Developing Persuasive Business Messages Part II
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Practice Your Skills
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Activities
Each activity is labeled according to the primary skill or skills you will need to use. To review relevant chapter content, you can refer to the indicated Learning Objective. In some instances, supporting information will be found in another chapter, as indicated.
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111. Writing: Compositional Modes: Summaries [LO1] , Chapter 3 Write a paragraph introducing yourself to your instructor and your class. Address such areas as your background, interests, achievements, and goals. Submit your paragraph using email, blog, or social network, as indicated by your instructor. 112. Media Skills: Microblogging [LO1] , Chapter 6 Write four messages of no more than 140 characters each (short enough to work as Twitter tweets, in other words) to persuade other college students to take the business communication course. Think of the first message as the “headline” of an advertisement that makes a bold promise regarding the value this course offers every aspiring business professional. The next three messages should be support points that provide evidence to back up the promise made in the first message. 113. Fundamentals: Analyzing Communication Effectiveness [LO1] Identify a video clip (on YouTube or another online source) that you believe represents an example of effective communication. It can be in any context, business or otherwise, but make sure it is something appropriate to discuss in class. Post a link to the video on your class blog, along with a brief written summary of why you think this example shows effective communication in action. 114. Planning: Assessing Audience Needs [LO2] , Chapter 3 Choose a business career that sounds interesting to you and imagine you are getting ready to apply for jobs in that field. Naturally, you want to create a compelling, audiencefocused résumé that answers the key questions
a hiring manager is most likely to have. Identify three personal or professional qualities you have that would be important for someone in this career field. Write a brief statement (one or two sentences) regarding each quality, describing in audiencefocused terms how you can contribute to a company in this respect. Submit your statements via email or class blog. 115. Communication Etiquette: Communicating with Sensitivity and Tact [LO2] Potential customers often visit your production facility before making purchase decisions. You and the people who report to you in the sales department have received extensive training in etiquette issues because you frequently deal with highprofile clients. However, the rest of the workforce has not received such training, and you worry that someone might inadvertently say or do something that would offend one of these potential customers. In a twoparagraph email, explain to the general manager why you think
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anyone who might come in contact with customers should receive basic etiquette training. 116. Fundamentals: Evaluating Communication Effectiveness [LO3] Use the eight phases of the communication process to analyze a miscommunication you’ve recently had with a coworker, supervisor, classmate, instructor, friend, or family member. What idea were you trying to share? How did you encode and transmit it? Did the receiver get the message? Did the receiver decode the message as you had intended? How do you know? Based on your analysis, what do you think prevented your successful communication in this instance? Summarize your conclusions in an email message to your instructor. 117. Writing: Compositional Modes: Persuasion [LO3] , Chapter 9 Social media use varies widely from company to company. Some firms enthusiastically embrace these new tools and new approaches. Others have taken a more cautious approach, either delaying the adoption of social media or restricting their use. You work for an “old school” manufacturing firm that prohibits employees from using social media during work hours. Company management believes that social media offer little or no business value and distract employees from more important duties. In a brief email message to your boss, identify the ways that social media are changing the communication process and relationships between companies and their employees, customers, and communities. Provide at least one example of a real manufacturing company that uses social media. 118. Fundamentals: Analyzing Communication Effectiveness [LO4] Using a mobile device, visit the websites of five companies that make products or provide services you buy or might buy in the future. Which of the websites is the most userfriendly? How does it differ from the other sites? Do any of the companies offer a mobile shopping app for your device? 119. Communication Ethics: Distinguishing Ethical Dilemmas and Ethical Lapses [LO5] In a report of no more than one page, explain why you think each of the following is or is not ethical:
a. Deemphasizing negative test results in a report on your product idea b. Taking an office computer home to finish a workrelated assignment c. Telling an associate and close friend that she should pay more attention to her work responsibilities or management will fire her
d. Recommending the purchase of excess equipment to use up your allocated funds before the end of the fiscal year so that your budget won’t be cut next year
120. Communication Ethics: Protecting Company Resources [LO5] Blogging is a popular way for employees to communicate with customers and other parties outside the company. In some cases, employee blogs have been quite beneficial for both companies
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and their customers, providing helpful information and “putting a human face” on otherwise formal and imposing corporations. However, in some cases, employees have been fired for posting information their employers said was inappropriate. One particular area of concern is criticism of the company or individual managers. Should employees be allowed to criticize their employers in a public forum such as a blog? In a brief email message, argue for or against company policies that prohibit any critical information in employee blogs. 121. Communication Ethics: Providing Ethical Leadership [LO5] Visit Cisco’s website and find the Code of Conduct. In a brief email message or post to a class blog, describe three specific examples of things you could do that would violate these provisions; then list at least three opportunities that Cisco provides its employees to report ethics violations or ask questions regarding ethical dilemmas. 122. Communication Ethics: Resolving Ethical Dilemmas [LO5] Knowing that you have numerous friends throughout the company, your boss relies on you for feedback concerning employee morale and other issues affecting the staff. She recently approached you and asked you to start reporting any behavior that might violate company polices, from taking office supplies home to making personal longdistance calls. List the issues you’d like to discuss with her before you respond to her request. 123. Intercultural Communication: Writing for MultipleLanguage Audiences [LO 6] Your boss wants to send a brief email message to welcome employees recently transferred to your department from your Hong Kong branch. They all speak English to some degree, but your boss asks you to review her message for clarity. What would you suggest your boss change in the following email message—and why? Would you consider this message to be audiencecentered? Why or why not?
I wanted to welcome you ASAP to our little family here in the states. It’s high time we shook
hands in person and not just across the sea. I’m pleased as punch about getting to know you all,
and I for one will do my level best to sell you on America.
124. Intercultural Communication: Recognizing Cultural Variations; Collaboration: Solving Problems [LO6] , Chapter 2 Working with two other students, prepare a list of 10 examples of slang (in your own language) that would probably be misinterpreted or misunderstood during a business conversation with someone from another culture. Next to each example, suggest other words
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you might use to convey the same message. Do the alternatives mean exactly the same as the original slang or idiom? Summarize your findings in an email message or post for a class blog.
