1. The Process of
Preparing
Effective Business
Messages

2. Chapter Objectives
 To understand the process of
preparing effective business
messages
 To appreciate the value of
planning in designing and
Organizing an effective message

3. Preparing effective business message
 In order to be effective, one
needs to plan, organize, draft,
revise, edit, and proofread a
message.
 Even with the most advanced
office technology, one needs to
prepare oral or written messages
carefully.

4. Effective Business Message
Writing Process
 Follow the 3-steps process for
creating an effective business
message.
1. Planning a message
2. Writing a message
3. Completing a message

5. Five planning steps
 Following steps must be
considered before writing a
message:
 Identify Your Purpose
 Analyze Your Audience
 Choose Your ideas
 Collect your Data
 Organize Your Messages

6. Five planning steps
 Identify your purpose
 The first step to planning is to
determine the purpose of the
communication. [Is the message
informational, such as announcing
a new location of your firm? Or the
message is persuasive such as
asking customers to buy your
products?]

7. Five planning steps
 Identify your purpose
 Generally, the objective of most
messages is twofold: the reason for
the message and the creation of
goodwill.

8. Five planning steps
 Analyze Your Audience
 Audience analysis helps the sender
see the message from the receiver’s
point of view.
 Once the sender is acquainted with
the receiver, s/he can actually
visualize individuals.

9. Five planning steps
 Analyze Your Audience
 Audience analysis involves:
 Receivers’ demographics such as age,
gender, income, education, profession,
etc.
 Receivers’ position in the organization –
superior, peer, or subordinate.
 Receivers’ attitudes, beliefs, culture-
specific values.

10. Five planning steps
 Choose Your Ideas
 The ideas to be included in the
message depends on the type of
message, the situation and the
cultural context.
 If the sender is replying to a letter,
then the main point in the letter
could be ideas for the reply.
 For a new letter, some brainstorming
is needed.

11. Five planning steps
 Collect Data to Support Your
Ideas
 Once the ideas to be included are
decided, the sender must determine
the data needed, like specific facts,
figures, quotations, or other
evidences to support the points.

12. Five planning steps
 Organize Your Message
 Outlining the message (mentally or
on paper) is essential before making
the first draft.
 Organizing the sequence of the ideas
to be presented in the message can
prevent rambling and unclear
messages.

13. Basic organizational plans
 The choice of organizational plan
depends upon following:
 Expectation about receivers’
response
 Knowledge of the receiver about the
topic of the message
 Receivers’ cultural conventions

14. Basic organizational plans
 For letters and memos, there are four
basic organizational plans: direct
request, good-news, bad-news, or
persuasive-request plan
 First two of the above use Direct
(Deductive) Approach, which begins
with the main idea.
 Last two plans use the Indirect
(Inductive ) Approach, which states
the main idea later.

15. Basic organizational plans
 Direct (Deductive) Approach
 When you think that the audience
will have a favorable or neutral
reaction to your message, use direct
approach.
 Use this plan for making direct
requests, announcing favorable or
neutral news, and exchanging
information within or between
companies.

16. Basic organizational plans
 Indirect (Inductive ) Approach
 When you expect resistance to your
message, choose the indirect
approach, such as in a bad-news
message or a persuasive request.
 Begin with a buffer – a relevant
pleasant, neutral, or receiver-benefit
statement; then give explanation
and then introduce your idea.

17. Beginning and endings
 Two of the most important
positions in any business
message are the opening and
closing paragraphs.
 Remember the old sayings:
 “First impression is lasting”
 “We remember best what we read
last”

18. Beginning and endings
 Opening Paragraphs
 Opening of a message determines
whether the reader continues
reading, puts the message aside, or
discards it.
 Choose openings that is
appropriate for the purpose of the
message and the reader.

19. Beginning and endings
 Opening Paragraphs
 Make the opening considerate,
courteous, concise and clear.
 Keep the first paragraph relatively
short.
 Use conversational language in clear
and concise sentences.
 Ensure the completeness of the
message.

20. Beginning and endings
 Closing Paragraphs
 The closing is more likely to
motivate the reader to act as
requested if it is appropriately
strong, clear, and polite.
 Make an action request clear and
complete with 5 Ws and 1 H.
 End on a positive and courteous
thought. Keep the last paragraph
concise and correct.

21. writing the message
 Composing/writing the message
involves following:
 Drafting Your Message

22. Composing the message
 Drafting Your Message
 First draft is often the most difficult
to write. The important thing is to
get the most important information
in the message.
 Regardless of the style, the
important thing is to get on paper
the information to be included.

23. Completing the Message
 Revising Your Message
 Editing and Proofreading Your
Message

24. Completing the message
 Revising Your Message
 It involves adding necessary and
deleting unnecessary information,
making sure all points are
supported, checking organizational
approach, and reviewing the
language in terms of 7 Cs.

25. Completing the message
 Editing and Proofreading Your
Message
 Editing and proofreading are
important to ensure that the
message has no mistakes in
grammar, spelling, punctuation, or
word choice.
 Minor mistakes, such as
typographical errors could reduce
the effectiveness of the message.