Writing Effective Business Messages: Audience Sensitivity, Relationship Building, and Communication Style

2. Chapter 5 Writing Business Messages

3. Learning Objectives • Identify the four aspects of being sensitive to audience needs when writing business messages • Explain how establishing your credibility and projecting your company’s image are vital aspects of building strong relationships with your audience

4. Learning Objectives • Explain how to achieve a tone that is conversational but businesslike, explain the value of using plain language, and define active and passive voice • Describe how to select words that are both correct and effective • Define the four types of sentences, and explain how sentence style affects emphasis within a message

5. Learning Objectives • Define the three key elements of a paragraph, and list five ways to develop unified, coherent paragraphs • Identify the most common software features that help you craft messages more efficiently

6. What’s in this for me? Information Sensitivity Relationships Style and Tone Adapting to Your Audience

7. Being Sensitive to Your Audience

8. Using the “You” Attitude Speaking Writing Audience Wishes Interests Hopes Preferences

9. “You Attitude” Instead of This Write This If you need a quick response, please submit your purchase order requests on Tuesday. Tuesday is the only day that we can promise quick response to purchase order requests; we are swamped the rest of the week.

10. Courtesy Consideration Diplomacy Maintaining Standards of Etiquette

11. Maintaining Standards of Etiquette Instead of This Write This Let’s review the last website update to explore ways to improve the process. Our production schedules depend on timely delivery of parts and supplies, but we have not yet received the order you promised to deliver two weeks ago. Please respond today with a firm delivery commitment. Once again, you’ve managed to bring down the entire website through your incompetent programming. You’ve been sitting on our order for two weeks, and we need it now!

12. Emphasizing the Positive

13. Emphasizing the Positive Instead of This Write This Your computer can be ready next week. Would you like a loaner until then? Our $300,000 advertising investment did not pay off. Let’s analyze the response and apply the insights to future campaigns. It is impossible to repair your laptop today. We wasted $300,000 advertising in that magazine.

14. Labels Age Gender Perception Prejudices Disability Race or Ethnicity Stereotypes Using Bias-Free Language

15. Overcoming Bias in Language

16. Building Strong Relationships Establish Your Credibility Project Your Company’s Image

17. Honesty Objectivity Awareness Credentials Endorsements Performance Confidence Communication Sincerity Establishing Your Credibility

18. Projecting Your Company’s Image • Be a Spokesperson • Follow Guidelines • Observe Colleagues

19. Conversational Nature of the Message Relationship with Reader Plain Language Active or Passive Voice Controlling Your Style and Tone

20. Using a Conversational Tone

21. Use Plain LanguageWeed out Obsolete Phrases

22. Active Voice Passive Voice Subject + Verb + Object Object + Verb + Subject Direct Vague Concise Tactful Easier to Read Wordy Using the Right Voice

23. Choosing Active or Passive Voice

24. Composing the Message

25. Denotation Connotation Abstraction Concreteness Choosing Strong Words

26. Finding Words that Communicate Well

27. Wise Words

28. Choose From Four Types of Sentences • Simple Sentence • One main clause • “Profits increased in the past year.” • Compound Sentence • Two main clauses • “Wage rates have declined by 5 percent, and employee turnover has been high.”

29. Creating Effective Sentences • Complex Sentence • Independent and Dependent Clauses • “Although you may question Gerald’s conclusions, you must admit that his research is thorough.” • Compound-Complex • Two main clauses, one is subordinate • “Profits increased 35 percent in the past year, so although the company faces long-term challenges, I agree that its short-term prospects look quite positive.”

30. Using Sentence Style to Emphasize Key Thoughts • Emphasize Ideas in a Sentence • Devote more words to them • Put them at the beginning or at the end of a sentence • Make them the subject of a sentence • Place dependent clause at the beginning, middle, or end of sentence

31. Topic Sentence Support Sentences Paragraph Unity Paragraph Coherence Transitions Creating the Elements of a Paragraph

32. Informative Subheadings As Topic Sentences The post title or headline serves as a “topic sentence” for the entire article. The subheadings convey the key message of each paragraph that follows.

33. Choosing the Best Transition • Additional Detail • moreover, furthermore, in addition, besides, first, second, third, finally • Cause-and-Effect Relationship • therefore, because, accordingly, thus, consequently • Comparison • similarly, here again, likewise, in comparison, still • Contrast • yet, conversely, whereas, nevertheless, on the other hand, however, but

34. Summary of Objectives