Lecture 1

- Class preps you to write more effectively in professional settings, so you can
expand and enrich your writing skills to advance your career. Graded on quality
of writing and the ideas/ solutions you present

- Course Goals
- Learn to argue like a grown up by acknowledging complexity, focusing on
ideas instead of feelings, using evidence clearly and honestly, taking
opposing POVs seriously, and respectively each others right to speech
- Understanding the value and significance of professional communication,
especially in terms of building positive relationships with employers,
colleagues, and customers
- Practice career-relevant professional writing tasks in a simulated but
realistic environment, analyzing both the rhetorical and business
elements of workplace documents
- Develop a professional resume and cover letter suitable for use in future
job searches

- Strategic Value Creation

- Where is the value and how do we communicate that
- Professional values enables your audience’s success, helping them reach
better outcomes with your help than they would without you
- What does your audience want and why is that outcome important
to them
- How much is the audience willing to change in order to reach their
goals and what are they willing to invest
- How can I define, articulate, and develop my value strategically?
Who needs to hear this story and how should I tell it
- What makes my value strategically valuable to my audience? How
can my resource contribute to their success
 - Communicating professionally: Seven practices
- Prioritize your professional identity and present it effectively
- Create value for your audience by anticipating news, providing goods and
services and sharing “one up” expertise
- Advantage/ acting like a guide
- Notice, analyze, and respond effectively to significant details
- Focus on long term outcomes and not just short term needs or wants
- Be an ambassador for your term, organization, and industry
- Promote goodwill and future business during every interaction
- Commit to ongoing growth and development, especially outside of formal
settings

How to succeed in BUS100W

- Identify your priorities and how they interact
- Competing priorities create conflict, unrealistic rankings, and
guilt/resentment
- Interactive priorities acknowledge different goals, honor multiple
commitments, and encourage negotiations
- Use your priorities to plan your tasks and keep yourself motivated
- Use your knowledge and time effectively
- What do you already know about the topic, assignment, or task? What
relevant skills do you already have
- Put your schedule to work for you. Short bursts of focused work are more
effective than multitasking
- Use your support networks, both personal and professional
- Stay engaged in your own learning
- Manage course projects consistently and effectively. Try using SMART
goals to organize your tasks
- Make sure all the assignment deadlines are in your calendar, then use
those deadlines to schedule work sessions

Read pp 22-59 for HW

- Showing Customers that they care

- Choosing the appropriate channels to reach your audience
- Meet audience expectations
- Reach a more targeted audience
- Shorten Response Time
- Make a Broader Impact
 - Face-to-Face Contact
- Ensure that they are available to talk
- Have appropriate documents ready
- Look for “time to go signs”
- Phone Calls
- Pushes a sense of immediacy
- Letters
- Allows people to keep information long-term
- Emails are better (Saves on Printing)

You Attitude
- Look at things from the audience’s point of view
- Talk about the audience, not yourself
- Don’t talk about feelings unless to congratulate or offer sympathy
- Refer specifically to the audience’s requests
- In good situations, use “we” if it includes the audience
- In bad situations, avoid the word “you” to avoid blaming the
audience
Tone
- Depends on situations (Superior to subordinate vs vice versa)

Inclusivity
- Make language ungendered
- Ex. Instead of Chairman, use Chairperson
- Courtesy Titles and Names
- Pronouns
- Make language non racist and non-ageist
- Avoid negative terms for people with disabilities and Diseases
- Choose inclusive visuals

Lecture 2 - You Attitude and Goodwill

- What is your purpose in communicating
- Who is your audience in this message
- How will your audience initially react to the message
- What information must your message include
 - What benefits will your audience find compelling
- How can you ensure that you communicate ethically

Key Audience Concepts

- Gatekeepers control access to your message, often to do quality control,
ensure accuracy, or create consistency with the company’s desired
tone/content
- Primary audiences evaluate your claims and decide whether to act on
them. They should motivate your purpose and much of your content
- Secondary audience may comment on your message or implement your
ideas, but only after the primary audience accepts it
Limiting Your Audience
- The more know you your audience, the better you can customize your
message
- The more diverse your audience, the more difficult it is to identify their
values and predict their reactions
- The better you can show reader benefits and relevance the more likely you
are to reach your primary audience
- The more you try to reach everybody at once, the harder it will be to create
value for anybody
Reaching Your Audience
- In group messages, first determine the relationship between the audience
and your organization, what separates them from the public
- Next determine what audience members have in common with each other.
Gather data from generalization, databases, and market research
- Last, create demographic and psychographic profiles to choose
information that your readers will find relevant, interesting, and
persuasive
Defining You Attitude
- You-attitude in a communication style that looks at things form the
audience's point of view, emphasizing what the audience wants or need to
know, respecting the audience’s intelligence, and protecting the
audience’s ego
- You attitude goes beyond individual techniques to influence which
messages you send and how you send them. Just like taylor swift’s style
influences every song she plays, you attitude operates independently of
your message’s content
 - You attitude demonstrates respect for your audience’s time, knowledge,
and priorities- and help shoes that your message is worth their attention
Practicing You attitude
- Subordinate your own priorities to meet your audience’’s goal and needs
- Understand and empathize with your audience, especially in cases of
information asymmetry or differences in expertise
- Legitimize your audience’s concerns and objections, even when your goal
is overcoming them
- Look out for your audience’s interests, even at the cost of your own profit
- Ask yourself: if I were the customer in this situation, how would I want to
be treated
You attitude structure
- Lead with the information most relevant/interesting to your audience,
especially if it addresses and immediate concern
- Arrange content so it meets your audience’s needs, even if your needs have
to wait
- Use summaries, parallel headings, and lists to help readers find and
understand key points quickly
You attitude Content
- In a response, make sure you engage every direct question and concern
- Give enough content to allow an informed decision, clarifying both
benefits and costs
- Anticipate and answers your audience's likely questions
- SHow why any extra information is relevant and beneficial to your
audience
You attitude sentences
- Talk about your audience, not yourself
- Refer specifically to the customer's request or order
- Don’t talk about feelings, except to congratulate and offer sympathy
- In positive situations use the word your more often than I, In negative
situations when it includes the audience
- In negative situations, avoid you, Consider using passive voice and
impersonal expressions to avoid assigning blame
Defining good will
- Goodwill makes people feel positively towards you and the organization
that you work for, helps builds the relationships that increase customer
loyalty, and eases the challenges of business and administration
- IT helps you achieve your purposes and make you messages friendlier,
more persuasive, more professional, and more compassionate, showing
that you care not just about money but also about the need and interest of
your customers and employees
Goodwill and Value
- Goodwill both reflects and contributes to an organization's ethos: its
reputation among customers, employees, and stakeholders
- Like any relationship, goodwill relies on patterns of behavior (good or
bad), particularly in challenging situations
- By providing value, you can create long term goodwill and encourage
future business, even if the short-term result is not a transactions
- Just as value puts your audience in a better places than they would be
without interacting with you, goodwill better positions you and your
company for greater revenue
Goodwill in COmmunication choices
- Choose a communication channel that's convenient and valuable for your
audience
- Demonstrate consistent you attitude in your message’s language, content
and structure
- Utilize positive emphasis when it’s appropriate, sincere, and realistic
- Work within norms and conventions for politeness, titles, and tone
- Use inclusive language to avoid offending readers, perpetuating
stereotypes, or discriminating against particular groups

Lecture 3- Professional Integrity

Doing business ethically

- Some people use morality and ethics as synonyms, as both concepts
engage personal and organizational questions of right and wrong
- Others define morality as a code of behavior and ethics as a decision
making process within certain contexts
- In some cases, individuals' moral stands might conflict with a
culture's ethical norms. In others, it may be inappropriate or even
 illegal to make a business decision based only on your personal
moral standard
- Many organizations define both their corporate values and set a
code of conduct for employees and partners

Ethics in Business Writing: Data

- Be clear and precise. Present all of the necessary information, so
your readers can make an informed decision
- Present your evidence objectively and honestly, even when you
make recommendations or are criticizing an idea or behavior
- Follow company and industry norms/ rules for presenting data. If
you have questions about why something is included or left out, ask
them during the research and preparation stages
- Avoid logical fallacies in your arguments, especially the ad hominem
and strawman fallacies

Ethics in Business Writing: People

- Do not demean other people when you write, your competitors
today might be your coworkers tomorrow
- Be sensitive to individual preferences for defining and describing
themselves, especially in terms of race, gender, nationality,
disability, and sexuality. IF you're unsure, find a workaround or ask
the people involved
- Be mindful of cultural differences in communication style, as well as
boundaries/taboos about conversion topics
- Practice the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do
unto you. That includes giving people the benefit of the doubt when
you get offended by something

Academic Integrity @ UCR

- Academic misconduct is any act that improperly distorts a student’s
grades or other academic records
 Essentials of Strategic Communication - Key Takeaway
- Focus on your audience needs
- Make communication Goal Driven
- Use Structured Communication
- Engage your audience
- PRactice your confident delivery

Cover Letter Checklist

- 500-750 words
- Block format (no indents)
- 100-175 words per paragraph
- Intro that identifies which job you’re currently applying for, where
you saw the ad, and what main qualifications are
- Body paragraphs demonstrates how and why you would meet the
companies needs and be a good employee
- A conclusion that suggests an interview and leaves the reader with a
good impression of your work
- Professional greeting and closing/signature

A+ Interview Features
- Detailed knowledge and genuine enthusiasm about the role,
company, and industry
- Confident and engaging delivery, both in terms of style and content
- Thorough demonstration targeted professional qualifications
- Curated examples that present you as a thoughtful, conscientious,
and skilled professional
- Strategic and accurate use of industry-specific vocabulary,
including jargon

Benefits of Networking
- Share knowledge and expertise within your professional communities
- Develop more confidence in your work and potential
- Identify opportunities for future collaboration
- Secure project or job recommendations
- Develop long-term working relationship
- Build Personal and Professional support
Challenges of Networking
- Time and Resource costs, especially for large-scale events
- Physical and emotional energy requirements
- Balancing networking with daily responsibilities
- Frustration with high expectations and/low ROI
- Transactional emphasis vs. genuine relationship

Building Your Network

- Consider three categories of people: colleagues, mentors, and industry
leaders. Each one will offer different insights into different problems or
opportunities
- Tailor your approach to your needs and setting. Think about development,
not just advancement
- Respect others’ time and energy, especially in high demand settings
- Demonstrate curiosity and genuine interest: you are building
relationships, not transactions
- Look for opportunities to share your own value, including by helping
others build their networks

Networking and Self-Reflection

- Before driving into network, maximize your future efforts by taking time
to reflect on the following questions
- What are your networking goals - What do you aim to achieve
- What can you contribute to your network
- How often can your engage with your network
- What are your areas of interest, for both personal and professional
development
- What are your preferred mode of networking, in person or online

Social media and your job search

- Social media can be a great way to share interests, find opportunities and
get tips for your job search. Join groups, follow industry company pages,
and engage with our professionals
- However, cybervetting is common during job searches. One survey found
that 70% of employers had checked candidates social media presence and
over 50% had not hired a candidate due to their social media content
 - Social media can also reveal information that interviews can’t legally ask
you about, such as race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or political
views

Professional Profile
- 50-100 words highlighting your key strengths and major professional
accomplishments. Customize it for each potential employer, especially if
you have a diverse set of job skills
- Use a professional and positive tone is vital here, since this is the section
that your potential employer will see

Lecture 8
- Don’t have a canned response for every interview question
- Aim for 135 to 155 words per minute
- Take your time to consider your goals and qualifications
- Research the firm and review the job description to under why you
would be a good fit
- Interviews are conversations for both you and the interviewer to consider
whether or not you would want to work with each other
- STAR Method
- Situation, Task, Action, Result
- Interview and You Attitude
- - Talk about what you can do for the firm
- Why should they hire you instead of other applicants
- Be genuine, honest, and realistic

PEAR analysis
- P, Priorities
- What is most important to the customer
- E, emotions
- How does the customer feel about this situation
- A, Attitude
- What is the customers overall attitude towards the situation
- R, Requests
- Is the customer asking for anything? If so, what