Ch 5 Writing Business Messages

Source from Business Communication Today (Courtland L. Bovee, John V.Thill, 10th edition)

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1. Explain the importance of adapting to your audiences and list three techniques for doing so.

By adapting your communication to the needs and expectations of your audience members, you provide more compelling answers to their questions and improve the chances that your messages will be received and decoded successfully. If your intended audience members think a message does not apply to them or does not offer them anything useful or interesting, they will be far less inclined to pay attention to it. You can adapt to audiences by being sensitive to audience needs, building strong relationships with your audiences, and controlling your style to achieve a businesslike tone.

2. Explain why establishing credibility is vital to the success of your communication efforts.

Your audience members’ response to every message you send depends heavily on their perception of your believability, based on how reliable they think you are and how much trust you evade in them. Even if you are trying to convey information that is correct in every way, audiences will be reluctant to accept your message if they don’t think you is a trust worthy source. Conversely, if audiences already accept you as a trustworthy source, they’ll be inclined to accept and believe all of your messages.

3. Discuss four ways of achieving a businesslike tone with a style that is clear and concise.

To ensure that messages are businesslike, clear, and concise, start by using a conversational tone: understand the difference between texting and writing, avoid stale and pompous language, avoid preaching and bragging, avoid intimacy unless you have a close relationship with the audience, and use humor with great care. Support your conversational tone by using plain language, which readers can understand on the first try without struggling with poor organization or ineffective language. Then select the best voice for your message. Use the active voice to emphasize the subject of the message and to produce shorter, stronger sentences; use the passive voice to be diplomatic, to avoid taking credit or placing blame, and to create an objective tone.

4. Briefly describe how to select words that re not only correct but also effective.

To select the best words, fist make sure they are correct b checking grammar and usage guides. Then choose words that have few connotations (to reduce the chance of misinterpretation) and no unintended negative connotations (to reduce the chance of offending your audience). Select words that communicate clearly, specifically, and dynamically. Choose words that are strong and familiar, avoid clichés be extremely careful with buzzwords, and use jargon only when your audience will understand it.

5. Explain how sentence style affects emphasis in a message.

The order and placement of words within each sentence affect the emphasis your audience perceives. You can employ the following techniques to focus emphasis on specific parts of the sentence: give the most important idea the most emphasis b dedicating more words to it , add an additional sentence to clarify the key idea from the first sentence, or put the key idea at either the beginning or the end of the sentence.

6. List five ways to develop unified, coherent paragraphs.

Effective paragraphs are both unified (focused on a single idea) and coherent (logically organized). We can develop paragraphs through illustration (giving examples), comparison or contrast (pointing out similarities or differences), cause and effect (giving reasons), classification (discussing categories), and problem and solution (stating a problem and showing how to solve it)

Interesting web:

1. Writing a Well-Structured Business Messages

http://www.exforsys.com/career-center/business-communication/writing-a-well-structured-business-messages.html

From this website, we can learn different style of business communication message,such as verbal, written, and positive.

2. Planning Business Messages

http:// std.sustech.edu/MBA/Communications/STUTODAY04.PPT

From this website, we can learn how to plan business message and have effective business writing.

Ch4 Planning Business Messages

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1. Describe the three-step writing process

The three-step writing process consists of planning, writing, and completing your message. As a starting point, allot half your available time for planning, one-quarter for writing and one-quarter for completing your messages-but adjust these percentages for each project. Trying to save time by skimping on planning usually costs your more time in the long run. Your general purpose maybe to inform, to persuade, or to collaborate. To determine the specific purpose, think of how the audience’s ideas or behavior should be affected by the message. Defer sending a message, or do not send it at all, if : 1) nothing will change as a result of sending it 2) The purpose is not realistic 3) the timing is not right 4) The purpose is not acceptable to your organization.

2. Explain why it’s important to analyze the situation and define your purpose carefully before writing a message.

Your general purpose maybe to inform, to persuade, or to collaborate. To determine the specific purpose, think of how the audience’s ideas or behavior should be affected by the message. Ask yourself some key questions about your audience: 1) who are the most important people in the audience? 2) how many people do you need to reach? 3) How much do they already know about the subject? 4) What is their probable reaction to your message? If audience members have different levels of understanding of the topic, aim your message at the most influential decision makers. To win over a skeptical audience, use a gradual approach and plenty of evidence.

3. Discuss information-gathering options for simple messagee and identify three attributes of quality information.

If you are given a vague request, ask questions to clarify it before plan a response. If appropriate, include additional information that might be helpful, even though the requester didn’t specifically ask for it. Test the completeness of your document by making sure it answers all six journalistic questions: who what, when, where, why, and how. Be certain that the information you provide is accurate and that the commitments you make can be kept. A clear sense of ethics should guide your decisions when determining how much detail to include in your message. Audiences respond best to information that has been filtered and prioritized to meet their needs. Rely on common sense if you don’t know enough about your audience to know exactly what will interest them.

4. List the factors to consider when choosing the most appropriate medium for a message

Some media deliver messages faster than others; avoid using instantaneous delivery to crate a false sense of urgency. When choosing the appropriate medium, don’t forget to consider your audience’s preferences and expectations.

5. Explain why good organization is important to both your and your audience.

Limit the number of support point; having fewer, stronger points is a better approach than using many, weaker points.

6. Explain the differences between the direct and indirect approaches to organizing a message.

Use the direct approach if the audience’s reaction is likely to be positive and the indirect approach if it is likely be negative. Routine and positive messages nearly always use the direct approach. In many situations, you can cushion the blow of negative news by introducing it with other, more positive information. Persuasive messages can be a challenge because you are asking your audience to give up something, such as time, money, beliefs, or habits. Particularly with longer messages, using an outline is an indispensable way to visualize how all the points will fit together. You may want to experiment with other organizational schemes in addition to traditional outlines. Major supporting points clarify and explain your main idea. Each major point must be supported with enough specific evidence to be convincing, but don’t pile on so much evidence that your message becomes overly long or boring.

Interesting Web:

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/the-writing-process/

From this web, we can get tips of writing process, such as prewriting, writing, revising, editing, publishing, and conclusion.

Ch3 Communcating in a world of diversity

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1. Discuss the opportunities and challenges of intercultural communication

Diversity includes all the characteristics that define people as individuals. We will communicate with people from other cultures throughout our career. The diversity of today’s workforce brings distinct advantages to businesses: 1) A broader range of views and ideas. 2) A better understanding of diverse, fragmented markets. 3) A broader pool of talent from which to recruit. A company’s cultural diversity affects how its business messges are conceived, composed, delivered, received, and interpreted. Culture influences everything about communication, including : language, nonverbal signals, word meaning, time and space issues, rules of human relationships.

2. Define culture and explain how culture is learned

Culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and behavior norms. We belong to several cultures, each of which affects the way we communicate. We learn culture both directly (by being instructed) and indirectly (by observing others). Cultures tend to offer views of life that are both coherent (internally logical ) and complete (answer all of life’s big questions).

3. Define ethnocentrism and stereotyping and give three suggestions for overcoming these limiting mindsets.

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge other groups according to the standards, behaviors, and customs of one’s own group. Stereotyping is assigning generalized attributes to an individual on the basis of membership in a particular group. Cultural pluralism is the acceptance of multiple cultures on their own terms. We can avoid ethnocentrism and stereotyping by avoiding assumptions and judgments and by accepting differences.

4. Explain the importance of recognizing cultural variations and list eight categories of cultural differences.

Cultural context is a pattern of physical cues, environmental stimuli, and implicit understanding that conveys meaning between members of the same culture. High-context cultures rely heavily on nonverbal actions and environmental setting to convey meaning; low-context cultures rely more on explicit verbal communication. Low-context cultures tend to value written agreements and interpret laws strictly, where high-context cultures view adherence to laws as being more flexible. Formal rules of etiquette are explicit and well defined, in informal rules are learned through observation and imitation. Respect and rank are reflected differently from culture to culture in the way people are addressed and in their working environment. The rules of polite behavior vary from country to country. Attitudes toward time, such as strict adherence to meeting schedules, vary throughout the world. Cultures around the world exhibit varying degrees of openness toward outsiders and people whose personal identities don’t align with prevailing social norms. Culture’s views on youth and aging affect how people communicate with one another.

Interesting Web:

http://fellows.rdvp.org/communicationforcollaborationstyles
From this web, we can learn diversity in communication for collaboration.