Professional Communication Notes #1 Tuesday, 8/27/19
Successful professional communication:
 Prioritizes the needs and expectation of the audience
 Is clear, concise, easy-to-read, and formal
 Answers questions, gives details, indicates the next “step”
 Follows most effective conventions for message type
Ethos
 Credibility
 Expectations and Norms- if someone is giving good news you expect to hear and receive
it as good news
 References
Pathos
 Tone and expressions
 Emphasis of point or action
 Engage relationships
Logos- appeal to logic
 Clear information
 Concise
 Arrangement
Terms and Concepts
 Conventions- patterns, expect to see a beginning middle and end, addressing in a
particular way
 Targeted practice- recognize what you’re. doing well but also that one thing that trips
you up
 Goodwill- im doing everything I can to professionally establish our relationship
 Primary purpose- why you’re sending the email
 Secondary purpose- Establish goodwill
 Psychological noise- not communicating good news to your colleague who had a bad
day, timing things
 Semantic noise- Using too much industry language to someone outside the company,
not knowing the difference between your and you’re
 Environmental noise- where are they likely to be when they get your message; officecan talk about personal things, public- can’t talk about public things
Before you communicate:
 Look at the situation and isolate your purpose. Are you giving good news? Are you
explaining new information? Make sure you have one purpose per communication.
 Consider your audience. Who are they? What do they already know, what do they
expect, what are their concerns? Are there any gaps you need to address?
 Select the best communication method for your purpose.