1. BUS-101 / BUS-102 Lecture 2 Lecturer: 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. Introduction to Core Text: Guide to Managerial Communication
Author: Mary Munter

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)
Based on . . .
Stress initial credibility
Increased acquired credibility
Rank
Hierarchical power
Emphasizing your title or rank
Associating yourself with or citing a high-ranking person
Goodwill
Personal relationship or “track record”
Referring to relationship or “track record”
Building your goodwill by emphasizing audience benefits “what’s in it for them”
Trustworthiness
Offering balanced evaluations; acknowledging conflicts of interest
Expertise
Knowledge, competence
Sharing your expert understanding
Explaining how you gained your expertise
Associating yourself with or citing authoritative sources
Image
Attractiveness, audience desire to be like you
Emphasizing attributes audience finds attractive
Building your image by identifying yourself with your audience’s benefits; using nonverbals and language your audience considers dynamic
Common Ground
Common values, ideas, problems, or needs
Establishing your shared values or ideas
Acknowledging similarities with audience
Tying the message to your common ground

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
Assumptions
Reach conclusion last
State conclusion first (usually)
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 Design document for “high skim value”
Signposts to show connection
Effective paragraphs or sections
Goal:
To increase readability, show organization
To show logical progression
To organize paragraphs or sections
Methods:
“Headings”
White space
Typography
Throughout the document
Openings
Closings
Generalization and support
Paragraph signposts

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 Editing for brevity and accuracy Choosing a style Goal:
To make writing concise and ensure it is accurate
To make tone appropriate
Methods:
Avoiding wordiness
Avoiding overlong sentences and paragraphs
When writing in a second language – use of language is very important
Businesslike or bureaucratic?
Active or passive?
Jargon or no jargon? Jargon only as short hand not to show that you know the word

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?
Active
Passive
to avoid wordiness
to avoid formality
to place responsibility
to save readers time
to de-emphasize writer
to avoid responsibility
for transition

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.