Organize stories in three parts: a beginning that introduces a sympathetic person with a dream or a challenge, a middle that shows the complications to be overcome, and an ending that resolves the situation and shows the moral or message of the story.

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? The end of the story answers that question and usually offers a lesson to be learned about the outcome as well.

By the way, even though these are “stories,” they must not be made-up tales. Telling stories that didn’t happen to people who don’t exist while presenting them as real-life events is a serious breach of ethics that damages a company’s credibility.13

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

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

The three-step writing process is built around planning, writing, and completing business messages. Planning involves analyzing the situation, gathering the information you will need to meet audience needs, selecting the right medium or combination of media, and organizing your information. The writing step involves adapting to your audience and composing your message. Completing involves the four tasks of revising, proofreading, producing, and distributing the message. The three-step process helps you create more effective messages because it keeps you focused on what your audience needs to get from a message, and it saves you time by reducing the amount of reworking that can happen when someone starts writing without clear goals or organization in mind.

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

Analyzing the situation gives you the insights necessary to meet your own needs as a communicator while also meeting the information needs of your recipients. You can accomplish this goal by looking at the communication process from both ends, by defining your purpose in sending the message, and by creating a profile of your target audience. The general purpose of a message identifies your overall

intent—to inform, to persuade, to collaborate, or to initiate a conversation. The specific purpose identifies what you hope to accomplish with the message. Without a clear purpose in mind, you are likely to spend more time and energy than you really need to, and chances are you won’t create an effective message.

Understanding your audience is a vital aspect of planning because the more you know about your audience members, their needs, and their expectations, the more effectively you’ll be able to communicate with them. To create an audience profile, identify the primary audience, its size and geographic distribution, its composition (language, education, experience, and other factors that could affect message reception), and its level of understanding, expectations and preferences, and probable reaction to your message.

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

Simple messages usually don’t require extensive information gathering, but to acquire useful insights, consider the audience’s perspective; find and listen to online communities; read reports and other company documents; talk with supervisors, colleagues, or customers; and ask your audience for input, if possible. Judge the quality of any information you include by making sure it is accurate, ethical, and pertinent.

4 OBJECTIVE Compare the four major classes of media, and list the factors to consider when choosing the most appropriate medium for a message.

The four major classes of media are oral (direct conversation between two or more people), written (printed memos, letters, and reports), visual (messages in which visual elements carry the bulk of the message), and electronic (electronic versions of the other three). To choose the most appropriate medium for every message, consider media richness, message formality, media limitations, urgency, cost, and audience preferences.

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

Good organization helps your audience understand and accept your message with less time and effort. It also saves you time when preparing messages. With a clear path to follow when writing, you’ll produce messages faster and spend far less time revising. To organize any message, define your main idea, limit the scope for maximum impact, choose the direct or indirect approach to match the situation, and outline your information in a logical sequence.

Test Your Knowledge

To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

1. What are the three steps in the writing process? [LO-1]

2.What two types of purposes do all business messages have? [LO-2]

3. What do you need to know to develop an audience profile? [LO-2]

4.What are the three attributes of quality information in a business message? [LO-3]

5. What is the difference between the topic of a message and its main idea? [LO-5]

Apply Your Knowledge

To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

1. Some writers argue that planning messages wastes time because they inevitably change their plans as they go along. How would you respond to this argument? Briefly explain. [LO-1]

2.A day after sending an email to all 1,800 employees in your company regarding income tax implications of the company’s retirement plan, you discover that one of the sources you relied on for your information plagiarized from other sources. You quickly double-check all the information in your message and confirm that it is accurate. However, you are concerned about using plagiarized information, even though you did nothing wrong. How you would handle this situation? [LO-3]

3. You have been invited to speak at an annual industry conference. After preparing the outline for your presentation, you see that you’ve identified 14 separate points to support your main idea. Should you move ahead with creating the slides for your presentation or move back and rethink your outline? Why? [LO-5]

Practice Your Skills

Exercises for Perfecting Your Writing

To review chapter content related to each set of exercises, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

Specific Purpose For each of the following communication tasks, state a specific purpose (if you have trouble, try beginning with “I want to . . . ”). [LO-2]

1.A report to your boss, the store manager, about the outdated items in the warehouse

2.A blog posting to customers and the news media about your company’s plans to acquire a competitor

3.A letter to a customer who is supposed to make monthly loan payments but hasn’t made a payment for three months

4.An email message to employees about the office’s high water bills

5.A phone call to a supplier to check on an overdue parts shipment

6.A podcast to new users of the company’s online content management system

Audience Profile For each communication task below, write brief answers to three questions: (1) Who is my audience?

(2)What is my audience’s general attitude toward my subject?

(3)What does my audience need to know? [LO-2]

7.A final-notice collection letter from an appliance manufacturer to an appliance dealer, sent 10 days before initiation of legal collection procedures

8.A promotional message on your company’s retailing website, announcing a temporary price reduction on high-definition television sets

9.An advertisement for peanut butter

10.A letter to the property management company responsible for maintaining your office building, complaining about persistent problems with the heating and air conditioning

11.A cover letter sent along with your résumé to a potential employer

12.A request (to the seller) for a price adjustment on a piano that incurred $150 in damage during delivery to a banquet room in the hotel you manage

Media and Purpose List three messages you have read, viewed, or listened to lately (such as direct-mail promotions, letters, email or instant messages, phone solicitations, blog posts, social network pages, podcasts, or lectures). For each message, determine the general and the specific purpose, then answer the questions listed. [LO-2] [LO-4]

74 Unit 2: The Three-Step Writing Process

Message #1:

13.General purpose:

14.Specific purpose:

15.Was the message well timed?

16.Did the sender choose an appropriate medium for the message?

17.Was the sender’s purpose realistic?

Message #2:

18.General purpose:

19.Specific purpose:

20.Was the message well timed?

21.Did the sender choose an appropriate medium for the message?

22.Was the sender’s purpose realistic?

Message #3:

23.General purpose:

24.Specific purpose:

25.Was the message well timed?

26.Did the sender choose an appropriate medium for the message?

27.Was the sender’s purpose realistic?

Message Organization: Choosing the Approach

Indicate whether the direct or the indirect approach would be best in each of the following situations. [LO-4]

28.An email message to a car dealer, asking about the availability of a specific make and model of car

29.A letter from a recent college graduate, requesting a letter of recommendation from a former instructor

30.A letter turning down a job applicant

31.An internal blog post explaining that because of high air-conditioning costs, the plant temperature will be held at 78 degrees during the summer

32.A final request to settle a delinquent debt

Message Organization: Drafting Persuasive Messages

If you were trying to persuade people to take the following actions, would you choose the direct or indirect approach? [LO-4]

33.You want your boss to approve your plan for hiring two new people.

34.You want to be hired for a job.

35.You want to be granted a business loan.

36.You want to collect a small amount from a regular customer whose account is slightly past due.

37.You want to collect a large amount from a customer whose account is seriously past due.

Activities

Active links for all websites in this chapter can be found on MyBCommLab; see your User Guide for instructions on accessing the content for this chapter. 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.

1.Planning: Identifying Your Purpose; Media Skills: Email [LO-2] Identify three significant communication tasks you’ll need to accomplish in the next week or two (for example, a homework assignment, a project at work, a meeting with your academic advisor, or a class presentation). In an email message to your instructor, list the general and specific purpose for each communication task.

2.Analyzing the Situation; Media Skills: Electronic Presentations [LO-2] Go to the PepsiCo website, at www

.pepsico.com, and locate the latest annual report. Read the annual report’s letter to shareholders. Who is the audience for this message? What is the general purpose of the message? What do you think this audience wants to know from the chairman of PepsiCo? Summarize your answers in a one-page report or five-slide presentation, as your instructor directs.

3.Planning: Creating an Audience Profile; Collaboration: Team Projects [LO-2], [LO-3], Chapter 2

With a team assigned by your instructor, compare the Facebook pages of three companies in the same industry. Analyze the content on all the available tabs. What can you surmise about the intended audience for each company? Which of the three does the best job of presenting the information its target audience is likely to need? Prepare a brief presentation, including slides that show samples of the Facebook content from each company.

4.Planning: Assessing Audience Needs; Media Skills: Blogging; Communication Ethics: Making Ethical

Choices [LO-3], Chapter 1 Your supervisor has asked you to withhold important information that you think should be included in a report you are preparing. Obeying him could save the company serious public embarrassment, but it would also violate your personal code of ethics. What should you do? On the basis of the discussion in Chapter 1, would you consider this situation to be an ethical dilemma or an ethical lapse? In a post on your class blog, explain your answer and describe how you would respond in this situation.

5.Planning: Analyzing the Situation, Selecting Media; Media Skills: Email [LO-4], Chapter 8 You are the head of public relations for a cruise line that operates out of Miami. You are shocked to read a letter in a local newspaper from a disgruntled passenger, complaining about the service and entertainment on a recent cruise. You need to respond to these publicized criticisms in some way. What audiences will you need to consider in your response? What medium or media should you choose? If the letter had been published in a travel publication widely read by travel agents and cruise travelers, how might your course of action have differed? In an email message to your instructor, explain how you will respond.

MyBCommLab Apply these

key concepts. Go to mybcommlab

.com and follow this path: Course Content Chapter 3 DOCUMENT

MAKEOVERS

6. Planning: Limiting Your Scope [LO-5] Suppose you are preparing to recommend that top management install a new heating system that uses the cogeneration process. The following information is in your files. Eliminate topics that aren’t essential and then arrange the other topics so that your report will give top managers a clear understanding of the heating system and a balanced, concise justification for installing it. Submit a clear and concise outline to your instructor.

■History of the development of the cogeneration heating process

■Scientific credentials of the developers of the process

■Risks assumed in using this process

■Your plan for installing the equipment in the headquarters building

■Stories about the successful use of cogeneration technology in comparable facilities

■Specifications of the equipment that would be installed

■Plans for disposing of the old heating equipment

■Costs of installing and running the new equipment

■Advantages and disadvantages of using the new process

■Detailed 10-year cost projections

■Estimates of the time needed to phase in the new system

■Alternative systems that management might want to consider

7. Planning: Outlining Your Content [LO-5] A writer is working on an insurance information brochure and is having trouble grouping the ideas logically into an outline. Prepare the outline, paying attention to appropriate subordination of ideas. If necessary, rewrite phrases to give them a more consistent sound. Submit a clear and concise outline to your instructor.

Accident Protection Insurance Plan

■Coverage is only pennies a day

■Benefit is $100,000 for accidental death on common carrier

■Benefit is $100 a day for hospitalization as result of motor vehicle or common carrier accident

■Benefit is $20,000 for accidental death in motor vehicle accident

■Individual coverage is only $17.85 per quarter; family coverage is just $26.85 per quarter

■No physical exam or health questions

■Convenient payment—billed quarterly

■Guaranteed acceptance for all applicants

■No individual rate increases

■Free, no-obligation examination period

■Cash paid in addition to any other insurance carried

■Covers accidental death when riding as fare-paying passenger on public transportation, including buses, trains, jets, ships, trolleys, subways, or any other common carrier

■Covers accidental death in motor vehicle accidents occurring while driving or riding in or on automobile, truck, camper, motor home, or nonmotorized bicycle

8.Planning: Using Storytelling Techniques; Communication Ethics: Providing Ethical Leadership: Media

Skills: Podcasting [LO-5], Chapter 1 Research recent episodes of ethical lapses by a business professional or executive in any industry. Choose one example that has a clear story “arc” from beginning to end. Outline a cautionary tale that explains the context of the ethical lapse, the choice the person made, and the consequences of the ethical lapse. Script a podcast (aim for roughly 3 to 5 minutes) that tells the story. If your instructor directs, record your podcast and post to your class blog.

Expand Your Skills

Critique the Professionals

Locate an example of professional communication in any medium that you think would work equally well—or perhaps better—in another medium. Using the media selection guidelines in this chapter and your understanding of the communication process, write a brief analysis (no more than one page) of the company’s media choice and explain why your choice would be at least as effective. Use whatever medium your instructor requests for your report, and be sure to cite specific elements from the piece and support from the chapter.

Sharpen Your Career Skills Online

Bovée and Thill’s Business Communication Web Search, at http://websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com, is a unique research tool designed specifically for business communication research. Use the Web Search function to find a website, video, PDF document, podcast, or PowerPoint presentation that offers advice on analyzing audiences, selecting media, outlining, storytelling (in a business context), or any aspect of the writing process (including models other than the three-step process covered in this text). Write a brief email message to your instructor or a post for your class blog, describing the item that you found and summarizing the career skills information you learned from it.

76 Unit 2: The Three-Step Writing Process

Improve Your Grammar, Mechanics,

and Usage

You can download the text of this assignment from http:// real-timeupdates.com/bce6; click on Student Assignments and then click on Chapter 3. Improve Your Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage.

Level 1: Self-Assessment—Verbs

Review Section 1.3 in the Handbook of Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage and then complete the following 15 items.

In items 1–5, indicate the verb form called for in each sentence.

1.I (present perfect, become) the resident expert on repairing the copy machine.

2.She (past, know) how to conduct an audit when she came to work for us.

3.Since Joan was promoted, she (past perfect, move) all the files to her office.

4.Next week, call John to tell him what you (future, do) to help him set up the seminar.

5.By the time you finish the analysis, he (future perfect, return) from his vacation.

For items 6–10, rewrite the sentences so that they use active voice instead of passive.

6.The report will be written by Leslie Cartwright.

7.The failure to record the transaction was mine.

8.Have you been notified by the claims department of your rights?

9.We are dependent on their services for our operation.

10.The damaged equipment was returned by the customer before we even located a repair facility.

In items 11–15, indicate the correct verb form provided in parentheses.

11.Everyone upstairs (receive, receives) mail before we do.

12.Neither the main office nor the branches (is, are) blameless.

13.C&B Sales (is, are) listed in the directory.

14.When measuring shelves, 7 inches (is, are) significant.

15.About 90 percent of the employees (plan, plans) to come to the company picnic.

Level 2: Workplace Applications

The following items may contain errors in grammar, capitalization, punctuation, abbreviation, number style, word division, and vocabulary. Rewrite each sentence, correcting all errors. If a sentence has no errors, write “Correct” for that number.

1.Cut two inches off trunk and place in a water stand, and fill with water.

2.The newly-elected officers of the Board are: John Rogers, president, Robin Doig, vice-president, and Mary Sturhann, secretary.

3.Employees were stunned when they are notified that the trainee got promoted to Manager only after her 4th week with the company.

4.Seeking reliable data on U.S. publishers, Literary Marketplace is by far the best source.

5.Who did you wish to speak to?

6.The keynote address will be delivered by Seth Goodwin, who is the author of six popular books on marketing, has written two novels, and writes a column for “Fortune” magazine.

7.Often the reputation of an entire company depend on one employee that officially represents that company to the public.

8.The executive director, along with his staff, are working quickly to determine who should receive the Award.

9.Him and his co-workers, the top bowling team in the tournament, will represent our Company in the league finals on saturday.

10.Listening on the extension, details of the embezzlement plot were overheard by the Security Chief.

11.The acceptance of visa cards are in response to our customer’s demand for a more efficient and convenient way of paying for parking here at San Diego International airport.

12.The human resources dept. interviewed dozens of people, they are seeking the better candidate for the opening.

13.Libraries’ can be a challenging; yet lucrative market if you learn how to work the “system” to gain maximum visibility for you’re products and services.

14.Either a supermarket or a discount art gallery are scheduled to open in the Mall.

15.I have told my supervisor that whomever shares my office with me cannot wear perfume, use spray deodorant, or other scented products.

Level 3: Document Critique

The following document may contain errors in grammar, capitalization, punctuation, abbreviation, number style, word division, and vocabulary. As your instructor indicates, photocopy this page and correct all errors using standard proofreading marks (see Appendix C) or download the document and make the corrections in your word processing software.

Now that our stores have been re-organized with your hard work and cooperation, we hope revenues will rise to new heights; if we reemphasize video rentals as Blockbusters core business and reduce the visibility of our sideline retail products. Just in case though, we want to be certain that these changes are having the postive affect on our cash flow that we all except and look forward to.