1. Chapter 1 Business Communications
Communicating at Work
Chapter 1
Business Communications

2. What is communication?
It is the transfer or exchange of thoughts, information, ideas, and feelings by speech, writing, or signals between at least two people.
In today’s workforce, the quality of your communication will have direct bearing on your success on the job.

3. Purposes for Business Communication
Provide factual information
Inform readers about or provide information
Clarify and condense information
State precise responsibilities
Persuade and make recommendations

4. The Communication Process
Sender has an idea
Sender encodes the idea
Sender transmits the message
Receiver gets the message
Receiver decodes the message
Receiver sends feedback
FEEDBACK
MESSAGE
IDEA
REACTION
SENDER
AUDIENCE

5. Elements of Communication at Work
Chapter 1

6. What is the situation?
The situation of communication includes what is happening and where it is happening.
School – classroom, lunch table, hallway
Church
Home – dinner table, in front of tv, between sibilings
Telephone
Blog

7. Who is the sender?
The sender is the person who is speaking, writing, or typing.
The background and experiences of the sender always affect the message.
You
Your parent/grandparent
The teacher
Your BFF
Casual friends
Boyfriend/girlfriend
Principal
Boss

8. Who is the receiver? The receiver of the message is the audience.
The audience could be one person or thousands.
Two groups of audiences:
Specialists
Principal to teacher(s)
Nurse to doctor(s)
Computer tech to computer tech(s)
Generalists
Computer tech to teacher(s)
Doctor to patient(s)
Principal to parent(s)

9. What is the message?
The message is the information and ideas relayed by the sender to the audience.
If the message is communicated in an unclear manner, it can cause workers to waste time, materials, and money.

10. What is the purpose?
While there are many purposes to consider, the basics are:
Socialize
Inform/Report
Persuade
Request

11. Effect of the Audience on the Message
Chapter 1: Communicating Messages Effectively

12. Effective Communication
Message
Communication is effective if something happens as a result.
Effective communication is an interactive process
Feedback

13. Analyze and Adapt Sender must analyze (study) the audience. THEN…
Sender must adapt (adjust) the message.

14. How do I adapt for my audience?
What form should the message take?
How will the audience use the message?
Will the audience want to hear, read, or listen to my message?
Will a visual help?
How can I design a user-friendly page?
How can I convince the audience to do what I want?

15. Communicating Messages Effectively
Chapter 1

16. Three Main Stages of Writing

17. The Planning Stage
Written messages are planned so that the sender says exactly what they want to say to the receiver.
Do your planning before you begin writing

18. Planning a Document Requires the following: Analyzing the audience
Determining the purpose
Collecting information
Selecting and organizing information

19. The Writing Stage The secret to success is…
do it wrong the first time.
Professional writers prepare many drafts with the help of editors and proofreaders.

20. When writing the first draft…
Write without breaks
Stopping to edit breaks your train of thought
Don’t stop to read what you have written
If you don’t know how to spell a word, do your best and correct it later
If you don’t know the right word, use the wrong one – you can fix it later
JUST KEEP WRITING TO THE END
Edit and revise later!

21. The Revising Stage
Writing effective messages requires that you edit: check, proofread, and revise.
If you use a word processing program (such as MSWord) editing is easier using Spell Check and Grammar Check.

22. The Revising Stage
Let time pass between writing and revising because your eyes will see what your brain wants on the paper, not what may actually be there.
Read messages aloud to yourself. Sentences may look fine but sound wrong.
Ask teachers, parents, and friends to read your work so that they can also supply feedback and corrections.