Six Principles Of Good Writing

Six Principles of Good Writing vs. Amazon’s Memo StrategyDiscussion TopicI’m Done

Your response to this discussion is due by this week Friday before midnight Eastern Standard Time (EST).

You are also asked to respond to at least one other student in the class on his or her response.

Your response to your fellow student is due by this week Sunday before midnight Eastern Standard Time (EST).

Please note that you will not be able to see other students’ responses to this discussion topic until you post your response.

In the Content for week 2, you are reading a section titled “Good Writing.”  In that section, Edward Bailey’s six points of good writing are listed.

Please take note of Bailey’s six points of good writing.  Then access the following message from Jeff Bezos to shareholders at Amazon.com:

Read: Message from Jeff Bezos to Amazon Shareholders

Please read only the section of this message titled, “Six-Page Narratives.”  You don’t have to read the whole message.

Answer the following questions related to this reading. Then post your answers as your response to this discussion topic.

1. In banning PowerPoint and asking for six-page memos, is Jeff Bezos violating any of Bailey’s six principles?  If so, which ones does he seem to violate, and why do you make the case that he violates them?  If not, explain why his strategy does not violate any of the six principles.
2. Why might Bezos prefer a six-page memo read silently for 30 minutes at the beginning of a meeting to a PowerPoint presentation?  What advantage might such a memo have over a PowerPoint presentation?  

Please feel free to conduct your own searches on this issue.  Various articles have been written about Amazon’s ban of PowerPoint in its internal meetings, and these articles have additional quotes from Bezos