BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Building Critical Skills

First Canadian Edition

Kitty O. Locker Stephen Kyo Kaczmarek 2002 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. All rights reserved. Kathryn Braun

odule 2
Adapting Your Message to Your Audience
Skills to
Reflect on your own personality characteristics. Analyze your audience when composing messages. Adapt the content, organization, and form of your messages to meet audience needs.
2002 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. All rights reserved.

odule 2
Adapting Your Message to Your Audience
Topics
Why is audience analysis so important? What do I need to know about my audience? How do use audience analysis? What if my audiences have different needs? How do I reach my audience(s)?
2002 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. All rights reserved.

PAIBOC and Audience Analysis

P A I B O C
What are your purposes in writing? Who is (are) your audiences? What information must your message include? What reasons or reader benefits can you use to support your position? What objections can you expect your reader(s) to have? How will the context affect reader response?

2002 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. All rights reserved.

The Communication Process

The Communication Model

Perception Interpretation Choice/ Selection Encoding/ Decoding Channel Noise

2002 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. All rights reserved.

Audience Analysis Factors

Prior Knowledge Demographic Factors Personality Values and Beliefs Past Behaviour

2002 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. All rights reserved.

Adapting Messages to an Audience

Strategy Organization Word Choice Style Photographs and Visuals

2002 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. All rights reserved.

Kinds of Audiences

Initial Audience Primary Audience Secondary Audience Gatekeeper Watchdog Audience

2002 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. All rights reserved.

Discourse Community

A group of people who share assumptions about

What channels, formats, and styles to use. What topics to discuss. How to discuss topics. What constitutes evidence.

2002 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. All rights reserved.

Organizational (Corporate) Culture

Norms of behavior in an organization are revealed

Verbally through the

organizations myths, stories, and heroes. allocation of space, money, and power.

Nonverbally through the

2002 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. All rights reserved.

Gatekeepers and Primary Audience

To reach, focus on
Content and choice of details. Organization. Level of language. Use of technical terms and

theory.

2002 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. All rights reserved.

Written Messages

Make it easier to
Present many specific details. Present extensive or complex financial data. Minimize undesirable emotions.

2002 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. All rights reserved.

Oral Messages
Make
Answer questions, resolve conflicts,

it easier to

and build consensus. Use emotion to help persuade the audience. Get immediate action or response. Focus the readers attention on specific points. Modify a proposal that may not be acceptable in its original form.
2002 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. All rights reserved.

For Written and Oral Messages

Adapt the message to the audience. Show the audience how it will benefit from the idea, policy, service, or product. Overcome any objections the audience may have. Use you-attitude and positive emphasis. Use visuals to clarify or emphasize material. Specify what the audience should do.

2002 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. All rights reserved.