Analyzing the Purpose and Anticipating the Audience

In order to craft effective business messages, beginning writers should follow the writing process closely. The first step in this process is to analyze the purpose and audience of the message.

Why is it important to identify the purpose of your message before you start writing? Check all that apply.

• To establish goodwill
• To impress your associates
• To determine how to present your message
• To impress your boss

Read the following scenario, and answer the questions.

Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of the Dynamo Voice Mail System. For initial setup, press “1.” The automated system will guide you through the steps necessary to set your personal away message and organize your voice mail folders. To access your messages, press “2.” To delete messages, press “3.” To exit the system, press “9.” For more help, or to speak to a customer service representative while you are logged on to the Dynamo system, press the “*” key.

What is the primary purpose of this message?

• To explain how to set up a voice mail system
• To respond to a customer complaint
• To sell a voice mail system
• To provide customer service

What is the secondary purpose of this message?

• To maintain the customer's goodwill
• To sell more voice mail systems
• To offer a guarantee of service

After identifying the purpose of your message, you should select the most appropriate communication channel. When determining the most effective channel for your message, which of these should you consider? Check all that apply.

• Receiver's preference and level of technical expertise
• Importance of the message
• Degree of formality desired
• Necessity of a permanent record
• How long it will take to write the message
• Importance of the font choice
• Amount of effort involved

Consider the following situation and choose the most appropriate communication channel.

You are working late tonight. Everyone else has gone home for the day, but you've been working on the presentation you'll be giving with your team at the sales meeting tomorrow afternoon. You would like to get their input on what you have done. How can you get them to respond to your presentation first thing in the morning?

You should use .

Technology and competition continue to accelerate the pace of business; thus, business writers switch to increasingly faster means of communication. Consider the following scenario, and determine if a faster communication channel would be more appropriate.

Marjan is working on a team completing a recommendations report. She has gathered and sorted customer survey data, and now she needs to share it with the team for comments and corrections. Marjan is preparing to email the data to her teammates.

• Marjan should call a face-to-face meeting
• Marjan has chosen the correct channel
• Marjan should post the data on the team wiki

A good writer anticipates the audience of a message. Although you can't always know exactly who the audience is, you can imagine the general characteristics of the receiver. Profiling your audience allows you to adopt the appropriate tone, language, and channel.

Which of these are appropriate questions to ask when profiling your audience? Check all that apply.

• Will someone other than my audience see my message?
• What is my relationship with the audience?
• Do I care about my audience's response?
• What position does the audience hold in my organization?
• How can I prevent other people from seeing this message?

Read the following scenario, and answer the questions.

You are a store manager for a midsize shoe retailer located near the campus of a large state university. During the summer months, you need fewer retail associates. You have a great team and don't want to impact employee morale negatively by laying off members of the team. Therefore, in order to reach the best outcome, you decide to try to convince your retail team to schedule vacation time carefully so that no one will be laid off for the summer.

Should the tone for this message be formal or informal?

• Formal
• Informal

Which communication channel would be most appropriate?

• Letter
• Email
• Face-to-face meeting
• Instant message

The retail team will likely have a  response to the message you send.

Who might be the secondary audience for your message? Check all that apply.

• Retail associates at other locations
• Your boss
• Competing retail stores

Assume you just wrote the following email message to a subordinate about a presentation.

Hey Mohammed,

Nice work on that presentation. I'm going to send a copy to the CEO to show off your creativity. Congratulations to you and your team.

Speaking of teams, I'm sending a recommendation to Human Resources. Your leadership during the presentation really shows, and you deserve a promotion for all that hard work. A team is only as good as its leader, after all.

Before sending the message, it occurs to you that your email will probably be forwarded to other subordinates.

What will you need to change to make the message appropriate for both a subordinate and other subordinates?

• Make the message even more friendly and informal but focus only on congratulating the team.
• Start with the promotion discussion and use a more formal tone.
• Focus on congratulating the team using each individual's name and use a more formal tone. Send news about the promotion recommendation in a separate email.