When I reviewed my email files to find one to write about I noticed a pattern. The more familiar someone was with you the less information and "niceties" there was in the email. In each of these messages the tone was set in the first line of the email. I knew the content of the message before reading the entire text.
Chase Bank opens their formal business email with Mr. Charles E. Pelaske Jr... This tips me off there may be something legal in the memo. The opening was followed by legal stuff telling me they changed the terms on a credit card I do not use. Publisher's Clearing House does not know me at all. They refer to me as Mr. Pelaske before they offer to fix my financial position. The most familiar was from my brother. “Check this out" was all he wrote and he included a web site address.
Chase tried to maintain a friendly tone. Other than the opening paragraph, the message was bland and unappealing. Writing this type of message is difficult. The ability to deliver bad news while trying to keep customer goodwill takes talent. Chase effectively balanced the bad news by reminding customers of the services available to them for the increased cost.
Publisher's Clearing House sent their usual promotion of giving away millions of dollars. The email was a full page of how the reader could become rich and how others have already become rich by clicking on the link. The sale of actual merchandise does not occur until you have clicked on the link. The tone is upbeat throughout the entire email. They want the reader to feel the sense of urgency to click the link by the use of bold print with underling. These mental pushes are on the key parts requesting the reader to respond now and prompt entry needed. The reference to others that lost because they failed to respond seems mildly threatening. This approach must work because they have been using it for decades.
My brother's email would be impossible to discern a tone in without the entire context of where the link went and why he sent it to me. This short an email may be acceptable between family members. In the work place it would be a mistake, no matter how well or how long you worked with someone. The intended joke could backfire by misinterpretation.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
This Week's Blog
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The World of Rhetoric
The Fox News Channel hits us with the combination of their logo "Fair and Balanced" followed by images of their star reporters to build our perceived ethos of their reporters. Does this rhetoric work for you? It does not work for me. Fox makes further attempts at logos by stating they are America's number one news channel. I watch Fox just for the humor value of the excessive rhetoric. Fox may have a high number of viewers but many could be watching for the same reason as I do.
The attempts to pull at my heartstrings with these pitches become annoying after hearing them continuously. They begin to fall into the clichéd ethos of "4 out of 5 dentists recommends...". I begin to doubt the veracity of the source after hearing the phrases so many times.
I can understand the desire of the news media to build a relationship with their viewers. The result could be beneficial in terms of revenue generated by a growing loyal audience. It may be better to focus on giving us more information in the time slot allowed by reducing the rhetoric.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Writing Class Expectations
Writing has always been easy for me. As long as I am familiar with the subject or have a point to make, I can communicate my ideas in a clear manor. My issue is with writing for a new audience, such as a new manager or for a new teacher in a classroom. Without knowing what they are expecting in style or the specific information my audience is looking for I develop writers block.
For my current writing class I think writing style should not be an issue. In technical writing the format is usually straightforward. Memos have a routine structure that is clear. The information needs to be written as brief as possible while relaying all the facts. Proposals, resumes, and the other types of documents we will be writing will also have predetermined style limits. These style limits improves the possibility of producing documents that will meet or exceed the expectations of the instructor.
The content of the documents we will be writing is still unclear. There remains the opportunity for error in content without some guidance. The directions were clear enough for a few hundred words on writing for this blog. By relaying my thoughts on fulfilling the expectations of my audience, I am hoping for help on learning how to write for a wider audience without the need for too much direction on content.
As the semester progresses we will see how the writing style changes in this blog. I would like to see a clear improvement when comparing this blog entry with my final blog entry at the end of April.
