10 minus 2 Report Writing Pitfalls

Pitfall 1: Ignoring your Audience - As I discussed in my proposal, identifying my audience is a major section of my PR plan. My primary audience will be football ticket holder. They are the main group that I am trying to influence. The secondary audience will be Tim Match and IPTAY Board members who will be able to influence the primary audience. Last, the tertiary audience, such as clubs, organizations, etc. who can endorse iTiger.

Pitfall 2: Writing to Impress - Tim Match does not have time to decipher words and phrases in the PR plan. Using unnecessary trivia would do less to impress and more to confuse. Like we have been reading all semester, the writing should be short and concise.

Pitfall 3: Having More then One Aim - My single aim: I will provide IPTAY with recommendations for implementation and communication tactics to reach football season ticket holders.

Pitfall 4: Being Inconsistent - Inconsistency leads to misunderstandings in your writing as well as time wasted for the reader. I will use Clemson's style guide to reduce this confusion and provide a consistent report.

Pitfall 7: Misintroducing - My letter of transmittal, executive summary and introduction should be not only be concise, but also thorough. They should not read like a table of contents, and they should contain the what, how and why of the subject.

Pitfall 8: Dazzling with Data - I should only include information that is relevant to the problem. Some information is

Pitfall 9: Not Highlighting - Some parts of the plan are more important than others. Audience analysis and objectives, strategies, and communication tactics are the most important sections of the PR plan. This should not take away from the other sections, but not highlighting these important aspects would take away from the effectiveness of the plan.

Pitfall 10: Not Rewriting - Revise and then rewrite. This is simple enough; we cannot expect our first draft to become our final report without any rework. You wouldn't expect an actor to step in front of an audience without first rehearsing his lines.

Project Proposal

Executive Summary

iTiger is a set of web-based services aimed at mobile devices to enhance the Clemson experience in sports, research and academics, and beyond. These services will extend the scope of ‘cyber-infrastructure’ for devices connected by broadband wireless networks. iTiger and Clemson provides an unique environment that fosters a “living laboratory”, where products can be showcased or tested while also building working relationships with academic researchers and students. CCIT, the College of Engineering and IPTAY have developed this program but do not have a plan for implementation and marketing. By writing a public relations and marketing plan, I will provide IPTAY with recommendations for implementation as well as communication tactics to reach University Administration and football ticket holders.

Introduction

Clemson University’s Athletic Scholarship Organization, IPTAY, has developed a program, iTiger, for the University but does not have a plan for implementation and marketing. By writing a public relations and marketing plan, I will provide them with recommendations for implementation and communication tactics to reach football season ticket holders. iTiger is a set of web-based services aimed at mobile devices to enhance the Clemson experience in sports, research and academics, and beyond. This proposal will provide details on the current situation of the problem, a plan for the solution, my unique qualifications, and a project schedule.

Current Situation

The iTiger project is a synergistic partnership of athletics, business, academia, and industry with the common goal of shaping and realizing a new mobile wireless experience. The iTiger concept is one that will ultimately lead to real time communication from a person’s mobile device to an interactive landscape that is prevalent, useful, entertaining, and location sensitive. The initial phase will focus on creating a student driven living laboratory within the Clemson’s athletic facilities. Specific illustrations of the benefits of the iTiger project for each perspective include:

i. For athletics, this project represents a new way in which the fan may be immersed in the experience of a sporting event – this new interaction will promote more fan participation and increase the satisfaction of the whole sporting experience. Examples of potential new fan interaction include: the ability to procure merchandise through ecommerce, view replays, track statistics, interact with players, coaches, and use Clemson specific social networking applications.

ii. For business, this project generates new revenue streams through targeted marketing, subscription/service fees, and new retail opportunities.

iii. For academia, this project provides a fertile test-bed for many avenues of research, and also provides opportunities for students to gain real world experience in a challenging, interesting working environment. Other applications for computer technology research include the gathering and analysis of signal/coverage statistics, system monitoring and load testing, and experimental support of content delivery.

iv. For industry partners, this project provides a “living lab” in which products may be showcased or tested and research agendas may be advanced while also building valuable working relationships with academic researchers and students.

The iTiger project is a unique opportunity for athletics, business, academia, and industry partners to collaborate on building the collegiate stadium of the future. The success of this project has more widespread ramifications than just the sporting experience, but also generating more revenue, and academic research. In time, the lessons learned from iTiger will be extended into the Collegiate Campus of the Future – a place where learning, public safety, social networking, and many other elements of modern higher education converge in cyberspace.
An agreement with Cisco Systems Incorporated has been secured where they will provide the necessary network infrastructure and the platform on which applications may sit for the Fall 2008 season. In exchange, Clemson will make the athletic facilities available as a test-bed for Cisco product development. This is an exclusive agreement, yet to be made public, and creates a lot of opportunities from many different angles. For iTiger to be successful, a plan needs to be developed that will communicate these unique benefits and opportunities to football ticket holders.

Project Plan

I will produce a public relations plan that will provide Tim Match, Associate Athletic Director, with strategies and tactics to successfully implement and market the iTiger experience to University administration and football ticket holders. This plan will include the following:

i. Letter of transmittal: This document will be presented in a memo format, will be short and concise and will detail what the document is, why it should receive the reader's consideration, and what the reader should do with it.

ii. Executive Summary: this will summarize the proposed campaign and will follow a similar format of the executive summary in this proposal. It will include the problem, program goal, target audiences, audience objectives, major strategies, recommended budget and evaluation plans.

iii. Situation Analysis: this section will contain all of the information and data about the internal and external environments. While the problem statement will direct the planning efforts to a particular set of conditions, the situation analysis will provide details about internal and external contexts.

iv. Problems and consequences: based on my research and meetings with the client, I will isolate the overriding problem and determine what will happen if the problem is not solved. Here I will answer two questions: “What exactly is it that I want them to do as a result of my campaign”, and “What will happen if they neglect to follow the recommendations of this campaign?”

v. Campaign Goals: here I will provide general directions for the campaign. These are different than objectives, which are specific and can be measured.

vi. Audience Identification and messages: I will attempt to identify three types of audiences:

o Primary: the specific audience or public that I want to influence, football ticket holders.

o Secondary: audience that can intervene on my behalf and influence the primary audience, such as IPTAY board members.

o Tertiary: “special” publics comprised of organized groups (clubs, associations, etc.) that can mobilize quickly and endorse my cause.

I will also determine exactly what message should be directed at each of the audiences I have identified. These messages will be direct and declaratory and will articulate specific benefits to the audiences.

vii. Audience Objectives: I will then state the objectives for each audience that I identified in the previous section. These objectives will be specific and quantifiable when possible. They should also be reachable, acceptable by the client, and ethical.

viii. Strategies: I will provide several strategies that will each in itself solve the problem. I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy, so the client can make an informed decision. Each solution should be feasible, acceptable and appropriate. Finally, I will tell the client which strategy I recommend and why I recommend this strategy; to do this I will refer to the advantages and disadvantages.

ix. Communication Tactics: This will provide the communication tactics I propose and will include both action events (special events, demonstrations, etc.) and communication tactics (news releases, direct mail, advertising, themes, slogans, etc.). I will describe which audience each tactic is directed to, the message I expect each audience to receive, why I choose each tactic and anticipated results.

x. Schedule: presentation of a specific and comprehensive planning calendar.

xi. Budget: accurate representation of how much things will cost. This information will come from client meetings and will depend on how much money is available for this program.

xii. Evaluation Plans: this will be in the form of impact (what behavioral or attitudinal changes the campaign affected) and output (or implementation; it will answer the question, “How many people where reach by my message?”).

xiii. Communication Samples: this will include descriptions and rough layouts of recommended communication materials. Examples include: news releases, direct mail, slogans, themes, etc.

I have a meeting scheduled next week to discuss options for multimedia. iTiger has a website currently that is not active and is a work in progress. Since they already have a student working to develop a website, I would like to make a promotional video that would be played at football games in the West Zone and on the Jumbotron.

Qualification

First, my undergraduate studies were completed in Sport Marketing. The sports industry interests me and is an arena I would like to pursue after graduation. I have experience through an internship in professional sports communication and have learned communication tactics that will be useful in this situation. I also have worked with a full service public relations agency where I was able to work with an international client. I pitched media, wrote press releases and managed events for my client over a three-month internship. These experiences coupled with my interest in the field give me the qualification needed to provide a successful public relations plan for IPTAY.

Schedule
i. September 25: Proposal Due
ii. October 16: First Deliverable Draft Due
iii. October 30: Second Deliverable Draft Completed
iv. November 13: Technology Preview Due
v. December 4: Project Presentation

Conclusion
Clemson University has a unique opportunity to establish itself as a leader in advanced technology through sports and academia. iTiger will greatly increase the products and services available to students, faculty, and visitors of our campus. I believe my experience and dedication will give clear understanding of the problems and potential solutions that this opportunity presents. A defined public relations plan will provide the University with the tools it needs to successfully implement the program as well as offer a clear marketing strategy moving forward.

Business and Technical Correspondence

I have been extremely interested in reading this section; letters, memos and emails are an integral part of most jobs, yet many people are not taught how to write these types of correspondence. Janis Chan's section on presenting a professional image in E-mail was the most interesting to me. E-mail is now a main avenue of communication, but its function in the workplace still seems undefined to me.

I have had two different experiences with e-mail. E-mail at SRC was for the most part formal. I learned that every correspondence should be written as if the CEO of the company was going to read it. You should be clear and concise in your message and should be structured much like a memo. This could be deviated from slightly but it was always a good rule of thumb. You were expected to do all of the things they talk about in the book: use correct grammar, complete sentences, etc.

Communication at Brandware Public Relations was completely different. This is a smaller company (15 total employees, SRC has around 1300) and has a small company culture. Interoffice email was very conversational. You were not expected to write in complete sentences, you could use abbreviations, and email was generally treated as an alternate way to communicate when you could not talk to someone in person or on the phone. This makes sense considering the business they are in where they wanted to build rapport and establish relationships; this can always be done better when speaking to someone.

It seems like the type of e-mail style that is acceptable depends a lot on the type of organization you are a part of. Like we have seen with other technical correspondence, there are many factors, such as corporate culture, that effect the way you write and communicate within and outside the organization.

Problem Statements

(1) Clemson University’s Athletic Scholarship Organization, IPTAY, has developed a program, iTiger, for Memorial Stadium but do not have a plan for implementation and marketing. By writing a public relations and marketing plan, I will provide them with recommendations for implementation and marketing to football season ticket holders.

(2) IPTAY would like to provide the iTiger experience to 75% of the football patrons within two years, but they currently do not have an implementation timeline or tactics for successful communication. Therefore, I will provide implementation and marketing tactics by writing a public relations and marketing plan.

(3) IPTAY currently has no plan for implementation and marketing for their iTiger experience and cannot expect for the program to be successful without careful planning. Therefore, I will provide insight into implementation and marketing by preparing a public relations plan.

Myers and Selzer

This weeks readings focus on the writing process from two different perspectives. Myers follows two biologists engaged in writing two grant proposals while Selzer follows an engineer creating project proposals for his organization.  While there are a few similarities, the differences in how they reach a final product are more evident.

Similarities can be found in how the writers place an emphasis on identifying their purpose and analyzing their audience.  The biologist's main goal is to relate their work to the consensus of the field; basically they want to be relevant in previously established fields.  The engineer, also, must establish a purpose for his proposals and uses his analysis of the audience to assist in selecting content and arranging the document.  Both "writers" focus their attention on persuading a reluctant audience and engage in rhetorical activity to do so. 

Nelson, the engineer, writes mostly without any collaboration, in fact the only other person that many times sees his proposals during the writing process is his secretary who types up his drafts.  Nelson also reuses many of his previously written documents; this saves him time during the drafting stage and is  fairly safe practice for his purpose (these documents have already been read critically, therefore has received some feedback).  On the other hand, the biologists' writing process is more of a collaborative effort among their researchers.  This is done for a few reasons; their research, in general, is a collaborative effort and their writing has much more on the line.  The extensiveness of their revision process reflects what they have invested into their work in contrast to Nelson's proposals.

I believe the difference in the writing process' of the biologists and the engineer are a direct reflection of their respective audience. The biologists have to write to their peers where sometimes who you know can have a significant effect on funding decisions. For this reason, not only do they have to present the facts but their writing has to be a reflection of themselves.  This causes a more circular process where they are constantly changing words and phrases to fit into this "community."  Nelson, on the other hand, writes to an audience that is outside his company. They are most concerned with his recommendations and what constitutes a sound business decision. This causes Nelson to follow a linear writing process, where once he finds a method that produces results he sticks with it (if it ain't broke, don't fix it mentality). 

Strategies in Business and Technical Writing: Part Deux

Jargon and Gobbledygook

The section states two principles of writing that are taught in most writing classes but are extremely important when writing technically: your writing must be clear and comfortable. Technical Writing in NASA (Challenger Disaster) comes to mind right away; much of the breakdown in the communication can be attributed to the use of jargon and this can seriously compromise the clear and concise nature of any writing. I am also reminded of the use of jargon in most academic writing as well. Almost all of my marketing books were filled with jargon and until you have a strong foundation in any discipline industry terms and theories are always difficult to understand. You must have a good understanding of who your audience is (reoccurring theme) and there seems to be a fine line between sounding like an expert and ensuring that your audience has a clear understanding of the material you are trying to present.

Writing in Your Job

Zinnser writes about this notion that managers believe that simple writing reflects a simple mind. This then causes their employees to write in complex, convoluted language. Zinnser goes on to state that clear, simple writing is more difficult to write than complex writing. I completely agree with this statement; anyone can write using a thesaurus and make their writing more complex, while it is difficult to navigate your thoughts and put them into simple, easy to understand writing.

How do you maintain a balance between what your manage may see as "good" writing and writing that clearly presents your message?
When starting a new job, should you be concerned with getting off on the right foot with your manager or peers?I think this is an important question as we go forward with our projects and more importantly when we move into our careers as professional communicators.

The Plain English Revolution

Siegel states that the "Plain English Revolution" is an attempt to make documents functional. This, to me, is a novel concept considering that the point of technical writing is to be used by the reader. Contracts immediately come to mind as documents littered with terms that the reader cannot fully understand and are really only function for the lawyer, business, government agency, etc. I am not claiming that they are written with the purpose of confusing the reader, but many times this is their function. I would advocate a push in "plain english" writing; the whole could definitely benefit from writing that is clear for all parties involved.

Client- Project: PAFEO

I have yet to get a definitive answer from Dr. Phillips but feel confident that this will be the area I will be focusing on for my project. For this exercise, I will go through a hypothetical situation and using what I think the project might be as a guide.

Purpose: The purpose of my project will be to raise the awareness of the Clemson Women's Volleyball team among students and alumni.

Audience: My main audience will be Clemson students. They are local geographically and therefore, the most likely to attend volleyball matches. My secondary audience will be alumni who may be able to offer more support to the program.

Format: My format will take couple of differ forms. The promotional materials could be emails sent out to the student body, or alumni. I will more than likely produce an advertising or PR plan that can be followed in subsequent years. I will more than likely produce a video for the department for my multimedia section.

Evidence: I am not sure what kinds of evidence I will be looking at. I may possible make a survey to have student fill out, with th objective being to nail down why they do not attend other sporting events at Clemson (minus the major sports, football and basketball).

Organization: If I produce a advertising plan, I will need to organize my thoughts and ideas in a specific manner. There are fairly universal ways to produce such a document and I will need to follow these guidelines for the best effectiveness.

Harris: The Project Worksheet for Efficient Writing Management

The Project Worksheet consists of questions that help the writer and manager consider all the factors involved in planning a document.

The writer must know who the primary reader and the secondary reader are. They must know their position, feelings toward the subject and any other factors that may effect the reader. They must also know the reader's purpose, or what are they trying to gain form reading this. Basically you should tell the reader all you want them to know after reading, and lead them to the action and attitude you desire.

The writer could have a lot on the line with the writing, so you must know your own purpose. This helps you determine the priorities of the task.

Next, you must know the sources of information, size of the document, form of medium desired, graphic aids available, means of production. The last thing to be done before writing is to outline all of your ideas.

What thoughts or ideas are brought forth from more than one of the authors? Are there any major differences between the different process, any that are contradictory?

Peter Elbow

The direct writing process is very simple. Use the first half of your time writing fast without worrying about the organization, language, correctness, etc. The next half is used for revising.

This is a good process for those that have a hard time writing. Here you are not looking for creativity and you just put down what you know you must say.

Which process (Elbow or Adelstein) is most like the process you follow? Why did you choose your particular method?

Michael E. Adelstein

The Writing Process

Worrying-15%
Let your subject simmer, don't block it out until you have to write. When you think freely about the subject, ideas will come to you, and when they do make sure to write them down. You could also discuss the subject with a friend or read about it; use anything you can as a source of ideas or suggestions.

Planning-10%
Planning is important because it forces you to examine all of your ideas, which allows you to eliminate any ideas that are not important. You will not have to think about ideas as you write, but can focus on formulating sentences,

Writing-25%
What interest me the most about this stage is that fact that only 25% of your time is focused on writing. I believe this to be mainly because if you plan an idea properly as the process calls for, then much less time is consumed in the act of writing.

Revising-45%
MOST writers cannot clearly put their thoughts into words on the first draft. You must put on the shoes of your reader and read your draft objectively. Be quick to find fault and be honest with yourself.

Proofreading-5%
Look for careless mistake that you could have missed during revisions. Focus on the words and not the ideas in order to proofread properly.

Which stage of the process do you struggle with the most? Did any of the tips Adelstein gave help you with that weakness?

John Keenan

Unclear thinking leads to unclear writing. The work done before the first draft and after the final draft could be the difference between good and bad communication.

Purpose: You must know the purpose of your writing. You should be able to clearly state this purpose; in a longer piece, this is called a thesis.

Audience: Most writing is aimed at a specific reader and it is important to know who that reader is. Better writing depends on better reading.

Format: A good format can lure the reader into spending more time on your ideas. It can also help you separate the important ideas from the unimportant, which can save them time.

Evidence: You must have evidence to support your writing and the more evidence you have the easier time you will have with your writing. It is important as well to look at the evidence and follow where it leads; do not just take the evidence you agree with. to avoid complicating your idea, look for the simplest explanation that accounts for all of the evidence. Fallacies and twisted logic should be avoided as well when attempting to draw conclusions from the data.

Organization: Write down your data on note cards. This helps you keep your ideas organized and helps you present a clear, concise message.

Strategies for Technical and Business Writing: Introduction

From the start, Harty makes it clear that writing is very important in your career. It can either help or hinder your goals and aspirations and should be taken seriously. He also states that there is two types of writing; clear, effective writing and bad writing. Surely there is writing that is more effective than others. But where is the line between good, effective writing and bad writing? No writing is perfect and all writing cannot be written with complete clarity, so it will be interesting to see where this distinction is made.

Three questions that are key in any writing:

1) Who is my audience?
You become the expert and you must know the auidience, their situation and how they may react your your message.

2) What do I want to tell the audience?
25 words: you should be able to condense your main point into 25 words or less and it should come first. Busy people do not have time to shift through all the information.

3)How can I make sure the audience understands what I want to tell them?
Different writing situations require different strategies.