Planning

Business Messages

© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 1

 Effective
Business Messages
Purposeful

Audience-Centered

Concise
© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 2

Some of your tasks will be routine, needing little more than jotting down a few
sentences; others will be more complex, requiring reflection, research, and
careful document preparation. Whatever the situation, your messages will be
more effective if they have the following characteristics:
Purposeful. Business messages provide information, solve a problem, or
request the resources necessary to accomplish a goal. Every message has a
specific purpose.
Audience-centered. Business messages help audiences understand issues,
collaborate on tasks, or take action. Each message considers the audience’s
needs, background, and viewpoint.
Concise. Business messages respect everyone’s time by presenting information
clearly and efficiently. Every message should be as short as it can be without
detracting from the subject.

2
 Three-Step Writing Process

1 2 3
Planning Writing Completing

Analyze the Organize the Revise the

Situation Message Message

Investigate the Compose the Produce the

Topic Message Message

Adapt to the Proofread the

Audience Message

© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 3

The specific actions you take to write business messages will vary with each
situation, audience, and purpose. However, following a three-step writing
process will help you write more effective messages.
Planning. Clarify your purpose and gather information to inform, persuade, or
motivate your audience. Select the channel and medium that suit both your
needs and those of your audience. Establish a good relationship with your
audience. Planning business messages is the focus of this chapter.
Writing. Organize your ideas and commit your thoughts to words, write
sentences and paragraphs, and select illustrations and details to support your
main idea. Writing business messages is discussed in Chapter 4.
Completing. Review the content and organization for overall style, structure,
and readability. Revise and rewrite until your message is clear; then edit for
details such as grammar, punctuation, and format. Next produce your message,
putting it into the form that your audience will receive. Finally, proof the final
draft for typos, spelling errors, and other mechanical problems. Completing
business messages is discussed in Chapter 5.
As a general rule, try using roughly half of your time for planning. Use less
than a quarter of your time for writing your document. Then use more than a
quarter of your time for completing the project (so that you don’t shortchange
important final steps such as revising and proofing).

3
 Analyze Your Purpose
Timing

Realism
Delivery

General
General Specific
Specific
Purpose
Purpose Purpose
Purpose

Acceptability
© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 4

When planning a business message, the first thing you need to think about is
your purpose. For a business message to be effective, its purpose and its
audience must complement each other.
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. Before proceeding,
consider whether your purpose is worth pursuing at this time. Ask yourself
these questions:
•Is my purpose realistic?
•Is this the right time?
•Is the right person delivering this message?
•Is my purpose acceptable to the organization?
Once you are satisfied that you have a legitimate purpose in communicating,
take a good look at your intended audience.

4
 Develop an Audience Profile
• Identify primary audience
• Determine size
• Determine composition
• Gauge level of understanding
• Project expectations and preferences
• Estimate probable reaction
© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 5

To satisfy your audience’s information needs, begin by identifying your

primary audience. If you can reach the decision makers or opinion molders in
your audience, other audience members will fall into place.
Remember to determine the size of your audience.
Define your audience’s composition. Look for common interests that link
audience members across differences in culture, education, status, or attitude.
It’s important to 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.
Do your best to project your audience’s expectations and preferences. Will
members of your audience expect complete details, or will a summary of the
main points suffice?
Remember to estimate your audience’s probable reaction. If you expect a
favorable response, you can state conclusions and recommendations up front
and offer minimal supporting evidence. If you expect skepticism, you can
introduce conclusions gradually, with more proof.

5
 Gather Information

Formal
Formal Opinions
Opinions Employees
Employees
Sources
Sources of
of Others
Others or
or Customers
Customers

Company
Company Audience
Audience
Interviews
Interviews Files
Files Input
Input

© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 6

When writing long, formal reports, you’ll conduct formal research to locate
and analyze all the information relevant to your purpose and your audience.
Other kinds of business messages require less formal information gathering.
For example, you may simply try to consider others’ viewpoints.
Or your company’s files may be a good source of the information you need for
a particular memo or e-mail message. Consider company annual reports,
financial statements, news releases, memos, marketing reports, and customer
surveys for helpful information.
Chatting with supervisors, colleagues, or customers can help you gather
information. Conducting telephone or personal interviews is a convenient way
to gather information. And don’t forget to get audience input through casual
conversation (face-to-face or over the phone), informal surveys, or unofficial
interviews.

6
 Provide Information

Complete
Complete Accurate
Accurate

Pertinent
Pertinent Ethical
Ethical
© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 7

Be careful when deciding what information to include in your messages. Make

sure your information has the following characteristics:
Complete. Test the thoroughness of your message with the journalistic
approach. Check to see whether your message answers who, what, when,
where, why, and how.
Accurate. Your organization is legally bound by any promises you make, so
be sure your company can follow through. Check with the appropriate people
before you make the commitment. Also, review all calculations, check all dates
and schedules, and examine your own assumptions and conclusions.
Ethical. Messages can be unethical simply because information is omitted.
You need to include enough detail to avoid misleading your audience. Include
as much information as you believe best fits your definition of complete, and
then offer to provide more upon request.
Pertinent. Select the points that affect your audience the most. For an
unknown audience, use common sense to identify points of particular interest.
Factors such as job, location, income, or education can give you a clue.

7
 Business
Business Communication
Communication
Channels
Channels and
and Media
Media
Oral
OralChannel
Channel Written
WrittenChannel
Channel
••Face-to-Face
Face-to-Face ••Memos
Memos
••Telephone
Telephone ••Letters
Letters
••Meetings
Meetings ••Reports
Reports
••Voice
VoiceMail
Mail ••E-mail
E-mail
••Videotape
Videotape ••Websites
Websites
••Teleconferencing
Teleconferencing ••Instant
InstantMessages
Messages
© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 8

Before actually beginning to write your message, you need to figure out how to
make it serve both your audience and your purpose. To adapt your message,
you need to select a channel and a medium that fit your purpose and satisfy
your audience’s expectations. In addition, you need to establish a good
relationship with your audience.
You must choose between the oral or written channel, and you must consider
all the media within each one. The oral channel includes media such as face-
to-face conversation, telephone calls, speeches, presentations, and meetings.
The chief advantage of oral communication is the opportunity it provides for
immediate feedback. Your choice between a face-to-face conversation and a
telephone call would depend on audience location, message importance, and
your need for nonverbal feedback.
The written channel includes media that range from the scribbled notes people
use to jog their own memories to formal reports. The most common written
media are letters, memos, and reports. Written messages have a big advantage:
They let you plan and control the message.
In addition to the traditional forms of oral and written media, both channels
have electronic forms. Oral media also include voice mail, audiotape and
videotape, teleconferencing and videoconferencing, closed-circuit television,
and more. Written media also include e-mail, faxing, computer conferencing,
websites, instant messaging, and more.

8
 Selecting the Best
Channel and Medium
• Style and tone
• Feedback
• Time
• Cost
• Audience

© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 9

To choose the channel and medium that will best match your purpose and
audience, consider the following elements:
Message style and tone. To emphasize the formality of your message, use a
more formal medium, such as a memo or a letter.
Possibility for feedback. Various media offer various levels of feedback. The
more feedback possible, the richer the medium.
Audience perception. To emphasize the confidentiality of a message, send a
letter rather than a memo, or plan a private conversation rather than a meeting.
To instill an emotional commitment, consider videotape or a videoconference,
unless you require immediate feedback; then, face-to-face is best.
Time. If your message is urgent, you’ll probably use the phone, send a fax, or
send your message by next-day mail.
Cost. You wouldn’t think twice about telephoning an important customer
overseas if you just discovered your company had sent the wrong shipment.
But you’d probably choose to fax or e-mail a routine order acknowledgment to
an overseas customer.
Audience expectation. Consider which media your audience expects or
prefers. You expect your college to deliver your diploma by hand at graduation
or in the mail, not by fax.

9
 Relating to the Audience

“You” Positive
Credibility
Attitude Tone

Polite Bias-Free Corporate

Treatment Language Image

© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 10

Once you’ve chosen an appropriate channel and medium, you’re still not ready
to start writing. Effective communicators do more than simply convey
information. They make sure that they establish a good relationship with their
audience.
To give the right impression in your message, think carefully about who you
are and who your audience is. Then do your best to be yourself. Since a good
relationship is based on sincerity, respect, and courtesy, show yours by using
the “you” attitude, emphasizing the positive, establishing your credibility,
being polite, using bias-free language, and projecting the company’s image.

10
 The “You” Attitude
Instead of This Use This

To help us process this order, So that your order can be filled

we must ask for another copy of promptly, please send another
the requisition. copy of the requisition.

Instead of This Use This

You should never use that type That type of paper doesn’t work
of paper in the copy machine. very well in the copy machine.

© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 11

To project your audience-centered approach, adopt a “you” attitude––that is,

speak and write in terms of your audience’s wishes, interests, hopes, and
preferences. On the simplest level, replace terms that refer to yourself and your
company with terms that refer to your audience. Use you and yours instead of I,
me, mine, we, us, and ours (see the order processing example above).
However, using you and yours requires finesse. The important thing is your
attitude toward audience members and your appreciation of their position.
In fact, on some occasions you’ll do better to avoid using you. For instance,
using you in a way that sounds dictatorial is impolite. Or, when someone
makes a mistake, you may want to minimize ill will by pointing out the error
impersonally. You might say, “We have a problem,” instead of “You caused a
problem” (see the copy machine example above).

11
 Emphasize the Positive
Instead of This Use This

It is impossible to repair your Your vacuum cleaner will be

vacuum cleaner today. ready by Tuesday.

Instead of This Use This

•Cheap merchandise •Bargain prices

•Toilet paper •Bathroom tissue
•Elderly person •Senior citizen

© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 12

 Establish Credibility
Show Your Understanding

Explain Your Credentials

Avoid Exaggerating

Believe in Yourself
© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 13
 Be Polite
Instead of This Use This

You really fouled things up with Let’s review what went wrong
that last computer run. so that the next computer run
goes smoothly.

Instead of This Use This

You’ve been sitting on our order We are eager to receive our

for two weeks. We need it now! order. When can we expect
delivery?

© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 14

 Use Bias-Free Language

Race or
Gender
Ethnicity

Age Bias Disability

© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 15

 Project the
Company’s Image
• Be a spokesperson

• Convey the right impression

• Minimize your own views

• Maximize company interests

© Prentice Hall, 2004 Business Communication Essentials Chapter 3 - 16