Review about Business Communications

Introduction Business communication refers to all the ways of passing information from one party to another in an organization. This can be with the intention of promoting the products and services offered by the organization through the creating its public awareness. It can also be considered in the internal communication context in which the parties involved are the owners or workers and not anyone else from the external environment. This is mostly done through the meetings or memos published by the management.

The essays below refer to some of the communications systems considered in the organization. Question 1: Key etiquette points to remember in business and social environments Business etiquette consists of more essential things than the most obvious ones. In the today's competitive business world, the social skills and appropriate etiquette can be used to refer to the differences between locating and winning a job and standing still in it. This calls for the confidence and understanding that we can hold to the emotions in any social context.

The motto of the business etiquette is "do to others as they would want you to do to them". Etiquette in an organization concerns self presentation with the kind of the polish which determines the perception of the others; the individual can be taken seriously. It is also about the comfort of the individuals in the surround and the aspects of making them comfortable around the others (Marie, 2005). People play a major role in the determination of the success of the organization.

Unintentional breaches of manner can result to a loss of most of the potential worthwhile and profitable alliances. The behavior of the individuals highly determines the performance of the organization because they are the bases of the interaction and relationships with the individuals. Question 2: Strategies to use in order to plan and lead an effective meeting A strategy or plan is essential in the provision of the details which enhances the achievement of goals and objectives. Before setting up a meeting to discuss issues concerning the organization a well structured strategy should be laid out to plan on the events to take place to safe and ensure that all the anticipated objectives are achieved. The best way to run up a meeting is to include careful preparation under a close follow-up strategy. There are some five tips which help most of the organizations in the achievement of their meeting objectives: Setting meeting agendas and objectives in advance is the first and most essential tip.

This helps both the attendees and the facilitators to keep on track by having a clear picture of the expected end results. The list of the agendas should be used a driver from one point of discussion to the other to avoid the confusion of the facilitators or time wastage because each is indicated the time it is supposed to consume. The members invited is another important factor which should be considered when planning for a meeting. This helps to avoid the attendant of the individuals who cannot contribute to the discussion but rather invite those that can make major decisions or execute on them. This ensures that the objectives are achieved at the end of the meeting. They should be informed of the agendas in advance to grant them an opportunity to review the matter at hand and prepare themselves for presentation of their opinion concerning it (Mundry & Raizen, 2001).

A time limit for the meeting or discussion of any topic should be well established. This is because most of the people are likely to get antsy if the sessions take too long. A little fluff-time should be built in the agenda to allow time for open discussions and questions. When attention seeking issues are tabled the facilitators should decided whether they should be discussed during the meeting or set them aside to be discussed later. The process of minute taking should be well planned to ensure that the records of the proceedings are well documented for a follow up of the ideas.

Make sure that peace and security of the sessions are considered for the success of the meeting. Question 3: Types of nonverbal differences you might encounter when working with people from other cultures. The multicultural workforce is very common in today's society and is considered to be responsible for the performance of the organization either positive or negative. While working with the people from other cultures miscommunication is likely to happen especially where there is a noticeable cultural difference.

All effective communication is cultural based; it depends on the ways that the individuals in an environment have learnt how to communicate either through speaking or giving non-verbal messages. No-verbal communication is very different from culture to culture so the greatest influence on effective communication is the relationship amongst them. The responses of people show that they understand what is being communicated. The challenge of dealing with multiculturalism is that miscommunication is likely to occur which can lead to conflict or an aggravation of the existing conflict.

The differences which might occur when working with people from various cultures: Nonverbal communication, time and space and others like fate and personal responsibility. Time and space is considered to be the main differences which separates cultures and cultural activities. The nonverbal communication has changed with time and places the differences over time contribute highly in dramatic and painful forms especially in negotiation and efforts of conflict resolution. For example, during the land claim in Canada. Various representatives from local, regional and national governments gathered to introduce themselves asthey begun their work. People from the First Nations told their stories in circular ways through the use of nonverbal communication to express their ideas, feelings and experiences (Burgoon, Buller & Woodall, 2010).

The other party represented their information by the use of charts thus none of the parties understood the message passed by the other. Therefore the work did not continue since no group satisfied the information in the meeting. Nonverbal communication is also essential because it differs from culture to culture. Use of the nonverbal communication interferes with the relationship between people since some forms of its communication differs with the place thus in places like Canada and United States the residents give less emphasis on this form of communication. Fate and personal responsibility refers to how the individuals feel about themselves as the masters of their lives. Individuals from various cultures have differing ways of communication through their body behavior.

For example, some of the races may perceive themselves to be more superior to the others thus they behave in a manner suggesting how they expect to relate with the others. Conflicts occur if the others do not behave as expected (Earley, Soon & Tan, 2006). Question 4: While working in Somalia, you schedule a meeting with a vendor who lives there. When he shows up 20 minutes after the meeting was scheduled, should you take it as a sign of incompetence or disrespect? A fellow who attends a meeting 20 minutes after the scheduled time is termed to be disrespectful not only to the rules of the organization but also to the other partners. These can be avoided by living or practicing good manners or etiquette, having an open mind and considering honest communication. This because there can be a genuine reason for coming late which can be solved by communicating in advance that the other members can always avoid issues which are likely to lead to conflicts.

Perfect practice of etiquette is the most essential thing because in many circumstances second chances may not be applicable. All the members should be conscious of the people they work with so as to avoid hurting their feelings; this is controlled by the courteous and always being mindful about the people working with despite the situation at hand. The most essential thing is being apologetic when one does something which can hurt the others, for example, doing against the rules and regulations set in a group of people (Bovee, 2008).Question 5: Describe the process of proofreading, and explain its importance. Why does it matter, and what should you look for? Proofreading is critically reading through a documentary to detect any error in spelling, grammar and punctuation. This also involves checking various elements in the entire layout of the documentary; these include: paragraphs, headlines, illustrations and colors.

In an organization context, proofreading should be done especially in the minutes of meetings held to ensure that the secretary recorded only the correct things without exaggerations. He should even quote what the individuals say in the active form to make more factual and easy for the members to follow the proceedings. Although this process may be dull and sometimes annoying to the secretary when everyone comes up to correct him or her, if left out the errors detected later are distracting and annoying. Most of the proofreading is done in a computer either by the editor or writer but after one is sure that the simple mistakes like spelling are corrected, the other members should be given to ensure that all the information recorded is worth being printed and published for the others to read (Smith & Sutton, 2004).

Question 6: Explain what it means to choose "words that communicate well," and then list four techniques for selecting the best words when writing business messages, providing one example for each technique. The aim of any communication process is to have the intended information and message delivered to the targeted group. The most essential thing is to have the meaning transferred, that the receiver fully understands what the sender wants them to understand from the content delivered to them. The sender determines the nature of the communication by the choice of the word and mediums used. This is based on the kind of the audiences that one has and the topic on discussion. Various words can communication different messages depending on the context used.

The more one is conversant with the audiences he or she has the easier it is to convey the message. For example, the vocabularies which are used to a group of the young people are different from those used to the elderly and children. All the groups of audiences requires interesting talks made up of short and simple sentences for easier understanding. This helps to hold the attention of the listeners hence fully understand the meaning (Bovee, Thill & Schatzman, 2009). Question 7: What are some of the common techniques for attracting an audience's attention at the beginning of a marketing or sales message? A good and effective speech begins with an attention grabbing introduction; this creates curiosity and alerts the audiences to the attentive. The communicators should ensure that they capture the attention of the audiences in advance so as to have them understand the message that they intend to communicate.

Before planning g for the presentation the communicator should ensure that he or she fully understands the purpose of communicating. He should also consider some common techniques for attracting the attention off the audiences before the speech starts. First is asking a question which is able to engage the minds of alll the audiences that it is possible to control their thoughts. He can also tell them a personal story which works to connect them. The audiences get attentive so as to understand the kind of person addressing them and compare his personalities with theirs.

The use of quotes is also essential in the attraction of the attention. Some of the comments can end up becoming common in the vocabularies of the listeners. They will be attentive to fully understand the meaning of these quotes so as to appropriately use them. Many of the people prefer facts than fiction hence the communicators should also consider presentation of the interesting facts like use of statistics or referring to the reports of research done (Bovee & Thill, 2009). Question 8: Compare the elements of an effective vs.

an ineffective message rejecting a job applicant. Explain why each element is appropriate. Effective messages play an important role in determining the success of any personal and professional relationships between various parties of communication process. Any effective message is dependent on factors like: approach. This is the purpose for communicating, the effective message directly conveys the meaning that is intended and an ineffective message rejecting a job applicant does not fully pass any information that the communicator does not get that which he or she wants.

The effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the message is dependent on its development. This is how the content is organized and arranged for the effective understanding of the receiver. The materials should be arranged in a logical and coherent sequence. Clarity is also essential in the determination of the effectiveness of the message.

It should be easier to figure out what the communicator intended without any difficulties. The points organized in simple and short sentences with clear language which is appropriate to the receivers. The style or word choice is also necessary in determining whether the message delivered is effective or not, this should not include the use of cliches and jargon. The communicator should be keen on the correctness of the language used. This is specifically the use of the correct grammar and spelling or appropriate in the choice of the words to be used (Howatt, 2009, p. 35-57).

Question 9: While developing an oral report for a speech class, one of your team members locates an article that fits perfectly with your topic. She suggests that the group take several paragraphs from the article. There is not enough time to request permission to use the article from the author. The team member suggests using the article without mentioning the source. As the main presenter, how would you handle the situation? As a good communicator referring to the source of the information delivered as reference makes it more factual and shows that the communicators are serious on their work that they took time to research on them.

This however calls for one to be a bit conscious while referring to the work of the others so as not to direct plagiarize all what the original owner says. This means that the presenter should only make use of the ideas of the original owner in elaborating his own points using other words. If the presenter does not want to disclose the source of the information, he or she should be keen to ensure that he does not directly quote the author. For any presentation to be successful the ideas and thoughts of the presenters should be well portrayed thus the listeners are convinced that it is their original work (Bovee & Thill, 2009).

Question 10: Because of recent changes in your organization, one of your employees was given the task of writing several business reports. You believe that his writing skills are not first-rate. When he provides you with the draft of the first report, what qualities do you look for? There are five essential qualities of an effective writing which any writer should put in consideration before coming up with any business report. These qualities include: focus, development, unity, coherent and correctness. The focus quality is concern about the idea that the whole piece of writing refers to.

Each sentence should be clear and within the topic of discussion so as to give a paragraph a topic or main point of discussion. The development refers to the organization of the messages conveyed in any paragraph. All the individual sentences should be well developed so as to support the main point. Unity is another important quality which describes the organization of each sentence in a paragraph and the relationship of each paragraph to the point of discussion. Each paragraph should stick to its point and guide or support the other one.

The coherent factor represents the organization of the of the easy. The flow of the points should be logical thus the reader can be able to connect them from the first one based on the importance. This means that everything in the passage should be sensible to the reader. The correctness as a quality means that the writing should be of standard language with short and simple sentences which are easily understandible to the reader.

The writer should be a good proofreader so as to correct all the error (Reinking & Osten, 2004). Conclusion Communication plays the greatest roles in the success of all the operations taking place in an organization. it is the key determiner of the relationship between various parties since it mostly expresses the behavior of various individuals for exampl3e, some of the words used might express respect, courtesy, honesty or dishonest to each other. In a meeting context the element of communication should be well utilized to ensure that all the goals and objectives are achieved.