Modules 8 & 13

Modules 8 and 13 talk about reader benefits and e-mailing/web-writing.  Reader benefits are basically what the recipient of the message is getting from the piece of writing.  Some of the things that are given as examples of that in the module are motivation, information of product or procedure, benefits that they may be receiving, etc.  The module explains that it is very important for the benefits to directly target the audience that you are writing to.  There is some information in the module also about what benefits should be used in order to get the best response.  Using at least one benefit for each part of your audience is one, as well as using intrinsic benefits and using benefits that can be developed most fully.  The more appealing the information in the writing, the better response you may get from the reader.  Module 13 talks about communication on the web, in terms of e-mailing and others.  It says in the beginning of the module that e-mails are a little bit more informal, so usually greetings are less formal.  It also gives a really good example of the setup of an e-mail on page 230.  The module also talks about things that will automatically pop up on an e-mail when sending the initial, or a response e-mail.  Subject lines in e-mails should be very explanatory and should get to the point.  Module 13 talks about the development of blogging as well in the corporate world because it is a quick way to get a message out to a number of people.  Sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace are also being used now for business writing as well.

One of the most important things that I have learned from these two modules is about the social networking sites like spoke.com and linkedin.com.  I had heard of linkedin.com before, and it can be a very useful tool for networking with other professionals, as it is like a Facebook for only professionals.