Business Communication Ch: 3 Adapting Your Message Ch. 4: Making Your Writing Easy to Read Ch. 5: Planning, Composing & Revising
Housekeeping Memos turned in today Progress on branded letterhead/cards? What do you remember about the communication theory presented?
Writing Process 1. Prewriting 2. Writing 3. Revising Analyze Research Purpose Channel Anticipate Demographics Response Adapt Reader benefits Legal implications 2. Writing Research Organize Compose 3. Revising Revise Proofread Evaluate
Communicator control & audience participation vary with message purpose
Audience analysis questions
3.1: Identifying audience roles Initial-- Gatekeeper-- Primary-- Secondary-- Watchdog--
Organizational culture issues: Flat vs. tall What gets people ahead? Diversity valued? Yes people? Do groups ferret out problems? Answers? How formal is the culture? What are the goals of the organization?
Channel options…....Medium options Which works best for 3.2: *Renters *Af. Am. bus. owners Goals: Speed, feedback, detail, convenience, etc. Face-to-face formal Face-to-face informal One to group Teleconference, tape Telephone Voicemail Email, attachments Fax, courier, mail
3.3 Defining “reader benefits”? What could help convince employees that it would be in their best interests to use less paper
3.4 Identifying objections & reader benefits Objections to preparing a training video - what are the objections of users and authorities? - what benefits might occur? - who is easiest to convince?
How do reader benefits differ for varying audiences? Becoming physically fit: - college students in job market - sedentary workers - people with high blood pressure - managers who travel frequently - older works
Legal Issues in Writing Investment messages must be accurate Safety information must be carefully worded with clear warnings Marketing messages must not make claims that can’t be verified. Inspect means to examine critically & test Assure means to make secure or render safe Recommendations must include positive, job-related information.
Be precise in meanings He is (associated with, employed by, connected to) Wartburg College. The specialized report has (a lot of, many, a warehouse of) facts. If you find yourself (having, engaged in, juggling) many tasks, find ways to prioritize them. We plan to (acknowledge, publicize, applaud) the work of exemplary employees.
Chapter 4: Making your writing easy to read Writing style appropriate to audience: 4.7 Connotation vs. denotation: 4.1 - 4.6 Eliminate jargon, acronyms, etc.: 4.9 Use active voice & strong verbs: 4.10 Reduce wordiness: 4.11 Use parallel structure: 4.12 Use you-attitude: 4.13 Use topic sentences: 4.15
Improve sentence style and structure 4.14 & 4.16 (if time)
Ch. 5: Planning, Composing & Revising What techniques can you use to gather ideas? How does editing differ from proofreading? What info must be checked in the revision process? What issues develop when using boilerplate? Revise 5.3