A poorly written piece of work can be very difficult for both the sender and the receiver to understand. The intended audience does not need to understand the goal of an email or text in order to understand it when it is written well. On the other hand, a badly written text makes it difficult for the sender and the recipient of the message to communicate effectively. Below we've examined some of the principal issues brought on by sloppy or hastily written texts. A poorly or hastily written text may lack objectivity. As Markel (2012) elaborates, writing a text requires the sender of the message to define the receiver and the purpose for which the message is written. The failure to define the receiver would incapacitate the sender from determining the context from which to address the receiver. Moreover, they may fail to consider the manner of complexity or simplicity with which they should frame the message. It is also noteworthy that when the message is hastily and poorly written, the sender may forget some important information that should be included in the message to ensure that the intended objective of the message is met (Markel, 2012).
Poor written texts also lack in clarity. Ideally, an email message should be short, clear, and concise. Drafting in a hurry may lead the sender to construct sentences that are full of grammatical and spelling mistakes that may actually be misleading. At other times, there may be run-on sentences that may hamper the reader from understanding the message intended for communication. Markedly, clarity goes hand in hand with the objective of the message. If the information in the message is not clear, then the objective of the message might not be met.
Misinterpretation of the message is also a factor that may easily affect communication between the sender of a text and the receiver (Locker & Kaczmarek, 2009). This especially results when some words that may be interpreted in more than one context are used in the text and not clearly defined. In such scenarios, it is possible for the receiver to even think that the message is disrespectful or irritating (Locker, & Kaczmarek, 2009).
Directing the message to the wrong recipient is another problem that can arise due to hastily writing an email or a text (Anderson, 2013). Imagine a situation where you direct sensitive information of a company to the wrong recipient because you have misspelled a recipient's email address simply because you hastily typed it. This can be disastrous as it can bring about violation of another person's privacy or exposing secrets of the business to an outsider. It can also lead to embarrassing and confusing situation to both the sender and the recipient of the message. That means that the sender should ensure that they double check the intended recipient before they send the message and to not hastily type the recipient's email address.
Part B: Writing a Process Description
Process description helps the audience to understand the stages and processes involved in a complex event. In the following description, a presentation of the processes involved in the treatment of wastewater has been made.
How Wastewater is Treated (Treatment Plant Process)
On daily basis, wastewater is flashed in toilets and drains in residential premises, at school, hospitals, factories, and businesses into the sewerage system. Instead of letting this water flow as waste into the environment, some institutions consider that they can treat and re-use it. As has been illustrated below, the treatment process used by these institutions and the firms that have been set up to objectively serve this purpose is divided into two; primary and secondary treatment.
Primary Treatment
Influent stage:
At this stage, all the incoming wastewater with all the big particles such as rags and other large particles pass through a fine screen to filter these particles. This process removes about a 25% of the total unwanted materials in the wastewater. The water then goes to Grant Chambers where a vortex action is administered to remove gravel, sand, and other solid particles.
Sedimentation stage:
Here, the dirty water is made to pass through settlement tanks where heavier solids are allowed to settle at the bottom. The solids that have settled at this stage are called primary sludge. Wastewater takes roughly two hours at this stage to allow for the full settlement of the solid wastes before moving the next stage.
Secondary Treatment
Aeration Stage:
This is the stage where biological treatment of water begins. A large volume of air is introduced into large mixing tanks containing the wastewater. Bacteria and microorganisms that consume organic matter and nutrients that contaminate water are also introduced at this stage. For some firms, however, preference for chemical treatment may be made in place of the use of the bacteria.
Final clarification:
In this phase, the already aerated wastewater flows into the clarifying tanks in which it is held for about four hours. The microorganisms are then separated from the water as they are allowed to settle at the bottom of these tanks. Almost ninety percent of these microorganisms are taken back to the aeration stage to clean more water while the rest are used to make fertilizers.
Ultraviolet Light Stage:
This is the final step in the treatment process. In the stage, the treated water, also known as the effluent, is made to pass through disinfection chambers that is meant to kill diseases-causing bacteria using a ultraviolet light/natural light (Crites, Middlebrooks, & Bastian, 2014).
Part C: Difficult to Follow Instructions
As an associate director of communication, it is your responsibility to ensure that the information that is going out to the public is the correct one with no ambiguity and is directed to the intended audience by reviewing the documents before they are actually released to the public. There are a number of factors that may make difficult to use by the intended audience. Some of these factors include; lack of sufficient details required by the audience, central idea is not clearly coming out or is not clearly stated, use of incorrect and inappropriate words.
In the referenced set of warnings, it is important to note that there is inconsistency. Besides, the communicated message lacks clarity. While the second warning is contradictory, which is a factor that makes it difficult for the patient to follow the instructions as is intended, the first warning lacks a central idea. These are factors that make the document in entirety difficult to use. The objective of the warning or instructions should be made clear to eliminate any ambiguity. Imagine being told not to take aspirin products then the same instructions tells you to take low dose of the same. The problem here is ambiguity as the information causes confusion. Understanding the exact warning becomes difficult for the client. The first warning even contradicts the warning of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning that states that a patient should not take alcohol while under medication.
References
Anderson, P. V. (2013). Technical communication. Cengage Learning
Crites, R. W., Middlebrooks, E. J., & Bastian, R. K. (2014). Natural wastewater treatment systems. CRC Press.
Locker, K. O., & Kaczmarek, S. K. (2009). Business communication: Building critical skills. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Markel, M. H. (2012). Technical communication. Boston, MA: Bedford/St Martins.
