Test your knowledge ch. 12

1) With oral presentations, you can practice the skills of research, planning, writing, visual design, and interpersonal and nonverbal communication.

2)In the introduction, you should arouse the audience's interest, establish your credibility, and preview your message.

3)To get your audience's attention, you can unite them around a common goal, tell a story, pass around a sample, ask a question, state a startling statistic, or use humor.

4)In the close you should restate your main points, describe the next steps, and end on a strong note.

5) For success in online presentations, fist consider sending preview study materials ahead of time. Also, keep your presentation simple and ask for feedback frequently. Consider the viewing experience from the audience's point of view. Make sure they receive the content you intend to use. Finally, allow plenty of time for everyone to get connected and familiar with the screen they're viewing.

Test Your Knowledge Reports and Proposals

1) They are used to offer data, facts, feedback, and other types of info without analysis or reccomendation.

2) Secondary research contains info that others have gathered on the topic and primary research infolves information that you gather specifically for a new research project.

3) Surveys are reliable if they produce identical results if repeated and valid if it measures what it's supposed to measure.

4)A conclusion is a logical interpretation of facts and other information. A reccomendation suggests what to do about the information.

5) RFP's include instructions that specify exactly the type of work to be performed or products to be delivered, along with budgets, deadlines, and other requirements.

Chapter 9 Test Your Knowledge

1)

• Who is my audience?
• What are my audience member's needs?
• What do I want them to do?
• How might they resist?
• Are there alternative positions I need to examine?
• What does the decision maker consider the most important issue?
• How might the organization's culture influence my strategy?

2) You need to take into account their cultural expectations so that you don't undermine your message by using inappropriate appeal or organize your message in an uncomfortable way towards your audience.

3) Emotional appeals connect with the reader's feelings. Logical appeals connect to the reader's notions of reason by using analogy, induction, or deduction.

4) In logical appeals, you can use analogy, induction, and deduction.

5) The AIDA model uses the indirect approach and organizes your message into four phases: attention, interest, desire, and action. One limitiation is that it talks at the audience instead of with them. Another limitiation of AIDA is that it focuses on one-time events, not long-term relationships.

Chapter 8 Test Your Knowledge

1.

a) To convey the bad news

b) To gain acceptance for the bad news

c) To maintain as much goodwill as possible with your audience

d) To maintain a good image for your organization

e) To reduce/eliminate the need for future correspondence

2.

a) Will the bad news come as a shock?

b) Does the reader prefer short messages that get to the point?

c) How important is this news to the reader?

d) Do you need to maintain a close working relationship with the reader?

e) Do you need to get the reader's attention?

f) What is your organization's preferred style?

3.

a) Open with a buffer

b) Provide reasons and additional information

c) Continue with a clear statement of the bad news

d) Close on a positive note

4. A buffer is a neutral, noncontroversial statement that is related to the point of the message. They're unethical if they are insincere or deceptive.

5. By providing reasons first in the indirect approach, you are able to diffuse bad emotions and focus on the issue at hand.

Routine and Positive Messages

Part 1: 3) The first sentence is well written because it states their reason for the reply up front. It would have been better if they introduced themselves and said their position so the person would know they're qualified enough to help. The second sentence is kind of wordy, but it's good that they are telling the customer why they need to provide more information. The third sentence's strength is the fact that it uses the "you" format (like the rest of the sentences). However, it's starting to get a rude tone. The strength of the fourth sentence is that it first tells the customer what they did right before they tell them what they did wrong. They were also detailed in what was wrong with the request. However it seems a little wordy. The good thing about the last sentence is that it tells the customer exactly what they should do to get the problem fixed, but it seems like they are blaming the customer for what happened. They should be a little more curteous in their message.

Part 2: 9)

5493 Beechwood Drive
Trenton, NJ 08608
April 12, 2009

Florida Resort Bureau
1555 Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard
West Palm Beach, FL 33401

Dear Ms. or Sir:

I am planning a family vacation in Florida for late September, and I thought of your company after seeing your advertisement in an April issue of Smithsonian magazine. I am writing to request some information regarding your resort and availabilities. Here are some ammenities that I would like you to inform me about:

• Beaches
• Golf courses
• Proximity to family-friendly night entertainment
• Nearby public transportation
• Resorts near large cities
• Attractions for teenagers

In addition to these ammenities, I would like answers to the following questions:

• Do off-season rates include all of the ammenities?
• What is the weather like during September in Florida?
• Who should we call for concert schedules during our vacation?

If possible, I need this information in the next two weeks so I can schedule my time off work. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Frank C. Atlas

email revisement

To: sarah@work.net
From: bill@work.net
Cc: jim@work.net
Subject: Money for training trip

Dear Sarah,

I want to go on a training trip and I need to figure out who to ask to pay for it. Do you know who I can ask? Let me know if you have any information on the matter.

Thanks!

Bill



MEMORANDUM
From: Katie Kendrick
To: Maersk employees
Date: February 11, 2010
Subject: Netiquette rules to be implemented tomorrow

After researching netiquette rules, I have found many ideas that will improve our company's exchange of information. We seem to have a lot of personal information that floats around in our company emails and I think it is important that you all realize the implications of this information.

Legal implications:
On the ITworld website, they cited some problems they had with emails getting into the wrong hands and threats of legal procedures. This is an issue with dirty jokes that are forwarded through company email. ITworld started putting a general disclaimer on the bottom of emails so that if this did happen, no one would get sued. The disclaimer said that the information is confidential and only intended for the reciever, and unauthorized use of it is strictly prohibited. Although this is just a notice and not legally binding, it makes it harder for lawyers to get legal procedures through. Since I've seen a few dirty jokes go through my inbox, it would be wise for us to implement this disclaimer on our emails too.

Tone and Flaming: Hopefully our employees don't hold grudges with one another, but if there is a personal problem between you and a colleague, be careful what you say over email. The company Boy Genious has a few tips that I would like you all to consider. First of all, don't send heated messages, or "flames," and don't respond to those flames if they show up in your inbox. Fighting will decrease productivity, so keep personal problems out of the office. Misenterpretation of tone may also cause a rift between employees. Use all caps sparingly, as they indicate screaming.

Attachments:
On the CNN website, they gave some tips about attachments and bandwidth. After reading that information, I realized that it is important to get permission from the reciever whether or not they want to see your favorite YouTube video or funny picture. Not everyone has the same bandwidth speed on their laptop and some attachments take too long to load and waste time. Sometimes computers may have different software and create trouble in loading. I know that these personal pictures and messages won't go away any time soon, so the best way to deal with it is to use etiquette when sending them.

Thank you for your time, and I hope you all will now be able display better netiquette with not only personal information, but company information as well.


References:
http://www.itworld.com/UIR010427securitynl2?page=0%2C1

http://www.boygenius.com/support_netiquette.html

http://edition.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/07/21/netiquette.tools/

Email Assignment

Memo edit

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Creating Effective Sentences

As you know, Best Baby Gear specializes in products for parents of newborns, infants, and toddlers. Only the most well-built and classy products take their place alongside the hundreds of other top-quality products on our website, www.bestbabygear.com. Our company has to sell at least one hundred units per specific model per year in order to justify our time and expenses, so low-quality products aren't even considered. Therefore after careful consideration, we have concluded that your top-quality Inglesina lines would be a valuable asset to our company and would therefore like to add it.

Bio Slide

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Audience Profile

7. The audience for this collection letter is an appliance dealer. The appliance dealer probably feels resentment or maybe fear towards the manufacturer since he is likely dealing with financial problems and isn't ready to deal with legal proceedings too. The appliance dealer needs to know how long he has to pay back the manufacturer and what will happen if he doesn't pay them back.

10. The audience in this letter is a property management company. The management company probably feels neutral toward the person writing the letter, even though the person writing the letter is surely frustrated with them. The management company needs to know what exactly the problems, how long they have been going on, and when they need to be fixed.

Week 2 Blog

I've learned a lot this past week after working on the chapter one activities on the Pearson website and after reading the chapter. I've never thought about how important it is to make sure you are aware of cultural differences, even when you're just writing an email. One of the most interesting things we talked about on Thursday was about how different fonts are used for different purposes. I had no idea that sans serif was too hard to read in a big paragraph and that serif was a good font to use for a title. I just thought that we would be using Times New Roman for everything, including the title. I'm glad that we are allowed to branch out and play with different fonts on our various assignments.

Welcome letter revision

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Course Expectations

I was a little worried when I signed up for Business Writing. I had heard that there were some projects we have to do and I'm not a big fan of group projects. I also don't really like English, which is why I'm doing a B.S. degree. For these reasons, I've put off this class until Junior year. However, after reading the syllabus and hearing what we're going to do this semester, I feel a little better. I don't think the project will be awful, but I will definitely have to study for this class, since I'm unfamiliar with resumes and memos. I think this will be a helpful class for applying for jobs and for working once I get a job.