SES391

Welcome to SES391!

I’m really glad you registered for my course. We’ll have a lot of fun and learn a lot.

Here are a few things you should know:

1. I use OpenOffice and NeoOffice.
2. I use an electronic textbook. It’s called “The Complete Idiot’s Almanac of Business Letters and Memos”. It’s a bit old, but it’s pretty good. And, it’s free. You can get it from the Seneca Library. Isn’t it awesome that it’s free? You can tip me at the end of the year.
3. We usually talk, then work. I find this works really great.

Let’s get started right away.

This week, please read chapter 1 of the textbook.

Good writing matters. Bad writing is really, really expensive. Check it out.

What is the key to good writing? It’s easy to say.

1. You need good grammar. Your grammar must be perfect.
2. You need good formatting.
3. You need good structure.

Let’s start with number 3. It’s the easiest. We’ll talk about the other problems, too, but later.

Here is the course in a nutshell: Summary, Background, Facts, Outcome.

All business correspondence will have this structure. It’s that easy. Everything you write should follow this easy plan, SBFO, which I remember as Super Bad For Octopuses.

The summary will contain a synopsis of the whole letter. It is the hardest part to write and should be written last. Don’t cut and paste anything from the other sections, but restate them in different words. This should be 2-4 sentences.

The background will include the past information that the reader will need to know to understand you. This section can be long, and it can be left out. It depends on what you’re writing and to whom.

The facts is the meat of your letter. It is usually the longest part, too. It contains the real message of the letter.

The outcome explains what comes next and or what you want the reader to do.

Here’s another way of explaining this in 4 words:

1. Summary
2. Past
3. Present
4. Future.

Of course, it’s really easy to say how to do it. It’s much, much, much harder to actually do it. But, of course, that’s why this is a 13 week course!