The second step is to compose your message, keeping foremost in mind the need to adapt to your audience. After producing a first draft, the writer completes the message by revising after reviewing the content, editing clarity and style, producing the document by considering format and design decisions, proofreading, then distributing the message.
- Optimizing Your Writing Time Generally, the writer should dedicate half the allotted time to planning, about a quarter to writing, and about a quarter to completing the message.
- Planning Effectively Don't rush the planning step, as it will save you time later. Planning reduces antecedents as you write The first consideration in planning a business message is the purpose.
- Defining Your Purpose The general purpose of any business correspondence is to inform, to persuade, or to collaborate with your audience.
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Informing an audience requires little direct interaction: the writer has maximum control of what is being imparted. Persuading an audience requires some active participation from the audience: the writer must adjust his message according to the feedback from the audience. Collaborating with an audience requires maximum participation from the audience: thus the writer's intro is minimized. The specific purpose of a business message identifies what you hope to accomplish and what your audience should think or do.
There are four important questions the writer should consider to test the purpose of a business message:
- Will anything change as a result of your message?
- Is your purpose realistic?
- Is the time right?
- Is your purpose acceptable to your organization?
Developing an Audience Profile
The next step in analyzing your tuition is to develop an audience profile. There are six important considerations in developing an audience profile: Identify your remarry audience. Make sure you address the needs of key decision makers. Determine audience size and geographic distribution. Determine audience composition. Look for similarities and differences in culture, language, age, education, organizational rank and status, attitudes, experience, motivations, and any other factors that might affect the success of your message.
Gauge audience members level of understanding. Include enough information to accomplish your purpose. Unreason announce expectations Ana preferences. What medium will be most appealing? How much detail is necessary? Forecast rabble audience reaction. Anticipating the audience's response enables the writer to deal with resistance effectively.
With a clear picture of your audience and their needs, your next step is to gather information. Sometimes this takes the form of formal research, but sometimes, depending on the subject, informal information gathering is sufficient. Among the effective ways to gather information informally are the following: Considering other viewpoints Reading reports and other company documents Talking with supervisors, colleagues, or customers Asking your audience for input. Uncovering Audience Needs One of the most important maxims in professional communication is to anticipate the audience's questions and to have the answers ready at hand. Often those questions are readily apparent: the audience will have asked them directly by contacting the company or organization.
Sometimes, however, the request is vague; the consumer may not be able to explain what he or she wants or may not even know what it is. In these instances, the writer should attempt to clarify the audience's need by asking questions to narrow the focus. Sometimes it is necessary to anticipate questions the audience might not even have thought of yet. Providing the answer to a question before it has been asked is frequently an excellent means of establishing goodwill with a business customer or client.
Providing Required Information
After the audience's needs have been defined, they must be satisfied. A familiar means of making sure all the necessary information is included in a business message is to use the Journalistic approach - to ask the questions who? What? When? Where? Why? And how? About the text of the message in order to insure that no important information has been left out. Anytime one of these questions has not en answered, the writer should consider providing more detail.
- Be Sure the Information Is Accurate. It is essential not only to anticipate and answer all the audience's questions but also to answer them correctly. Providing incorrect or misleading information can result in the company's being held culpable and possibly being sued. The writer should always confirm information that is being supplied to make sure that it is correct and that he or she has the authority to release it. Outside sources, especially on the Internet, should be checked for accuracy and currency. Any numerical information, specially dates and financial calculations, should be checked and double-checked.
- Be Sure the Information Is Ethical. Ethics is a paramount issue in the professional world, thus any information provided in a business message must conform to high standards of honesty and sincerity. An example of an unethical message is one in which pertinent information has been omitted. Of course, organizations often have sound reasons, legal and otherwise, for not including every detail about a business matter. In these instances, the best course is for the writer to provide as much information as he or she believes to be omelet and then offer to provide more if required.Honest mistakes are made in ten Dustless world, Ana ten tentacle course AT Acton Is to correct teem as soon as possible.
- Be Sure the Information Is Pertinent. Just as the writer must be sure to include as much information as can be provided, he or she must be careful not to overwhelm the audience with irrelevant information or too much detail.
- After collecting the necessary information, the writer should ascertain the best way to adapt the message to the purpose and audience.
This step entails choosing an appropriate communication medium, the form through which you will communicate your message: oral, written, visual. And electronic (which often combines several media types). Oral Media Primary are face-to-face conversation, interviews, speeches, and in-person presentations. Their advantage is the opportunity to interact with your audience. Written media take many forms. Memos are used for routine exchanges of information within an organization.
Letters are used to correspond with recipients outside an organization. Reports and proposals come in a variety of lengths and are usually longer than memos and letters. Traditional business messages rely primarily on text, but more and more people are discovery the power of messages where visual elements dominate. Visual media include any formats in which one or more visual elements play a central role in conveying the message content. ' Electronic media include electronic versions of both oral (e. G. Telephone calls, teleconferencing, bedposts), written media (e. G. , e-mail, IM, blobs, websites, and wise), and visual media (electronic presentations, computer animation, and video. Multimedia refers to the use of two or more media to craft a single message. When Choosing Media The first consideration in choosing the appropriate medium is media richness - the medium's effectiveness in conveying the message in more than one informational cue (visual, verbal, vocal), ( facilitating feedback, and establishing a personal focus.
The richest communication medium is face-to-face conversation, which provides the opportunity for immediate feedback and enables both speaker and audience to convey emotional responses. Multimedia presentations are also rich, with the ability to present images, animation, text, music, sound effects, and other elements. The leanest media are those that communicate in the simplest ways, provide no opportunity for audience feedback, and aren't personalized. A second factor to consider when choosing media is message formality because you media choice will affect your style and tone.
A third factor is media limitations. Every medium has limitations; for example, while face-to-face communication is one of the richest media, it is also the most restrictive because both you and your audience have to be in the same place at the same time. A fourth factor is the intentions of the sender. Your choice of medium influences your audience' perception of your intentions, A fifth factor is the urgency and cost of the message. The last factor to consider is the preferences of the audience, which is sometimes affected by the culture. For example, the U. S. Canada, and Germany emphasize written messages, but Japan emphasizes oral messages. Organization can make the difference between the success or failure of a message. Poorly organized messages are often characterized by the following: taking too long to get to the point, including irrelevant material, getting ideas mixed up, and leaving UT necessary information. Good organization is essential in a business letter in three key ways: it helps your readers understand your message, it helps your readers accept your message, it avoids wasting the reader's time.
Even more important, a well-organized message is easier for the reader to understand and thus respond to positively. Organization, combined with diplomacy, will enhance the writer's and the organization's credibility. Saving the reader's time is another important consideration, for, as noted above, time is money. A well-organized message is concise and relevant, providing only what the reader wants or needs to know.
Defining Your Main Idea
The subject of a business message is sometimes called the topic, and the statement or assertion the writer makes about the topic is called the main idea. Often the main idea is easy to impart, but in messages in which the writer is trying to persuade an audience or in which there is bad news to convey, the writer needs to develop a main idea that will establish a good relationship with the audience by focusing on common interests and advantages. Once the writer has determined the main idea, he or she should limit the scope of the message. Scope means the range of information, general length, and the amount of detail. Two considerations in determining and limiting the scope are time available and audience's expectation.
No matter what the scope is, the message should consist of only a few main points - maybe a half dozen or fewer. 'V. Choosing Between Direct and Indirect Approaches After you've defined your ideas, you're ready to decide the sequence you will use tap present your points. You have two basic options: Direct approach (deductive) - When oh have a receptive audience, start with the main idea supported by the evidence. Indirect approach (inductive) - When you have a resistant or skeptical audience, start with the evidence, building your case before presenting the main idea.
If the audience is likely to be receptive, the direct approach works better. On the other hand, if the audience is resistant to the message, the indirect approach - saving the main idea until last - is advised.
- Routine and Positive Messages. The most common types of business correspondence are routine and positive messages. These messages are direct and easy to understand. The main idea should be stated immediately and then developed by evidence in the body or the message.
- Negative Messages. Negative messages, on the other hand, require the indirect approach. The opening of a negative message should be a bit indirect, with the bad news stated in the body and Justified by the reasons for it. This approach is not considered unethical or manipulative; it is simply a matter of considering the feelings of a reader who is about to be let down and trying to make the situation a little easier.
- Persuasive Messages. Persuasive messages are perhaps the most challenging of business correspondence. An audience that has to be persuaded is not naturally receptive, and thus the writer must get ten reader to consoler something contrary to Nils or near Inclination.
Persuasive messages begin by capturing the reader's attention and then stimulating interest in it. The main idea then offers a solution to the problem or gratification of the need. The message ends with a call to action and a cordial closing. The writer must provide the appropriate structure in which to present ideas and supporting evidence. An outline is an excellent and sometimes indispensable tool for trucking a business message. Using outlining software provided by your word processor, follow a consistent scheme of headings and subheadings to identify major points.
Another way of structuring a message is to create an "organization chart" with main ideas and subordinate ideas arranged visually by divisions according to priority. Start with the Main Idea The main idea helps you establish the goals and general strategy of the message, and it summarizes two vital things: what you want your audience members to do or think, and why they should do. State the Major Points Support you main idea with the major points that clarify and explain your ideas in concrete terms. Each of these key points must in turn be supported with evidence; the more evidence provided, the more likely will the audience be persuaded. And it is a good idea to vary the types of details, using statistical data, examples, description, narration, authoritative references, and visual aids.
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Business Comunication. (2018, Jan 07). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/business-comunication/
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