Chapter 1
Succeeding in Business
Communication
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Chapter Learning Objectives
LO 1-1 What the benefits of good communication are
LO 1-2 Why students need to be able to communicate
well
LO 1-3 What the costs of communication are
LO 1-4 What the costs of poor communication are
LO 1-5 What the basic criteria for effective messages are
LO 1-6 What role conventions play in business
communication
LO 1-7 How to solve business communication problems
12
Forms of Communication
Verbal
Face-to-face
Phone
conversations
Informal
meetings
Presentations
Text messages
Nonverbal
Computer graphics
Company logos
Smiles
Size of an office
Location of people at
meetings
13
Communication Purposes
Business communication has three
purposes
To
inform
To request or persuade
To build goodwill
Most messages have more than one
purpose
14
Audiences
Internal
Go to people inside organization
Memo to subordinates, superiors,
peers
External
Go to people outside organization
Letter to customers, suppliers, others
15
Benefits & Costs
Effective communication
Saves time
Increases productivity
Communicates ideas more clearly
Builds goodwill
Poor communication
Wastes time
Wastes efforts
Loses goodwill
Causes legal problems
16
Criteria for Effective Messages
Clear
Complete
Correct
Saves receiver’s
time
Builds goodwill
17
Conventions
Widely accepted practices you routinely
encounter
Vary by organizational setting
Help people recognize, produce, and
interpret communications
Need to fit rhetorical situation: audience,
context, and purpose
18
Ask Questions to Analyze Situations
What’s at stake—to whom?
Should you send a message?
What channel should you
use?
What should you say?
How should you say it?
19
Solving Business Communication Problems
Gather knowledge
Brainstorm solutions
Answer five analysis questions
110
Five Analysis Questions
1. Who
are your audiences?
2. What are your purposes?
3. What information must you include?
4. How can you support your position?
What reasons or benefits will your
audience find convincing?
5. What part of the context may affect
audience response?
111
Solving Business Communication
Problems, continued…
Organize information to fit
Audiences
Purposes
Situation
Make document visually inviting
Revise draft for tone
Friendly
Businesslike
Positive
112
Solving Business Communication
Problems, continued…
Edit draft for standard English
Names
Numbers
Use responses to plan future
messages
113