Chapter 4: Planning Business Messages – Flashcards
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what distinguishes business writing from other kinds of writing? (4)
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purposeful, persuasive, economical, and audience oriented
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what are the three phases of the writing process?
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prewriting, writing, and revising
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what tasks are involved in the first phase of the writing process?
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analyzing the audience and purpose for writing, anticipating the audience's reaction to your message, and adapting your message to the audience
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what tasks are involved in the second phase of the writing process?
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researching, organizing, and composing the message
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what tasks are involved in the third phase of the writing process?
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revising, proofreading, and evaluating your letter
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what percentage of your time should you spend on each phase of the writing process?
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25% for prewriting and writing and 50% for revising
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Does the writing process happens in order?
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No
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what are the primary and secondary purposes of most business messages?
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the primary purpose is to inform and to persuade and the secondary purpose is to promote goodwill
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what factors influence your selection of the best delivery channel? 6
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importance of the message, amount and speed of feedback and interactivity required, necessity of a permanent record, cost of the channel, degree of formality desired, and confidentiality and sensitivity of the message
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what is the media richness theory
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theory that describes the extent to which a channel or medium recreates or represents all the information available in the original message
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medium that present a flat, one-dimensional message?
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leaner
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medium that permits more interactivity and feedback
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richer
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why is e-mail so popular for business messages?
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fast, inexpensive, and easy
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why is it important to profile the audience for a business message?
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it helps you make decisions about shaping the message
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the process of creating a message that suits your audience
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adaptation
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one important aspect of adaptation is?
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tone
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what techniques help a writer achieve a positive tone?
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using the "you" view, a positive courteous expression, a bias-free language, and using plain language
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adapting your message to the receiver's needs means putting yourself in that person's shoes is called?
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empathy
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how can you use the word you skillfully?
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by not using it to much
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should you remove all incidents of I and we in your message?
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no
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how can a message be conversational and also professional
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by being informal, but not to informal
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does positive language convey more information than negative language?
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yes
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what are examples of loaded words that convey a negative tone?
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complaint, criticism, defective, failed, mistake, and neglected
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why is it smart for a business communicator to remain cool and courteous even when angry?
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so he can accomplish his goal
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when adapting a message to its audience, it should be?
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sensitive and bias-free
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what is biased language, and why should business communicators avoid it?
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language that emphasize gender, race, age, ethnicity, and disability. To make a better environment
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why should business communicators strive to use familiar language?
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to be adapt a recognizable message to the audience that they will comprehend quickly
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technical or specialized terms within a field
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jargon
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how can you improve your vocabulary so that you can use precise, vigorous words?
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thesaurus
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in what situations can you expect to share writing duties with a team?
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when a project is big, has a short deadline, or requires the expertise or consensus of many people
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why are team-written documents better?
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because of the collaboration that produce better products
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in what phases of the writing process do team members work together and separately?
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they work together in the beginning to brainstorm and then they assign segments of the project
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what online collaboration tools support team writing? (5)
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mailing list, discussion boards, instant messaging, blogs/wikis, groupware/portals
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a web site with journal entries usually written by one person with comments added by others
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a blog
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a web site that allows multiple users to collaboratively create and edit pages
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a wiki
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what tools work well for student collaboration?
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Google Docs, Google Gears, Chrome browser, and whiteboard
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why should warnings on dangerous products be written especially clearly?
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to prevent people from getting hurt and to prevent from getting sued
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what kinds of sales and marketing messages are illegal?
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promises that are more than intended
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what kinds of statements should you avoid in evaluating employees in the workplace?
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traits and negative comments
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what is fair use in relation to copyright law
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that individuals have limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission
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four-factor test to asses fair use
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purpose and character of the use, particularly whether for profit, nature of the copyrighted work, amount and substantiality of portion used, effect of the use on the potential market
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how to avoid copyright infringement?
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assume that everything is copyrighted, realize that internet items are not in the public domain, observe fair-use restrictions, ask for permission, don't assume that a footnote is all that is needed
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why should writers assume that everything is copyrighted?
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it has been since 1989
