Page 90 - Today’s Business Communication; A How-to Guide for the Modern Professional

WhY MUST I REMEMBER ThE FOUR “F” WORDS? 79

could be easily avoided if they first thought about their purpose. A docu-
ment’s purpose is a lot like a company’s mission statement. It provides a
reason for the document’s existence and drives strategic decisions in the
writing process. If a writer can’t state her document’s purpose, how can
she expect her reader to understand it?

Is all Necessary Information Included and Organized?

Answering this question effectively requires that you first have a few key
pieces of information yourself. First, you need to have sufficient content
knowledge about the message’s topic. Do your research. Make sure you
have collected information from credible primary and secondary sources
and that you have both quantitative and qualitative information. When
you make claims, you will need the evidence to support them. Look at
your document. Do you provide sufficient and credible support for your
claims? Moreover, how can you expect to meet your audience’s informa-
tion needs if you don’t know the topic thoroughly? You wouldn’t be too
successful selling Kentucky Fried Chicken a deep fryer if you didn’t know
anything about preparing fried chicken.
In addition to sufficient content knowledge, you also need to under-
stand your audience thoroughly. You need to determine what informa-
tion they have and what information they need. Good writers anticipate
audience questions and try to answer them. Because most of our business
communications are strategic and aimed at getting a response from our
audience, we need to understand what our audience cares about.
It is important that we answer not only their content questions but
also speak to their interests. We must answer the WIIFY question that all
audiences care about—What’s In It For You? If you want your audience to
adopt a new perspective, take your advice, or change behavior, you better
be able to tell them what they can expect to get from the transaction. As
college professors, we receive requests from students who want us to open
up extra seats in our classes for them. Too often, the students’ arguments
focus solely on their rationale for needing the class, such as graduating
on time or fulfilling a prerequisite for other classes. We’re not entirely
heartless, but from our perspective, we have a limited number of openings
in our classes and adding students results in more work for us. Students