Nay ana Business Academy - Business Communication 2013Business Communication 2013 Introduction This workbook is primarily aimed at students following the Market Economist Programme. The level and contents of this workbook are based on the curriculum! upon which the Marketing Economist Programme is executed within the subject field Communication. Sections of this workbook can be selected to be classified as home study where students on their own acquire knowledge related to specific subject matters within the subject field communication and other sections of this workbook can be selected used as classroom teaching. ‘The workbook also touches slightly on English grammar with focus on areas most often being problem areas for particularly non-English natives. The grammar section has been selected as a home study section with grammar explanation, tests and answer sheets, making it possible for the students to check their grammatical understanding of English and through practice enhancing their correctness when writing or speaking the English language.Business Communication 2013 List of contents INTRODUCTION .... LIST OF CONTENTS... 21, 22, 23. 24, 25, . WRITTEN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE .. . BUSINESS GUIDELINES .. . REPLYING TO ENQUIRIES ... }. QUOTATIONS .. . SALES LETTER . COMPLAINTS... . MEMORANDUM AND MEMORANDUM REPORTS... . SUMMARIES... . E-MAILS .... . AGENTS AND AGENCIES... COMMUNICATION THEORY BRIEF INTRODUCTION COMMUNICATIONS MODELS .. INTERACTION PARADIGM ... RHETORIC AND RHETORICAL STRATEGIES INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION COMMUNICATION STRATEGY AND BUSINESS LETTER STRATEGY... PRESENTATION TECHNIQUES AND STRUCTURING. SPEECH WRITING AND SPEECH STRUCTURING .. COMMUNICATION CHANNELS... ENQUIRIES - REPLIES... PRESS RELEASES AND NEWSLETTERS . NEWSLETTERS.. WRITTEN BUSINESS CORR! BUSINESS TOPICS . GRAMMAR AND ASSIGNMENTS. ESPONDENCE ASSIGNMENTS... genteBusiness Communication 2013 26. BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO WORD CLASSES 27. CONCORD .... 28. ADJECTIVES/ADVERBS ... 29. WORD ORDER .. 30. PUNCTUATION... $1. ADDITIONAL GRAMMAR EXERCISES... 32. BIBLIOGRAPHY... 33. APPENDIX 1. 34. APPENDIX 2 . 35. APPENDIX 3 .. 36. APPENDIX 4 .,Business Communication 2013 chy COMMUNICATION THEORY BRIEF INTRODUCTION A brief introduction. In any kind of communication, there must be an understanding of the sender, the receiver and of how to construct the communicative interaction that serves the purpose and that is understood equally well by sender and receiver and in the same way by both ends of the communicative interchange. In life, situations occur where upon re-examination of the communication sent off; it proved to be too revealing or not informative enough to get the job done. When handling information on behalf of a company, it is quite important that the communicative interaction works. If it does not work, customers may get upset and go to competing businesses. This would naturally be true both in the BtC and in BtB2, When companies advertise, it is a communicative choice and everybody understands that the company has a purpose behind its advertisements. Most often a company seeks to better its revenue by aiming through its external communication e.g.° a commercial to make people buy more of its products. It could also be the state that tries to inform people of not driving while under the influence of alcohol or the like. Regardless of communication aim and regardless if it is internal or external communication then a good communicative approach is to understand who “you are” as sender, what do you want the receiver to understand about you and how are you planning to say that to a receiver ensuring that the impact (action) desired occurs...... Harold Laswell says it somewhat straight forward when he sums up the a ion theory to be about: Who says what to whom and through nel and with what impact? s f et Saiae from this quote then the interesting part of the . is to make it practical.Business Communication 2013 . Example: Fotex The Who rmarket chain) wishes to either 5 or motivate competitors’ customers ‘hat it can earn money to its shareholders. Fotex has @ specific image that it protects (Fotex does more for you) and a certain brand position (not discount store, good service and a good assortment of goo, # that it will aim at defending in all of its communication efforts. Fotex (a Danish supe maintain its customer’ to shop at Fotex....S0 t out in all of its The What for you” message is sent sed as an advantage positioning. rr money in a sense. “Fotex does more campaigns and u Fotex if you want more for you! choose 1” than someone else is clear; and more ‘The “more for yor is also clear than your present supermarket... We may include a how in the what...because the how is important if the message is to encompass 1) the “more money in the bank” from old and new customers; 2) maintain its image (the Fotex does more for you) 3) maintain its brand positioning ‘The commercials/ads must fit the purpose... and then it sometimes goes wrong..... the commercial where someone sings too many words to fit the melody was both hated and Joved.....this works fine if the “to whom” the campaign was addressed loved it and shopped more.....not so fine if the ones who hated it was Fotex custo shopping at Fotex... mers that stoppedBusiness Commu: ation 2013 The The media selected to carry the communication message Channel could be TV, it could be catalogues, and it could be print ads, billboard poster or the like... each media must be assessed in order to secure the impact i.e.° secure that the receiver sees the communication effort and believes in it. Each media must additional be assessed as to noise levels Jinked to media channel The Impact | More present and new customers will shop at Fotex and they will feel that it is true....Fotex does do more for them..... the assortment in the store is correct and adequate, the offers in the store are adequate to the single customer’s needs and the time spent in a Fotex was nice, good service, short lines at the cash register etc..... so that the impact is that the customers perceives Fotex in a specific way, selects Fotex because of it and are confirmed in their choice that the image/brand of Fotex fits them Any company will tell you that getting it right communicatively takes blood, sweat and tears. An example of a campaign loved and hated at the same time was TDC? (a Danish telecommunicater) running a campaign with two “nude” people (Claus and Britta); inside information from the company suggests that some people became so upset about this “nudity” that they cancelled their subscriptions over it. It may seem to some a drastic move, but people quite often respond emotionally to commercials, campaigns and the like..... as in the example of Fotex.... if the target group loves the commercial then the communication was right and the target group well understood. But if it tubs the target group the wrong way then the situation must be Teassessed. ‘So what went wrong? If anything... alot of people really like this mercial and even “requote” the characters. Well, the communication is perhaps more directed to a specific target group and not so much ody “owning” a subscription with TDC. It goes without saying TDC knows what it is doing. A large company will have t its market communication, just as well, as it will have communication. In today’s busy and very sounts. How you address your consumers, be as uaen Cn ees es Reda he thtsKS Business Communication 2013 inquiry from a new customer..... it all adds up for the company ang ia Positioning in the specific market. Regardless of TDC knowing its business.. Britta commercial, TDC has selected to the nude costume and use regular Peter Fredin’ ~in the wake of the Claus ang move the actor playing Britany him in a “it was only a job situation” ang inal situation, dressed as himself using TDC as his Choigg Back to you... As this book is directed towards students following a further educational level, it may be in place to give an example from the w Sometimes (you the students) get really frustrated ove way a lecturer lectures. You t hink that you have frustration, but yet we (the te T an assignment ora achers) have not h understood you, expressed your eard you or we have not So what is the problem? Well, RE Bel thetedacficn a generation gap between a lecturer and a student, A Seneration gap typically results in Various perspectives to learning, to behaviour and to “how to communicate”; which i _ ee oe gctor laying the female part ofthe commercial, © Being in a red ocean when talking business magne that Is vey eaay fog Sustomers to just change to another company offering a very similar product/service: fe nlOmers to jus sei operate eo Nar ee ee wi Fanny smote oF less positioned uniquely e.g. Cirque de Soleil wnt" Deither ¢ ue ocean ballet, a theater or anything in its purest entertainment form, but itis au of feuts, 2 Saaimertainment” bit without any direct competitors and at a profession Teva easily copy. and it does at few can yo eeBusiness Communication 2013 i It takes a while, however, to tune into another human being’s communication pattern and it takes a while to understand a new academic setting. In business, it is a luxury if you can work on a trial and error basis, So companies need to understand how a business letter is composed; the business letter strategy and it must understand the communication strategy between sender and receiver, in addition to understanding what could be clouding the communication no matter how well intended. One thing is the oral communication where you are facing the person with whom you are communicating; another thing is when you either do not know to whom you are communicating in writing or in some cases will never even be “allowed” to find out who it was that read your “communication”. In the following sub-chapters, communication theory will be processed Ld Communication Theory Part One: When communicating or selecting a communication strategy, it is important that the surroundings are taken into consideration. You would normally communicate more wisely if understanding the impact of the communicative choices on the recipient regardless of impact desired When the setting determines the outcome... Most students will be given the task to make a written assignment, which will be evaluated by a teacher and an external examiner. The teacher we or you know, but the external examiner...hmm your guess is as good as mine. The teacher may not know the external examiner either and will only be given a little bit of insight when the grades are being discussed. So for a student in such a situation, it becomes crucial to focus on writing with neutrality in mind and with a high understanding of the academic level required and an understanding of how “one writes” academically. n only your written words represent you then you better have given Your communication some serious thought...no one has access to your brain, no explanations as to why you have written as you have will be part of the grade evaluation... only your words and your understanding of the assignment. ilBusiness Communication 2013 : it is the formal presenta, When a recipient becomes difficult to OC apa tation of the subject field at hand that becomes . demic work, the sender wil] likewiy iver of the report or the aca f iB ; eee cone meaning that the external examiner will have ae the evaluation based solely on “criteria listed” for the academic work, So the “bare” communication becomes the central tool and the better one m; astery the academic communication in an academic environment the better the grades. When the exam setting is e.g. economics then there is a specific way to “say” what needs to be said... one can say there exists “ The economic lingo has been fitted to the recipient and making the right academic analysis of e.g. a calculation learn that one thing is to be able another thing is to academical ‘an economic lingo’ the focus is on Students will to calculate “things” the right way; lly reason for the impact of the calculation for the company or for a country if it’s the national economy that is in play. So in short, each little academic World is a linguistic world of its own Students will have to underst: and the setting before being able to ace the communicative challenges that any subject field entails. put Communication. From we get up in the mu beds at night, we communicate verbally a well as non-verbally Phone call. Whenev Phone call, we ct that people Sota Doin ming a route to Drovided than the gue” pis situation g eae » the Cat; “? Communication someone we inadvertently take to pointing however, that when no other aid i i Communication is easier face-to-face when a fe understood in a certain way e.g. when we want to expres’ Reeds to be Be tant the recipient to understand that then whe being UT Anger and are aided by the facial expressions and the Whole body 28 face to Pace ae Phone, we tend to select quite precisely what ts say and Hetaee. Over a order for the recipient to clearly understand the any OW to Is wish to hand over. : gry Message nit in certain thi, La > bgBusiness Communication 2013 eee Generally speaking, when we communicate the sender focuses on the purpose and the intention of the communication output, whereas the receiver focuses on the understanding and the reaction to the communication input. In communication interaction between sender and recipient more aspects do naturally apply e.g. social background, nationality, gender, age to mention a few. Let us take you to city hall for a spell. Most of us have received letters from our municipality and typically we find not only the language selected difficult to understand; or the instructions hard to follow (e.g. tax declarations), but we often also find that what we are looking to be informed about is the result or the core message. However, quite often the municipality selects to give us a summing up of the situation; followed by a somewhat lengthy description of what the municipality has done in your specific case with argumentation for and against following suit. And then finally on page four, we learn whether we are e.g. to pay the municipality or to be given money back; or whatever the case was about. When requiring the reason for this structure in the municipality communication, the answer falls in two: The outline follows the actual handling process i.e. the municipality receives a letter from a citizen following which a case file is being established. The case file will then have to be dealt with either administratively or politically. This leads to the next chain of actions upon which a final decision is reached. The other part of the reasoning lies in the logical progression in having the arguments take the lead over the conclusion in order for the conclusion to be better understood. We, the recipients, have learned to quickly take to the final page upon which the decision is being presented and if we are disappointed by the outcome then we will read the previous pages thoroughly. Even when happy with the outcome, we may or will skim through the pages leading to the conclusion in order to secure that we actually did get what we wanted. However, the urgency for reading the pages tend to be higher when the Outcome was negative or not in our favour. So in short the municipality takes its point of departure in the process, Tegrettably this clashes with the logical process undertaken by the Tecipient. 13Business Communication 2013 ication is to take in the Tecipieny, The focal point of epee caccge and the recipient's string of log t's Bomee oronderstant desire that he/she is taken into account when 4 7 ane alana delivered. In the public sector, we often find ¢ ie taitare an municate with the recipient in mind results in a ee i ore could argue that the municipality should try Beare tin, its communication to fit the ee however, i with governments, local or national, other rules apply the recipient to educate him or herself in order to und: from an official institution. Ther Poorer; to aim iN Casey and it is often y, erstand the letters l areas in the Public 1 the recipient, byt 1 well defined i.e. the recipient groups are well mewhat homogeneous. employee 4 ancially ea hours that could A further inv being adequ: manual, it written an estigation into the problem pointeq ate for the customers. Whe pone quickly became cl, he user N looking fy, np nanual not lear that the many.) ether id quite easy to un ; into this user anual it derstand with Bropeni oe: rita wel ra. core problem was, however, and regrettably not tule, that the user manual took its point of depart iY “Ption to the qanual. The technical manuial ig directed towards ti “ithe technical the average consumer. The Hino oS Presented in the” ‘chnig;, S and not the technicians understanding and educational keno 1 Wet. re ofthe product wants the maneatns reflect the *hoseitg s (8° Whe. fa bie The functions the user looks for must be explained f,, Product Bene mind-sets exiae when dealing with an 2 the s fee cc! etlexpert. If the manent 38 to relieve the comps? fron, Mind- Waste resources and result in more content and happy sP8ny =Business Communication 2013 eS user must be the starting point and then you match the user with the product. Communication in focus... As already established, in order to communicate two units are required viz. the sender and the recipient. It is important that we understand our position and our starting point as the sender when trying to find out what to include, what not to include and how to deliver the communication output to the recipient. We must have focus on the relationship between sender and recipient, as. communication is reciprocal and both “units” are active players. ‘The message contents follow a code so to speak (spoken, written, visual etc.). The sender codes in the message and the recipient decodes the message. When communication succeeds, symmetry between the sender’s coding and the recipient’s decoding is present. This coding and decoding process can, however, run into several obstacles or noises, both figuratively and literally speaking. If we try to communicate during a storm or over a phone, there is bound to be added noise. Another noise is when e.g. in a news report on TV when a news clip shows pictures that either disturb or distract so much that whatever the news anchor Person says is drowned by the visuals. Whatever the reason that noise appears, the result is and will be that the tecipient will find it harder to decode the message. Another factor in communication is naturally cultural background. Having in a different area or in a different country may mean that what d one way in Wales may very well be understood another way s suffer from regionally based behavioural patterns. It oss cultural differences when leaving one’s own id. It is a dead giveaway when the French or Dutch or and drawings.Business Commun! ication 2013 i Id think that “sign ign” ication, one shou. I But even in ce “sign ea ie ie understood by all universally ang i e and drawings’ a ene and the world, well, it is not. the i v jorting back how happy q i int is “an American general was reportil eee ne = tobe tiberated by the US. All Iraqis that the general mq ae the thumbs up sign; and he most naturally returned the gestures with double thumbs up. The problem is that the gestures described means ok, fine, everything is good in American, but in Traq it means up your wazoo”... a little bit of a twist The hand gesture of making a circle with your thumb and means A-OK, fine in most of the western world. In Denmark, there was a traffic campaign at one point, where Danes were encouraged to show that Sign in gratitude when being treated nicely by a co-driver in traffic, Well, in Russia that sign means §P your wazoo. In China that same sign means the a ile panel nee see on means zero; and yet in others i 78m language” can be communicatively ere aderatocd unless we really get a deep understanding of our your index finge eae » dailies versus cation tradition teation tie in a specific Each means of communication furthermore g genres ¢.8, newspaper leaders, comedien nib’ Said : > 1 a . to) of means of communication may be expericncrtising ete: AA pgexPressed by misunderstanding, Noise 4, POF selection 8Nd lead to ' i erienced ag Communication is an interactive Process; some however, viewed as a one way comments Micat; communication stream. cd nN is stil] Ot z One way commu: nication is found i barred from resp. ® two way in the situati onding to the com: ae municatio; (TV, radio, commerci iBusiness Communication 2013 ‘A two way communication is found in situations where the sender and the recipient can communicate directly and interact by way of response and on-going communicate progression e.g. a phone call, or in face to face communication. Many theories and models have been created to illustrate the communication stream or the interaction between sender and recipient. The most simple is (as mentioned earlier) The American media researcher Mr Harold Laswell?? illustrated the communication process as a single sentence: Who says what to whom and through which channel and with what impact? As already mentioned the “to whom” part is fairly important to identify and even more so when dealing with mass communication. This has made it necessary for marketers to find a way to classify the recipients in segments or target groups in order to identify common traits or as common traits as possible in order to select the proper message and the proper visual aids e.g. in commercials. When addressing a target group, we address its area of experience, its cultural norms and values. This, however, does not cut it, it is also necessary to think about the situation in which the communication forms part in order to eliminate possible noise. The sender (the who) appears somewhat uncomplicated. The sender is me or the group sharing traits. But the sender is often tied to a certain institution. A teacher may have his or her own identity, his or her own dreams and his or her own ideals. But the teacher can interact outside the teacher role and e.g. take on a political identity where expressing him or herself with a specific intention (the impact). The teacher may want to convince you to think one way or the other, but in the function of a r, the teacher needs to downplay the political aspect of who he/she y select to send of the message more indirectly or even hidden.nation leve omewhat, an aspect 7 Ma that the | way from. : : f commun; aa that the proper means o Municatie | Gach shea ‘The below list is always a good check list ong at getting the communication right. he swer to each check list item must naturally be well thought a ell researched. "04 Who is the target group? Vhat is the message? media channel should be used? th target group: Beflicise, ae1.2 Communication Theory Part Two The sender — but that is just little old me... Formally the sender will always be whoever writes the letter, the brochure or the one who produces the TV show or the like. We are, however, not free spirits being completely free of any external influence. A teacher may experience that the communication changes when the teaching stops and the more social interaction takes place e.g. during a teacher-student conversation during a break. The moment class recommences then the communication process alters again. The sender is influenced by the setting in which the communication is placed. In certain situations, we attach specific behaviour and with the specific behaviour also a specific selection of how to deliver the message and the words to express the message with. In business communication, it is imperative that the sender identity is clearly defined. If we mix the private sphere with the professional sphere, we blur the sender role and make it harder for the recipient to decode. Ifa business person wanted to propose to his heart’s choice using business terminology or a business code, it will be not only amusing but ridiculous. Dear Madam, As per our exchange of kiss yesterday date may I request..... This is of course a joke, but the point is still valid. When we are private, we ean write in a certain way, delivering the message with a low formality level and with a smaller focus on being grammatically correct or the like. When rating in the business world, it is seldom that a poorly selected message or message composition will be given a second chance. The | is highly competitive and to have to waste time on a poorly or a wrongly composed message will not be the choice ecutivemmunication 2013 jpient hard to decide sender position when both sender and se a blurred line between business and private. It conssde aa ficult to decode whether the communication is to be conside red riting a job application, we do not select the same closing as We private letters. are informal salutations like “Love Susan”; or “Kisses and Hugs” or ver one selects to close an informal letter with. The formal end salutation are, however, “Kind regards, yours faithfully or Yours Sincerely”. ‘The latter three will not be our choice for private correspondence. To sum up, sender role must be defined, but the sender role is determined __and defined from the situation at hand. Mr David Bernstein (an American Media Researcher) works with the communication that is tied to companies and organisations. The company ust experience a concord between image and its corporate identity. Without this concord, problems will arise internally and it will be Significantly harder to recruit new employees. The clash will also affect the customers. One case in point was Benetton that made a massive ad campaign where the atrocities of the world were depicted: the man dying from aids, the refugees hanging onto a boat, the bird covered in oil. ‘$s assumed that the company Benetton was doing something better the world, not just using the images to sell garments. -r Claimed that it was to show the world as it is, as there is Ae ?” and jsBusiness Communication 2013 a 0 mw—E Who is the target group...? The target group is the group of people that we wish to reach with our message, our communication. We can select to define the target group widely or narrowly depending on product line. What is necessary all other things taken into consideration is that the target group is defined precisely. Guess work will not work here. When making a target group definition, we need to identify what sets the group apart from others, and what makes this a homogenous group. How will this group understand, receive or decode any of the sender messages. Which aspects are best to put into the message and which message contents will best fit the recipients and their decoding activity? Another aspect is also to determine how ready the target group is for the message that we want to deliver. Timing is everything when we operate with our target groups. A strongly motivated target group will care less about the presentation; it has already been “converted”. Either you are a Coca-Cola fan or you are not, so to speak. A weaker motivated target group will be much more focused on presentation by way of a stronger headline and on being met exactly with the right means of communication. The means of communication must be on target, it will serve no relevance to send off a communiqué of five heavily typed pages to a business target group that will have no time or interest in spending an hour reading g those five pages. A manual e.g. must be clear and easy to understand otherwise people will just plug in whatever into the socket. A business proposal must get to the point quickly...can the recipient earn money or not.... One way of dividing up a population or narrow down a target group is by way of analysing demographic data i.e. gender, age, education, job function geographical placement and the like. When using demographic information, it becomes important to discuss the most important demographic data to retrieve bearing in mind the product that the company is aiming at selling for example, or the manners in which the company has decided to communicate. Your local bakery may wish to get its target group described very Specifically, but the way the bakery intends to reach its target group is by ging up a cake offer on the entry door. The work done to decipher the target group must match the means by which the communication is to take Place. The bakery will probably find that most of its target group lives 213 ; g out of the bakery to be the best Way tg the smells oozin; t group. laced in defini ii ‘ising a lot of effort has been p nin, ee Sa Fained in this industry is that our norms = pare cea connected to specific characters and Beicicod of using demographic data then it makes more ofa sudden to talk about lifestyle. values and lifestyles (VOLS) started in the U: SA and has been itly developed at Stanford Research Institute. K methods have been applied in a Swedish research in which th 1e eategorised into three main group | | this comprises the peasant values world; this comprises the values of the industrial society World: this entails the values of the information society and advertising agencies are spending outrageous sums of specifying the target group then it is based on the desire to Control the communi € CO: ication so that the target groups are reached costs related to them 8 possible. Target 8roups are defined More narrowly today. In addition hereto, new means of ii on makes it possible to reach a target group fairl hy it He and precise message, Set frou fairly cheap with further into the More traditio: larly with mass communicati, : les, pare Problematic, In the Process of selecting the 3 Iso Bes Sorting away of some Prospective recipients. _ sirable? The 80al could very well be to Write or speak nal means of communicating _ on, the whole target groupWhat is the message...? ‘An old phrase says: And the vicar made a speech and said nothing... ‘We probably all have had the experience after having read a text: What does he/she really want with this? — This may be due to the fact that the author himself has not considered what the message really is to be. In this connection, it would be more beneficial to decipher between idea and content. If we want to write an article about satellite-TV, the basic thought could be to bring to focus the fact that satellite television results in children watching more television instead of being outside and playing or working with their creativity themselves. But in order to get this basic thought tured into an article, we have to convey the idea through contents. The contents may be a survey of statistics on the children’s TV-habits or it may be through own experience with your own children. The idea is important as a generator for our text work. The content is important in our effort for us in order to get our idea passed on to the receiver. Alongside these contents considerations, we, of course, have to take into account the target group as well as our own sender role. If1 am to write an article to my peers, it may perhaps be functioning better with the statistics. If 1 am to write a newspaper leader for the “non- professional” reader, it might be a better idea to use own experiences, een from the view of the target group would probably be the natural e. But with the choice between statistics and own experiences, the ole is simultaneously determined: as a traditional researcher or a citizen with the same basis of experience as the reader. In that tion between me and the reader will be identified.—_— ‘What do I want with my target group...? re 2 iously, the point was made that we with the sender role previ a a sender role for ourselves and we create a specific relation between ourselves and the recipient. As the option for us to choose between the “underdog’ See the rae authoritarian role in relation to our target group is present, we have to consider what we want with the target group. If we revert to our newspaper leader on children’s use of satellite-TV, the article can begin in several different ways: Children today pla y less than previously. Instead they watch TV for app. 2 hours every day... Children today play less than previously because they spend time watching TV. The children spend app. 2 hours in front of the tube. Therefore they often become passive. Im the old days, children were building caves, climbing imagination in games like Robin Hood and Iv trees and using their front of the screen, being entertained by cart janhoe. Today they are sitting in ‘ons and violent films There is an important difference between wanting to; 0 infor; . influence the recipient. § to inform and wanting to The first example aims at so-called objective information 1 on the naked facts: this is the way itis. Itis upto ma readee Oneentrates make conclusions, if any. ‘ader himself to In the next example, we are trying to convince the rege; is that children watch TV for at least two hours every aut Of the how bag fe marking the connections and the consequences, We ao Ns emphasize the recipient through rational argumentation, a frying to j : i communicate > flue: addressing the recipient's right half of the brain, unicationichege Argumentation may be a way in which to influence the reqjry will often — as shown in the last ona show- wee eageiens Se of the brain and play at the recipient’s emotions and est ear address the left half of the brain, we try to influence tne See ina hair ‘emotion. ws ftThe three different purposes of communication each have a clear impact on the communication. This would be valid for almost all the levels of the text: jn the layout, in the choice of illustrations, in the contents, in the use of Janguage etc. The different communication forms normally do not appear in their pure form. An emotionally dominated text will often contain both informative and argumentative elements, and likewise in the case of other examples of dominance. But it is important that we decide what is to be the dominating and thus the structuring trait in our communication. A lack of clarity will in many cases appear as “noise”. When we try to influence the recipient through argumentation, we do it by structuring the connection between the individual claims according to fixed patterns. On the more holistic text level, we can differentiate between a synthetic and an analytical structure. In a synthetic presentation, we put forward a claim which we then argue for. In an analytical presentation, we start with the arguments and then reach a conclusion. Within the minor items, we can also structure the argumentation differently. We can build up the argumentation into a cause /effect relationship: Children watch approx.2 hours every day. Therefore they often become passive. Or we can build up the argumentation as a consequence /reasoning the argumentation sequence, we use some so-called markers — in the examples above "therefore" and "because". signal our intention to argue to the recipient. But this . cover up a false argumentation, a so-called pseudo-arly use certain techniques i images (metaphors, é i be influenced by i a ; __we will let our Pe a a higher extent enable the recipient to incluge _ comparisons etc. concrete experiences. : es - Of the emotional presentation, we sim. i i i ntation is to a high extent ae ee cae BM gtords the use of so-called emotives, In the ieee a newspaper leader, the choice was to use a positive phrag eecaca their imagination” and negative words as “tube” instead of Ty and “violent movies” instead of action films. We build up the bei through opposites; the elements are given positive and negative values, Our selection of vocabulary allows us to pick words that are synonymous but that carry a slight shift in positive or negative meaning. Semioticallyt We operate with denotation!2 and connotation. In a news programme, there will be difference between the two following Statements: 1) The Russian journalist was gunned down at her doorstep 2) The Russian journalist was killed in front of her house The first part of the “The Russian journalist” it is the literal meaning of the word, “gunned down”, which clearly shows how we feel about the deed being done. The second sentence is made weaker, as fewer images find their way when the word killed is used versus gunned down, the gunned down brings about images of machine guns é and a mafia like liquidation If we talk about people dying in an accident, we typical Word such as “killed in traffic”/or even weaker eter Tee ee lives in a traffic accident”, When People lose their lives then it m that ho one intended it, perhaps that no one is to hy a i 5 ame... it was ; unfortunate accident with a very bad outcome, uae ee siguimctics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of si i c dies, or ser ign processes (semiosi signification and communication, signs and symbole born individually ane pee ae Systems. It includes the study of how meaning is constructed and understood na Fee aes the literal mcaning of a word or phrase, wherea connotation i weds meaning of a word or phrase alae ‘ation is the suggestiveBusiness Communication 2013 A horse may be spoken of as a steed or we may select the word oN The first word steed is the more poetic expression for a horse and it indicates that the horse is beautiful and we may get images of a strong, good looking horse with a mane that moves beautifully with every step the horse takes. Whereas the word jade shows us images of a worn down horse, perhaps old, skinny and all it can do is to hang out on the meadow with other horses like it and await the final day. ‘Any choice of words made carries a consequence and particularly for a recipient who is not linked electronically to the brains of the sender. ‘Whatever images our selection of words send off either help us communicate or hinder the communication. Sometimes, we pick the wrong words and mean something else and most often we catch it and correct it. There are times though where it is too late and the interaction turns negative. ‘As teachers, we often have to learn the hard way that if we inadvertently express something which came out a little harsher than intended then the result is that we will have to work very hard to gain back a good relationship with class in which the “negatively misunderstood” communication took place. Another example is naturally when we select the attempt to be ironic. Being ironic is a danger zone, because in a large group of people, someone is bound to take you on your word. Another aspect to take in when talking about word selection is the choice of words made generations in between and when generations converse with others of same generation. The connotations often work fine between people of same generation, but often obstacles are experienced when the e is between generations. oint with our word selection is to take the recipient in a ve learned to speak in images that really “speak” to attitude in turn “helps” us decide where to place our vote in an agreement or as a protest against the specific politicians. icians that gain sympathy and support nner of expression or use wordsit may even be a more successful “manipulatior 7 t Feconeee and people get upset. All spells aca — front pages, and for a politician in many cases then Ter ip being successful. Particular today when most ee ree al knowledge and insight using television as @ single i F t time, and the the ‘media, you only get the spotlight for a oa Bei ine other interrupt and to angle the story one way tion of ota ee be eect and convincing or ate There are many approaches to appearing one way a es ly mentioned, people may start out by appearing ae their approach and may appear to see a matter som a he spectrum, but in fact they never get to “on the other han above. mn for picking an academic “image” is that people let their guards nking that a matter will be argued and reasoned from both sides. politician is done with his side of the story, he/she would often sn for quite some time and we the listeners no longer recall the e of “on the other hand”. sient can be deceived deliberately and the recipient can be and taken into a specific direction emotionally. We may also be and have no desire to control, but of structural choice still Across from the castle is the ice-cream vendor The ice cream vendor is across from the castle choice of someone just givi nd sentence could be a child’s ing trip to the castle, 's our focus and our mind-set, We erfect and sometimes we mess ae g full blame.Business Communication 2013 ‘The person, who had to suffer the consequences of our messing up, will most likely select harsher words to tell us how stupid we were. Think about traffic incidents where someone snatches a parking specs A when we are the ones being snuffed of a parking space then we really let ‘ our indignation rip, but if we are the ones who took the parking Space an regardless of knowing that we were in the word, we will try to downplay our wrongdoing by explaining why we did it, we may even select words that take the steam out of our wrongdoing. ‘Another aspect of communication is the selection of what to include in the story and what to exclude. In Danish news programmes, we often hear the news anchor person end with “this was want we selected to bring up tonight”. We know as news listeners that the whole story is not told, but we also know that we trust the journalists’ selection as they share background with us and share our ethical understanding for the most part. Selection of media The means of communication or the medium selected to communicate through is most often defined as the entity that carries the message from the sender to the recipient. The selection of media is difficult and particularly taken into account the criteria surrounding the various media. The printed media is significantly different from the media using TV as its carrier. Over time, the battle between radio/TV and the printed media has ae what goes where. Most of us hate listening to a radio ad, but will ve no problem when seeing the same product being advertised on TV. area of communication which now competes for target group is naturally the Internet, anything that can be carried over found online. Companies that fail to have homepages, or function on the homepage are in the business of goingbe the most important factor 19 our ‘0 will be true when. e message. If the target grouP only watches be sent via the television. In Denmark, TV e.g. in the small information t various aspects in. society). ed so that it can be evious defined the recipient will tion of means of communica ga medium to carry th sion, we select information to he State selects to inform via sm OBS (Information to the citizens abou formation sent via OBS has been proc tion and this als‘Business Communication 2013 2. COMMUNICATIONS MODELS People often list a variety of models to follow when dealing with communication, and so will this book. The models highlight the previously stated aspects of communication interaction. There are many different models, most of them say the same thing, but use other figures or other colours to highlight their essences. When using communication models, however, it is always relevant to be critical and comparative, as the communication talk often can find itself on a route to pure repetition and hot academic air. ‘A model is only worth something if applied to real situations and used with the right understanding. The models are simplified representations of complex processes. Different models are useful in illuminating different principles. Let us pick a few models and see what we can gain from them. We break the models up in two paradigms: transmission paradigm and interaction paradigm The transmission models were the first used when first entering into the field of planned communication. When marketers first started out in the brand new world of “organised marketing”, it only took very few national advertising strokes to convince a people that Pampers was the only nappy that a child would ever need; or that Ivory was the soap to use. Back in the early days it would take maybe 15 national ads to convince a market, today it takes +100. On an average day, we see approximately 287 ads’ before we can look at any models, we will need to briefly look at the ent kinds of audience these models may have to fi