Planning Business Messages and Writing Business Messages

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Business Communication Essentials

Eighth Edition

Chapter 3

Planning Business Messages

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Learning Objectives (1 of 2)

3.1 Describe the three-step writing process, and explain why it will help you create better messages in less time.

3.2 Explain what it means to analyze the situation when planning a message.

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

Learning Objectives (2 of 2)

3.4 Identify the six basic combinations of media and channels, and highlight the unique challenges of communication on mobile devices.

3.5 Explain why good organization is important to both you and your audience, and explain how to organize any business message.

Understanding the Three-Step Writing Process

LO 3.1 Describe the three-step writing process, and explain why it will help you create better messages in less time.

No matter what kind of information you need to convey, your goal is to craft a message that is effective (it meets your audience’s needs and gets your points across) and efficient (it makes the best use of your time and your audience’s time). For every message you send, you can reduce the time and energy required to achieve this goal by following a clear and proven three-step process.

The Three-Step Process

The graphic on this slide represents the three-step process for business messages: planning, writing, and completing. It also shows the elements contained in each of the steps.

Note: The next three slides explore each step in more detail. The fourth slide offers advice for applying the three-step process.

Planning Business Messages

Analyzing the Situation

Choosing Media and Channels

Gathering Information

Organizing the Information

Planning business messages. To plan any message, first analyze the situation by defining your purpose and developing a profile of your audience. With that in mind, you can gather information that will meet your audience’s needs. Next, select the right combination of media and channels (oral, written, visual, or electronic) to deliver your message. Then, organize the information by defining your main idea, limiting your scope, selecting an approach, and outlining your content. Planning messages is the focus this chapter.

Writing Business Messages

Adapting to the Audience

Composing the Message

Writing business messages. Once you’ve planned your message, adapt to your audience with sensitivity, relationship skills, and style. Then you’re ready to compose your message by choosing strong words, creating effective sentences, and developing coherent paragraphs. Writing business messages is discussed in Chapter 4.

Completing Business Messages

Revising for Clarity and Conciseness

Proofreading the Final Product

Producing the Message

Distributing the Message

Completing business messages. After writing your first draft, revise your message to make sure it is clear, concise, and correct. Next, produce your message, giving it an attractive, professional appearance. Proofread the final product for typos, spelling errors, and other mechanical problems. Finally, distribute your message using the best combination of personal and technological tools. Completing business messages is discussed in Chapter 5.

Throughout this book, you’ll see this three-step process applied to a wide variety of business messages.

Optimizing Your Writing Time

The more you use the three-step writing process, the easier and faster it will become. You will also get better at allotting your time for each task during a writing project.

Start by adding up how much time you have to spend on a given project. Then, as a rule, try using roughly half your time for planning, one-quarter of your time for writing, and the remaining quarter for completing the project. Using only a quarter of your time for writing might sound odd, but it makes sense for two reasons:

With careful planning, the actual writing is faster, easier, and less stressful.

It’s always wise to set aside plenty of time for the completing step. If you rush through the completion phase, you run the risk of spoiling all your hard work by delivering poor quality messages.

Of course, the 50-25-25 time allotment can vary significantly from project to project. Start with the “50-25-25 split” as a guideline, and use your best judgment for each project.

Summary of Discussion (1 of 5)

In this section, we discussed the following:

The Three-Step Process

Planning Business Messages

Writing Business Messages

Completing Business Messages

Optimizing Your Writing Time

The next section will cover Analyzing the Situation.

Analyzing the Situation

LO 3.2 Explain what it means to analyze the situation when planning a message.

Analyzing the situation gives you the insights necessary to meet your own communication needs, while also meeting the information needs of your recipients. A successful message starts with a clear purpose that connects the sender’s needs with the audience’s needs. If you launch directly into writing without clarifying both your purpose and your audience, you will waste time and energy, and you will probably generate a less effective message.

Defining Your Purpose

General Purpose

To Inform

To Persuade

To Collaborate

Specific Purpose

What You’ll Accomplish

What Audience Will Do

What Audience Will Think

All business messages have a general purpose: to inform, to persuade, or to collaborate with your audience. Business messages also have a specific purpose. To help you define the specific purpose of your message, ask yourself what you hope to accomplish with your message and what your audience should do or think after receiving your message.

Analyzing Your Purpose

Will the Message Change Anything?

Is Your Purpose Realistic?

Is the Timing of the Message Right?

Will Your Purpose Be Acceptable?

Once you have defined your specific purpose, you can decide whether that purpose merits the time and effort required for you to prepare and send it. Test your purpose by asking four questions:

Will anything happen as a result of your message?

Is your purpose realistic?

Is the time right?

Is your purpose acceptable to the organization?

Once you are satisfied (1) that you have a clear and meaningful purpose and (2) that now is a smart time to proceed, your next step is to understand the members of your audience and their needs.

Developing an Audience Profile (1 of 2)

Identify Primary Audience Members

Determine Audience Size and Location

Determine Composition of the Audience

Before audience members will take the time to read or listen to your messages, they have to be interested in what you’re saying. The more you know about your audience, their needs, and their expectations, the more effectively you’ll be able to communicate with them.

Analyzing your audience involves the following steps:

Identify the primary audience. If you can reach the decision makers or opinion molders in your audience, other audience members will fall in line.

Determine the size and geographic distribution of your audience. A report for wide distribution requires a more formal style, organization, and format than one directed to three or four people in your department.

Determine the composition of the audience. Look for common denominators that tie audience members together across differences in culture, status, or attitude. Include evidence that touches on everyone’s area of interest.

Developing an Audience Profile (2 of 2)

Gauge Their Level of Understanding

Check Their Expectations/Preferences

Forecast Their Probable Reaction

Gauge your audience’s level of understanding. If audience members share your general background, they’ll understand your material without difficulty. If not, you must educate them. Include only enough information to accomplish your objective. Everything else is irrelevant and must be eliminated.

Understand your audience’s expectations and preferences. Will members of your audience expect complete details or will a summary of the main points suffice? Do they want an email or will they expect a formal memo?

Forecast your audience’s probable reaction. If you expect a favorable response, state conclusions and recommendations up front and offer minimal evidence. If you expect skepticism, introduce conclusions gradually, and include more evidence.

Summary of Discussion (2 of 5)

In this section, we discussed the following:

Defining Your Purpose

Analyzing Your Purpose

Developing an Audience Profile

The next section will cover Gathering Information.

Gathering Information

LO 3.3 Describe the techniques for gathering information for simple messages, and identify three attributes of quality information.

Chapter 10 explores formal techniques for finding, evaluating, and processing information.

Informal Techniques for Gathering Information

Consider the Audience’s Perspective.

Listen to the Community.

Read Reports and Company Documents.

Survey Supervisors, Colleagues, Customers.

Ask Your Audience for Input.

You can use a variety of informal techniques to gather insights and guide your research efforts:

Consider the audience’s perspective. Put yourself in the audience’s position. What area they are thinking, feeling, or planning? What information do they need to move forward?

Listen to the community. For almost any subject related to business, there is a community of customers, product enthusiasts, or other people who engage in online discussions. Find them and listen to what they have to say.

Read reports and other company documents. Annual reports, financial statements, news releases, blogs by industry experts, marketing reports, and customer surveys are just a few of the many potential sources. Find out whether your company has a knowledge-management system: a centralized database that collects the experiences and insights of employees throughout the organization.

Talk with supervisors, colleagues, or customers. Fellow workers and customers may have information you need, or they may know your audience’s interests.

Ask your audience for input. If you’re unsure what audience members need from your message, ask them if at all possible. Admitting that you don’t know exactly what your audience expects but that you want to meet their needs will impress them more than guessing and getting it wrong.

Uncovering Audience Needs

Needs that Are Apparent

Needs that Are Hidden

In many situations, your audience’s information needs are readily apparent, such as when a consumer sends an email asking a specific question. In other situations, your audience might be unable to articulate exactly what they want, or you won’t have the opportunity to communicate with audience members before you need to create a message.

In some cases, you may need to do some detective work to find out what information is needed. If you’re asked to suggest steps a company can take to improve employee morale, for example, you’ll need to investigate the underlying reasons for low morale. By including this information in your report—even though it wasn’t specifically requested—you demonstrate to your audience that you’ve thoroughly investigated the problem.

Providing Required Information

Is the Information Accurate?

Is the Information Ethical?

Is the Information Pertinent?

Once you’ve defined your audience’s information needs, be sure you satisfy those needs completely. In addition to delivering the right quantity of required information, you are responsible for verifying the quality of that 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? Remember that some points will be more important to your audience than others.

Summary of Discussion (3 of 5)

In this section, we discussed the following:

Informal Techniques for Gathering Information

Uncovering Audience Needs

Assessing Information Quality

The next section will cover Selecting the Best Combination of Media and Channels.

Selecting the Best Combination of Media and Channels

LO 3.4 Identify the six basic combinations of media and channels, and highlight the unique challenges of communication on mobile devices.

With the necessary information in hand, your next decision involves the best combination of media and channels to reach your target audience. The medium is the form a message takes and the channel is the system used to deliver the message. The distinction between the two isn’t always crystal clear, and some people use the terms in different ways, but these definitions are a good way to think about the possibilities for business communication.

Most media can be distributed through more than one channel, so whenever you have a choice, think through your options to select the optimum combination.

The Most Common Medium and Channel Combinations

Oral Medium

In-Person Channel

Digital Channel

Written Medium

Printed Channel

Digital Channel

Visual Medium

Printed Channel

Digital Channel

The simplest way to categorize media choices is to divide them into oral (spoken), written, and visual. Each of these media can be delivered through digital and non-digital channels, which creates six basic combinations discussed in the following sections. Specific options within these categories have their own strengths and weaknesses to consider as well.

Medium/Channel Combinations

Oral Medium, In-Person Channel: The oral medium, in-person combo involves talking with people who are in the same location, whether it’s a one-on-one conversation or a formal presentation. Being in the same physical space enables the nuances of nonverbal communication, which can carry as much weight in the conversation as the words being spoken.

By giving people the ability to see, hear, and react to each other, in-person communication is useful for encouraging people to ask questions, make comments, and work together to reach a consensus or decision. Face-to-face interaction is particularly helpful in complex, emotionally charged situations in which establishing or fostering a business relationship is important.

Oral Medium, Digital Channel: Oral medium via digital channels includes any transmission of voice via electronic means, both live and recorded, including telephone calls, podcasts, and voicemail messages. Live phone conversations offer the give-and-take of in-person conversations and can be the best alternative to talking in person. However, without a video component, they can’t provide the nuances of nonverbal communication.

Visual Medium

Print Channel

Photographs

Diagrams

Charts and Graphs

Digital Channel

Infographics

Interaction and Animation

Digital Video

Visual Medium, Print Channel: Photographs and diagrams can be effective communication tools for conveying emotional content, spatial relationships, technical processes, and other content than can be difficult to describe using words alone. Charts and graphs help illustrate points discussed in the text. You may occasionally create visual printed messages as standalone items, but most will be used as supporting material in printed documents.

Visual Medium, Digital Channel: Business messages can really come alive when conveyed by visual media in digital channels. Infographics, interactive diagrams, animation, and digital video engages audiences in ways that other formats can’t.

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 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.

Challenges of Communication on Mobile Devices

Consuming Digital Media

Screen Size and Resolution

Input Technologies

Bandwidth, Speed, Connectivity

Data Usage and Operating Costs

Mobile devices can be used to create and consume virtually every digital form of oral, written, and visual media. Consider these issues whenever your messages are likely to be viewed on mobile devices:

Screen size and resolution. The limited size of screens on mobile devices presents a challenge because many messages are significantly larger than the screens they will be viewed on. The result is a dilemma that pits clarity again context.

Input technologies. Even for accomplished texters, typing on mobile keyboards can be a challenge. Voice recognition can overcome keyboard limitations, but using it in public areas presents privacy risks. If your website content or other messages and materials require a significant amount of input activity from recipients, try to make it as easy as possible for them.

Bandwidth, speed, and connectivity limitations. The speed and quality of mobile connectivity varies widely by device, carrier, service plan, and geographic location. Don’t assume that your mobile recipients will be able to satisfactorily consume the content that you might be creating on a fast, reliable, in-office network.

Data usage and operational costs. Data consumption is a key concern for mobile carriers and customers alike. Many mobile users do not have unlimited data-usage plans, and some carriers restrict bandwidth. Given these factors, be careful about expecting or requiring mobile users to consume a lot of video or other data-intensive content.

Factors to Consider When Choosing Media and Channels

Media Richness

Formality

Media Limitations

Channel Limitations

Message Urgency

Cost

Audience Preferences

Security and Privacy

When choosing a medium for your message, select the medium that offers you the best fit with the situation and your audience. Just as critical, however, is considering how your message is affected by the following factors:

Media richness. Richness is a medium's ability to (1) convey a message via more than one informational cue, (2) facilitate feedback, and (3) establish personal focus. The richest medium is face-to-face communication. Lean media restrict audience feedback and aren’t personalized.

Message formality. Your choice of media is a nonverbal signal that governs the style and tone of your message.

Media and channel limitations. Every medium and channel has limitations, so choose carefully according to the situation and the audience.

Summary of Discussion (4 of 5)

In this section, we discussed the following:

Common Media and Channel Combinations

Challenges of Communication on Mobile Devices

Factors to Consider When Choosing Media and Channels

The next section will cover Organizing Your Message.

Organizing Your Message

LO 3.5 Explain why good organization is important to both you and your audience, and explain how to organize any business message.

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

Effective Organization

Helps Readers

Aids Understanding

Boosts Acceptance

Saves Time

Helps Writers

Saves Time

Saves Energy

Builds Reputation

Good organization helps your audience in several ways:

It helps your audience understand your message. By making your main point clear at the outset, your well-organized message will satisfy your audience’s need for information.

It helps your audience accept your message. Even when your message is logical, you need to select and organize your points in a diplomatic way.

It saves your audience time. Well organized messages contain only relevant ideas, they are logical, and they are concise.

Organizing your message before you start writing saves you time and consumes less of your creative energy. Your writing will proceed more quickly, and you will spend far less time rewriting. Good organizational skills are also good for your career because they help you develop a reputation as a clear thinker who cares about your readers and listeners.

Defining Your Main Idea

What’s the Topic?

The Overall Subject

What’s the Main Idea?

Your Statement About the Topic

You can think of good organization as structuring messages in a way that helps recipients get all the information they need while requiring the least amount of time and energy for everyone involved. Good organization starts with a clear definition of your main idea.

The topic of your message is the overall subject, such as employee insurance claims. Your main idea is a specific statement about the topic of your message, such as your belief that a new web-based claim filing system would reduce costs for the company and reduce reimbursement delays for employees.

Generating Creative Ideas

What’s the Main Idea?

Brainstorming

Journalistic Approach

Questions & Answers

Storyteller’s Tour

Mind Mapping

In longer documents and presentations, you often need to unify a mass of material, so you'll need to define a main idea that encompasses all the individual points you want to make. For tough assignments like these, the following techniques can help you generate creative ideas:

Brainstorming. Working alone or with others, generate as many ideas and questions as you can, without stopping to criticize or organize. Then, look for patterns and connections to help identify the main idea and the groups of supporting ideas.

Journalistic approach. Introduced earlier in the chapter, the journalistic approach asks who, what, when, where, why, and how questions to distill major ideas from piles of unorganized information.

Question-and-answer chain. Start with a key question, from the audience's perspective, and work back toward your message. In most cases, you'll find that each answer generates new questions, until you identify the information that needs to be in your message.

Storyteller's tour. Some writers prefer to talk through a communication challenge before they try to write. Pretend you're giving a colleague a guided tour of your message and capture it on a tape recorder. Then listen to your talk, identify ways to tighten and clarify the message, and repeat the process. Working through this recording several times will help you distill the main idea down to a single, concise message.

Mind mapping. When using this graphic method, you start with the main idea and then branch out to connect every other related idea that comes to mind.

Limiting Your Scope

Main Idea

Information You Present

Most Compelling and Important Ideas Only

Overall Length of the Message

Level of Detail in the Message

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. Limit yourself to the scope needed to convey your main idea, and no more. Limit the number of major supporting points to the most compelling and important ideas. Regardless of how long the message will be, limit the number of major support points to half a dozen or so; if you can get your idea across with fewer points, all the better.

How much you can communicate in a given number of words, pages, or minutes depends on the nature of your subject, your audience members’ familiarity with it, their receptivity to your conclusions, and your credibility.

Choosing between Direct and Indirect Approaches

blank	Direct Approach	Indirect Approach	Indirect Approach
Audience Reaction	Eager, interested, pleased, neutral	Displeased	Uninterested, unwilling
Message Opening	Main idea, request, good news	Buffer statement; lead up to reasons	Statement or question
Message Body	Necessary details	Provide reasons; state bad news	Arouse interest; build desire to act
Message Close	Cordial comment; request action	Close cordially	Request action

Once you’ve defined your ideas and outlined or diagrammed the structure of your message, you’re ready to decide on the sequence you will use to present your points.

With the direct approach, the main idea (such as a recommendation, conclusion, or request) comes first, followed by the evidence. Use this approach when your audience will be neutral about your message or pleased to hear from you. With the indirect approach, the evidence comes first, and the main idea comes later. Use this approach when your audience may be displeased about or may resist what you have to say.

Outlining Your Content

Outlining Your Content (Basic Structure)

First major point

First subpoint

Examples and evidence

Detail

Second subpoint

Second major point

First subpoint

Second subpoint

After you have chosen the right approach, it’s time to figure out the most logical and effective way to present your major points and supporting details. You’ll save time, get better results, and do a better job of navigating through complicated business situations and cover the important details.

The basic outline formats (1) use numbers—or letters and numbers—to identify each point and (2) indent points to show the relationship between major points, subpoints, and evidence. A good outline divides a topic into at least two parts, restricts each subdivision to one category, and ensures that each group is separate and distinct.

Structuring the Message

Start by Defining the Main Idea

Identify Major Supporting Points

Provide Examples and Evidence

Whichever outlining or organizing scheme you employ, start your message with the main idea, follow with major supporting points, and then illustrate these points with evidence.

The main idea helps you establish the goals and general strategy of the message, and it summarizes two things: (1) what you want your audience to do or think and (2) why they should do so.

Support your main idea with the major points that clarify and explain your ideas in more concrete terms. If your purpose is to inform and the material is factual, your major points might be based on something physical or financial—something you can visualize or measure, such as activities to be performed, functional units, spatial or chronological relationships, or parts of a whole. When you're describing a process, the major points are almost inevitably steps in the process.

After you've defined the main idea and identified supporting points, you're ready to back them up with examples and evidence that help audience members understand, accept, and remember your message. Therefore, select examples and evidence carefully. Remember that you want to be not only compelling and complete but also as concise as possible.

Building Reader Interest with Storytelling Techniques

Storytelling can be an effective way to organize messages in a surprising number of business communication scenarios. A key reason is that stories help readers and listeners imagine themselves living through the experience of the person in the story.

A classic story has three basic parts. The beginning of the story presents someone the audience can identify with in some way, and this person has a dream to pursue or a problem to solve. The middle of the story shows this character taking action and making decisions as he or she pursues the goal or tries to solve the problem. The storyteller’s objective here is to build the audience’s interest by increasing the tension: Will the “hero” overcome the obstacles in his or her path and eventually succeed or fail? The end of the story answers that question and usually offers a lesson to be learned about the outcome as well.

Consider adding an element of storytelling whenever your main idea involves the opportunity to inspire, to persuade, to teach, or to warn readers or listeners about the potential outcomes of a particular course of action.

Summary of Discussion (5 of 5)

In this section, we discussed the following:

Effective Organization

Defining Your Main Idea

Generating Creative Ideas

Limiting Your Scope

Summary of Discussion (6 of 6)

Choosing between Direct and Indirect Approaches

Outlining Your Content

Structuring the Message

Building Reader Interest with Storytelling Techniques

This concludes our discussion of Chapter 3: Planning Business Messages.