Routine Business Messages Paper

Bethel University Routine Business Messages Paper

This week, we learned about email, social media, and routine business messages. For your Unit 3 Complete assignment, write a cohesive, narrative essay (minimum 1000 words) in which you address and discuss the questions and statements listed below. Begin your essay with an introduction that gets your reader’s attention, previews your main points, and states your thesis. End your essay with a conclusion paragraph that summarizes your main points and leaves your reader with a memorable thought or idea. Use at least three scholarly sources. Cite your sources in APA format.

• Compare Bryan’s less effective and more effective messages giving directions for how to arrange company travel (see Figures 9.6 and 9.7). Identify the ways in which he improved the message.
• How do you think the more effective message will impact work outcomes and relationships?
• What strategies might Bryan have used to ensure ease of reading and respect for the recipient’s time?
• Explain the neutrality and negativity effects. How might these affect how Bryan’s emails are perceived?

Providing Directions

Another common type of routine message provides directions for others. Messages that provide directions share many similarities with those that set expectations. The primary distinction is that directions typically include specific—often step-by-step—guidelines for accomplishing particular tasks.

Since describing step-by-step procedures is so specific, insufficient detail can frustrate your readers. For routine matters, you are generally safe reviewing your own work and making sure it is complete. For more technical and complicated procedures, make sure you have several people test the procedures to find where you can better clarify the steps involved.

In messages with procedures and directions, make the steps stand out clearly by enumerating each one. This helps your reader keep track of progress completing the tasks. Steps that are written in narrative form within a paragraph are typically difficult to follow.

Notice the differences between the less effective and more effective messages in Figures 9.6 and 9.7, where Bryan gives directions to John on how to make company Page 276travel arrangements. The less effective example in Figure 9.6 has an unhelpful and careless tone, written almost entirely in passive voice. The message is abrupt and insufficiently detailed. Many readers will decode a meta message of “I don’t have time for you.” In the more effective example in Figure 9.7, Bryan provides clear directions by pasting the human resources policies into the message and inserting his own comments as additional guidelines and tips. He also tells John where to go for more information. In reality, Bryan could have simply emailed “check the HR intranet portal.” Yet, this more effective message, written in just three to four minutes, is a strong sign of Bryan’s willingness to help John. Many readers will decode a meta message of “I want to help you out as much as possible.”

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FIGURE 9.6

Less Effective Directions

FIGURE 9.7

More Effective Directions

Business Communication

Developing Leaders for a Networked World

Fourth Edition

Peter W. Cardon

University of Southern California

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