Short Report on Business Messages

8/6/2019 Short Report on Business Messages

1/10

MANAGERIAL

COMMUNICATION

SHORT REPORT

ON BUSINESS

MESSAGES

Submitted To

Dr. Anita T Lal

Submitted By

Udit Bubna

201168

Introduction


2/10

The purpose of writing this report is to discuss the importance and purpose of business messages

in an organization. I will also discuss the ways of writing messages, types of messages Business

Letters, Good News Messages and Bad News Messages, Structure of the messages and content

of messages. The data for the report have been collected through magazines, journals and articles

written by various authors and Businesspersons.

According to the Writing of Business,Allyn & Bacon 1999 Throughout the globe, the written

word, in both paper and electronic forms, is seen less as strictly a way of archiving the business

already completed and more as a vital, creative means of problem solving, collaborating, and

actually doing business. Communication of messages is vital in any line of business. Without

good communication a business can begin to fall apart at seams and leave staff confused and

unable to effectively perform their day to day work tasks. An effective communication message

will provide a clear understanding of what is expected, what to do and when to do it.

Business Messages is utilitarian, aiming to serve any one of many purposes. Here are just a few

purposes of writing Business Messages

y To explain or justify actions already taken: "Given that situation, we have determinedthat the best course of action is to reject all current bids and to seek others

y To convey information, as in a research report or the promulgation of a newcompany policy: "Management wants all employees to know that the floggings will stop

as soon as we have evidence of improved morale."

y To influence the reader to take some action: "I hope that you will find that our new,Web-based cash management services can reduce your capital requirements and save

you money."

y To deliver good or bad news: "Unfortunately, the engine fire you reported occurred oneday after the expiration of the warranty period."

y To direct action: "Your team should complete and deliver the product specifications byMay 1."

Business Messages legitimately varies from the conversational style you might use in a note

sent by e-mail to the formal, legalistic style found in contracts. In most e-mail messages, letters,

and memos, a style between the two extremes generally is appropriate. Writing that is too formal

can alienate readers, and an overly obvious attempt to be casual and informal may strike thereader as insincere or unprofessional.The best writers strive to write in a style that is so clearthat their message cannot be misunderstood. In fact, you cannot be persuasive without being

clear. One way to achieve clarity, especially during revision, is to eliminate overuse of the

passive voice, which plagues most poor business writing. Although the passive voice is

sometimes necessary, often it not only makes your writing dull but also is ambiguous,

uninformative or overly impersonal.


3/10

You can also achieve clarity with conciseness. Proceed cautiously here, however, because

business writing should not be an endless series of short, choppy sentence. One should not be so

concise that it become blunt or deliver too little information to be helpful to the readers.

Business Writing: A Challenge

Business Messages often follows specific expectations. There are a wide range of standard

phrases that are expected in business English that are generally not used in everyday English.

For Example

Please find attached ...

We regret to inform you that ...

It has come to our attention that ...

The challenge for the person writing is that business Messages follows very specific formulas in

structure. Take the resume for instance, the writing style you use, the points you highlight aboutyour career or education, and the overall look and feel can play a very important role in deciding

whether you are offered a job or not. There are also a number of documents that are common to

business messages. These include office memos, e-mails, and reports. These business writing

documents also take on different styles depending on the audience of those who receive the

documents.

Business Letters

Writing Business Letters perfectly is an art in its own priority.Business letters are one of the

ways for any business to communicate with all of its stake holders. These stake holders may

include customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, management, government and the public

in general. Business letters are the life blood of communication for any business. There are

many types of business letters in use. Let us discuss the Layout Styles, Standard Phrases,

salutations and endings of some of the letters.

Letter for Making an Inquiry: You make an enquiry when you are request more information

about a product or service. This type of business letter tends to include specific information such

as product type, as well as asking for further details in the form of brochures, catalogs, telephone

contact, etc.

Sales Letters: Sales Letters are used to introduce new products to new customers and past

clients. It's important to outline an important problem that needs to be solved and provide the

solution in sales letters. This example letter provides an outline, as well as important phrases to

use when sending out a wide variety of sales letters.

Phrases Used: At X, we have the skills and experience to...

Maywe stop by and offer you a FREE estimate of how much it would cost to ...


4/10

Replying to an Inquiry: Customers who make inquiries are interested in specific information

and are excellent business prospects. Learn how to thank the customers, provide as much

information as possible, as well as make a call to action for a positive outcome.

Letters of Acknowledgment: For legal purposes letters of acknowledgment are often requested.

These letters are also referred to as letters of receipt and tend to be rather formal and short.

Phrases Used: I hereby acknowledge the receipt of the following documents...

It will be brought to his attention immediately upon his return.

Placing an Order: As a business person, you will often place an order especially if you have a

large supply chain for your product.

Phrases Used: Would You Please send, According to your website / magazine / leaflet...

Making a Claim: Unfortunately, from time to time it is necessary to make a claim against

unsatisfactory work. It includes important phrases to express your dissatisfaction and futureexpectations when making a claim.

Phrases Used: As our written agreement stipulated, we expected...

We would like you to.....or provide us with a refund.

According to Courtland L.Bovee and John V.Thill inBusiness Communication Today after

completing the message one should review it by asking following questions.

y Are all your points covered in the most logical order?y Do the most important ideas receive the most space and are they placed in prominentpositions?y Are any points repeated unnecessarily?y Would the message be more convincing if it were arranged in a sequence?

Answering all these questions will help us identify the small mistakes and correct them. It will

also help us in reviewing readability, clarity, conciseness and consideration (You attitude, Not I)

Most Business Letters must be interesting and easy to scan, as most senior managers skim the

documents looking for key ideas, problems, solutions and recommendations. In order to make

message easy to skim one can vary the sentence length, use shorter paragraphs, use lists bullets

instead of narrative and adding effective headings and sub-headings.

Bad News Message


5/10

In business writing a letter, memo, or email that conveys negative or unpleasant information--

information that is likely to disappoint, upset, or even anger a reader is written. Bad-news

messages include rejections (in response to job applications, promotion requests, etc), negative

evaluations, and announcements of policy changes that don't benefit the reader. A bad-news

message conventionally begins with a neutral or positive bufferstatement before introducing the

negative or unpleasant information. This approach is called the indirect approach. When one

come right out and tell somebody Bad News, hes using direct approach. Direct approach should

be used when information will have minimal personal impact.

Direct Approach

In direct approach the message opens with a bad news, proceeds to the reasons for the situation

or the decision and ends with a positive statement aimed at maintaining good relationship with

the reader.

Open with a Clear Statement of Bad News

Whether the news is minor such as telling a supplier that company is planning to reduce its

orders or something major like telling employee that revenue dropped the previous quarter come

right out and say it, we should maintain calm professional tone that keeps focus on news and not

on individual failures.

Provide Reasons and Additional Information

The extent of an explanation will depends on the nature of your news and your relationship with

the reader.

Example:In spite everyones best efforts to close more sales this past quarter, revenue fell 14%

compared to 3rd

quarter last year. Reports from the field offices indicate the economic downturn

in Asia has reduced demand for our products.

In this explanation it points out why the news is bad and also reassures the employee that no one

in the firm is responsible for failure. In some situations its good to follow the explanation with a

statement of how you plan to correct or respond to negative news.

Close on a Positive Note


6/10

The closing should be in a positive but respectful manner. It must reinforce relationship you have

with reader and provides a positive view towards the future. If possible then one must give

reader an alternative solution.

Indirect App

roach

The Introductory Paragraph

The introductory paragraph in the bad-news message should accomplish the following

objectives:

(1) Provide a buffer to cushion the bad news that will follow

(2) let the receiver know what the message is about without stating the obvious

(3) It should serve as a transition into the discussion of reasons without revealing the bad news or

leading the receiver to expect good news.

If these objectives can be accomplished in one sentence, that sentence can be the first paragraph.

Body Paragraph(s)

Deliver the bad news in the body of the message. State it clearly and concisely, and explain the

reasons briefly and unemotionally. Avoid apologies as they weaken your explanation or position.

Try to embed the bad news in a supporting, not the topical, sentence of a paragraph.

Furthermore, try to embed it in a subordinate clause of a sentence. The purpose is not to conceal

the bad news, but to soften its impact.

Closing Paragraph

The closing of a message containing negative news should be courteous and helpful. The

purpose of the closing is to maintain or rebuild good will.

The closing should have a sincere tone. Avoid overused closings such asIf you have any

questions, please don't hesitate to call. . . .

Offer the receiver another option that will help shifting the emphasis from the negative news to

a positive solution.

Good News &Positive Message

Good news messages convey good news for the reader. InGood news messages we use theDirect Approach as we know the reader will beglad to accept the message, we use the direct

approach which states the good news up front.

Initial Opening


7/10

We must begin with the Good News i.e. telling the reader what he/she wants to hear first (credit

granted, shipment sent, favor accepted, request granted) Courteous comment, appreciation forremittance/order, congratulations. There should be absence of long introductions in Good News

Messages. These messages say Yes to the reader and opts for You attitude. The initial

opening must be clear and concise. Before writing any word, ask yourself, What is the singlemost important message you have for the reader?

Instead OfThis Write This

I am pleased to inform you that after Congratulations, Youve been selected to

deliberating the, matter carefully, our join our firm as a staff accountant,human resources, committee has recommended beginning March 20.you for appointment as a consultant.

Provide Necessary Details & Explanation

In this section one can have the liberty of putting all the details. It is the longest part in thepositive messages. Give all needed details i.e.answer all questions, including 5 Ws and H, givecomplete instructions, stress reader benefits and positive emphasis etc in this section.

Instead OfThis Write This

No, we no longer carry the Sportsgirl The new Olympic line has replaced

line of sweaters Sportsgirl sweaters that you haveasked about. Olympic features a

wider range of colors and sizes.

The more complete the description is less negative and emphasizes how the reader can benefitfrom change. Favorable and Positive comments are commonly include in orderacknowledgements and routine announcements to customers and they are most effective when

they are short and specific.

Courteous Close

In the closing part, the writer must highlight the benefit to the audience by expressingappreciation or goodwill. Willingness to help further, forward look to future use of goods and

services, good wishes, compliment or request must be included in closing paragraph.

SUMMARY

As discussed in the report business messages are a vital means of communication in any

organization. Business Messages is utilitarian, which serves many purposes like to ConveyInformation, explain actions, to deliver good news or bad news etc. There are many forms of

Business Messages like Letters, to convey Good and Bad News to people, Memos etc.Every type of Business Messages is unique in itself and requires different structure everytime we

prepare it. Business Letters can be of various types like sale letters, letters for enquiry,


8/10

acknowledgement letters, Order Letters etc. On the other hand while writing Bad News Letter wemust keep in mind the Direct and Indirect approaches according to the audience it caters. While

Good News Letter follows only Direct Approach in writing messages.

REFERENCES FOR THE REPORT


9/10

1. http://grammar.about.com/od/ab/g/businesswritingterm.htm2. Article By Matt Smith - Freelance Business (Blogger)3. Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, and Walter E. Oliu. The Business Writer's Handbook,

8th ed. St. Martin's Press, 2006)4. http://bizcovering.com/business/importance-of-business-letters-and-business-

emails/#ixzz1UzOSBQIv

5. Article By William King on Importance and Purpose of Business Letters6. Courtland L.Bovee and John V.Thill inBusiness Communication Today 8th Edition7. Thomas L. Means,Business Communications, 2nd ed. South-Western Educational, 20098. Stuart Carl Smith and Philip K. Piele, School Leadership: Handbook for Excellence in

Student Learning. Corwin Press, 2006

9. Carol M. Lehman and Debbie D Dufrene, Business Communication, 15th ed. Thomson,2008)

10.Writing Routine, Good News, and Goodwill Messages PowerPoint presentation by CourtlandBovee, John Thill, and Barbara Schatzman,Business Communication Today

11. M.E. Guffey,Essentials of Business Communication12.Kitty Locker,Business and Administrative Communication13. Leslie MunroEng 209 Booklet14.William Zinnser, On writing well, 5th ed. (New York: Harper Collins, 1994)15.Writing of Business,Allyn & Bacon 199916.Harvard Business Essentials: Business Communication, Harvard Business School Press,200317.Joy Wingersky et al., WritingParagraphs and Essays, 6th ed. Wadsworth, 200918.William Sanborn Pfeiffer, Technical Writing: A Practical Approach, Prentice Hall, 2003.19.Techniques for Communicators (Chicago : Lawrence Ragan Communication, 1995)20.Susan Stobaugh, Watch Your language Inc, May 1985, 156.21.Effective Communication for colleges Brantley & Miller 9th Edition


10/10

Short Report on Business Messages

Documents

Transcript of Short Report on Business Messages