Chapter 3 Review Questions

1. Why is analyzing your purpose important to composing an effective message? Process of

planning a message by thinking about purpose and outcome, audience, content, and medium.
Analyzing the purpose focuses on the message. Purpose is the reason you are communicating.
Most of the time, you phrase the purpose as what you want to do. Examples can be to
persuade, request, inform, report, or propose something. You may want to “request permission
to extend a deadline, inform a client about a problem, report financial information to a client,
persuade a supervisor to implement a new program, or propose a solution to a problem.”
2. Explain the difference between the primary audience and the secondary audience. The
primary audience is the direct recipient of the message. It is the person or people who your
message is addressed to. A secondary audience is anyone else that may receive a copy of your
message or hear about it. It could be from you or the primary audience. An example is emailing
your supervisor about changing up the menu at the restaurant and he likes the idea, she might
forward the message to the vice president. You planned your message to be read by your
supervisor, which is the primary audience. The vice president becomes a secondary audience. If
they understand the advantages they or their business will gain from your suggestion, then they
are more likely to agree with what you propose.
3. What is the difference between primary research and secondary research? Describe a business
communication situation in which you would want to use both types of research to support a
message. The difference between primary research and secondary research is that primary
research involves collecting your own original data and secondary research is information other
people have collected through primary research. Primary research involves you collecting data
by interviewing, surveying, or observing. Secondary research is books, research reports, or
published in articles. The best time to use primary and secondary research in a business
communication situation is when you need something to be very reliable. It will make it reliable
because you conducted research and other people’s research. It would be best used for a
business project for your company you work for to provide feedback for certain situations.
4. Why is it important to consider your audience when analyzing your medium options? Medium
is a method that is used to relay a message. It can be face-to-face communication, through a
phone, email, text message, or a website. It is common methods of communication that identify
the advantages and disadvantages of each medium. Face-to-face conversation advantages is
that it allows personal explanation to the other person and convenient immediate feedback. The
disadvantages are that it is not efficient giving a message to many people and is not forever
documented. A phone allows personal explanation to one person, and it allows short messages
to be relayed to a person anywhere. The disadvantage is that calling can take up time if calls
need to be made to different people and it is not recorded forever. Text messages is quick
communication and is forever recorded if it stays on the phone. Disadvantages is that it is not
suited well for long or important messages and it might not be an immediate response. Email
can forward messages to one or many people, can be long, quick communication, and is a
permanent record to have proof. Disadvantage is not suited for an important message because
it is not secure, and it might not be immediate feedback. There are two decision-making
frameworks. The first is the medium level of richness on the information they provide. They are
ranked richest to leanest. Face-to-face communication, video communication, phone calls, and
emails or letters. Face-to-face communication is the richest because of words and visuals. Email
and text are lean because it is just words.
Chapter 3 Review Questions

5. Why is direct organization usually the better choice for business communication? Direct
communication is the method of putting content in order in a message to present the main idea
of it before the supporting details. Indirect organization is the method of putting content in a
message to present the details before the main idea. Mostly for business communication, it is
best stating the main point directly at the beginning of the message instead of putting it after
the supporting details. To emphasize the main idea, use a direct organization, the receiver will
have a neutral or positive reaction. Subject line is preview main message, first paragraph you
state the main idea, middle paragraphs provide support, last paragraph conclude with main
point, add a call to action, and or provide deadlines and contact information. An example would
be, you present the winter-hours proposal to your supervisor in a meeting, and he requested
that you email her some follow-up research to provide an industry perspective of the
advantages and disadvantages of winter hours. If your supervisor liked your proposal, you would
organize your email directly. The subject line previews the main message in a direct email.
6. Explain the difference between the following elements of style: clarity, concision, cohesion,
and coherence. The definition of clarity is when people easily understand your intended
meaning. Recognizing words, understanding context, and drawing inferences when the sentence
doesn’t make sense. When language is unclear and sentences are hard to process, it may need
to be read over and over, but it can still be misinterpreted. To make sure the writing is clear; use
natural-sounding language rather than big words to try to impress, use specific language rather
than broad concepts, avoid slang, use active voice and passive voice, avoid nominalizations, put
subjects and verbs close to the beginning of the sentence, and use parallel phrasing for lists.
Conciseness is using no more words needed for a message to accomplish its purpose. It is short
and straight to the point with few words. Shorter is mostly better. To provoke concise writing
edit wordy phrases, eliminate fillers and any unnecessary information to achieve the purpose,
and eliminate repetitions. The definition of cohesion is a connection of ideas at the sentence
level. A writing is considered cohesion when the reader can see how the sentences link
together. For a writing to be cohesive it must have transitional words and phrases, begin with
ideas already talked about and introducing new ideas at the end, second sentence begins with
new ideas, and second sentence starts with an idea already introduced. Coherence is the ideas
throughout the document being connected. To be coherent in writing use positive wording, use
a tone as conversational rather than academic, your tone should match your purpose, and use
humor appropriately.
7. Compose a sentence that uses passive voice. Revise the sentence to use active voice. Passive
voice sentence: The project was finished early by the students. The project is the subject (acted
on). Was finished is the verb. Active voice sentence: The students finished the project early. The
students are the subject (actor). Finished is the verb. The project is the object. The subject is the
actor performing the action of the verb in an active voice sentence. The subject does not act;
the subject receives the action revealed by the verb in a passive voice sentence. Business
communication that is considered good depends on active voice because it represents natural
language order; the actor comes before the action. Passive voice can be used when you don’t
want to blame someone specifically, you want to bring attention to something that was done,
not who did it, and when you need a certain word at the beginning of a sentence, to improve
the flow of a paragraph.
Chapter 3 Review Questions

8. How do the following types of error differ: content errors, spelling errors, typographical
errors, usage errors, grammatical errors, and format errors? Content errors are mistakes in the
substance of a message, like missing or incorrect information. Make a list of all things that need
to be included and correct in your document and review to check them to avoid content errors.
Examples are dates, locations, prices, times, and deadlines. Errors in the way language is used
are usage errors. Examples are saying economical instead of economy or saying implying instead
of inferring. Spelling and typographical errors are from a lack of knowledge of how to spell
words and from typing too fast. To make sure to catch all your errors make sure to proofread a
few times, also get someone else to proofread it. Violations of grammar rules are considered
grammatical errors. It can be sentence fragments, incorrect subject-verb agreement, and run-on
sentences. A way to check for the errors is to look over it and proofread it because automated
checkers can miss errors sometimes. Format errors are design techniques that are inconsistent
in a document. Examples are indented and block-style paragraphs, differences in font sizes or
styles, and bullets that do not align correctly. Use tabs instead of spaces to align text to avoid
format errors. Also, reformat text that is copied and pasted from another document. Hanging
indents and heading styles have automatic formatting features.
9. Explain how reviewing feedback helps you improve your communication strategy. “Reviewing
feedback helps you become a better communicator because it helps you identify places to
improve your communication.” Social media communication is beneficial for business strategy.
It allows a company to get feedback constantly on its communication and they would be able to
adapt the companies message based on the customers response. Social media helps companies
to evaluate their communication. Ask for early feedback to take full advantage of feedback. Use
it to evaluate and revise the communication strategy. Even if the feedback is disappointing and
you must keep working on the writing process, it will be beneficial in the long run because it will
make it a more successful writing. Considering the feedback, you receive will help you make
better decisions for your communication the next time.
10. Why should you leave some time between the composing and evaluating stages? Composing
includes organizing the content where it is understandable from everyone’s perspective, putting
the content in logical paragraphs and coherent sentences, and designing a format that makes
communication easy to follow. When you analyze communication first, it makes composing
easier. Evaluating is the stage you can review communication to make sure it is clear and
understandable. It is important to leave some time between composing and evaluating stage
where you can organize the message. Creating an outline will make it easy to organize. An
outline allows you to split up a topic into ideas and details and listing the information in order.
Also, drafting the content helps to write information without being edited. You can get all your
ideas in between the stages.