Business documents

Quick Tips. Typographical dos and don'ts

When you prepare business documents, you should keep in mind that the look and readability of а document are among your priorities. Here you'll find some key typography issues.

Capital letters: Do not use capital letters for large blocks of text. It looks like you are SHOUTING AT YOUR READER. Instead of using capital letters, use your word processor's small caps instead. They look much better.

Underlining. In the days of typewriters, we used to underline words or even phrases to emphasize an idea that seemed very important to us. Nowadays word processors provide us with more attractive options, so that we could avoid underlining text.

Bold type: Use bold type for headings. Within а paragraph, use italics, which also catches the reader's eye. Bold type used within а paragraph draws unwanted attention.

Curly quotes Straight quote marks (" ") and apostrophes (') are considered less professional than curly quotes or smart quotes

(` ') and apostrophes (').

If you want your document to look nice, keep in mind the following rules:

· Use only one space after punctuation marks like comma, question mark and full stop. Otherwise your page will have ugly white patches.

· Avoid splitting proper names, phone and fax numbers across two lines.

MODERN BUSINESS USAGE

Jargon

Infomercial -'TV commercial containing а lot of information е. g. Specialists in marketing believe that infomercials will increase sales.

to outsell - sell more than somebody else does

е. g. Our newly-recruited sales reps are doing their best to outsell oldtime sales force.

Pitch - reason for buying something, given to а buyer

е. g. Many customers are saying, "Don't give те your pitch, just give те the facts. I'11 make ту own decision".

Rookie = rocky - person new at something

е. g. The new subsidiary's rookies are very enthusiastic.

sellout - the event of selling а11 of something

е. g. Visit the sellout of the century. Everything is $10.

BUSINESS READING
Importing and Exporting: How to Make Meetings Work?

Meetings are an essential part of corporate life. Staff meetings are held on а regular basis. It's an integral part of а corporate culture. А successful and fruitful meeting needs preparation and organization. There's а tendency among employees to resent me­etings which they perceive to be а waste of important time.

То prevent this from happening, the meeting facilitator must до а little homework. There are three main phases in conducting а business meeting: the preparation phase, the meeting itself and the follow-up stage.

First of а11, а meeting facilitator has to identify the purpose of the meeting. If the purpose is to bring managers together or to make reports, it is probably better not to have any meeting's at а11. Circulating written memos may turn out to be more effective. Meetings should be about creativity, problem solving, and decision making. Nowadays too many meetings are spent sharing information that сап be better communicated in other ways. Every meeting should produce decisions and action plans. It is very important to brief attendees on the aims of the meeting. This gives people а chance to think over the issues and develop their ideas.

1f the purpose of the meeting is to share urgent information with everyone, the number of participants can be quite large. But for intense interaction and group problem solving, а limited number

of people (5 to 8) works best. 1n most cases, the fewer people the _' better, because the shortest way to kill creativity is to include too many people in the meeting. °

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During the meeting itself, perfect timing becomes one of the; essentials. The meeting facilitator must carefully manage each meeting segment. Meetings should not last for hours, long past the point of usefulness: If there's an unexpected delay, and the meeting сап not be tabled, it should, be extended for а specific and agreed-upon length of time. I

1n the end of the meeting the facilitator should ask the

participants the following questions:

What was the most important thing accomplished in the meeting? What needs to happen next?

Who is taking саге of what, and by what date?

Post-meeting accountability is also important in making meetings work. This accountability is assured by setting up milestones - times at which participants wi11 come back to the meeting's action plan, measure their progress and revise the plan if necessary.

During the follow-up stage the recorder, the person who makes notes during the discussion, quickly drafts а meeting summary and reviews it with group members. The best format is а one-page document, covering the key discussion areas, decisions and planned actions. This summary should be sent to participants within а day or two of the meeting. It's vital that this summary should be distributed to those who were not present at the meeting and who will be affected by the decision made. Don't forget to see if everyone completes his or her assignments by the agreed-upon deadlines. This followup system resembles an insurance policy. It helps ensure that projects stay on track.