Chapter 4 - Planning Business Messages

            Planning business messages enables you to have a systematic writing process. This topic will discuss four basic principles of writing, the 3-x-3 writing process, the phase of the writing process, the “you” view, conversational but professional language, bias-free language, simple expression, and vigorous words, how teams approach collaborative writing projects and what collaboration tools support team writing, and the legal and ethical responsibilities of business communications.

Four Basic Principles of Business Writing

Business writing differs from other writing. Business writers have different goals for business management and oral presentation. Therefore, business writing should be purposeful, persuasive, economical, and audience oriented.

a.       Purposeful means that your writing must have a specific purpose

b.      Persuasive means that you need to ensure your audience to believe and accept what you convey

c.       Economical means that you clearly and briefly present your ideas.

d.      Audience oriented means that you need to focus on looking at a problem based on the audience’s point of view.

The 3-x-3 Writing Process

The writing process will be easier if you follow the 3-x-3 writing process: prewriting – 25% (thinking and planning), writing – 25% (organizing and composing), and revising – 50% (45% revising and 5% proofreading ). This writing process allows you to have a systematic plan, as it is described below.

Adapting to the Task and Audience

a.       Developing audience benefits

b.      “You” view is necessary used to give emphasize on the audience. The sender focus must be changed to audience focus to show the “you” view as it is shown in this example.

As the sender gives “you” view, the audience will think “I need to do what the sender has said because it will give an effect for me.”

c.       Being conversational but professional

You are insisted on being professional, but do not drop the conversational style. Using active voice may seem professional and conversational.

d.      Expressing yourself  positively

Expressing your thought positively makes your surrounding reacts positively as well. The way to express your positive thought is by using positive words or avoiding negative words. For example, you should say, “you will be happy to” instead of  “you won’t be sorry that” .

e.       Being courteous

Being courteous is an exact way to get good response to a letter, report, or memo. It is not only about saying “please” and “thank you”, but it is also about the tone of your writing. What things should be done in order to get a good response? Here are the answers.

§  Thank people for their contribution or work.

§  Acknowledge emails and letters.

§  Sound neutral rather than confrontational.

§  Focus on the positive words.

§  Show your concern.

§  Soften bad news by leading up to it.

§  Don’t demand, rather start sentences with “I want” or “I would like”.

f.       Choosing bias-free Language

You must avoid language which tends to discriminate others – language which is sensitive to people’s sex, race, age, and other differences. Below is the example of bias language.

Biased: Give your report to the committee chairman.

The word “chairman” refers to one’s sex. Therefore, to make it better, you can say, “Give your report to the committee chair.”

g.      Employing Precise, Vigorous Words

To avoid ambiguity which can lead to misunderstanding, you need to use precise and vigorous words. For example, use word “fax me” instead of “contact me”. What will happen when you use the word “contact me”? The interlocutor may contact you via text messages, phone, chat, or e-mail, whereas you expect him or her to contact you via fax.

How Teams Approach Collaborative Writing Projects  

Collaboration is done to make a better result. Working together may help members to get along well each other. Both formal and informal chains of communication will be improved as the time goes by. What are the tools which help collaboration? E-mail, mailing lists, discussion boards, and instant messaging absolutely can support teams.

The Legal Ethical and Responsibilities of Business Communications

You need to fulfill ethical obligation in :Investment Information, Safety Information, Marketing Information,  Human Resources Information, and Copyright Information

Source

http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/style-and-usage/negative-words-to-avoid-in-writing.html

Chapter 3 - Intercultural Communication

Intercultural communication is the information sharing across different cultures and social groups, with different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. This is required to understand the differences in how people with a variety of cultures act, and communicate. In this topic, I will discuss the three significant trends that have increased the importance of intercultural communications, cultural characteristics, the ways in achieving intercultural proficiency, techniques for improving nonverbal and oral communication in intercultural settings, for improving written messages to intercultural audiences.

1. Three significant trends that have increased the importance of intercultural communication:

a.   The globalization of markets

People need to do adapt to other culture in order to be successful because intercultural communication absolutely happens in work environment. Therefore, it is necessary to have intercultural communication skill.

b.   Technological advancements

In this globalization era, the internet and the Web play a great role in changing the way people live, the way people do business, and the way people communicate. These advancements have made markets and jobs more accessible since the internet permits instantaneous oral and written communication across time zone and continents. For example, managers in Miami can use high-speed data systems to swap marketing plans instantly with their counterparts in Milan.

c.    Intercultural workforce

Because of the prospects of prosperity and education, people are moving to countries that can change their life or fulfill their dream. The research showed that companies need to work together to strengthen the development of intercultural skills in the workplace to meet the growing globalization. Intercultural skills are important to companies for several reasons. They not only give employees a better understanding of their workplace and co-workers, but they also help them adapt to new work environments and prevent culture shock, while enhancing their cultural awareness, knowledge, and practical skills.

2.      Five noteworthy cultural characteristics :

a.  Culture is learned, which means culture is passed down from generation to generation. For example, in many middle Eastern and some Asian cultures, same sex-people may walk in hand-in-hand in the street, but opposite-sex may not do so.

b. Cultures are inherently logical since the rules in any culture originated to strengthen the culture’s value and beliefs. For example, women in Japanese cover their mouth when they laugh because exposing teeth gives an aggressive impression.

c.   Culture is the basis of self-identity and community, which means the basis for how people tell the world who they are and what they believe. For example, as people decide their education, career, and life partner, they consider the rules, manners, beliefs, and values.

d.  Culture combines the Visible and Invisible, which means that culture is the combination of what we see and what we do not see. Although there are some invisible values of a culture, it still covers everything we think and do. For example, people in India avoid stepping on ants or insects because of their belief in reincarnation.

e. Culture is dynamic, which means culture is changed by advancements in technology and communication, and the progress of people’s thought.

3.      Achieving intercultural proficiency

a.       Avoiding ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism is the belief in the superiority of one’s own race. For example, if you were raised in North America, many of the dimensions of culture probably seem right to you.

b.      Showing tolerance, and keeping patience

Accepting cultural differences and adapting to them with tolerance results in a harmonious compromise

4.  Apply techniques for improving nonverbal and oral communication in intercultural settings

a.       Nonverbal communication

Nonverbal communication includes eye contact, facial expression, posture, and gesture. Nonverbal skills are more difficult to learn because every culture of a country differs. For example, in Western cultures, silence gives negative impressions, specifically shows rejection, unhappiness, and depression. In contrast, for Japanese, silence means respect and wisdom. Therefore, as we want to to achieve nonverbal competence, we can become more aware of our nonverbal behaviors and their meaning.

b.      Oral communication

English is the language used to run business when we are in intercultural environment. However, the level of proficiency may be limited among non native speakers of English. There is an assumption that people who speak English always understand what is being said. This assumption is crucial because what we think can be actually the opposite; their comprehension is superficial. Therefore, there are some suggestions in using English as a second language. I will only discuss 4 out of 10 suggestions:

1.      Learn foreign phrases

If we learn greetings and a few phrases, foreign nationals will appreciate it.

2.      Use simple English

Speak in short sentences with familiar words.

For example, use “old” instead of “obsolete”

And use “rich” instead of “luxurious”

3.      Encourage accurate feedback

We need to encourage the listener to paraphrase what we say. Do not assume a yes, a nod, a smile shows comprehension.

4.      Smile when appropriate

According to Roger Axtell, smile is the most useful form of communication. However, in some cultures, excessive may seem insincere.

5.   Techniques for improving written messages to intercultural audiences

It is necessary to pay attention in sending letters, e-mails, and other document. There are some suggestions that help us prepare successful written messages to intercultural audiences. Here I choose three out of eight important points.

1.      Avoid ambiguous expression

We must avoid idioms, slang (for example, my presentation really bombed). Then, avoid acronyms (for example, ASAP for as soon as possible). Use specific action verbs (for example “purchase a printer” instead of “get a printer”.

2.      Strive for clarity

We must avoid words that have many meanings. We can replace two-word verbs with a clear single word. For example (“return” instead of “bring back”, “delay” instead of “put off”

3.      Cite numbers carefully

For international trade, it is a good idea to learn and use metric system. In citing numbers, we use (12) instead of spelling twelve. For example in North America, June 12, 2011, is written as 6/12/11. However, the same date in Europe is written as 12.6.11.

6. Workforce diversity can provides both benefits and challenges in the aspect of consumers, work teams, and business organizations.

1.    Consumers

The challenge found in consumers is an ability to read trends and respond to the increasingly diverse customer in local and world markets.

The benefit of knowing the trend is the consumers will be satisfied because

2.    Work teams

Team members with different backgrounds may come up with more creative and effective problem-solving techniques than homogeneous team.

3.   Business organizations

Having diversity in business organizations may improve employee relationships and increase productivity.

But, developing a diverse staff that can work together cooperatively is one of the biggest challenges in facing business organizations.

We can learn to be sensitive to racial and gender issues by improving communication among diverse workplace audiences, such as looking for training. We can spend time reading and learning about workforce diversity and how it can benefit organizations. It can be learned in diversity training programs. The second is understanding the value of differences, which is similar to showing tolerance.

What will happen when we do not know the culture of our peers?
let's check it out! 

Chapter 2 - Professionalism: Team, Meeting, and Etiquette Skills

                          

Professionalism: Team, Meeting, and Etiquette Skills

           

In this Professionalism chapter, I learn the importance of working in a team, having meetings, and how to develop etiquette skills. There are several important reasons why we need teamwork, which are getting better decision, having faster response, and achieving greater “buy-in”. In business world, you must be able to deal with meeting and etiquette skills which determine how professional you are.

In order to obtain high professionalism, one needs to understand how to make a harmonious team formation. Therefore, there are four phases of team development should be applied to make a unity of your team: Forming (a stage in which the members wonder about how they will fit in a team, how they feel about their place in the team, and how they define the team, rather than how they accomplish their task ), Storming (a stage in which the members respond to the differences, and find a solution to handle a conflict), Norming (a stage in which the team achieve harmony), and Performing (a stage in which the members feel satisfied with the team’s progress, solve problems in the team, and make significant progress to achieve the goal).

It is common to have a conflict in teamwork. However, it can be resolved by these six steps: listening, understanding others’ point of view, showing concern for the relationship, looking for common group, inventing new problem-solving options, and having an agreement.

As you want to reach group decisions, you can use several methods which are authority, majority, consensus, minority, and averaging. Below is the three methods which are commonly used to reach group decisions.

            What are the ethical responsibilities of group members and leaders? The practices include determining to do your best, making a commitment to fair play, giving and receiving a fair hearing, being ready to model appropriate team behavior.

Professionalism requires us to plan and participate in productive meetings. Performing specific things are necessary before meeting, during meeting, and ending the meeting and following up. To make your meetings more effective, what you should do before is considering alternatives, inviting the right people, distributing an agenda, using a calendaring program, and training participants on technology. During the meeting, you need to start on time and introduce the agenda, appoint a secretary and recorder, encourage participation, confront the conflict, and summarize along the way. In the end of the meeting, you can review meeting decisions, distribute minutes of meeting, and remind people of what they need to do. Here is an example of minutes of meeting.

In business or work environment, you need to gain an etiquette edge, such as using polite words, expressing sincere appreciation and praise, being selective in sharing personal information, and respecting coworkers. These practices may seem easy to follow. However, there will be a time when you are in a quandary. For example, you disagree with one’s idea expressed in a meeting, but you do not want to set aside the etiquette edge. Here is a video that tells you to deal with such a thing.

 

Source: http://hrweb.mit.edu/learning-development/learning-topics/teams/articles/stages-development

Session 1

 My Dream

Source: http://www.cjryall.com/uploads/3/0/3/8/3038366/2248927_orig.jpg?1390909680

After graduating from Bina Nusantara University, I want to have a job based on my major, which is English Literature. My favorite subject in this major is Language use or Grammar. I like checking the tenses, spelling, punctuation, word choice, and other important elements to create a good text. Therefore, I want to be a proofreader in the future. Besides enjoying Grammar subject, the other reason why I want to be a proofreader is I prefer to work in an office. I like to remain silent and think seriously when I work, so I guess this job fits me.

Of course, it does not mean that I am excellent in this area although I like Grammar subject. There are many things need to be learned and improved to be an excellent proofreader, specifically the proofreaders marks as provided below.

Here is the description of what proofreaders do.