Organizational Communication Session 2: The Language of Business Daniel Angelo A. Besa, MBA Instructor PRESENTATION FLOW • Your final project • Team Cheers • How to Write E-mails • The Language of Business • Grammar Review WORK INCOMING! TEAM CHEERS FINAL PROJECT A review of the specifications INSTRUCTIONS • Choose a particular product or service (of an actual MSME) that the owner wishes to push or promote. • Schedule to meet and collaborate with MSME owner(s) to interview. • Get to know the Product or Service. Some points to consider: • Distribution? • Issues? • Targets and Goals? • Identify the communications issue(s) the business is facing. You may do the following: • Help with branding • Help to get the word out via digital/social media INSTRUCTIONS • Use an applicable or appropriate Digital communications tool to introduce/ promote/ sell the product. • Some possible ideas: • • • • • • • • Podcast? Blog? FB posts? Twitter feeds? A combination of two may be used Rationale: Why one over the other? Why do a combination? Identify what are the other MSMEs doing to push their products or service Find related literature to support your communications strategy INSTRUCTIONS • Present your communications proposal (branding/digital plan) through a powerful presentation (15 slides max). The presentation should have the following parts: • • • • About the Product Include Rationale for Branding Include Rationale for Digital Communications Plan Include Sample Messages • Rate your peers based on their contribution. PRESENTATION RUBRICS Old Rubrics GRADING POINT WEIGHT Clarity of ideas • Rationale • Sample messages • Digital strategy 40% Presentation skills 40% Organization 20% TOTAL 100% PRESENTATION RUBRICS New and Improved Rubrics PROJECT STATUS REPORT HOW TO WRITE E-MAILS PRESENTATION RUBRICS Writing Rubrics YUCKY CAFETERIA • Your company has its own cafeteria but you feel the food and service offered are inadequate. • To make matters worse, the cafeteria is always overcrowded and there were a few reports of food poisoning recently. US Plant Visit • Special points: • Thanks • Info on return journey • Comments on impression about US (work related) • Info which you were asked to send • Invitation to your US colleagues to come • Ending to letter LOOKING AT YOUR RESPONSES Food vs Foods: When to give nouns an “s” • It depends on the word and the context in use Example Staff • Collective noun referring to a group of people working for a group Staffs • Food • Food is almost always an uncountable noun used to refer to food in general Foods • Gear • Gear is almost always an uncountable noun used to refer to tools for a job in general Verb referring to the action of manning an organization Foods is the countable plural noun, meaning kinds of food Gears • Gears is the countable plural noun, meaning parts of a machine LOOKING AT YOUR RESPONSES Professionalize your emails • Use a professional email for business transactions • People won’t take your seriously with a bad email address BAD EMAIL ADDRESS • • • danbesa_fighterace@gmail.com jazzinator@Hotmail.com hottamale@yahoo.com GOOD EMAIL ADDRESS • • • daniel.besa@gmail.com Thor_Odinson@Hotmail.com SteveRogers@yahoo.com LOOKING AT YOUR RESPONSES Run-on Sentences • • A run-on sentence occurs when two independent clauses run together without proper punctuation or appropriate conjunctions. Run-ons are resolved by: • • Dividing the clauses into two sentences by inserting a period between them Incorrect Mary came home from work early we worked hard on our project. Correct Mary came home from work early. We worked hard on our project. Inserting a semicolon between them, if the two clauses are very closely related. Incorrect Mary came home from work early she had been feeling ill all morning. Correct Mary came home from work early; she had been feeling ill all morning. LOOKING AT YOUR RESPONSES Run-on Sentences • Run-ons are resolved by: • • Using a comma with a coordinating conjunction to separate the clauses. The coordinating conjunctions are: and, but, or, so, for, yet, nor. Incorrect I was too tired to go to the store the guys shopped for three hours. Correct I was too tired to go to the store, but the guys shopped for three hours.. Adding a subordinating conjunction to make one sentence out of the two clauses. Some subordinating conjunctions are: when, while, because, as, although, if, though, since Incorrect I will watch The Office you do your homework. Correct I will watch The Office while you do your homework. LOOKING AT YOUR RESPONSES It’s the little details that matter • • Due to the overfilled capacity of our mess hall during the break… On my way back home, I experienced a delay on my flight. Anyhow, that allowed me to look over the vicinity and stop by different stores and showrooms in the airport, which I honestly enjoy. • This will help the organization to lessen the complaints • However, I am hoping to reach you out thru this email to give my personal concerns about their food services. HOW TO WRITE BETTER E-MAILS 1. Keep emails short and to the point. 1. Define your goal. Consider your audience. 1. Figure out what substance will accomplish your goal. Assemble logically. 1. Decide what tone is appropriate. Take into account the person’s status, personality, your relationship with the person, and your goal. 1. Clear opening, middle, ending. End strongly and clearly. 1. State clearly the receiver’s call to action. 1. Review, edit, tighten. Keep it error free. 1. Copy people judiciously. 1. Write an informative subject line. 1. Use clear and simple language HOW TO WRITE BETTER E-MAILS • Tips on internationalizing what you write: • • • • • • • Use short common words and short declarative sentences. Cut the jargon and idioms. Use lists when appropriate. Be straightforward. Avoid passive structures. Don’t pile up long strings of nouns. Avoid writing in ways that sound unnatural. EXERCISE: HITTING THE RIGHT NOTE IN AN EMAIL • Imagine you are the owner of a small software company and you receive an email from one of the industry’s most well known and pioneering characters with the following subject line, “Get together?” Do you: • • • Email back immediately to suggest a meeting? Ring him up or text him immediately? Email him to say you are busy at the moment and will get back to him. EXERCISE: HITTING THE RIGHT NOTE IN AN EMAIL • What style would you use in your message? • • • formal and very ‘business like’ formal but not too ‘business like’ casual and chatty THE LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS THE LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS Learning Objectives • Learners are expected to: 1. Explain why English is widely used in business and why English skills need to be enhanced to advance oneself in business 2. Review and apply basic rules on English grammar. THE LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS • Meetings • Web • Email • Memo • Reports • Discussion • Face to face • Social events • Elevator conversations • Other Occasions • Social Media • Face to face • Social events • Elevator conversations • Other Occasions EXTERNAL • • • • • • • Brochure Flyers, Ads Press Releases, Annual Reports (AR) Business News Articles • Presentation • Roundtable discussions DIGITAL COMMUNICATION INTERNAL ORAL COMMUNICATION WRITTEN COMMUNICATION Business Communication Landscape • Podcasts • Roundtables • Other platforms GRAMMAR REVIEW GET YOUR DEVICES! ☺ WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ASK ME? THE LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS Writing Assignment • Write one paragraph on one of the topics below (7 sentences max): • My typical workday • What I like/ don’t like about my work • My goals for the year • TIP: Number your sentences. Sentences must flow and must be related to each other THE LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS Reading Assignment • Read the following: • On Writing by Danton Remoto • A Heritage of Smallness by Nick Joaquin (Texts will be supplied in G-classroom) • Guide Questions for A Heritage of Smallness (Put your answer in your notebook or wherever): 1. What was Nick Joaquin’s main point in the essay? 2. Do you agree or disagree with his ideas? Why or why not? 3. How did Nick Joaquin support his main idea? Where is this support found? REFERENCES • • https://www.niu.edu/writingtutorial/punctuation/run-onsentences.shtml#:~:text=A%20run%2Don%20sentence%20occur s,proper%20punctuation%20or%20appropriate%20conjunctions. https://strategiesforparents.com/food-vs-foods-whats-thedifference/#:~:text=While%20plurals%20seem%20straightforwar d%2C%20there,noun%2C%20meaning%20kinds%20of%20food.
