EFFECTIVE BUSINESS MESSAGE | COMMUNICATION

The Process of
Preparing
Effective Business
Messages

Chapter Objectives
 To understand the process of
preparing effective business
messages
 To appreciate the value of
planning in designing and
Organizing an effective message

Preparing effective business message
 In order to be effective, one
needs to plan, organize, draft,
revise, edit, and proofread a
message.
 Even with the most advanced
office technology, one needs to
prepare oral or written messages
carefully.

Effective Business Message
Writing Process
 Follow the 3-steps process for
creating an effective business
message.
1. Planning a message
2. Writing a message
3. Completing a message

Five planning steps
 Following steps must be
considered before writing a
message:
 Identify Your Purpose
 Analyze Your Audience
 Choose Your ideas
 Collect your Data
 Organize Your Messages

Five planning steps
 Identify your purpose
 The first step to planning is to
determine the purpose of the
communication. [Is the message
informational, such as announcing
a new location of your firm? Or the
message is persuasive such as
asking customers to buy your
products?]

Five planning steps
 Identify your purpose
 Generally, the objective of most
messages is twofold: the reason for
the message and the creation of
goodwill.

Five planning steps
 Analyze Your Audience
 Audience analysis helps the sender
see the message from the receiver’s
point of view.
 Once the sender is acquainted with
the receiver, s/he can actually
visualize individuals.

Five planning steps
 Analyze Your Audience
 Audience analysis involves:
 Receivers’ demographics such as age,
gender, income, education, profession,
etc.
 Receivers’ position in the organization –
superior, peer, or subordinate.
 Receivers’ attitudes, beliefs, culture-
specific values.

Five planning steps
 Choose Your Ideas
 The ideas to be included in the
message depends on the type of
message, the situation and the
cultural context.
 If the sender is replying to a letter,
then the main point in the letter
could be ideas for the reply.
 For a new letter, some brainstorming
is needed.

Five planning steps
 Collect Data to Support Your
Ideas
 Once the ideas to be included are
decided, the sender must determine
the data needed, like specific facts,
figures, quotations, or other
evidences to support the points.

Five planning steps
 Organize Your Message
 Outlining the message (mentally or
on paper) is essential before making
the first draft.
 Organizing the sequence of the ideas
to be presented in the message can
prevent rambling and unclear
messages.

Basic organizational plans
 The choice of organizational plan
depends upon following:
 Expectation about receivers’
response
 Knowledge of the receiver about the
topic of the message
 Receivers’ cultural conventions

 For letters and memos, there are four
basic organizational plans: direct
request, good-news, bad-news, or
persuasive-request plan
 First two of the above use Direct
(Deductive) Approach, which begins
with the main idea.
 Last two plans use the Indirect
(Inductive ) Approach, which states
the main idea later.

 Direct (Deductive) Approach
 When you think that the audience
will have a favorable or neutral
reaction to your message, use direct
approach.
 Use this plan for making direct
requests, announcing favorable or
neutral news, and exchanging
information within or between
companies.

 Indirect (Inductive ) Approach
 When you expect resistance to your
message, choose the indirect
approach, such as in a bad-news
message or a persuasive request.
 Begin with a buffer – a relevant
pleasant, neutral, or receiver-benefit
statement; then give explanation
and then introduce your idea.

Beginning and endings
 Two of the most important
positions in any business
message are the opening and
closing paragraphs.
 Remember the old sayings:
 “First impression is lasting”
 “We remember best what we read
last”

 Opening Paragraphs
 Opening of a message determines
whether the reader continues
reading, puts the message aside, or
discards it.
 Choose openings that is
appropriate for the purpose of the
message and the reader.

 Opening Paragraphs
 Make the opening considerate,
courteous, concise and clear.
 Keep the first paragraph relatively
short.
 Use conversational language in clear
and concise sentences.
 Ensure the completeness of the
message.

 Closing Paragraphs
 The closing is more likely to
motivate the reader to act as
requested if it is appropriately
strong, clear, and polite.
 Make an action request clear and
complete with 5 Ws and 1 H.
 End on a positive and courteous
thought. Keep the last paragraph
concise and correct.

writing the message
 Composing/writing the message
involves following:
 Drafting Your Message

Composing the message
 Drafting Your Message
 First draft is often the most difficult
to write. The important thing is to
get the most important information
in the message.
 Regardless of the style, the
important thing is to get on paper
the information to be included.

Completing the Message
 Revising Your Message
 Editing and Proofreading Your
Message

Completing the message
 Revising Your Message
 It involves adding necessary and
deleting unnecessary information,
making sure all points are
supported, checking organizational
approach, and reviewing the
language in terms of 7 Cs.

Completing the message
 Editing and Proofreading Your
Message
 Editing and proofreading are
important to ensure that the
message has no mistakes in
grammar, spelling, punctuation, or
word choice.
 Minor mistakes, such as
typographical errors could reduce
the effectiveness of the message.

EFFECTIVE BUSINESS MESSAGE | COMMUNICATION

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