Ch. 3: Planning Business Messages – Flashcards
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A message that meets your audience's needs and gets your points across.
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Effective Business Message
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A message that makes the best use of your time and your audience's time.
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Efficient Business Message
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For anything beyond short and simple messages, you should set aside roughly 50 percent of your available time for planning, 25 percent for writing, and 25 percent for completing.
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Long Messages
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The ____ of a business message is to inform, to persuade, to collaborate, or to initiate a conversation.
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General Purpose
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A ____ of a business message identifies what you hope to accomplish with your message.
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Specific Purpose
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Assemble the information you will include in your message. For simple messages, you may already have all the information at hand, but for more complex messages, you may need to do considerable research and analysis before you're ready to begin writing.
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When you have a clear picture of your audience, your next step is to?
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They are brief printed documents traditionally used for the routine, day-to-day exchange of information within an organization.
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Memos
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They are brief written messages sent to customers and other recipients outside the organization.
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Letters
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It is the overall subject of your message.
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Topic
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It is a specific statement about a topic.
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Main Idea
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When you know your audience will be receptive to your message, use this approach. Start with the main idea (such as a recommendation, conclusion, or request) and follow that with your supporting evidence.
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Direct Approach
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This writing process consists of planning, writing, and completing your messages.
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Three-Step Writing Process
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Analyze the situation, gather information, choose medium and channel, and organize the information.
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Plan (Three-Step Writing Process)
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Adapt to your audience and compose the message.
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Write (Three-Step Writing Process)
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Revise the message, produce the message, proofread the message, and distribute the message.
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Complete (Three-Step Writing Process)
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Define your purpose and develop an audience profile.
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Analyze the situation (Plan)
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Determine audience needs and obtain the information necessary to satisfy those needs.
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Gather Information (Plan)
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Identify the best combination for the situation, message, and audience.
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Choose Medium and Channel (Plan)
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Define your main idea, limit your scope, select a direct or an indirect approach, and outline your content.
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Organize The Information (Plan)
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Be sensitive to audience needs by using a "you" attitude, politeness, positive emphasis, and unbiased language.
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Adapt To Your Audience (Write)
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Choose strong words that will help you create effective sentences and coherent paragraphs.
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Compose The Message (Write)
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Evaluate content and review readability, edit and rewrite for conciseness and clarity.
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Revise The Message (Complete)
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Use effective design elements and suitable layout for a clean, professional appearance.
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Produce The Message (Complete)
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Review for errors in layout, spelling, and mechanics.
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Proofread The Message (Complete)
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Deliver your message using the chosen medium; make sure all documents and all relevant files are distributed successfully.
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Distribute The Message (Complete)
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It can be divided into oral, written, and visual forms, and all three can be distributed through digital and nondigital channels.
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Media
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Most of these type of communication efforts will involve the combination of written medium and digital channel.
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Business Communication
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____ benefits your audience by helping them understand and accept your message in less time. It also helps you by reducing the time and creative energy needed to create effective messages.
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Good Organization
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Define your main idea, limit the scope, choose the direct or indirect approach, and outline your information in a logical sequence.
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Steps for Message Organization
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When your audience will be skeptical about or even resistant to your message, use this approach. Start with the evidence first and build your case before presenting the main idea.
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Indirect Approach
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____ is an effective way to organize many business messages because it helps readers personalize the message and understand causes and consequences.
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Storytelling
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An advantage of using __________ media is that it involves rich nonverbal cues such as physical gestures and vocal inflection.
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Oral
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Using __________ can personalize and enhance the experience for audience members.
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Visual Media
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The scope of a message should __________.
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Include the minimum amount of information needed to convey a sender's main idea to the recipients
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A ______ is a centralized database that collects the experiences and insights of employees throughout the organization.
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Knowledge-Management System
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The use of two or more electronic media to create a single message.
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Multimedia refers to __________.
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Writing Phase
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What is the phase of the three-step writing process that includes adapting to your audience and composing your message?
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Forecast probable audience reactions.
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What is a step in conducting audience analysis?
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Read reports and other company documents.
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What is a technique that is used during the gathering-information phase in the three-step writing process?
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It should include the minimum amount of information needed to convey a sender's main idea to the recipients.
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What best describes the scope of a message?
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A brief written message that is generally sent to recipients outside of the organization.
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What is a letter?
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A centralized database that collects the experiences and insights of employees throughout the organization.
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What is a knowledge-management system?
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Produce the message.
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What step is included in the completing stage of the three-step writing process?
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It is what you hope to accomplish with your message and what your audience should do or think after receiving your message.
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What best describes the specific purpose of a message?
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General purpose.
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What is to inform, persuade, or collaborate with the audience?
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The __________ purpose of a business message is to inform, persuade, or collaborate with the audience.
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General
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Include the minimum amount of information needed to convey a sender's main idea to the recipients.
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The scope of a message should __________.
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The __________ purpose is what you hope to accomplish with your message and what your audience should do or think after receiving your message.
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Specific
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During the completing phase of the three-step writing process, you will __________ the message using the chosen medium.
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Distribute