Javier, Jean Chel P.

Soriano, Edjohn

STAGES IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Business Communication is an important ingredient for success because written
communication is used in all areas of business operations. Well-written business
communication conveys expertise, professionalism, and competence. Therefore,
whether the communication is for an external or internal audience, it is worth the
time and effort to write skillfully. What makes business writing effective? To be
effective, business writing should be clear, concise, and credible. Clear writing is
easy to understand. Concise writing contains only the details that are pertinent to
the purpose and topic of the communication. Credible writing is true, realistic, and
free of puffery. So now, we are going to discuss the five stages of Business
Communication.
STAGE 1- PREWRITING
Planning is the key to effective business writing. Planning your writing will help you
organize your thoughts, shape your ideas, and develop the purpose of your
material. Because planning enables you to write more efficiently, it will save you
time and frustration. The first step is to simply get your thoughts on paper. The
next step is to decide on a method for organizing your thoughts such as
chronologically or by order of importance.
It is very difficult and even futile to try and think about WHAT you want to write and
HOW you want to phrase it in the same time. In planning, you try to foresee what
you want your final text to look like, using the following points:
Define your writing topic and content area. Narrow your topic down to a specific
angle that will be developed in your text. Make sure you are aware of any specific
content or technical requirements you may have from teachers. Research and
analyze
information
sources
if
needed.
Calculate the time needed to complete your writing task. Remember that even a
1,500 word college essay may take a few days to properly complete, so do not
postpone
writing
assignments
to
the
last
minute!
Brainstorm and jot down any ideas, thoughts, arguments, words, and phrases
you
think
are
relevant
to
your
text.

Organize your preliminary arguments into an outline following a logical order

that would suit the general essay structure of opening, body, and ending. Put ideas
in sub-groups that will later develop into paragraphs.

STAGE 2- GATHERING AND COLLECTING FACTS

Information gathering refers to gathering information about the issue youre facing
and the ways other organizations and communities have addressed it. The more
information you have about the issue itself and the ways it has been approached,
the more likely you are to be able to devise an effective program or intervention of
your own.
There are obviously many sources of information, and they vary depending on what
youre looking for. In general, you can consult existing sources or look at natural
examples, examples of actual programs and interventions that have addressed the
issue. Well touch on where to find both here, and then go into more detail about
them later in the section.

Existing sources. This term refers to published material of various kinds

that might shed light either on the issue or on attempts to deal with it. These
can be conveniently divided into scholarly publications, aimed primarily at
researchers and the academic community; mass-market sources, written in a
popular style and aimed at the general public; and statistical and
demographic information published by various research organizations and
government agencies.

Natural examples. These are programs or interventions developed and

tried in communities that have addressed your issue. Studying them can tell
you what worked for them and what didnt, and why. By giving you insight
into how issues play out in your or other communities, they can provide nutsand-bolts ideas about how to (or how not to) conduct a successful program or
intervention. For the most part, information sources here are the people who
are involved in efforts to address issues similar to yours, or those who can
steer you to them. Additionally, there are a number of natural examples (such
as single case studies) that have been written about descriptively in the
literature of community psychology or public health that may be relevant to
your work.

STAGE 3- ANALYZING AND ORGANIZING INFORMATION

Analyzing information involves examining it in ways that reveal the relationships,
patterns, trends, etc. that can be found within it. That may mean subjecting it to
statistical operations that can tell you not only what kinds of relationships seem to
exist among variables, but also to what level you can trust the answers you are

getting. It may mean comparing your information to that from other groups (a
control or comparison group, statewide figures, etc.), to help draw some conclusions
from the data. The point, in terms of your evaluation, is to get an accurate
assessment in order to better understand your work and its effects on those you are
concerned with, or in order to better understand the overall situation.
The timing of analysis can be looked at in at least two ways: One is that it is best to
analyze your information when you have collected all of it, so you can look at it as a
whole. The other is that if you analyze it as you go along, you will be able to adjust
your thinking about what information you actually need, and to adjust your program
to respond to the information you are getting. Which of these approaches you take
depends on your research purposes. If youre more concerned with a summative e
STAGE 4- WRITING THE MESSAGE
With your strategy in place, you are ready to write. Before you begin writing,
creating a mental image of your target audience and writing the information as if
you were having a conversation with them. You might want to ask yourself the
following questions: What information do they need to make an informed decision?
How much knowledge do they already have about the topic? What action would I
like them to take after reading the information?
Your sentences should adhere to proper word order rules, each containing a
subject and a predicate. Use a variety of verb tenses correctly and appropriately
(simple,
progressive,
perfect,
and
perfect-progressive
tenses).
Be
careful
with
subject-verb
agreement
issues.
Use a variety of language constructions to make your writing more precise and
educated (comparative structures, relative clauses, conditional sentences, not too
much
of
the
passive
voice
etc.)
Use a dictionary or spell checker when not sure about spelling. Reread your text
again
for
problematic
homonyms
(there
their
theyre).
Use a variety of punctuation marks accurately and consult a style guide when
hesitating
between
a
comma,
colon,
or
semi-colon.
Edit for text mechanics: capitalization, numbering, italics, and abbreviations.
STAGE 5- REVISING YOUR WORK
It is now time to revise. The revising stage requires critical analysis of your work. It
is the time to change things if necessary. For instance, you may need to reorder
paragraphs, delete sentences, add more details, or replace some words with others.
How can you start this process? Read your work as if you were a member of the
target audience. Does the message resonate with you? Does it give you enough
information? Does it persuade you to take action? Does it convey an understanding
of who you are or what you need? To help with the revising process, ask yourself of
the following questions:

 Do the major pieces of the text belong? (Conciseness)

Is the text in the most effective order? (Clarity)
Do my sentences and paragraphs add anything of value to my message?
(Conciseness)
Are there any words and phrases that can be removed? (Clarity)
Am I using long words when shorter ones will express the same thought just
as well? (Credibility)
Does what I have written make sense? (Clarity/Credibility)
If I were a member of the target audience, would I read this? (Credibility)
It may also be helpful to ask someone else to read your material as others can
sometimes see flaws that we cannot see.
Add polish to the piece with editing. It can be difficult for us to edit our own material
for consistency, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. After all, we wrote it and have
probably read it at least a few times. So how can we catch those little mistakes? You
know, the ones that are glaring at us, but we still cannot see them. If possible, ask
someone else to edit your material. If you cannot recruit an editor, one trick is to set
the material aside for at least a day (more if possible). Then you can re-read it with
a fresh eye and clear mind.
If your time is limited, there is a less time consuming method. It involves reading
the paragraphs in reverse order. Reading your work from finish to start may
disrupt the flow of your words enough for you to catch some errors.
Developing business-writing skills takes time and practice. If you do not write
frequently or if writing is not your best skill, it will take practice to become an
effective business writer. But in the end you will be able to communicate in writing
with style, grace, and expertise.
Writing is a process. It involves developing concepts, researching the topic, outlining
the material, writing a first draft, revising the draft, and conducting a final edit. The
goal of this creative process is to develop written communication that informs,
persuades, enlightens, entertains, comforts, or inspires. Regardless of the purpose
or intended audience, effective writing produces written communication that gets
the desired result. It is active, concise, solid, and accurate. Active writing flows well
and touches the reader in some important way. Concise writing is clear and to the
point. Solid writing is well organized and credible. Accurate writing has consistency,
good grammar, and appropriate punctuation.