Exam 3: Planning Business Messages

Over the last eight months,consulting firm G&B has been in talks with Wattersons,Inc.over a potential merger.During this time,G&B employees were kept abreast of their company's plans and all their concerns regarding the merger were thoroughly addressed.As the company had assured them that their jobs would be safe,the employees were generally supportive of the move.Once the decision was finalized,G&B's top management issued a statement to the employees confirming the merger.Which of the following is the general purpose of the message issued by G&B's top management?

People in Japan prefer oral messages.

The main advantage of written channels is that they ________.

Cost is only a financial factor.There is no perceived nonverbal signal involved.

Clarifying the purpose of your message,gathering necessary information,and tailoring your message to the needs and expectations of your audience takes place in the ________ stage of the writing process.

Briefly describe three ways to improve the organization of an email message.

Stella is working on a tourism brochure for the Bahamas.She needs to find new and interesting ways of presenting information that has been covered many times before.She begins to write as many ideas,questions,and possibilities she can think of without considering order or importance.She looks for connections among the various ideas to help her find the best way to present the information.Which of the following methods is Stella using?

For business messages,effective communication means always getting straight to the point.

It is not a good strategy to use the journalistic approach of seeing if your message answers who,what,when,where,why and how.

The direct approach is best when ________.

Which of the following is true of the direct approach to presenting information?

If you expect an unfavourable response to your message,it is quite effective to state your conclusions and recommendations up front.

The richest form of communication is face-to-face conversation.

Discuss at least two ways to satisfy your audience's information needs and give examples of each.

________ is the process of using a graphic method to generate and organize ideas.It begins with a main idea and then branches out,connecting all other related ideas to the main idea.

The written channel includes which of the following?

Jeremy writes articles on personal finance for a local paper.He often needs to simplify financial concepts and reduce them to everyday terms to reach his audience.In order to structure his articles,he starts with a key question from the audience's perspective and works back toward the message.Each answer generates new questions until he can identify the information that needs to be in the article.His method of working is known as ________.

You must tailor your message to the needs and expectations of your ________.

Include only enough information to accomplish your objective,focussing on the primary decision makers.

The general purpose of a business message is to inform,persuade,and collaborate with your audience.