Chapter 4: Planning Business Messages

BUS 3700 Chapter 4: Planning Business Messages

Learning Objectives • The Three-step writing process • Define your purpose and profile your audience • Attributes of quality information • Factors to consider when choosing the most appropriate medium for a message • Organizing a message

Planning Writing Completing Analyze Situation Adapt to the Audience Revise Gather Information Produce Compose the Message Select Medium Proofread Get Organized Distribute The Three-Step Process

Optimizing Your Time

Planning • Analyze the Situation • Gather Information • Select Medium • Get Organized

Who is the audience? What is the purpose? Analyzing the Situation

Defining Your Purpose • All business messages have a general purpose: • to inform • to persuade • or to collaborate with your audience • Business messages also have a specific purpose. Ask yourself… • what you hope to accomplish with your message • what your audience should do or think after receiving your message.

Checking Your Purpose • Will anything change as a result of your message? • Is your purpose realistic? • Is the time right? • Is your purpose acceptable to the organization?

Profiling Your Audience • Next step: understand the members of your audience and their needs • Identify the primary audience • Determine the size of your audience • Determine the composition of the audience • Gauge your audience’slevel of understanding • Project your audience’s expectations and preferences • Estimate your audience’sprobable reaction.

Six Questions to Analyze Audiences 1. How will audience react at first? • Will they see message as important? • What is their experience with you? 2. How much information do they need? • What do they already know? • Does their knowledge need to be updated? • What do they need to know to appreciate your points?

Six Questions to Analyze Audiences 3.What obstacles must you overcome? • Is audience opposed to your message? • Will it be easy to do as you ask? 4. What positives can you emphasize? • What are benefits for audience? • What do you have in common with them? • Experiences – Interests – Goals – Values

Six Questions to Analyze Audiences 5. What does audience expect? • What writing style do they prefer? • Are there red flag words? • How much detail does audience want? • Do they want direct or indirect structure? • Do they have expectations about length, visuals, or footnotes?

Six Questions to Analyze Audiences 6. How will audience use the document? • Under what physical conditions will they use it? • What purpose will document serve? • Reference • Guide • Basis of lawsuit

Planning • Analyze the Situation • Gather Information • Select Medium • Get Organized

Three Attributes for Quality Information • Uncover audience needs • Apparent and otherwise, • Ask a question or two • Find your focus • use discovery techniques (such as free writing or sketching) to help generate ideas • Provide required information. • Be sure to satisfy those needs completely. • Thoroughness? use the journalistic approach • Quality of the information? make sure it is accurate, ethical, and pertinent.

Planning • Analyze the Situation • Gather Information • Select the Right Medium • Get Organized

Written Oral Visual Electronic Select the Right Medium

Oral Communication • Face-to-face conversations • Interviews • Speeches • In-person presentations • Meetings • Gives communicators the ability to see, hear, and react to each other; ask questions, make comments, and work together

Memos Letters Reports Proposals Written Communication

Visual Communication • Communicate Fast • Today’s audiences are pressed for time and bombarded with messages • Clarify Complexity • effective at describing complex ideas and processes • Overcome Barriers • diagrams, symbols, and other images • Expedite Memory • Visual images can be easier to remember

Electronic Communication • Oral media: • telephone calls, teleconferencing voicemail messages, audio recordings • Electronic versions of written media: • email, instant messages, blogs, websites, wikis • Electronic versions of visual media: • electronic presentations, computer animation, video

Choosing the Medium • Media richness • A medium's ability to (1) convey a message through more than one informational cue, (2) facilitate feedback, and (3) establish personal focus. The richest medium is face-to-face communication. • Message formality • style and tone of your message. (i.e a printed letter vs. email) • Media limitations • (i.e IM is perfect for communicating simple messages, but not for complex messages • Urgency • Cost • Both a real factor and a perceived nonverbal signal. • Audience preferences • Written vs. visual, etc.

Planning • Analyze the Situation • Gather Information • Select the Right Medium • Get Organized

Recognizing the Importance of Organization • Good organization helps your audience: • Helps them understand your message • Helps them accept your message • Saves them time. • Good organization helps you: • Saves you time • Consumes less of your creative energy • Good organizational skills are good for your career • Helps you develop a reputation as a clear thinker who cares about your reader.

Direct Approach Indirect Approach Audience Reaction Message Length Message Type Choosing the Approach

BUS 3700 Chapter 5: Writing Business Messages

Learning Objectives • Identify the four aspects of being sensitive to audience needs when writing business messages • Explain how establishing your credibility and projecting your company’s image are vital aspects of building strong relationships with your audience

Adapting to Your Audience: • Being Sensitive to Audience Needs • Building Strong Relationships • Controlling Your Style and Tone

Adapting to Your Audience • Audience: “What’s in this for me?” • Be sensitive to your audience’s needs • Build strong relationships • Control your style to maintain a professional tone

Being Sensitive to Your Audience

“You” Attitude • “You” attitude is a style of writing that… • looks at things from the reader's point of view, • emphasizes what the reader wants to know, • respects the reader's intelligence, and • protects the reader's ego.

Talk About Audience, Not Yourself • Tell how message affects the audience • Don’t mention communicator’s work or generosity • Stress what audience wants to know • Lacks you-attitude • “We have negotiated an agreement with Apex Rent-a-Car that gives you a discount on rental cars.” • Contains you-attitude • ”As a Sunstrand employee, you can now get a 20% discount when you rent a car from Apex.”

Refer to Reader’s Request or Order Specifically • Make specific references, not generic • Name content of order for person or small business • Cite purchase order numbers for customers that order often • Lacks you-attitude: • “Your order . . .” • You-attitude (to individual): • “The desk chair you ordered . . .” • You-attitude (to a large store): • “Your invoice #783329 . . .”

Don’t Talk About Feelings… • Don’t talk about audience’s feelings • Don’t predict audience’s response • Give audience good news • Lacks you-attitude: • “We are happy to extend you a credit line of $1 0,000.” • You-attitude: • “You can now charge up to $1 0,000 on your American Express card.”

Don’t Talk About Feelings… except • It is appropriate to talk about your own emotions in a message of congratulations or condolence. • Express your feelings to • Offer sympathy to audience • Congratulate audience You-attitude: “Congratulations on your promotion to district manager! I was really pleased to read about it.”

In Positive Situations… Use You More Often Than I. Use We If It Includes the Audience • Use you in positive situations • Avoid I in printed text • Avoid we if it excludes the audience • Lacks you-attitude • “We are now giving you a raise.” • Contains you-attitude • “Your raise will be effective Jan. 1.”

Avoid “You” in Negative Situations • Protect audience’s ego • Avoid assigning blame • Use passive verbs • Use impersonal style • Talk about things, not people • Lacks you-attitude • “You were late sending the memo out.” • Contains you-attitude • “The memo was not sent on time today.”

Business Etiquette • Be courteous to members of your audience • Show consideration for them and foster a more successful environment for communication. • Be diplomatic by controlling your emotions and communicating calmly and politely

Positive Emphasis • Positive emphasis means focusing on the positive rather than the negative aspects of a situation. • Avoid negative words and words with negative connotations. • Focus on what the reader can do rather than on limitations. • Justify negative information by giving a reason or linking it to a reader benefit. • If the negative is truly unimportant, omit it. • Put the negative information in the middle and present it compactly.

Positive Emphasis • The desirable tone for business writing is… • Businesslike but not stiff, • friendly but not phony, • confident but not arrogant, • polite but not groveling.

Negative Words to Avoid

Positive Emphasis Guidelines: • Use courtesy titles for people outside your organization whom you don't know well • Be aware of the power of the words you use • When the stakes are low, be straightforward • When you must give bad news, consider hedging your statement • Writing should be free from sexism in four areas: • words and phrases • job titles • courtesy titles • pronouns

Bias-Free Language Check to be sure that your language is … • Nonsexist (Gender bias) • Use the same label for everyone (do not call a woman chairperson and then call a man chairman). • Reword sentences to use they or use no pronoun at all. • Vary traditional patterns by sometimes putting women first • Nonracist (Racial and ethnic bias) • Avoid language suggesting that members of a racial or an ethnic group have stereotypical characteristics • Avoid identifying people by race or ethnic origin unless such a label is relevant

Using Bias-Free Language • Nonagist (Age bias) • Mention the age of a person only when it is relevant • Avoid such stereotyped adjectives as spry and frail • Nondiscriminatory (Disability bias) • Avoid mentioning a disability unless it is pertinent. • Put the person first and the disability second. • Use the term they prefer. • Blind vs. visually impaired, sight-impaired. • “sight-impaired” implies lack of acceptance of the disability • Disabled (physically) vs. impaired, wheelchair-bound, handicapped, etc. • People that use wheelchairs are not bound to them

Bias-Free Language • Ms. is the nonsexist courtesy title for women. Whether or not you know a woman's marital status… • Use Ms. unless the woman has a professional title or … • unless you know that she prefers a traditional title. • Photos and illustrations should picture a sampling of the whole population, not just part of it • Bias-free language • is fair and friendly • it complies with the law • It includes all readers • it helps to sustain goodwill

Building Strong Relationships Establish Your Credibility Project Your Company’s Image

Establishing Your Credibility • Honesty and integrity will earn the respect of your colleagues • Objectivity - distance yourself from emotional situations and look at all sides of an issue • Awareness of audience needs - understand what is important • Credentials, knowledge, and expertise • Endorsements - get assistance from someone they trust • Performance - People need to know you can get the job done • Confidence. Show the audience that you believe in yourself • Communication style - Support your points with evidence, not empty terms such as amazing, incredible, or awesome • Sincerity.avoid exaggeration

Projecting Your Company’s Image • Be a Spokesperson • The impression you make can enhance or damage the reputation of the entire company • Follow Guidelines • From the correct use of the company name to grammatical details • Observe Colleagues • never hesitate to ask for help to make sure you are conveying the appropriate tone

Chapter 4: Planning Business Messages