BUS-101 / BUS-102 Lecture 2 Lecturer: Marie Jones

1. BUS-101 / BUS-102Lecture 2Lecturer: Marie Jones • Communications continued…. • Core text introduction • Communication strategies • Credibility

2. Message strategies • Planning / process strategies • Macrowriting • Microwriting • Writing activity: Planning a communication strategy

3. Author: Mary Munter Introduction to Core Text: Guide to Managerial Communication

4. What is Managerial Communication? • Managerial communication is different from other kinds of communication because a brilliant message alone is not sufficient: you are successful only if your message results in your desired response from your audience.

5. Communicator’s Strategies • Communication objectives: Define the general objective and the expected action to follow: the audience will learn something, sign, give me info, engage in defining a strategy, approve a plan • Style: (content control vs. audience involvement) • Tell/Sell • Consult/join • What is your credibility?

6. Factors and techniques that increase credibility (persuasiveness)

7. So think back to yesterday…. What was my communication strategy? Think about these factors…. • Rank • Goodwill • Expertise • Image • Common ground

8. Audience strategy • Who are they? • What do they know? • What do they feel? • How can you persuade them? • Using audience benefits • Using credibility (check table previous page) • Using message structure

9. Getting to know your audience • Who are they? • What is their relationship with you? • What is their relationship with each other? • What did I do yesterday to get to know my audience?

10. This is what I found out…. • In our class, we (potentially) have: • 1 businesswoman • 2 designers • 1 footballer • 2 cafe owners • 1 dancer • 1 radio broadcaster • 1 romance novelist • 1 biochemist • 2 internet entrepreneurs….and more!

11. And I taught you this….!

12. Using message structure • Opening and closing: emphasize benefits • Problem/solution structure: First convince them that there is a problem so you can then convince them that there is a solution • One-sided or two-sided: Two-sided for controversial topics. Helps establishing common ground e.g. this is OUR problem • Pro/con or con/pro. Pro/con for non-controversial • Ascending or descending order. Informed audience ascending (big message first), uninformed descending (gradually introduce information) • Foot in the door technique: break down your request into small parts • Door in the face technique: Follow an outrageous request with a reasonable one. Wrong structure for your presentations: Answering questions as if the paper was an exam – communication is imagination!

13. Message strategy THOUGHT PROCESS (drafting) ends with conclusion STRATEGIC PROCESS (writing) emphasizes the conclusion Bad ideas Organized ideas Organized ideas Reach conclusion last State conclusion first (usually) Assumptions Data Good ideas Organized ideas Facts Organized ideas TIME

14. Message strategy • How can you emphasize? • Do not bury important things in the middle • Direct approach: front loading or bottom-lining. • Using the indirect approach: back loading or mystery story approach (generally not appropriate in business writing) However – for your assignments – make them interesting! Capture your audience's imagination!

15. Macrowriting

16. Macrowriting • Introduction: What exists, why write, how organized. • Closing: closure • Ineffective: • Introducing new topic or information • Apologizing • Ending abruptly. • Paragraphs: • (1) heading and when no heading topic sentence • (2) Signposts to clearly connect ideas within each paragraph or section.

17. Microwriting

18. Microwriting • Avoid wordiness: See table in Munter’s book p. 73 • Avoid overlong sentences • Clues: • (1) Too many main ideas in a sentence, usually signalled by using the word “and” more than once. • (2) Hard to find main idea, usually signalled by using too many piled-up phrases, parenthetical ideas, and qualifiers. • Business like or bureaucratic (see p. 77) • Active or passive?

19. Writing Exercise: What do you want from this module? Audience: Creator of Edulink Business Communication module (me!) Introduction: A couple of lines which state your progression in your University course and outline the arguments you are going to use in the rest of the document. Body of the document: 2 or 3 headings (titles for sections – you do not need to write the sections). These headings are stand alone sentences that in a nutshell summarize the message the section would discuss if written (see Munter’s book for more detail). They must summarize the content of the section that you might have written if you had the time. Remember the document should follow a logical structure so use headings that present parallel structures (headings that look alike in terms of writing) Closing: A couple of sentences that summarize the reasons for your suggestions in the body of the document, and how this would benefit you/the University/Edulink Size – 1 page, A4, handwritten. Time allowed – 20 minutes Think about using white space and indentation to make it pleasing to the eye and easy to read. The purpose of this exercise is to review what you are expecting from this module, making suggestions as to what would be useful to include in the module, and practice writing easy to skim documents. It can also serve as practice for your group papers / presentations

20. Macrowriting Activity Title: What do you want from this Business Communications module? • Introduction: Example: I am a Business student in my second year at HAUT, and I am majoring in Human Resources. Here are my suggestions for what I would like to learn on this module. • Body of document (a couple of suggestions or requests) Example: more speaking practice, some help with writing business letters, more writing activities….anything you would find helpful!) Use numbers to help structure the suggestions (1, 2, 3...etc) • Conclusion: Example: I like…….about the module so far. However, by adding in my suggestions, I think this would help me get a better grade.