This course includes five short writing activities that will require you to create different types of technical communications. These are designed to actively test your understanding and to apply your knowledge to potential real-world situations. These writing activities also provide practice in communicating your reasoning in a professional manner.
The Importance of Clarity and Conciseness (Module Six)
As the new corporate communications manager, you have come across many examples of ineffective communications, including some older directives that were never carried out, mostly because of their unclear nature.
One example included an email stating that the recipient (within the research and development team) was to “create a presentation discussing the new product and send it to interested departments.” Others included a request from sales to technical support for “a list of the biggest problems with our hot products” and a memo from finance to all departments to “reduce the number of suppliers being used to better control costs.”
Develop step-by-step instructions that the international gadgets (IG) departments can use to help craft clear and concise directives. Your instructions must include the following critical elements:
- Introduction: Explain the issues with unclear directives and how these instructions will help alleviate those issues.
- Audience Analysis: What steps should an IG department employee take to analyze their audience for communication?
- Message Determination: What steps should an IG department employee take to determine the message for a communication?
- Clear and Concise Writing: What steps should an IG department employee take to ensure that a communication is written clearly and concisely?
Company Background
International Gadgets (IG) is a multinational company of 1,300+ employees and over $4 billion in revenue. Headquartered in Manchester, New Hampshire, the company designs, manufactures, sells, and supports a variety of low- and high-tech business productivity tools.
IG has manufacturing facilities in Detroit, Michigan, and Shanghai, China, and sources component parts from suppliers in Vietnam, China, Brazil, and the United States. While IG maintains sales offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Munich, Paris, Moscow, and Brussels, its products are sold throughout the United States and all of Europe and in China through a partner firm. IG employs a direct sales force targeting its top 1,000 customers, and it also sells via its website. Sales offices also include service and support operations, managed separately from the sales teams. The company is considering expanding more directly into China and exploring the possibility of opening a sales office in Beijing.
IG’s current top-selling product is the Office Drone, which was designed for workplace monitoring. The Office Drone is a small, unstaffed aerial vehicle for indoor use that includes real-time video monitoring and a targetable built-in water pistol and reservoir. The Office Drone is marketed to management and security teams to break up water cooler conversations and other nonproductive behaviors among groups of workers.
IG has introduced several new products and experienced rapid growth during the past year, with many new employees in all departments. The management team has greatly expanded as well. It includes several first-time managers, and the team is experiencing difficulties functioning as effectively as it has in the past. Communications within and between all parts of the organization, external partners, and suppliers and customers are at serious risk of completely breaking down.
In a recent example, Detroit Manufacturing was unable to meet a product delivery deadline because of parts shortages from supplies. (The component parts originated in Brazil and had been seriously delayed due to a dockworkers’ strike at U.S. West Coast ports.) The manufacturing team believed they had informed the sales team of the delay, but the sales team indicated they had never received that information and ended up losing the customer to a competitor. In another example, European sales were impacted when Switzerland unexpectedly devalued its currency, impacting IG’s profitability. Revised profitability forecasts were provided by several of the European sales offices, but others did not understand the request from the corporate office because of how it was worded, and the delay in response led to unnecessary costs.
What to Submit
This instruction must be 2 to 3 pages in length (plus a cover page and references) and must be written in APA style. Use double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins. Integrate at least one resource cited in APA format. Review the Reading: Writing Instructions https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/technicalwriting/chapter/writinginstructions/
website for suggestions and formatting guidelines for instructions.
References:
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/technicalwriting/chapter/communicatingprecision/
http://pcs.ieee.org/communication-resources-for-engineers/style/write-clearly-and-concisely/
