Business Communication Flashcards

Flashcards covering key concepts from a business communication lecture, including persuasive and negative messages, oral presentations, visuals, and reports.

What are the key steps in determining what you want people to do in a persuasive message?

Identify the specific action you want and the person who has the power to do it.

How should you handle potential objections from your audience when crafting a persuasive message?

Research potential objections, phrase questions non-defensively, and ask follow-up questions to encourage agreement.

What are the three aspects that determine the strength of your case in persuasion?

Reasoning (logos), credibility (ethos), and emotional appeal (pathos).

When is it appropriate to use a direct request pattern in a persuasive message?

Use it when the audience will likely do as you ask without resistance.

When is it appropriate to use a problem-solving pattern in a persuasive message?

Use it when the audience may resist and logic is more important than emotion.

When is it appropriate to use a sales pattern in a persuasive message?

Use it when the audience may resist and emotion is more important than logic.

What are the key steps in writing persuasive problem-solving messages?

Mention common ground, define the shared problem, explain the solution, address negative elements, summarize benefits, and ask for the action you want.

What kind of subject line is best for problem-solving messages aimed at a reluctant audience?

Use a common ground or a benefit that shows the message will help the audience solve a problem.

How should you address major objections from your audience?

Present arguments from the audience's point of view, try to find a win-win solution, let the audience save face, and ask for something small.

How should you organize sales and fund-raising messages?

Open with attention-grabbing content, provide reasons and details in the body, and end with a call to action and a reason to act promptly.

What techniques can you use to create emotional appeals?

Use details, quotes, vivid pictures, and sensory details.

When delivering bad news to a client or customer, what approach should you take?

Give the reason before the refusal, state the refusal clearly once, offer an alternative, and end positively.

How should you deliver negative news to a superior?

Describe the problem, tell how it happened, describe options for fixing it, recommend a solution, and ask for action.

What are some effective buffering techniques to use at the beginning of a negative message?

Start with good news or positive elements, state a fact or provide a chronology, refer to enclosures, thank the reader, or state a general principle.

What are some possible ways to gain the audiences attention when planning a strong opening for a presentation?

Startling statement, narration, quotation, question, humor

What are some ways to effectively start a presentation to inform the audience

State goal or message, preview structure, credibility, relevance

What are some ways visuals can be planned for an oral presentation

Professional image, heighten emotional impact, convey content not easily spoken , assist organization

What are some image type visuals?

Photographs, drawings, maps

What are some visual types other than images?

Tables, charts, graphs

What are some graph visual types?

pie graphs, line and bar graphs, scatterplot graphs

What are the three variations of information reports?

Analytical, recommendation and informational reports

What are the two variations of delivery reports?

Informal and Formal reports

What are some possible report components?

Transmittal, Executive Summary, Conclusions, Table of contents, Introduction, Recommendations, Appendices

What does the introduction to a report explain?

Purpose, Scope, Assumptions, Methods, Limitations, Criteria, Definitions

What information is contained in the conclusion of a report?

Summarize key points made in main part of report

What information is contained in the recommendations of a report?

Offer actions to solve or lessen problem that are based on conclusions