Business Communication (Fall 2005)

Today, we’ll:

1) Discuss presentation protocols.

• Situation: consider the time and place of where you are giving the presentation.
• Purpose: this refers to the goal the speaker hopes to achieve with his or her presentation.
• Audience: consider the people to whom the presentation is directed.
• Method: which methods will best accomplish the purpose.

Handouts enable the audience to

• Concentrate on the ideas without having to take notes
• Capture any non-verbal data accurately
• Personalize the presentation with notes of their own ideas
• Hear, see and apply the presentation
• Increase their speed of comprehension
• Retain new ideas longer
• Apply the information to specific tasks
• Find the information when they need it at a later date”

What content can go on a handout?

• Your name
• The date
• Outline of key points, concepts, or ideas
• Charts, graphs, diagrams, illustrations, or visuals
• Contact information
• List of sources or references

How do I make a useful handout? (From “Why and How to Avoid Trashy Handouts“)

• Plan your handout as you plan your presentation.
  Keep main ideas, metaphors and summary information in the presentation. Add details, complexity, explanations and applications in the handout.
• Make them aesthetically pleasing and practical.
• Design to support the purpose of your presentation and the audience.
• Avoid rehashing your presentation verbatim, with the exception of testifying before a government agency or presenting a scientific paper.
• Organize information into sections based on content.
• Use headings to signal the beginnings of sections.
• Put white space between headings and body text.
• Use lists to organize related content.
• Use only one or two fonts.
• Make sure that images don’t overlap with text.
• Make sure images or visuals are clearly labeled and captioned.

Visuals should (as we saw last Wednesday):

• Be easy to understand from a distance.
• Follow the “Rule of Seven” for text: No more than seven words per line; no more than seven lines per visual.
• Clearly describe or illustrate a concept to the reader.
• Not undermine the tone of your presentation.
• Use the principles of contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity.

2) Work on developing materials for your presentations and finishing your reports.

3) Conduct course evaluations.

Assignment for Next Class

Be prepared to give your presentation, including providing handouts and visuals. Final version of your recommendation report is due by Friday, December 9.

Today, we’ll:

1) Discuss strategies for presenting and formatting reports.

Guidelines for Formatting Report Pages

• Use only two fonts.
• Don’t indent paragraphs; use white space to separate them.
• Use single line spacing or 1.5 line spacing instead of double-spacing.
• Include page numbers on all pages except for the first page.
• Align all text to the left unless it is on a title page.
• Place visuals near the text they represent.
• Don’t use random clip art.

Good Example || Bad Example

2) Go over the oral presentation guidelines.

3) Discuss a case study related to the use of PowerPoint and other communication tools in business communication.

Assignment for Next Class

Read p. 336-346 in textbook; work on recommendation report.

An important part of business communication is being able to speak informatively and persuasively to an audience. For this assignment, you will present the research and recommendations you have developed throughout the semester to an audience of your peers and clients.
Specifics

Your group will give a 10-15 minute oral presentation where you:

• Give an overview of the communication situation you studied
• Discuss and provide context for the communication problems you noticed
• Describe and explain the solution(s) you would recommend to solve the problem
• Justify your recommendations
• Respond to questions from the audience

Each group member should have a speaking role during the presentation. Also, you should provide:

• A handout for the audience
• Visuals such as a PowerPoint presentation, poster, drawings, or transparencies

The presentation should be more than reading your report to the audience.

Grading Criteria

You will be graded on how well you:

• Present information to the audience using appropriate tone and body language
• Provide adequate and appropriate information and persuasive strategies
• Provide a well-formatted handout
• Present information visually to the audience

Due Date

You will give your presentations on December 7.

Today, we’ll:

1) Discuss the weekly agenda.

2) Meet as a class to discuss your peer feedback and ask questions of your classmates.

3) Work in groups to revise your report based on feedback from your classmates and the instructor.

4) Make a list of what writing and research tasks need to be completed.

Assignment for Next Class

Read pp. 331-335 in textbook; work on recommendation report.

Monday, November 28

Today you’ll work in groups and individually to give and receive feedback on your reports. We’ll discuss and generate lists of tasks you need to get done before the final project is due. You’ll also have time to work on responding to feedback, researching, and revising your reports.

Assignment for Next Class

Read pp. 331-335 in textbook; work on recommendation report.

Wednesday, November 30

Today we’ll discuss strategies for visual design and layout in reports. We’ll also introduce the oral presentation assignment and discuss the requirements for that component.

Assignment for Next Class

Read p. 336-346 in textbook; work on recommendation report.

Today, we’ll:

1) Discuss how research is used and cited in recommendation reports.

While workplace writing does give credit when the words and ideas of others are used, the systems used to do so are more variable and less formal than academic citation systems. Sometimes workplaces will use academic citation systems such as APA, IEEE or CBE; other times they will just require that you list your sources and make reference to them in some way. In a specific workplace, you will want to find out if there are any conventions for citing sources and follow those.

Many workplaces use what’s called the “number system,” which combines an academic citation style such as CBE, APA, MLA, or IEEE with bracketed and numbered citations. I’ll be showing you how to do that, and I’ll expect you to use it in your recommendation reports.

References List

In the number system, you format your citations in an academic style of your (or your company’s) choosing. For this course, you can use MLA, APA, or any style that you’ve used in the past and feel comfortable using.

You arrange your citations in alphabetical order, and then number each citation. Here’s an example of a numbered reference list using MLA style.

1. Doe, John. Personal interview. 11 Nov. 2005.
2. Jones, James. “Strategies for Motivating Employees.” Business Magazine. 26 Oct. 1999. 28 Oct. 2005. ‹http://www.miscellaneous.com.›
3. Smyth, Martin. “Motivating Employees Through Autocratic Management.”Journal of Despotry Feb. 2000: 66-72. Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale Group Databases. Niagara University Libraries, Niagara University, NY. 19 February 2005. ‹http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com.›

In-Text Citations

When you cite a source in the text, you:

1) Provide an attributive tag that introduces the source.

2) Cite the NUMBER of the source and the page number (if available) in a parenthetical citation.

Here are some examples.

Motivating employees to write can be a difficult process. In a personal interview, John Doe, manager at a local company, described the many problems that he has in getting employees to produce writing, including not meeting deadlines (1). James Jones offers various strategies for motivating employees to write, including creating a climate where employees feel free to share and edit their work (2). Smyth advises adopting a severe managerial style where if employees do not submit work by deadline, they are severely punished (3:67).

2) Discuss difficulties with collaborative writing and editing.

Sam Dragga, in a review of work about collaborative writing, paraphrases David Farkas and offers some reasons why collaborative writing is so difficult:

• “the documents are complex
• creating them collaboratively is more complicated than doing them individually
• the emotions of writers interfere
• opportunities for revision are infinite
• collaborators have insufficient terminology with which to discuss their individual visions of a document
• success is unpredictable or immeasurable.”

How do you avoid these problems or solve them when they occur?

• Clearly define goals.
• Clearly assign roles: researcher, writers, editors, fact-checkers, document designers. Roles may fluctuate as you work through the process, but it’s important to have clearly defined roles as you near the end of the project.
• Set deadlines and stick to them.
• Agree on a common set of terminology for referring to specific aspects of the project.
• Agree on your documentation style.
• Agree on common document formats and communication protocols.

How do you make a document written by many people have one voice?

This is one of the most difficult tasks in collaborative writing. Generally, people edit documents to have one voice by electing a single person to be Master Editor for the final document. This person will read through the documents submitted by the group and:

• combine all of the elements into one master draft
• make sure that the document has a clear focus
• make sure that all parts of the document relate to the focus
• make sure that there are clear divisions between ideas
• make sure that the document is using the same terms when referring to the same objects, events, places, or people
• make changes in how sentences are arranged and language is used to create tone and style so that the document has a similar style
• correct errors
• check and verify citations

• The Master Editor should use Word’s Track Changes feature (or another way of marking changes) to indicate what has been changed or combined on a document.
• After the first editing pass, he or she should pass the document off to another group member.
• This group member will verify the changes, indicate any changes that he or she feels are necessary, and sign off on the document.
• The document then goes to the next group member until all group members have seen it and provided feedback.
• The Master Editor then does one final edit of the document that incorporates feedback from the other group members.
• The document then goes to the Document Design member(s) of the team for formatting.

Make sure that you determine a naming scheme for naming files so that you do not overwrite current versions with past versions. Many people will date the filename as part of the name to help avoid this problem, and add their initials to indicate who has seen the document.

3) Work on drafting your reports.

Assignment for Next Class

First draft of report is due.

Today, we’ll:

1) Go over the weekly agenda.

2) Discuss the parts of a recommendation report and their functions.

3) Examine some sample recommendation reports and discuss their generic features.

4) Discuss planning strategies.

Outlining/Listing: written organization of content
Mapping/Clustering: visual organization of content

Which work better for you as a learner?

5) Work on planning the content of your report.

Assignment for Next Class

Read pp. 397-408 in textbook.
Outline report.

Monday, November 14

Today we’ll discuss the formatting and parts of recommendation reports by analyzing models and critiquing how they make recommendations. You’ll also create an outline or map of the contents of your report.

Assignments For Next Class

Read pp. 397-408 in textbook.
Outline report.

Wednesday, November 16

Today we’ll discuss drafting strategies, consider the problems of writing and editing collaboratively, and learn about how research is used and cited in recommendation reports.

Assignments For Next Class

First draft of report due; bring print and electronic copy to class.

Today we’ll:

1) Review your claim and reasons, and discuss the types of evidence you need to collect.

Types of Evidence You Might Use

Information You Gather From People

• observations
• interviews
• survey data

Information You Gather Through Print or Web Sources

• information about corporate culture
• information that provides perspectives which complement your observations
• information about implementations of your solution in other places
• information about best (or worst) communication practices in businesses
• information about information technologies that facilitate or hinder corporate communication
• information about how to implement your recommendations (specific items needed, cost, resources needed, timeline for implementation)
• any other types of information you think you will need

2) Discuss resources for researching businesses and business communication.

Books

• Library Catalog Search (General)
• Ebrary (collection of electronic books which includes many business communication titles)

Reference Databases
Note: To search some of these databases from off-campus, you will need to email the library for access to passwords.

• Business and Company Resource Center offers you access to company profiles, articles, financial data, and company histories.
• ProQuest provides access to a number of business-related databases that index papers, journals, and newspaper articles, including The Wall Street Journal.
• EbscoHost offers access to Academic Source Premier and Business Source Elite, both of which contain articles on business practices and business communication.
• Lexis/Nexis offers access to business and trade journals, newspapers, and legal cases.

Journals

• Association of Business Communication’s List of Publications
  You will probably need to access these publications through EBSCOHost or another database in order to download and view the articles.

Internet Resources

• Research links from the Corporate Communication Institute at Farleigh Dickinson University.
• Niagara’s Library provides a collection of starting points for Web research that includes business links.

3) Begin looking for print and Web sources using keywords that are relevant to your project.

Assignments For Next Class

Send a list of 8 possible sources to instructor by e-mail.

Read pp. 584-588 in textbook.

Today, we’ll:

1) Go over the weekly agenda.

2) Discuss strategies for audience analysis.

The heart of a recommendation report is making a persuasive argument that will convince your reader.

Why do you need to consider the needs of your audience when making a persuasive argument?

Thinking about a workplace audience requires you to think about the following concepts as they relate to you and your audience:

• Relationship/Power
  • Are you writing up, writing across, or writing down?
  • How well do you know your audience?
• Credibility and Authority
  • Are you the expert, the beginner, or somewhere in between?
  • Why would your audience take you seriously? How can you show them that you know what you’re doing?
• Attitude
  • How receptive is your audience to hearing this message?
  • How can you anticipate and work with their attitudes?
• Knowledge
  • What does your audience already know?
  • What does your audience need to know?
  • Is there any misinformation that you need to correct?
• Values and Beliefs
  • What does your audience value and believe about what you are about to tell them?
  • How does your message fit in to their existing values and beliefs or the existing values and beliefs of their workplace context?

In your groups, please answer the above audience analysis questions for your report audiences.

3) Discuss the parts of an argument.

An argument can be divided into parts.

• Warrant: the concepts your audience has to assume, feel, think, believe, or otherwise accept in order to believe your claim (also called the bridge)
• Backing: the circumstances and evidence that describe and develop these concepts
• Claim: the conclusion or major idea which your audience needs to accept
• Reasons: the categories of evidence which support your claim
• Evidence: the facts, opinions, and appeals that develop and justify your reasons (logos, ethos, pathos)
• Rebuttal: objections to your claim
• Qualifier: modifications to your claim to take objections into account

Sample claim: “The English department needs to build a greater sense of community among its students.” How would you develop this claim?

3) Discuss how these strategies can be applied to constructing and analyzing arguments.

How can business writers use these strategies to construct an argument?
Kitty Locker offers examples of how office memos make claims in Business and Administrative Communication (1995, pp. 260-264). She and others have observed that when business writers draft (memos, letters, proposals or reports), they often adopt a plan of action consisting of strategies that include elements of Toulmin’s model:

• Building common ground or rapport.
• Articulating the problem and offer proof that it exists.
• Demonstrating how the problem is harming the organization and suggest plausible causes.
• Rebutting any counterclaims about alternative problems or causes other than the one the writer identifies (i.e., counteracting opposing interpretations and clarifying exceptions).
• Presenting a particular solution to the problem, in specific terms that are tied to the stated problem and its causes.
• Constructing a clear picture or description of the problem being solved by application of the proposed solution; depicting a winning situation.
• Limiting the claims about additional benefits that might accrue to the readers — benefits that might flow from the solution, but that are not guaranteed (i.e., qualifying or making clear the limits of one’s promises).
• Outlining a plan of action, especially first steps toward arriving at a solution. (From Business Communication)

Let’s look at an example and identify some arguments.

4) Build arguments for your recommendation reports based on this model.

Assignment for Next Class

Read pp. 397-408 in textbook;
Continue working on description of problem and possible solution

Monday, November 7

Today we’ll discuss the audience for your recommendation report and how that will affect the recommendations you might make. Then you’ll work to articulate the problem, recommendations, and justifications that you’ll develop in your report.

Assignments For Next Class

Read pp. 397-408 in textbook;
Continue working on description of problem and possible solution

Wednesday, November 9

Today we’ll discuss researching outside sources for your project and how they could be used in your report.

Assignments For Next Class

Send a list of 8 possible sources to instructor by e-mail.
Read pp. 584-588 in textbook.

Today, we’ll:

1) Review theories and ideas about organizational communication.

Information transfer

• Communication is a tool that people use.
• Meaning of a message resides with sender; communication transmits that meaning to others.
• Miscommunication happens when there is information overload, distortion, and ambiguity.
• Successful information transfer is most important.

Transactional process

• People encode and decode messages simaltaneously; communication is created through shared meaning.
• Meaning of a message resides with receiver; people can construct the meaning of messages differently (which leads to miscommunication).
• Any type of behavior is communication (even non-verbal behaviors).
• Consensus and sharing is most important.

Strategic control

• Communication is about achieving specific goals and controlling one’s environment.
• Meaning of a message is contained in rhetorical goals and accomplishing a specific end.
• Communicators have social, ethical, and political motivations.
• Common strategy: specific ambiguity (possibility for miscommunication)
• Action is most important.

Balance of creativity and constraint

• Communication is a balance between being creative to respond to organizational constraints and working within the rules and guidelines of an organization which define appropriate behavior, goals, and actions.
• Meaning of a message is created by social forces and by people working within and against social forces.
• Keeping a balance is most important.

Communication must be studied in context; a context is how people are currently defining reality.

• Relationships
• Situation
• History
• Interpretations

People create contexts over time, use the contexts to interpret messages, and change the contexts.

Individuals and how they relate to their situations and balance organizational constraints and their own creativity

Studying the multiple contexts that individuals create as well as haow individuals balance creativity and constraint in order to create meaning can be helpful.

Communication is dialogic.

Today, we’ll:

1) Go over the weekly agenda.

2) Go over the guidelines for the client research memo and the written recommendation report.

3) Discuss how to analyze a communication problem.

• Describe the setting
• Describe the key players
• Describe the types of communication happening (genres of communication and technologies of communication)
• Describe the problem
  • What happens
  • Where it happens
  • When it happens
  • To whom it happens
  • Why it happens

Burke’s Pentad

Kenneth Burke was a rhetorical theorist who analyzed literature and drama. His five-part method for analyzing a situation has been adapted by communication theorists to help consider the various parts of a communication situation.

The five parts of the pentad are:

• Actor
• Action
• Setting
• Method
• Motive

4) Analyze communcation problems for your groups.

Assignment for Next Class

1. Skim pp. 397-408 in textbook to become familiar with parts of a recommendation report.
2. Read chapter on organizational communication given out in class.

Monday, October 31

Today you’ll turn in the final versions of your documentation and we’ll finish the documentation project. Next, we’ll go over the guidelines for the recommendation report project and discuss what you’ve discovered so far.

Assignments For Next Class

1. Skim pp. 397-408 in textbook to become familiar with parts of a recommendation report.
2. Read chapter on organizational communication given out in class.

Wednesday, November 2

Today we’ll analyze the rhetorical situations that you have been studying using different rhetorical tools. We’ll also discuss audience analysis and shaping your report for different audiences. You’ll also have time to work on your client research visit memo.

Assignments For Next Class

1. Client research visit memo due to instructor via email.
2. Read “Audience Analysis” and do “Audience Planner” (either separately or collectively); email answers to instructor.

During this semester, you’ve identified a specific workplace communication situation and have used a variety of research methods to understand the situation and identify possible communication problems. Now, it’s time for you to report on your findings.
Specifics

Your group will write an 8-10 page recommendation report that:

• describes the workplace communication situations you observed
• identifies and explains a specific communication problem (or set of problems)
• explains the possible causes of the problem
• discusses the problem in a larger context by citing research related to workplace communication
• provides a specific set of recommendations to ameliorate the problem
• justifies these recommendations by citing research and creating appeals that are appropriate to your audience

Your report should contain the following parts:

• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary
• Introduction/Background
• Description of Problem
• Recommendations
• Conclusions and Summary
• List of References
• Appendix (if necessary)

You will turn in a print version of this report; it should be collated and stapled.

Grading Criteria

This project will be graded based on how well you:

• describe the workplace communication situations you observed
• explaine a specific communication problem (or set of problems) and the possible causes of the problem
• place the problem and recommendations in a larger context by citing research related to workplace communication
• provide a specific set of recommendations to ameliorate the problem and justify these recommendations
• pay attention to conventions for writing reports
• write clearly, concisely, and without errors

You can earn a possible 250 points for this project (out of 450 points total for the project).

Project Goals

This project helps you to:

• identify needs for information (through observation and discussion within your group and in class)
• access information (conduct client-based and academic research)
• evaluate information (draw conclusions from your client visits and academic research)
• use information (describe the situation, provide background, describe the problem, and make recommendations)
• attribute information (cite information appropriately).

Due Dates

First Draft of Report Due: November 21

Final Draft of Report Due: December 7

Specifics

Your group will write a short (1-2 page) memo to the instructor which:

• Briefly describes what your client research visits have been like.
• Briefly describes any surveys or interviews conducted.
• Presents any preliminary ideas about communication problems or recommendations that you have gathered so far.
• Discusses what you still need to learn or discover in order to make a recommendation or understand the problem.

Grading Criteria

This project will be graded based on how well you:

• Report on your research.
• Present possible findings.
• Discuss what you will do next.
• Use memo format.
• Use conventions for standard written English.

You can earn 50 points (out of 450 points total for the project) for this memo.

Project Goals

This project helps you to identify needs for information, evaluate information, and use information.

Due Dates

Memo Due: November 7

Today, we’ll:

1) Learn and practice principles for document design with your documentation.

The design and appearance of documentation can often affect how well someone is able to use it to follow instructions.

You’ve been learning about document design and working with documentation for a while. How would you design the most annoying and hard to use documentation possible?

Please “re-design” your documentation to be as difficult to read and understand as possible. E-mail it to the instructor when you’re done. We’ll look at them as a class and discuss their common problems.

2) Edit your documentation for content and format.

Please use the editing checklist to help review your document.

3) Meet in your report groups (if needed).

Assignment for Next Class

Final draft of documentation due.

Today, we’ll:

1) Go over the weekly agenda.

2) Report on the preliminary results of your usability testing.

3) Answer any questions you have about usability testing and the first drafts of your documentation.

4) Work in your recommendation report groups

In your groups, please discuss your client research visits, talk about future research needs, and to come up with a specific question or idea that will form part of your recommendation report.

Monday, October 24

Today we’ll discuss how your usability testing is going, return your documentation drafts with commentary, and answer any questions you have about your documentation drafts. Then you’ll have time to work in your research report groups to discuss your client research visits and research needs. The instructor will visit each group to find out about your progress and answer any questions you might have.

Assignments For Next Class

Usability testing report due.
Bring two copies of the most current version of your documentation to class.

Wednesday, October 26

Assignments For Next Class

Final draft of documentation due at the beginning of class. Please turn in a print copy if your documentation will be delivered in print form or an electronic copy if your documentation will be delivered in electronic form.

Today, we’ll:

1) Give and receive feedback on your documentation drafts.

Please download the peer review questions, complete them for a partner’s documentation, and e-mail them to your partner and to the instructor.

2) Discuss usability testing.

Usability testing is when people attempt to measure how well people can use documentation (and/or a product) to accomplish an actual and realistic task. The goals are to discover the errors that people make and where they go wrong and determine how the documentation (or the product) should be changed to respond to the user’s needs.

Usability testing should use as realistic a situation as possible and should always be done with the real documentation, materials and actual tasks that users would attempt to accomplish with a product.

Nielsen’s Five-User Rule: Testing with five users from your intended audience(s) will identify 95% of your problems. This rule applies mainly to Web usability testing, but user testing with small groups of users can help you to identify problems with other types of scenarios.

In a usability test, individual users or groups of users who match the profile of the intended audience(s) are asked to complete a task. They are provided with materials, documentation, and brief guidelines, and encouraged to talk aloud as they complete the task.

People observe the task and take notes on how long it takes users to complete steps, any difficulties the users encounter, and any surprising findings. The observers do not
interfere with the user or help the user unless it is an emergency.

Occasionally, users will participate in focus groups after the testing to talk more about their experience.

After observing a number of users, the observers write up their findings in a usability testing report which documents what they learned and how the documentation will need to be changed.

How to conduct a usability test:

• Identify the target audience(s) for your documentation. Describe what you think they know and how long you think it will take them to complete the task.
• Recruit users from that population.
• Determine what task the users will be doing to test the documentation. If it’s a tutorial, obviously they’ll be following the tutorial. For references or more open-ended documentation, a specific and realistic task should be determined.
• Write brief guidelines (to be given orally or in writing) explaining what users need to do.
• Provide users with the documentation and materials. Go over the guidelines.
• Stand back and watch the users do the task. Take notes and time various tasks.
• Thank the users for their time when the task has been completed.
• Identify areas of the documentation where users had problems.
• Prepare a usability testing report about your findings.

3) Go over the usability testing report guidelines.

4) Practice conducting usability tests.

Half of the class will act as users and the other half will act as observers in a usability test of some sample documentation; then you’ll switch places.

5) Work on developing the guidelines for your usability tests.