WRT227/01

Friday, September 12
Analyze Your Documents
Audience and Purpose
Who is the main audience for this document?
Who else is likely to read it?
What is your relationship with the audience?
Are multiple types of relationships involved?
What information does this audience need?
How familiar might the audience be with technical details?
Do these readers have varying levels of expertise?
What culture or cultures does your audience represent?
How might cultural differences shape readers expectations and
interpretations?
Baby Food?
Coke Adds Life!
Coke will bring your dead
ancestors back from the grave
Consider the Cultural Context
Some cultures hesitate to debate, criticize, or disagree.
Some cultures observe special formalities in communicating.
Many cultures consider the source of the message as important as
the content.
Some cultures trust oral communication.
Cultures respond differently to different emotional pressures.
Cultures differ in their attitudes toward big business, technology,
competition, or women in the workplace.
Purposes
Inform
Instruct
Persuade
Persuasion
Persuasion is trying to influence someones
actions, opinions, or decisions
Required in the workplace whenever there is an issue
about which people disagree
To communicate persuasively, you must identify your
major claims
Claim about what the facts are
Claim about what the facts mean
Claim about what should be done
All claims require support.
Expect Audience Resistance
People who have made up their minds are
more resistant to persuasion.
For people to admit youre right often means
that theyre wrong.
When people yield to persuasion, they
respond in one of three ways:
Compliance
Identification
Internalization
Major Causes of Unethical
Behavior
Yielding to Social Pressure:
Company expects your loyalty to ignore
unethical communication
Mistaking Groupthink for Teamwork: Group
members feel pressured to not voice
questions, criticisms, or bad news by other
members of the team
January 28, 1986
February 1, 2003
Email from Flight Director to Shuttle
Commander
During ascent at approximately 80 seconds, photo
analysis shows that some debris from the area of the -Y
ET Bipod Attach Point came loose and subsequently
impacted the orbiter left wing, in the area of transition
from Chine to Main Wing, creating a shower of smaller
particles. The impact appears to be totally on the lower
surface and no particles are seen to traverse over the
upper surface of the wing. Experts have reviewed the
high speed photography and there is no concern for RCC
or tile damage. We have seen this same phenomenon on
several other flights and there is absolutely no concern
for entry.
For Monday, September 15
Read Chapter 3
Chapter 3 Discussions Response
Writing:
Exercises (p. 86 88)
#1, #8, #9, or SHARPENING YOUR CAREER SKILLS
(p. 88)