6.2 Choosing Message

The Audience

Understanding your audience is fundamental to the success of any message. You need to adapt your message to fit the audience's goals interests, and needs. Analyzing your audience and adapting your message can be done in a cynical, manipulative way. It can also be done in a sensitive, empathic, ethical way. Audiences have a keen sense for messages that try to manipulate them; empathic analysis and adaptation are almost always more successful, as well as being more ethical.

In an organizational setting, a message may have five separate audiences, as mention before:

1.	The primary audience

2.	The secondary audience

3.	The initial audience

4.	A gatekeeper

5.	A watchdog audience

Planning for the audience

By analyzing audience, we have to use it -the analysis- to plan strategy, organization, style, document, design, and visual. But, if you know your audience well and if you use words well, much of your audience analysis and adaptation will be unconscious. If you don't know your audience of if the message is very important, take the...

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...time to analyze your audience formally and to revise your draft with your analysis in mind.

You can adapt your message's strategy, organization, and style to meet audience's needs. For paper or electronic documents, you can also adapt document's design and the photos or illustrations you choose. Let's go through the parts of the plan.

Strategy

1.	Make the action as easy as possible

2.	Protect the reader's ego.

3.	Decide how to balance logic and emotion, what details to use, and whether to use a hard-sell or a soft sell

approach based on specific audience, the organizational culture, and the discourse community.

4.	Choose appeals and reader benefits that work for the specific audience.

Organization

1.	Since most messages are intuitive type, it's usually better to get to the point right away, for the major

expectations' are:

a.

When we must persuade a reluctant reader

b.

When we have bad news and want to let the reader down gradually.

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2.	Make the organizational pattern clear to the audience.

Style

1.	For most audience, use easy-to-understand words, a mixture of sentence lengths, and paragraphs with

topic sentences.

2.	Avoid words that sound defensive or arrogant.

3.	Avoid hot buttons or "red-flag" words to which some readers will have an immediate negative reaction:

criminal, crazy, fundamentalist, liberal.

4.	Use the language(s) that your audience knows best.

5.	Use conversational, not "academic" language.

Document Design

1.	Use lists, headings, and a mix of paragraph length to create white space.

2.	Choices about format, footnotes, and visuals may determined by the organizational culture or the

discourse community.

Photographs and Visuals

1.	Use bias-free photographs.

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2.	Photos and visual can make a document look more informal or more formal. Think of the difference

between cartoons and photos of "high art".

3.	Some cultures (e.g., France, Japan) use evocative photographs that bear little direct relationship to the

text. Most U.S audiences expect photos that clearly relate to the text.

Reaching the audience
Important messages may require multiple channels. Also, communications channels vary in: speed, accuracy of transmission, cost, number of messages carried, number of people reached, efficiency, and ability to promote goodwill. That's depends on your purpose, the evidence, and the situation, one channel may be better than another. Let's take a look about some kinds of messages, which we are going to describe it, later.

Written message makes it easier to:

1.	Present many specific details of a low, policy, or procedure.

2.	Present extensive or complex financial data.

3.	Minimizing undesirable emotions.

Messages one paper is more formal than e-mail messages. E-mail messages are appropriate for routine messages to people you already know. Paper is usually better for someone to whom you're writing for the first time.

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Oral messages make it easier to:

1.	Answer questions, resolve conflicts, and build consensus.

2.	Use emotion to help persuade the audience.

3.	Get immediate action or response.

4.	Force the audiences' attention on specific points.

5.	Modify a proposal that may not be acceptable in its original form.

Scheduled meetings and oral presentations are more formal than phone calls, or stopping someone in the hall.

Important messages should use more formal channels, whether they're oral or written. Oral and written messages have many similarities. In both, you should:

1.	Adapt the message to the specific audience,

2.	Show the audience members how they benefit from the idea, policy, service, or product.

3.	Overcome any objections the audience may have.

4.	Use you-attitude and positive emphasis.

5.	Use visuals to clarify or emphasize material.

6.	Specify exactly what the audience should do.

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Even when everyone in an organization has access to the same channels, different discourse communities may prefer different ones. When a university updated its employee benefits manual, the computer scientists and librarians wanted the information online. Faculty wanted to be able to read the information on paper. Maintenance workers and carpenters would get answers on voice mail.

The bigger your audience, the more complicated channel choice becomes because few channels reach everyone in your target audience. When possible, use multiple channels. Also use multiple channels for very important messages. For example, talk to key players about a written document before the meeting where the document will be discussed.

Messages

There are several kinds of messages related to organizations; we will in this subsection discuss two of them: letters and e-mails.

Letters
Letters normally go to people outside your organization; memos go to other people in your organization. In very large organizations, corporate culture determines whether people in different divisions or different locations feel close enough to each other to write memos. Letters and memos do not necessarily differ in length, formality, writing style, or pattern of organization. However, letters and memos do differ in format. Format means the parts of the way they are arranged on the page.

6.2 Choosing Message

Although some organizations modify the basic formats a little, in general, formats for letters and memos are standard because they have existed for long. Formats for e-mail messages, in contrast, are still evolving. It is even possible that the format for e-mail messages will influence formats for paper documents.

Short reports use letter or memo format. Long reports can use the formal format. If your organization has its own formats for letters and memos, use them. Formats for e-mail are still evolving. This topic describes the most widely used formats.

The Standard Formats for Letters:

The two most common letter formats are block, sometimes called full block (see Figure 6.2). And modified block (see Figure 9.3). Your organization may make minor changes from the diagrams in margins or spacing.

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	Block	Modified Block
Date and signature block	Lined up at left margin	Lined up1/2 or 2/3 to the right
Paragraph indentation	None	Optional
Subject line	Optional	Rare

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Sincerely and cordially are standard complimentary closes. When you are writing to people in special groups or to someone who is a friend as well as a business acquaintance, you may want to use a formal close. Depending on the circumstance the informal closes might be acceptable: Yours for a letter environment, or even Ciao.

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In mixed punctuation, a colon follows the salutation and a comma follows close. IN a sales or fund-raising letter, it is acceptable to use a comma after the salutation to make the letter look like a personal letter rather than like a business letter. In open punctuation, omit all punctuation after salutation and the close. Mixed punctuation is traditional. Open punctuation is faster to type.

A subject line tells what the letter is about. Subject lines are required in memos; they are optional in letters Good subject lines are specific, concise, and appropriate for your purposes and the response you expected from your purposes and the response you expect from your reader:

1.	When you have good news, put it in the subject line.

2.	When your information is neutral, summarize it concisely in the subject line.

3.	When your information is negative, use a negative subject line if the reader may not read the message or

needs the information to act, or if the negative is your error.

4.	When you have a request that will be easy for the reader to grant, put either the subject of the request or

direct questions in the subject line.

5.	When you must persuade a reluctant reader, use a common ground, a reader benefit, or a directed subject

line. That makes your stance on the issue clear.

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A reference line refers the reader to the number used on the previous correspondence this letter replies to, or the order or involve number which this letter is about. Very large organizations, such as IRS, use numbers on every piece of correspondence they send out so that it is possible quickly find the earlier document to which an incoming letter refers.

Although not every example uses the same devices to visual impact, both formats can use headings, lists, and indented sections for emphasis.

Each format has advantages. Block format is the format most frequently used for business letters; readers expect it; it can be typed quickly since everything is lined up at the left margin. Modified block format creates a visually attractive page by moving the date and signature block over into what would otherwise be empty white space. Modified block is a traditional format; readers are comfortable with it.

Letterhead - the examples in Figure 6.2 and 6.3 show one-page letters on company letterhead - is preprinted stationary with the organization's name, logo, address, and phone number. Figure 6.4 shows how to set up modified block format when you do not have letterhead. (It is also acceptable to use block format without letterhead.)

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When your letter runs two or more pages, use a heading on the second page to identify it. Putting the reader's name in the heading helps the writer, who may be printing out many letters at a time, to make sure the right second page gets in the envelope. Even when the signature block is on the second page, it is still lined up with the date.

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Set aside margins of 1" to 1.5" on the left and3/4" to 1" on the right. If your letterhead extends all way across the top of the page, set your margins even with the ends of the letterhead for the most visually pleasing page. The top margin should be three to six lines under the letterhead, or 2" down from the top of the page if you...

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...aren't using letterhead. If your letter is very short, you may want to use bigger side and top margins so that the letter is centered on the page.

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Many letters are accompanied by other documents. Whatever these documents may be- a multi-page report or a two-line note- they are called enclosures, since they are enclosed in the envelope. The writer should refer to the enclosures in the body of the letter: "As you can see from my resume... "The enclosure line is usually abbreviated: Encl. (see Figure 6.3). The abbreviation reminds the person who seals the letter to include the enclosure(s).

Sometimes you write to one person but send copies of your letter to other people. If you want the reader to know that other people are getting copies, list their names on the last page. The abbreviation cc originally meant carbon copy , but now means computer copy. Other acceptable abbreviations include pc for photocopy or simply c for copy. You can also send copies to other people without telling the reader. Such copies are called blind copies. Blind copies are not mentioned on the original; they are listed on the copy saved for the file with abbreviation bc preceding the names of people getting these copies.

You do not need to indicate that you have shown a letter to your superior or that you are saving a copy of the letter for your own files. These are standard practices.

Memos:
Memos omit both the salutation and the close. Memos never indent paragraphs. Subject lines are required; headings are optional. Each heading must cover all the information until the next heading. Never use separate heading for the first paragraph.

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Figure 6.8 illustrates the standard memo format typed on a plain sheet of paper. Note that the first letters of the reader's name, the writer's name, and the subject phrase are lined up vertically. Note also that memos are usually initialed by the To/From block. Initialing tells the readers that you have proofread the memo and prevents someone's sending out your name on a memo you did not in fact write.


Some organizations have special letterhead for memos. When Date/To/From/Subject are already on the form, the date, writer's and reader's memos, and subject may be set at the main margin to save typing time. (See Figure 6.9)

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Some organizations alter the order of items in the Date/To/From/Subject block. Some organizations ask employees to sign memos rather than simply initialing them. The signature goes below the last line of the memo, starting halfway over on the page, and prevents anyone adding unauthorized information.

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If the memo runs two pages or more, use a heading at the top of the second and subsequent pages (see Figure 6.10). Since many of your memos go to the same people, putting a brief version of the subjects' line will be more helpful than just using "All employees.

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E-Mail:
Most e-mail programs prompt you to apply the various parts of the format. For example, a blank Eudora screen prompts you to supply the name of the person the message goes to and the subject line. Cc denotes computer copies; the recipient will see that these people are getting the message. Bcc denotes blind computer copies; the recipient does not see the names of these people. Most e-mail programs also allow you to attach documents from other programs. Thus you can send someone a document with formatting, drafts of PowerPoint slides, or a brochure cover. The computer program supplies the date and time automatically. Some programs allow you to write a message now and program the future time at which you want it to be sent.

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Some aspects of e-mail format still evolving. In particular, some writers treat e-mail messages as if they were informal letters; some treat them as memos. Even though the e-mail screen has a "To" line (as do memos), some writers still use an informal salutation, as in Figure 6.11. The writer in Figure 6.11 ends the message with a signature block. You can store a signature block in the e-mail program to insert the signature block.

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automatically. In contrast, the writer in Figure 6.12 omits both the salutation and his name. When you send a message to an individual or a group you have set up, the "Form" line will nave your name and e-mail address. If you post a message to a group someone else has set up, such as a listserv, be sure to give at least your name and e-mail address at the end of your message, as some listservs strip out identifying information when they process messages.

When you hit "reply", the e-mail program automatically uses "Rc" (Latin for about) and the previous subject. The original message is set off with carats (see Figure 6.13). You may want to change the subject line to make it more appropriate for your message.

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If you prepare your document in a word processor, use two-inch side margins to create short line lengths. If the line lengths are too long, they'll produce awkward line breaks as in Figure 6.13. Use two- or three- space tab setting to minimize the wasted space on screen.