{"id":26,"date":"2019-02-01T16:19:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T16:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-communicationforprofessionals\/?post_type=chapter&p=26"},"modified":"2019-07-29T18:35:12","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T18:35:12","slug":"purpose","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-communicationforprofessionals\/chapter\/purpose\/","title":{"raw":"Purpose & Content","rendered":"Purpose & Content"},"content":{"raw":"

Purpose<\/h2>\r\nThe following video provides a brief introduction to purpose as a communication variable.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7OPGVA0vKmk\r\n\r\nProfessional communication may have many purposes. Purpose, along with other communication variables, helps you as a communicator to determine content.\u00a0 Some common professional communication purposes include to inform, which includes providing good and bad news; instruct; request; and persuade. While some communications have a single purpose, others may combine purposes or have a primary and a secondary purpose.\r\n

Inform<\/h3>\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nCommunications to inform are plentiful and varied; most likely, as a professional, you read, see, hear, and\/or create a number of them every day. You might send or receive an email providing information about the date and time of a meeting.\u00a0 You might read a progress report on the first stage of implementing a change in procedures.\u00a0 You might create a flyer or brochure intended to let the community know about your organization's available services.\u00a0 Communications to inform may be brief and to-the-point, or lengthier, intended to help an audience understand a topic, issue, or procedure more clearly. Note that \"most business communications are in fact 'informative' messages. An informative message in the workplace is simply the sharing of meaningful information between people in an unbiased and professional manner. Informative messages can be short or long, formal or casual in tone, internal or external in focus, and direct or indirect in structure, depending on the situation.\"[1]<\/sup>\r\n

Instruct<\/h3>\r\nCommunications to instruct take informative communications one step further, with the goal of enabling your audience to do something, to understand and apply a concept or procedure.\u00a0 Instructions on how to use a certain system, how to respond to a certain type of client, how to format a document using your organization's conventions, or when to escalate a situation to the next level of supervision all assume that your audience will use the information once they understand it.\u00a0 If you're communicating with the purpose of instruction, it's critical to build in some feedback mechanism to make sure your audience understands fully so that they can apply concepts or procedures appropriately.\r\n

Request<\/h3>\r\nCommunications that request any type of information\u2014an update, a client background, a refund\u2014often need to explain why that information is being requested.\u00a0 If your audience understands the context for the request, they may be more likely to provide the information or outcome that you desire.\u00a0 Even if you're in an ultimate power position in an organization (i.e., you can just say \"do it\" and people jump) a request should be clear, comprehensive, specific, and polite.\r\n
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Try It<\/h3>\r\nConsider the following request, written in an email from a supervisor to staff.\u00a0 How might you edit to make this into a more effective request?\r\n

Please send your photograph and brief biographical information for our web pages.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

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something interesting to consider re: Requests<\/h3>\r\nAlthough it was developed as behavior therapy for people with borderline personality disorders, the the DEAR MAN approach also offers an interesting way to consider potentially complex or uncomfortable requests in a professional context, because it deals with interpersonal effectiveness. (For example, as a supervisor, you feel the need to request an explanation from the person in charge of why your staff members need to re-apply for their current positions.)\r\n\r\nThe DEAR portion deals with a sequence by which to make the request:\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. D<\/strong>escribe the facts of the situation.<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. E<\/strong>xpress your own understanding of and reaction to the situation.<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. A<\/strong>ssert or make your request.<\/li>\r\n \t
  4. R<\/strong>einforce the request.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nThe MAN portion deals with the way in which the request is made:\r\n
      \r\n \t
    • M<\/strong>indful of the audience and their view.<\/li>\r\n \t
    • A<\/strong>ppear confident.<\/li>\r\n \t
    • N<\/strong>egotiate so that both parties in the request are satisfied.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

      Persuade<\/h3>\r\nCommunications to persuade have the goal of getting your audience to take specific action. In order to foster action, persuasion focuses on the audience members themselves, and why and how the action can benefit them.\u00a0 Persuasion is not the same as selling, and it's not coercion in any way.\u00a0 If your purpose is to persuade, you want your audience to understand the value to them in what you're proposing, and therefore act.\r\n\r\n\"In order to succeed at persuasion, you must generally give good reasons for the person you are communicating with to do or believe what you intend. That is one reason why it is generally important to identify your purposes for communicating in the workplace before you communicate. If you believe you are only informing, you may fail to provide the good reasons or evidence necessary to persuade, if that is indeed your primary purpose.\"[2]<\/sup>\r\n\r\nAlthough the following video's purpose is to sell a service, the information offered on persuasion is clear and useful.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Jzc_RWDstNQ\r\n\r\nIn addition to considering purpose in terms of inform-instruct-request-persuade, the following video categorizes professional communication purposes in terms of their emphases and results. The author identifies four purposes of professional communication\u2014informing, directing, consulting, and valuing\u2014and places them within a framework of transformational\/transactional messages (focused more on people\/focused more on tasks) and static\/dynamic messages (no response\/response), providing another very useful way to think about purpose in professional writing.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=u7qy6eZbmt8\r\n

      <\/h2>\r\n

      Content<\/h2>\r\nContent<\/span><\/span>\u00a0refers to all the written substance, images, audio files, video files, etc. which comprise a communication. After identifying an audience and a purpose, identify specific information to include in the message. Content may consist of examples, statistics, facts, anecdotes, testimonials, and observations, but no matter the type, the information must be appropriate and interesting for the audience and purpose.\r\n\r\nContent is linked inextricably with purpose and audience; purpose and audience determine content.\u00a0 Ask yourself the following questions about purpose in order to determine content: Why am I writing this?\u00a0 What do I want the audience to understand?\r\n\r\n\"Triangle.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[1]<\/sup> Business Communication Skills for Managers<\/em>, Lumen Learning, https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wmopen-businesscommunicationmgrs\/chapter\/informative-business-messages\/\r\n\r\n[2] Chapter 2, The Purposes of Business Communication, pg. 26 https:\/\/www.cengage.com\/resource_uploads\/downloads\/0324300816_50288.pdf <\/sup>","rendered":"

      Purpose<\/h2>\n

      The following video provides a brief introduction to purpose as a communication variable.<\/p>\n