Module 3: Short Forms of Written Communication

Time

10 - 20 hours

Module Description

This optional module provides students with experience in preparing short forms of written communication, such as letters, memoranda, abstracts, and executive summaries. This is a practical module, as it covers situations most people will be faced with during their working and personal lives. In addition, the module provides opportunities for students to practise the writing process.

Purposes

• to convince students of the importance of effective communication in all aspects of their lives
• to introduce students to various short forms of written communication
• to encourage students to make use of what is known as "the writing process" to improve their writing

Foundational Objectives

• recognize the importance of effective communication in various situations
• recognize that communication is a multi-faceted process
• recognize that communication involves problem solving and decision making
• recognize writing as a constructive, meaningful process
• practise the behaviours of effective writers
• write confidently in a variety of formats for a variety of purposes and audiences
• recognize reading as an active, constructive process

Specific Learning Objectives

• recognize the importance of effective communication in one's personal life
• recognize the importance of effective communication in work and professions
• recognize the importance of effective communication in lifelong learning experiences
• select and apply appropriate methods of communication in various experiences
• recognize that communication is an interactive process between sender and receiver
• recognize the role of culture in communication
• consider purpose, occasion, and audience in communication endeavours
• approach communication experiences (both sending and receiving) as active, thinking participants
• use the writing process to organize their thoughts and discover new areas of knowledge
• demonstrate the ability to transmit existing information with clarity and brevity
• use specific concrete language to protect the integrity of the message
• using appropriate writing strategies, construct first drafts, rewrite, revise, edit, and proofread
• confer with peers and teachers
• recognize various types of technical writing
• practise writing for informational and practical purposes
• read technical and informational material critically and with purpose
• read to make connections and gain information
• read to confirm predictions and to evaluate

Suggested Topics

Letters
Memoranda
E-mail
Abstracts
Executive Summaries
Minutes
Log or Journal Entries

Suggested Resources

• English language arts bibliography for grade 11
• Published examples of various short forms of written communication
• Unpublished examples of letters, memoranda, etc.
• Internet

Teacher Information for Module 3

This section includes information that may be of use to teachers selecting Module 3. However, teachers should keep in mind that the information provided here is basic; that the field of communication is an evolving one; and that new resources, including multimedia resources, will continue to become available. For more information on researching, organizing, and presenting written material, teachers should refer to the English language arts bibliography for grade 11. In addition, they might wish to consult with people who work in the field of communication in their own community.

For short forms of written communication, students should do the following, as appropriate to their writing task:

• select and narrow a topic
• think about their audience needs and expectations
• evaluate sources of information
• make notes from sources of information
• use the writing process
• select an organizational pattern
• consider the beginning and ending
• develop the main body
• use appropriate language, such as gender-neutral language
• edit and revise
• proofread for style and mechanics in order to present a positive image
• share their drafts with others and consider their comments
• present their writing in an appropriate format.

Note: It is not intended that the information here be taught routinely, outside of the context of students' communication experiences. Teachers may incorporate the information in mini-lessons or other learning activities, as need arises.

Business Letters

Letters may be written in either the "block" or the "modified block" style. In the block style, every line begins at the left margin. In the modified block style, the date and the complimentary closing begin at the centre point. In a modified block style, a letter may or may not have indented paragraphs. The block style is the simplest and most common style.

Request or Inquiry Letter

The request letter is used to request information, services, or products. The writer of a request letter should make it as easy as possible for the receiver to answer the request.

Reply to Inquiry

The main purposes of replying to a letter of inquiry are: to maintain a spirit of good will (often referred to as public relations), to gain a potential customer, and to provide information. The person answering an inquiry should study the letter received and identify what the writer wants, and what questions are to be answered. In some cases, the age or occupation of the person requesting a reply might be important (if the person is a young student, for example, the answer should be worded accordingly).

Letter of Refusal

Sometimes it is necessary to refuse a person's request. For example, the person may have asked for information that is confidential or for a service that cannot be provided.

Letter of Complaint or Claim Letter

The purpose of a claim letter is to convince your reader that you are a fair and honest customer who is justifiably dissatisfied. Most letters of complaint will be related to consumer products, but they might also be complaints related to organizations such as city/town councils, service organizations, charities, and other non-profit groups.

Adjustment Letter or Response to Complaint

An adjustment letter is a reply to a letter of complaint about a product. Its primary purpose is to deal with the complaint by granting the request for an adjustment, by refusing it, or by granting it in part. Whether the request is granted will likely depend on company guidelines and policy regarding adjustments and complaints. Some letters of complaint are about service or procedures, and these should be answered appropriately as well.

Sales Letter

Sensitivity to the needs of the audience is very important in a sales letter. Potential customers need to know why they should buy the product or the service, donate to the charity, subscribe to the magazine or theatre season, etc. The writer must provide clear information to help them understand what the letter is promoting.

Letter to the Editor

A letter to the editor is a written reaction to something read in a newspaper or magazine. Most newspapers and magazines publish a number of these letters. They can be heart-felt, serious, informed, and entertaining. However, the main purpose of a letter to the editor is to persuade.

Memoranda

The memorandum (memo) is a form of communication used to relay information within a company, club, or other organization. The memo is usually concerned with only one topic and is kept as short as possible. The memo is conversational in tone but should be kept free of jargon, clichés, and slang. A memo is usually sent through inter-office mail, or it may be hand-delivered, depending on the content and how many people are to receive it. A memo may be written to just one person or it may be written from one person to an entire staff.

E-mail

For many people, e-mail has replaced personal letters as a means of communicating with friends and acquaintances. In addition, e-mail is a convenient means of communicating for business purposes. The advantage of e-mail is its speed and low cost.

Abstracts

Both lengthy technical articles and formal technical reports often contain abstracts. Abstracts enable readers to decide whether they will read the whole discussion or report.

An abstract of a report is a brief technical summary of that report, and can be useful both before and after the report reading. A copy of the abstract is either attached to, or placed within, the report. The two basic types of abstracts are descriptive and informative. Generally, the informative abstract is preferred.

The descriptive abstract is sometimes called the "table of contents" abstract because it describes what the report is about. It does not state significant results, conclusions, or recommendations. It lists the topics covered in the report or article, giving equal emphasis to each.

The informative abstract summarizes the major information that a report or article contains. For a formal report, the abstract states the problem and its scope, the methods used, important results, conclusions, and recommendations.

Executive Summary

The executive summary of a report is sometimes called the management summary or management overview. It is intended for managers and addressed to managers who need to know what is happening in various departments. Their time is too limited to allow them to study in detail the different projects undertaken by their organization. What managers need is a broad understanding of all the projects and how they fit together. The length of an executive summary will sometimes depend on the length of the report, but it is generally one page and never more than two pages.

Minutes

Minutes are records of proceedings at meetings. Accurate minutes are extremely important, as a review of minutes is a way for all who were at the meeting to agree on what was said and decided. In addition, minutes are a way of communicating with those who were not present, and with those to whom a board or committee is accountable. Minutes kept over the years provide a record of a group's history and of decisions that affect finances, procedures, and membership. If any aspect of a group's operation is ever called into question, well-kept minutes can serve to protect those involved.

Log or Journal Entries

Logs or journals can be very useful in some fields of work. Someone who meets with a lot of different people in his or her work might keep a log or journal as a personal record of meetings and what was discussed.

Suggested Activities for Module 3

This section includes brief descriptions of activities that teachers can use for this module. The activities are suggestions only, and teachers should adapt and add other activities appropriate for their students and teaching styles.

Note: Teachers should take care to introduce all activities within the context of their applicability to effective communication in personal life, work, and lifelong learning. Activities and projects should be relevant to students' lives, and whenever possible students should create their own scenarios for communication projects. Mini-lessons related to module content and language processes should be taught to individual students, small groups, or the whole class as demanded by need.

Activity: Workshopping

Have students find an ad, letter to the editor, or very short article in the newspaper, TV guide, etc. Place students in small workshop groups (four or five students). Ask students to "workshop" the pieces they have selected and then rewrite them based on the other students' comments.

From an activity such as this, the teacher can determine what experience the students have with workshop groups and how much time they need to spend teaching the writing process and workshop methods.

Activity: Writing

Have students write a brief report (less than a page) of an event that occurred in their school or community. Have them work through the steps of pre-writing, drafting, revising, and sharing or publishing. Again this activity will tell teachers how much experience their students have with the writing process.

Activity: Letter

Ask students to think of some things that could be done better in a club or organization they are involved with (e.g., a sports group, a drama group, a 4-H club, a charity organization, the student representative council, a youth organization, a social club).

Have them create an outline which compares the way they think things should be done to the way things are currently being done. They should choose points of comparison suited to their purpose and avoid comparing insignificant details. Have them arrange their information in categories and/or groups.

When students have completed the outline of comparison, have them draft a letter or short report to the club president, group leader, governing council, or other authority. (They need not send their letter; it is simply an exercise.) In their letter, they should recommend changes and explain their recommendations.

Activity: Written Explanation

Have students write a letter to a partner in class asking that this partner explain a certain process or a series of causes to them (e.g., how volcanoes are caused, what makes the northern lights appear, how the Gulf War started, why the Canadian dollar is worth less than the American dollar, how sugar is made). Have students research to find the answers to their partner's request, and then write their partner a brief letter explaining the causes or the steps in the process or event.

Activity: Business Letters

Have the students collect examples of business letters with the help of parents and businesses in the community. If anonymity is important, have students black out names and signatures.

In small groups, have students examine a number of letters, looking at format and the parts of a business letter. Have students answer the following questions:

• How many of the letters were on letterhead?
• How many of the letters used a block style?
• How were the letters addressed? (E.g., Dear Ms Monroe; Dear E. Monroe; To whom it may concern; etc.).
• How many paragraphs did the letters contain?
• Were there any reference notations? If so, what were they?
• Are there any generalizations the students can make about the letters?
• Is there one letter the students believe is the best example of a business letter? Why?

Have each group present its findings to the class.

Activity: Letter of Request or Inquiry

Have students write a letter asking a person to speak at a meeting of an organization to which they belong, or write a letter to a person such as a former teacher or former employer, asking permission to use the person's name as a reference in a job application.

Activity: Letters of Inquiry and Response to Inquiry

Prepare several appropriate scenarios for small groups of students; for example:

• a major industry in your area has laid off many workers
• the city/town council has decided it can no longer afford snow removal and all citizens will have to pay a special charge
• the local newspaper has decided it will no longer be covering sports events.

Organize students in small groups. Give each group a scenario. Have the group write a letter of inquiry in which they must ask at least three questions. They can choose the tone they want their letter to take, but they must take the task seriously.

Next, have the students pass their scenario and the letter they have written to another group. The groups must now imagine that they are the person receiving the letter of inquiry (e.g., the chairperson of a board, someone who works in public relations, the head of a company). They must answer the letter as that person.

Have the groups read aloud the scenarios, the letters of inquiry, and the answers.

Activity: Claim Letter

Give the students the following scenario: A thermos they purchased is defective and now their new jacket has a series of stains caused by hot chocolate leaking from the thermos.

Have students write a claim letter to the manufacturer of the thermos. They can add other appropriate details to their scenario.

Activity: Sales Letter

Have each student choose a product or service they are familiar with because of home, work, or school experience. Ask students to imagine that they are responsible for marketing this product or service to a Ms Gillian Hope, purchasing agent for the firm MacIntyre Incorporated. Have each student write a sales letter promoting his or her product or service. Students should be specific regarding the items they have to offer, and their company's terms.

Some ideas for products include:

• cleaning supplies
• office materials or equipment
• car rentals or leases
• pre-recorded music for public places
• security service
• day-care service for employees.

Activity: Letter to the Editor

Have each student clip or photocopy five letters to the editor from newspapers or magazines that they like to read. Make sure they record on the letters from which paper or magazine they are taken.

Have them meet in small groups and read the letters aloud to one another. Ask the groups to answer the following questions:

• What are the general characteristics of the letters? What do they have in common?
• Do they see any differences in the letters that may have to do with the publication? For example, are the letters in Maclean's different from the letters in Elle or Spin? What might be the reason for differences?
• Which are their favourite letters to the editor? Why do they like these ones? What characteristics do they have?

Activity: Letter to the Editor

Have students find an article in a newspaper or magazine about which they have an opinion. They can be in agreement with the point of view expressed in the article, or they can disagree with it. Have them write a letter to the editor in reaction to the article.

Activity: Memo

Imagine that you are the General Manager of a small publishing house. It is the fifth anniversary of the business. Write a memo to the five employees you work with, explaining what you have in mind for an anniversary celebration. This celebration involves publicity for the publishing house and its authors. Your purpose is to get feedback on your ideas.

Activity: Memo

Ask students to think of a problem they have some ideas about solving (e.g., congestion in school hallways, damage done to school property, too little community recreational activity for teenagers, noise in the library, and so on). Have them briefly describe the problem and outline the actions they would take to solve it. Have them write a memo to the appropriate person, using the following guidelines in their memo:

• clearly state the problem
• explain the relationship between the problem and the solution, and why the solution is good
• describe any actions that need to be taken.

Activity: E-mail

Have students compose and send an e-mail to a company asking a question about a product in which they are interested. The following are examples:

• Write to a music production company asking the date of the next release by a band they like.
• Write to a music production company asking for the touring schedule of a band they like.
• Write to a clothing manufacturer asking for the names of retail outlets in their vicinity which sell the company's clothing.
• Write to a provincial or state tourism department for information on camping or hiking spots.

Activity: Abstracts and Executive Summaries

Have each student find a technical article on a topic in which he or she is interested. Have each student write an abstract and an executive summary for his or her article. The purpose of the activity is emphasize the difference between the two: the abstract is a technical summary for those who know about the topic, and the executive summary is for a person who wants the gist of the article, but does not need to know the technical details. The students can imagine the person for which each is written. The following is an example:

• The student chooses an article on a new piece of equipment for rock climbing. He or she can imagine that the abstract is written for members of a local rock climbing club (experts), and the executive summary is written for parents (non-experts) of a group of young people interested in climbing.

Activity: Minutes

Arrange students in small groups. Provide each group with a scenario, within which they will conduct a meeting in role. The following are examples:

• They are a committee of students that has been struck to plan fund-raising events to raise money for the new student lounge in their school. At the meeting, they will brainstorm ideas, settle on several, and assign tasks to be completed by the next committee meeting.

• They are a group of citizens that has formed a committee to decide what to do about a new industry that has been developed up-wind from their community. They are worried about noxious fumes. At the meeting, they will decide on several actions and assign tasks before the next meeting.

• They are a group of journalists who have started a new magazine. They are planning their first issue. They are meeting to discuss story ideas and assign tasks before the next meeting.

One person in each group will take the minutes. That person will distribute the minutes to other group members, who will read them and suggest revisions if anything is not correct. After changes are made, the minutes can be handed in as a group project.

Activity: Log or Journal Entries

As a class, brainstorm uses for logs or journals in various occupations. Have each student keep a log or journal for one week, that is related in some way to an activity in which he or she is involved. The first step is to settle on a specific purpose for keeping the journal, so that entries can be directed at the purpose. The following are examples:

• If students are in training for a particular sport, they can keep a record of their training activities. Their purpose might be to note the amount of time they spend on training in a week, and to note good and bad training days and try to decide what the reasons are for differences.

• If students are reading a book, they can keep a daily record of time spent reading and their reactions to what they have read that day. Their purpose might be to note the time spent reading, and the development of their thoughts about a particular book as it progresses.

• If students watch a lot of television, they can keep a record of their viewing patterns. Their purpose might be to discover the amount of time they spend watching television, what their favourite kind of television program is, and why they like that kind of program.

• If students play a musical instrument, they can keep a record of time spent playing or practising, what their favourite and least favourite aspects of playing are, and what that means to their practice regimen. (This could apply to students who take formal lessons or those who play in a band such as a rock band.)

Have students decide on a format for their entries that will be useful to them. Conduct a class discussion afterwards on what can learned from keeping records such as log or journal entries.

Activity: Historical Writing Project

Have each student prepare a one- to two-page historical report on a different local historical site, geographical site, or community building that is at least fifty years old. The reports could be bound together in a booklet featuring the history of community buildings and sites.

• First, as a whole class, complete a common reader analysis checklist, as the targeted readers for these reports will likely all be the same (e.g., residents of the community, historians, other students).

• Next, each individual student must choose a particular building or site.

• Then, each student will brainstorm ideas, then research, outline, draft, and revise his or her report, which should not exceed 500 words.

• Peer editing and peer review should take place.

• The finished report should include one visual (e.g., a drawing, a photograph) and should be typewritten. The guidelines for effective formatting (e.g., effective use of white space and headings) should be followed.

• Each student might also create a plan for analyzing his or her report or for testing its usability (e.g., for clarity, comprehensiveness, accuracy).

The instructor and class will decide whether to have students carry out their plans for analyzing their reports or testing them for usability, and whether to bind the reports together in a collection to make a booklet.

Note: Teachers should conclude each module with discussion or other reflective activity that encourages students to make and understand connections between the module and communication in people's personal lives, work experiences, and lifelong learning.

Sample Assessment of a Memorandum

Student:

Date:

Purpose:
- ask and answer questions
- give short report
- reminder of appointment or meeting
- written record of action taken

Method of Distribution:
- inter-office mail
- bulletin board
- fax
- e-mail
- other:

Use the following scale to assess each aspect of the memo.

1 = Excellent, 2 = Good, 3 = Average, 4 = Fair, 5 = Weak

__ Background Information (DATE, TO, FROM, and SUBJECT lines)

• identifies your name and name(s) of reader(s) (and, if appropriate, job position)
• identifies date
• identifies subject of memo

__ Objective

• tells reader(s) the purpose of the memo
• relates clearly to the content of the memo

__ Message

• includes a background paragraph (if it is needed)
• states the major points clearly and briefly
• presents the points in a logical order
• states clearly tasks or action that you and your reader(s) will carry out
• graphically differentiates main message from its accompanying explanation and details (by using headings to clarify the structure and content of the memo; using numbered, lettered, or bulleted lists appropriately; and underlining, italicizing, boldfacing, or capitalizing only key words related to purpose of the memo)

__ Overall

• is clear, brief, and courteous
• states exactly what is wanted and when it is wanted
• uses appropriate tone and language conventions (including spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure)

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