Chapter-3: Planning Business Messages

Describe the techniques for gathering information for simple messages, and identify three attributes of quality information.

(1) Techniques for Gathering Information (2) Uncovering Audience Needs (3) Providing Required Information

Write

(1) Adapt to your audience. (2) Compose the message.

Plan

(1) Analyze the situation. (2) Gather information. (3) Select the right medium. (4) Organize the information.

Selecting the Right Medium of the about the four major classes of media

(1) Oral Media (2) Written Media (3) Visual Media (4) Electronic Media

The three-step writing process,

(1) Planning. (2) Writing. (3) Completing.

Complete

(1) Revise the message (2) Produce the Message. (3) Proof read the message. (4) Distribute the message.

Importance of Good Organization : Good organization helps your readers in at least three ways:

1). It helps your audience understand your message. It helps your audience accept your message. 2). It saves your audience time. 3). It saves you time and consumes less of your creative energy. It allows you to focus on how you want to say something, rather than struggling with what you want to say next. It helps you avoid composing material you don't need, and it minimizes the time you have to spend revising your first draft. It is also good for your career.

What are the advantages of allotting extra time for the planning stage?

1. Helps you find and assemble the information audience need. 2. Saves you from embarrassing blunders.

1.Oral media 2. Written media 3. Visual media 4. Electronic media

1.Allows you to express the emotion behind your message 2. Minimizes the distortion that can accompany oral messages 3.Can convey complex ideas and relationships quickly. 4. Can increase accessibility and openness in an organization

Good organization helps

1.Good organization benefits your audiences by helping them understand and accept your message, and saves their time. In addition to saving time and energy for your readers, good organization saves you time and consumes less of your creative energy.

Providing Required Information

After you have defined your audience's information needs, your next step is to satisfy those needs completely. In addition to delivering the right quantity of information, you are responsible for verifying the quality of that information.

Quality information is

Accurate, ethical, and pertinent.

After you have defined your specific purpose make sure it merits the time and effort required for you to prepare and send the message.

Ask these four questions: Will anything change as a result of your message? Is your purpose realistic? Is the time right? Is your purpose acceptable to your organization?

Choosing Direct Approaches

Audience Reaction: Eager/interested/pleased/neutral. Message Opening: Start with the main idea, the request, or the good news. Message Body: Provide necessary details. Message Close: Close with a cordial comment, a reference to the good news, or a statement about the specific action desired.

The informal techniques for gathering information for simple messages include

Considering the audience's perspective Asking your audience for input reports and other company documents Talking with employee

Electronic versions of written media

These include email, IM, blogs, websites, social networks, and wikis, which state of constant change in terms of both what is available and who tends to use which media

Electronic versions of oral media:

These include telephone calls, teleconferencing, voice-mail messages, podcasts, voice synthesis and voice recognition, and Internet telephony services, among others.

Which factors need to be considered when choosing the media?

To choose the most appropriate medium for every message, consider media richness, message formality, media limitations, urgency, cost, and audience preferences

To organize a message which of the following activities should be conducted?

To organize any message you must define your main idea, limit the scope, choose the direct or indirect approach, and outline your information in a logical sequence.

Defining your purpose

All business messages have a general purpose: to inform, to persuade, to collaborate, or to initiate a conversation. This purpose helps define the overall approach you'll need to take, from gathering information to organizing your message. Within the scope of that general purpose, each message also has a specific purpose, which identifies what you hope to accomplish with your message Define your specific purpose as precisely as possible, even identifying which audience members should respond, how they should respond, and when

Ask yourself 3 questions about: Providing Required Information

Ask yourself these three questions: Is the information accurate? Inaccuracies can cause a host of problems, from embarrassment and lost productivity to serious safety and legal issues. Is the information ethical? By working hard to ensure the accuracy of the information you gather, you'll also avoid many ethical problems in your messages. Is the information pertinent? By focusing on the information that concerns your audience the most, you increase your chances of sending an effective message.

Choosing Indirect Approaches

Audience; Displease/ uninterested/unwilling. Message Opening: Start with a neutral statement that acts as a transition to the reasons for the bad news. Start with a statement or question that captures attention. Message Body: Give reasons to justify a negative answer. State or imply the bad news, and make positive suggestions. Arouse the audience's interest in the subject. build the audience's desire to comply. Message Close: Close cordially. Request action.

Uncovering Audience Needs

In many situations, your audience's information needs are readily apparent. In other situations, audience members might not be able to describe all the information they need, or you might not have the opportunity to ask them, so you may need to engage in some detective work.

Media Advantages

Oral (1)- Provide opportunity for immediate feedback. 2). Allow a certain ease of interaction. 3). Involve rich nonverbal cues (both physical gesture and vocal infection). 4). Allow you to express the emotion behind the message. Written 1). Allow you to plan and control your message. 2). Reach geographically dispersed audiences. 3). Offer a permanent, verifiable record. 4). Minimize distortion that can accompany oral messages. 5). Can be used to avoid immediate interactions. 6). Deemphasize any inappropriate emotional components. Visual 1). Can convey complex ideas and relationships quickly. 2). Often less intimidating than long blocks of text. 3). Can reduce the burden on the audience to figure out how the pieces of a message or concept fit. Electronic 1). Deliver message quickly. 2). Reach geographically dispersed audiences. 3). Offer persuasive power of multimedia formats. 4). Enable audience interaction through social media features.

Media Disadvantages

Oral 1). Restrict participation to those physically present. 2). Unless recorded, provide no permanent, verifiable record of the communication. 3). Reduce communicator's control over the message. 4). Other than for the messages the are pre-written and rehearsed, offer no opportunity to revise or edit your spoken words. Written 1). Offer limited opportunities for timely feedback. 2). Lack the rich nonverbal cues provided by oral media. 3). Often take more time and more resources top create and distribute. 4). Can require special skills in preparation and production if document is elaborate. VISUAL 1) Can require artistic skills to design. 2) Require some technical skills to create. 3). Can require more time to create than equivalent amount of text. 4). Are more difficult to transmit and store than simple textual messages. ELECTRONIC 1). Are easy to overuse (sending too many messages to many recipients.) 2). Create privacy risks and concerns (exposing confidential data: employer monitoring: accidental forwarding.) 3). Entail security risks (viruses spyware: network breaches. 4). Create productivity concerns (frequent interruptions: non-business usage.)

Oral Media

Oral media includes face-to-face conversations, interviews, speeches, and in-person presentations and meetings. Oral communication is best when you need to encourage interaction, express emotions, or monitor emotional responses. Face-to-face interaction is particularly helpful in complex, emotionally charged situations in which establishing or fostering a business relationship is important. As a manager, you will encounter unpleasant situations in which sending an electronic message or otherwise avoiding personal contact will seem appealing. In many such cases, though, you owe the other party the opportunity to ask questions or express concerns. Moreover, facing the tough situations in person will earn you a reputation as an honest, caring manager.

Organizing Your Message

The ability to organize messages effectively is a skill that helps readers and writers alike.

Electronic versions of visual media

These include electronic presentations, computer animation, and video. Multimedia refers to use of two or more media to craft a single message

Electronic Media

The following is an overview of the major electronic media used in business today: Electronic versions of oral media: These include telephone calls, teleconferencing, voice-mail messages, podcasts, voice synthesis and voice recognition, and Internet telephony services, among others. Electronic versions of written media. These include email, IM, blogs, websites, social networks, and wikis, which state of constant change in terms of both what is available and who tends to use which media Electronic versions of visual media. These include electronic presentations, computer animation, and video. Multimedia refers to use of two or more media to craft a single message.

Visual Media (Dominant).

The importance of visual elements in business communication continues to grow. Messages that combine powerful visuals with supporting text can be effective for a number of reasons. Today's audiences are pressed for time and bombarded with messages, so anything that communicates quickly is welcome. Visuals are also effective at describing complex ideas and processes because they can reduce the work required for an audience to identify the parts and relationships that make up the whole. In a multilingual business world, diagrams, symbols, and other images can lower communication barriers by requiring less language processing. Visual images can be easier to remember than purely textual descriptions or explanations

Limiting Your Scope

The scope of your message is the range of information you present, the overall length, and the level of detail—all of which need to correspond to your main idea. If you don't have a preset length, limit your scope to the minimum amount of information needed to convey your main idea. In addition to limiting the overall scope of your message, look for ways to distill your supporting points so that you have a smaller number with greater impact. The number of words, pages, or minutes you need in order to communicate and support your main idea depends on your topic, your audience members' familiarity with the material and their receptivity to your conclusions, and your credibility.

Main Idea

The topic of your message is the overall subject, and your main idea is a specific statement about that topic. There are a variety of techniques to generate creative ideas to help organize any business message. Brainstorming. Journalistic approach. Question-and-answer chain. Storyteller's tour. Mind mapping.

Direct approach:

When you know your audience will be receptive to your message, use the direct approach: Start with the main idea and follow that with your supporting evidence.

Indirect approach:

When your audience will be skeptical about or even resistant to your message, you generally want to use the indirect approach: Start with the evidence first and build your case before presenting the main idea. Note that taking the indirect approach does not mean avoiding tough issues or talking around in circles. It simply means building up to your main idea in a logical or sensitive way

Written Media

Written messages take many forms, from traditional memos to glossy reports that rival magazines in production quality. Written media increase your control, help you reach dispersed audiences, and minimize distortion. Memos are brief printed documents traditionally used for the routine, day-to-day exchange of information within an organization. Letters are brief written messages generally sent to recipients outside the organization. Many organizations save time and money on routine communication with form letters, in which a standard message is personalized as needed for each recipient. Reports and proposals are usually longer than memos and letters, although both can be created in memo or letter format. These documents come in a variety of lengths, ranging from a few pages to several hundred, and are usually fairly formal in tone.

Techniques for Gathering Information

You can often use a variety of informal techniques to gather insights and guide your research efforts: Consider the audience's perspective. Listen to the community. Read reports and other company documents. Talk with supervisors, colleagues, or customers. Ask your audience for input.