Fundamentals of Communication

Hannah King-Guffey

February 2, 2018
 There are many important components in creating an effective document to communicate

in a successful and productive way within a business organization. Prioritizing your concerns for

effective business writing and audience analysis are both critical parts in creating a successful

document among your business, along with many other components.

Every business is unique due to the distinctive members involved in the business and the

different product being sold. Your audience will consist of different people which means

addressing everyone in an effective way is often difficult. To make the process easier it is best to

start in a development stage and label who the primary author, secondary authors, and gatekeeper

are.

In order to best be in communication with your audience it is important to acknowledge

that you are the primary author, meaning you are the decision maker and voice. You want to

create a link between you and your audience, and recognizing your role in the organization and

that your writing must fit that position.

The secondary author in business writing is a technical expert within your organization.

This is someone who provides expertise to specific areas in your organization. Your secondary

author is a budget expert within your organization. This is someone who is knowledgeable in the

finances of the organization. The gatekeeper in your business is your supervisor, who it is

important you include in your audience as well.

Analyzing your business’s audience is a very important step to communicating

effectively within your team. This is the reading state where it is vital to label your audience into

different categories such as the primary audience, secondary audience, and shadow audience.

The audience include anyone who receives a copy of your writing including someone who needs

to approve your work, someone the writing is intended to be read by, or someone the message
will affect.

According to Purdue Owl getting answers to questions such as ‘who are they?’, ‘Who do

they need?’, ‘Where will they be reading?’, ‘When will they be reading?’, and ‘Why will they be

reading?’ will help you cover the important information you need to know to best address your

audience. (Purdue Owl , 2007) It is important to study what position your audience occupies in

the organization and what responsibilities they have. Getting to know your audience and meeting

with them frequently will help answer these key questions naturally and will help your writing

process be effective.

The Primary audience is the decision maker, the primary point of contact, and the project

lead. This is who the writing is directed towards and who the key questions are mainly targeted

towards. The secondary audience is the technical expert within the audience’s organization, and

the shadow audience is anyone else who may read your writing.

Analyzing and understanding your audience in a business setting is important because

being able to be aware of your audience’s needs will help you achieve your end goal of

effectively communicating, influencing the reader, and best being in touch with your business. In

my opinion communicating effectively is one of the most important skills in relationships and

being able to know your audience is key to this.

An example of the importance of audience analysis is that within a business being able to

know and understanding your other employees will help you better communicate and work

together. Smaller businesses often have an advantage at getting to know each other and

communicating effectively. The boss being able to see their employees as their audience and

analyzing who they are working with will better their business by having a successful team that

all understand the goal, and are working to achieve the same outcome.
 Within any type of writing it is important to make clear what your thesis, main point, or

priority is. It is the first step to find the focus and purpose when creating a piece of writing. This

is prioritizing your concerns for business writing.

The webpage Purdue OWL recommends when preparing to write your document to ask

helpful questions such as, ‘What is the purpose in writing this document?’, ‘What purpose should

the document serve for your reader?’, ‘Is your main point stated early in the document?’, What

do you want your reader to do when he or she finishes reading the document?’. (Brizee, 2013)

It is then important to acknowledge who your audience is. Really knowing your audience

will help you tailor your writing to help communicate best to the reader. Organizing your

document will especially help you prioritize you concerns for effective business writing. Clearly

designing your document into sections will help you have a readable document.

It is essential to make clear your concern and focus straightaway in your document and

continue to write around one main idea. Starting each paragraph with a key sentence will help

your reader stay engaged in your writing, while also arranging similar points into sections

together and in order of importance.

While drafting your document it is critical that you have enough background information

for your message and that you have provided specific examples, numbers, dates, names,

percentages, and/or graphics to support your claims. It also will help when organizing your

document to eliminate unnecessary information that would benefit your document.

The importance of prioritizing your concerns for your business document is that it allows

you to identify the most important information which gives you the ability to focus on the

purpose of your document and create the most effective document for you and your employees.

A good example of the risk of not prioritizing your concerns in a document in the work
place would be the confusion and uncertainty it could create between different departments in a

business organization. A worker who fails to clearly notify others about a change in a project

could lead to other workers continuing on a project as planned and leading to double the work

and potentially a product loss.

As a writer from Six Sigma explained, “Good business communication is essential for

building a team that will make a business a success. Communication is especially important if

members of a company are to work as a team towards the same goal.” (Six Sigma, 2012) The list

of fundamental communication objectives is long and often writing a successful business

document can be tricky, but following some of these guidelines will benefit you greatly!
Works Cited
Brizee, A. (2013, March 1). Prioritizing Your Concerns For Effective Business Writing . Retrieved
January 29, 2018, from Purdue OWL:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/548/1/
Purdue Owl . (2007). Audience Analysis. Retrieved January 29, 2018, from Purdue Owl :
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/629/1/
Six Sigma. (2012). Why Business Communication Is So Important. Retrieved Janurary 29, 2018,
from Six Sigma Online: https://www.sixsigmaonline.org/six-sigma-training-certification-
information/why-business-communication-is-so-important/