GLOSSARY

Adjustment letter A letter written to inform a customer of the action taken in response to the customer’s claim letter.

Agenda    An ordered list of topics to be considered at a meeting, along with the name of the person responsible for each topic.
Application letter    A letter from a job applicant to a prospective employer explaining the applicant’s interest in and qualifications for a position within the organization; also called a cover letter.
Audience    The person or persons with whom you’re communicating.
Audience analysis    Identification of the needs, interests, and personality of the receiver of a communication.

Body The main part of a letter, memo, or report
Brainstorming    Jotting down ideas, facts, possible leads, and anything else that might be helpful in constructing a message.
Buffer    A neutral and supportive opening statement designed to lessen the impact of negative news.
Business etiquette    The practice of polite and appropriate behavior in a business setting.

Claim letter A letter from the buyer to the seller, seeking some type of action to correct a problem with the seller’s product or service.
Cliché An expression that has become monotonous through overuse.

Complaint letter A letter that challenges a policy or tries to get a decision changed

Communication The process of sending and receiving messages.
Conclusions The answers to the research questions raised in the introduction to a report.

Concrete word    A word that identifies something the senses can perceive.
Connotation    The subjective or emotional feeling associated with a word.
Cross-tabulation    A process by which two or more items of data are analyzed together

Dangling expression    Any part of a sentence that does not logically connect to the rest of the sentence.
Denotation    The literal, dictionary meaning of a word.
Derived benefit    The benefit a potential customer would receive from using a product or service.
Direct organizational plan    A plan in which the major purpose of the message is communicated first, followed by any needed explanation.
Direct quotation    The exact words of another.
Documentation    Giving credit to another person for his or her words or ideas that you have used.
Drafting    Composing a preliminary version of a message.

Editing    The stage of revision that ensures that writing conforms to standard English.
Electronic résumé    A résumé that is stored in a computer database designed to help manage and initially screen job applicants.
E-mail    A message transmitted electronically over a computer network most often connected by cable, telephone lines, or satellites.
Ethics    Rules of conduct.
Ethnocentrism    The belief that one’s own cultural group is superior.
Euphemism    An inoffensive expression used in place of an expression that may offend or suggest something unpleasant.
Executive summary    A condensed version of the report body; also called an abstract or synopsis.
Expletive    An expression such as there is or it has been that begins a clause and for which the pronoun has no antecedent.

Feedback    The receiver’s reaction or response to a message.
Filter    The mental process of perceiving stimuli based on one’s knowledge, experience, and viewpoints.
Form letter    A letter with standardized wording that is sent to different people.
Formal communication network    The transmission of prescribed information through downward, upward, horizontal, and cross-channel routes.
Free writing    Writing continuously for 5 to 10 minutes without stopping as a means of generating a large quantity of material that will be revised later.

Generic heading    A report heading that identifies only the topic of a section without giving the conclusion.
Goodwill message    A message that is sent strictly out of a sense of kindness and friendliness.
Groupthink    A barrier to communication that results from an overemphasis on group cohesiveness, which stifles opposing ideas and the free flow of information.

Indirect organizational plan A plan in which the reasons or rationales are presented first, followed by the major idea.
Informal communication network The transmission of information through nonofficial channels within the organization; also called the grapevine.

Inside address The reader's name and address, put below the date and above the salutation in most letter formats

Jargon The technical terminology used within specialized groups.
Justified margins Margins that end evenly on the right side of the page

Letter A written message mailed to someone outside the organization.
Letterhead Stationery with the organization's name, logo, address, and telephone number printed on the page

Mechanics    Those elements in communication that show up only in written form, including spelling, punctuation, abbreviations, capitalization, number expression, and word division.
Medium    The form of a message—for example, a memo or telephone call.
Memorandum    A written message sent to someone within the organization.
Message    The information (either verbal or nonverbal) that is communicated.
Mind mapping    Generating ideas for message content by first writing the purpose of the message in the center of a page and circling it and then writing possible points to include, linking each one to either the purpose or to another point; also called clustering.
Minutes    An official record of the proceedings of a meeting that summarizes what was discussed and what decisions were made.

Noise    Environmental or competing elements that distract one’s attention during communication.
Nondiscriminatory language    Language that treats everyone equally, making no unwarranted assumptions about any group of people.
Nonverbal message    A nonwritten and nonspoken signal consisting of facial expressions, gestures, voice qualities, and the like.
Normal interview A job interview with some questions that the interviewer expects to be easy, some questions that present an opportunity to showcase strong points, and some questions that probe any weaknesses evident from the resume

Organization The sequence in which topics are presented in a message.
Open body position Keeping the arms and legs uncrossed and away from the body

Parallelism    Using similar grammatical structure to express similar ideas.
Paraphrase    A summary or restatement of a passage in one’s own words.
Parliamentary procedure    Written rules of order that permit the efficient transaction of business in meetings.
Pie chart    A circle graph whose area is divided into component wedges.
Plagiarism    Using another person’s words or ideas without giving proper credit.
Planning All the thinking done about a subject and the means of achieving your purposes. Takes place not only when devising strategies for the document as a whole, but also when generating the structures of sentences or paragraphs
Platitude    A trite, obvious statement.
Primary data    Data collected by the researcher to solve the specific problem at hand.
Process of writing What people actually do when they write. Includes eight parts: planning, gathering, writing, evaluating, getting feedback, revising, editing, and proofreading

Prospecting letter A job application letter written to companies that have not announced openings but where you'd like to work

Questionnaire A written instrument containing questions designed to obtain information from the individual being surveyed. List of questions for people to answer in a survey

Résumé    A brief record of one’s personal history and qualifications that is typically prepared by a job applicant.
Redundancy    The unnecessary repetition of an idea that has already been expressed or intimated.
Reference    A person who has agreed to provide information to a prospective employer regarding a job applicant’s fitness for a job.
Report    An orderly and objective presentation of information that assists in decision making and problem solving.
Resale    Information that reestablishes a customer’s confidence in the product purchased or in the company that sold the product.
Revising    The process of modifying the content and style of a draft to increase its effectiveness.
Rhetorical question    A question asked strictly to get the reader thinking about the topic; a literal answer is not expected.

Secondary data Data collected by someone else for some other purpose; it may be published or unpublished.
Simple sentence A sentence that has one independent clause.

Skills resume A resume organized around the skills you've used, rather than the date or the job in which you used them
Slang An expression, often short-lived, that is identified with a specific group of people.
Solicited application letter An application letter written in response to an advertised job vacancy.

Solicited letter A job letter written when you know that the company is hiring
Stimulus An event that creates within an individual the need to communicate.
Stress interview A job interview that deliberately puts the applicant under stress, physical or psychological. Here it's important to change the conditions that create physical stress and to meet psychological stress by rephrasing questions in less inflammatory terms and treating them as requests for information

Structured interview An interview that follows a detailed list of questions prepared in advance

Style The manner in which an idea is expressed (rather than the substance of the idea).
Survey A data-collection method that gathers information through questionnaires, telephone inquiries, or interviews.

T

Table An orderly arrangement of data into columns and rows.
Talking heading A report heading that identifies not only the topic of the report section but also the major conclusion.

Targeted resume emphasizes capabilities and accomplishments relating to the specific job applied for. Work experience is briefly listed in a separate section.

Team    A group of individuals who depend on one another to accomplish a common objective.
Tone    The writer’s attitude toward the reader and the subject of the message.
Transmittal document    A letter or memorandum that conveys the finished report to the reader.

Unsolicited application letter An application letter written to an organization that has not advertised a vacancy; also called a prospecting letter.
Unstructured interview An interview based on three or four main questions prepared in advance and other questions that build on what the interviewee says

Verbal message A message comprising spoken or written words.

W

Website The location of one or more pages of related information that is posted on the World Wide Web and is accessed via the Internet (the main page of a website is called its "home page").
Writer’s block The inability to focus one’s attention on the writing process and to draft a message.

"You" attitude A viewpoint that emphasizes what the reader wants to know and how the reader will be affected by the message.

You-attitude A style of writing that looks at things from the reader's point of view, emphasizes what the reader wants to know, respects the reader's intelligence, and protects the reader's ego. Uses the word 'you' increases you-attitude in positive situations. DO NOT use 'you' in negative situations