all the aforementioned tasks with ease. It is very important for business
organizations to embrace the latest technology for communication purposes. Doing so
not only showcases an attitude that is open to new innovations, but it also adds an air
of professionalism and technological superiority about the company itself.
The Importance of Business Communication Business communication consists
of two aspects, internal and external communications. Internal communications take
place when people within the same company communicate and interact with each
other. Large workforces in the biggest companies make this an essential aspect of
running any business, and this involves the passing of orders, the reporting of results,
the reporting of complaints, the discussion of new ideas, the examination of client
needs, the determining of marketing strategies, the production of the goods and the
motivating of employees. All of these aspects are crucial for the smooth running of a
business, and embracing new technology in the modern world for these purposes will
be nothing but helpful. The other form of communication that is necessary is external
communication, and this involves interacting with vendors, clients, customers, press
representatives and legal representatives. All of these channels require great tact and
showmanship, and no company can survive without following the proper lines of
communication. The needs of the clients need to be understood, the progress needs to
be regularly conveyed to them, the procurement of raw materials needs to be carried
out, the synergy and partnership with other companies needs to be nurtured, and the
customers need to be targeted properly. All of these tasks require a concentrated effort
from all departments of the organization, and this can only be achieved through
proper means.
 The importance of business communication in modern-day scenarios must not
be underestimated by any means, since this is the life blood of any company.
Embracing new technology for this purpose is also essential, and all successful
companies know this.

2. Business Communication: Business Writing

People in organizations spend a lot of time communicating. For example,
research studies regularly find that managers spend over 60 per cent of their time in
meetings. In some cases they spend over 80 per cent of their day involved in
communication.
We also know that there are significant differences among organizations and
cultures. In his study of European managers, P. Collett found that Czech managers
were most communicative (68 per cent of their time). British managers were average
at 62 per cent but French and Bulgarian managers were much lower – 56 percent and
52 per cent respectively.
But how important is communication to the organization’s well-being? Is there
enough evidence to support the claims that ‘business communication is a critical
success factor for any organization’ or that ‘good management depends on effective
communication’?
The answer is clearly ‘yes’: ‘research overwhelmingly suggests that improved
internal communication brings large scale organizational benefits’. The keystone of
business communication is business writing. Business writing should achieve some
business objective – it should help to get some necessary job done. For example, you
might be writing to give someone accurate business or commercial information. How
effectively you achieve your objective will depend in part on the writing style. Style
in writing is concerned with choice. One has to make choices about which words and
phrases to use, how to organize paragraphs, and so on. One has to make stylistic
choices to create a document which has the appropriate content and tone.
Content criteria What criteria can we use to evaluate the content of a business
text? The most common are listed below, although many texts on business
communication focus on the first three:
• accuracy;
• brevity;
• clarity;
• emphasis.
Accuracy
In business writing, accuracy is the most important criterion. Inaccurate and
incorrect information can often be more harmful than no information at all. But this
raises a problem: how accurate must your writing be? A high degree of accuracy
often requires considerable detail and qualification of the information. The result
could be long and turgid texts which nobody can bring themselves to read.
 Consider for example the following simple memo:
TO: General Manager
FROM: Personnel Manager
Support for Staff Canteen
Pursuant to your memo requesting information on staff attitudes to a staff canteen, I
wish to report as follows.
In the week beginning 25 January 2001, Messrs Smith, Jones and Kbumalo of this
department carried out a survey of staff opinion using a simple questionnaire, which
had been prepared by Jo Singh of the Human Resources Department as part of a
project for his management development qualification. They were able to give the
questionnaire to 470 staff which is 69.24% of the workforce who take lunch and eat
in the vicinity of the factory. In the following week, the questionnaire was analysed
using the scanner and software in Human Resources. The results indicated that
89.47% of those questioned were in favour of a staff canteen.
A full copy of their report is attached for your perusal.
Although this memo is only 136 words long, it manages to demonstrate many
examples of poor style. For example,
– The reader does not need this level of accuracy. The writer should have rounded off
the figure to 89 per cent or even 90 per cent.
– Opinion surveys depend on responses which can change from day to day, and it is
not justified to report the result to two places of decimals. Again, rounding off the
figures would be much more sensible.
Brevity
The example given above also fails on the criterion of brevity. Over-long documents
are usually caused by unnecessary material and/or long-winded writing. In any
communication situation, the writer usually has more information than is necessary
and must therefore determine:
• what the audience already knows;
• what the audience needs to know;
• what the audience wants to know.
Once you have a clear idea of this, you can trim the message without leaving
out important information. If we consider the memo above, we can ask the following
questions:
• Is the exact date of the survey needed or wanted?
• Are the names of the investigators relevant?
• What level of accuracy is needed?
If we remember that the detailed information is all included in the report
(which the manager could read to check it), the text of the memo can be reduced to
the following:
Re: your request for information on attitudes to a canteen.
We have surveyed staff attitudes by questionnaire. We surveyed 70% of the staff and
90% of them were in favour. Our report is attached.
This reduces the passage from 136 words to 34 words, i.e. by 75 per cent. Of
course, you can take brevity too far! The above message can be reduced to only seven
words: ‘90% of staff favour a staff canteen’. But this message would place a greater
burden on the reader, who would have to recall the background to the request. There
is also the problem of accuracy: 90 per cent of 70 per cent were actually in favour.
This brings us to the next criterion: clarity.
Clarity
Lack of clarity is often due to poor style, rather than difficult subject matter,
and may be caused by: • stilted phrases and cliches; • too much detail and repetition; •
lack of logical structure; • use of abstract and generic terms.
Consider for example the following letter:
Dear Sir
PACKING AND REMOVAL OF OFFICE FURNITURE AND EQUIPMENT

We are in receipt of your esteemed favour of the 30th ult. and subsequent
communication with regard to the estimate you require for the packing and removal
of your office furniture, equipment and records from your premises at 123 Main St to
your new premises at 456 Rivonia Rd on the 20th inst.

We wish to confirm the arrangement whereby our representative, Mr S. Strydom, will

call on you at 09:00 hrs on 6th inst. at the above-mentioned address, to make an
inspection of the above-mentioned items with a view to estimating the number of
packing cases and vehicles we will need to effect the packing and subsequent removal
of same.

We trust that the suggested time will suit your convenience. We will then submit our
quotation for your consideration and hope that we may be entrusted to undertake the
aforementioned work. Our quotation will remain valid for seven days. The time you
suggest for removal, 08:00 on 20th inst., will be entirely convenient provided we
receive your timeous response.

We beg to remain
Yours faithfully

W. Smith
Removals Manager2

This letter is unclear for a number of reasons:

• use of outdated abbreviations and cliches, such as ult. and inst., and ‘your esteemed
favour’;
• unnecessary detail. Does the customer need to know that the cartage contractor has
to estimate the number of ‘packing cases and vehicles’ needed?
• fuzzy facts. What precisely is meant by ‘subsequent communication’ and ‘timeous
response’?
• pompous words, e.g. ‘timeous’, ‘in receipt of’.
Emphasis
Important information should be emphasized. But how do we decide what is
important? It is:
• information that is important to the audience; and
• information that will support your arguments as writer.
Less important information should be left out or placed later in the text.
Apart from ranking items in order of importance, emphasis can be achieved by
other methods, such as the following:
• Format and typography. The layout and typography of a document can be used to
highlight important points. Techniques include use of white space, use of lists and
bullet points, and use of headings.
• Grammatical structure. We can emphasize a word by making it the subject of a
sentence. For example, rather than ‘The temperature was measured by an optical
pyrometer’, you can say ‘An optical pyrometer measured the temperature.’
This puts the emphasis on the means of measurement.
Of course, emphasis should not be carried to the point where information is
distorted or where important facts are concealed.
Using these criteria, the previous letter can be further improved:
How a letter can be improved
Improved letter Comment Improved letter Comment
REMOVAL OF OFFICE CONTENTS
Thank you for your letter of 30 June Gives an immediate audience orientation.
about moving the contents of your
offices. We wish to confirm the following
points from our telephone conversation.

We are able to move the contents of your Immediately confirms that the work can
offices at 08:00 on 20 July as required. be done.
We have provisionally included your
move in our work schedule.

Mr S. Strydom will visit you at 09:00 There is no unnecessary information

here.
on 6 July to prepare a quotation and he
will submit this to you within 24 hours.

We will hold your move on our removal Gives a definite date. Also clarifies how
schedule until 12 July to give you time to the customer can respond.
decide on our quotation. If there is
anything you wish to know about these
arrangements, please contact me at
706 2345(ext. 6781).

Yours sincerely

W Smith
Removals Manager

So, there are certain tonal requirements that almost invariably apply to written
communication. The fact that written communication constitutes a permanent record
means that writers should:
– avoid undue familiarity;
– adopt a professional tone;
– use a tone appropriate to the status of the receiver;
– be sensitive to the existence of different business practices;
– be sensitive to cultural differences.

NB: “Leading guides to effective business language”

Leading guides to effective business language are the following:
1. Never use a METAPHOR, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to
seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a SHORT WORD will do.
3. If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the ACTIVE.
5. Never use a FOREIGN PHRASE, a scientific word or a JARGON word, if you can
think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Use words your reader will recognize easily.
7. Construct straightforward sentences.
8. Keep most sentences short and simple.
9. Use clear and simple punctuation.
10. Make your point, then support it.