Planning for Professional Communication (PAGOS)

Overview

Whether you realize it or not, you engage in some sort of planning for nearly every communication situation you find yourself in. Whether you’re aware of it or not, you make purposeful choices about what and how to communicate.

Let’s consider a sample communication situation.

In a difficult and consequential situation like this, you are likely to think about what to communicate and how to communicate to your supervisor.

You might think about…

• You may think about the possible outcomes: worst cases include punishment or possible termination, and best cases include understanding, empathy, and forgiveness.
• You may think about the potential outcome that is both likely and desirable. What you want to have happen as a result of this communication situation? Do you want to simply inform your supervisor? Do you want her sympathy and support? Do you want her help in future situations? Do you want to avoid negative consequences? Is that likely?
• You may think about your supervisor as a person. How has she handled bad news like this in the past? How is she likely to receive the news? Would she appreciate knowing why you were unable to deliver the report? Does she have small children and is this likely to make her sympathetic? Is she in a good mood today? When is the best time to tell her?
• You may think about the appropriate genre/s for this situation. Would it be best to document your situation in a formal letter of apology? Should you write a quick, informal email? Is it best to tell your supervisor in person? Should you drop by her office or request a scheduled meeting?
• You may think about what to say first. Do you get straight to the point and tell her that you’ve lost the client? Do you explain the situation with your son’s broken arm first and then tell her the bad news about the client? Do you close asking for forgiveness, explaining steps to take to avoid negative outcomes in similar future situations?
• You may think about your delivery. If you decide to schedule a meeting, will you speak in a highly formalized manner that shows you understand the gravity of the situation? Will you speak casually about your son in the hopes to elicit her sympathy?

PAGOS (Application & Use)

When you think about what you want to have happen, you consider purpose. When you think about your supervisor, how she might react, what she’s interested in, her position and responsibilities, her frame of reference, etc., you consider your audience. When you think about whether to write or meet in person, you consider genre. When you think about what to say first, how to order the details, and what note to close on, you consider organization. When you think about your tone, you consider style.

When you think about those things, you’re thinking rhetorically–you’re thinking about all of the elements of the situation and making choices about what and how to communicate in order to achieve your purpose.

Throughout the term, we will use these five elements–purpose, audience, genre, organization, and style–in two ways:

1. as a frame for analyzing existing sample documents to determine whether they would be successful or unsuccessful in achieving their purpose and in thinking of ways to improve them, and
2. as a strategy for planning our own professional communication in the hopes of achieving our purpose.

For now, in this more detailed explanation, we’ll think of PAGOS as a way to analyze a communication situation and plan what/how to write. For that reason, I’ll use second person (you) instead of third person (the writer).

Purpose

• Why are you writing?
• What do you want to accomplish?
• What do you want to have happen as a direct result of this communication?
• What is your overall goal?
• What information do you need to include to accomplish your purpose?

Except in rare cases, the purpose is almost never “to write an email,” or “to write a letter.” The purpose is to do something–to make a sale, to encourage further contact, to build goodwill, to get a refund, to demonstrate credibility, etc. Remember our discussion of rhetoric? Rhetoric is active and purposeful–it gets things done.

Think about it this way. Your supervisor will never come to you and say, “Jane, please write an email today,” just for the heck of it. Rather, perhaps your supervisor wants you to check in with a client to make sure they’re satisfied with your product (and perhaps, you write an email as a means for doing that). Your supervisor will never come to you and say “or ”Jim, create a report.” Rather, your boss wants to choose a new widget supplier based on quality and price (and you may write a recommendation report that compares potential suppliers and recommends one based on those criteria). The purpose of professional writing isn’t to write a thing… it’s to get something done.

Often, professional communications have an immediate purpose and a larger purpose or goal.

For example, say you receive an advertisement for “home improvement services” in the mail. The company responsible for the advertisement doesn’t expect you to receive the mailer, call them up, and put in an order for a bathroom remodel and hurricane shutters. Selling goods and services might be their larger purpose, but their immediate purpose is to get you to visit their website, or to call for an in-home consultation, or to consider the current state of your bathroom, or to think about the upcoming hurricane season.

So, when you consider your purpose in a communication situation, be sure to consider both the immediate purpose (what you want to have happen as a direct and immediate result of your document) and the overall purpose (the larger goal or “end result).

Audience

• Who is the primary audience?
• What is the audience’s background? (demographic, experiential, educational, etc.)
• What do they already know? What do they want to know? What do they need to know?
• What are the benefits to them? What are the potential drawbacks or objections?
• How are they likely to receive and/or respond to your message?
  • Are they expecting your message?
  • How will they react emotionally – will they be pleased? discouraged? angry? indifferent? annoyed?
• In what context/s might they read your message?
  • Will they read it in the morning? Evening? At work or home? With others? On screen, in print, in person, or through another media/medium?
• Who else might read/hear your message? Are there any secondary audiences to consider? Besides the primary audience, is there an initial audience? A gatekeeper? Watchdogs? (read “List & Explanation of the Five Kinds of Audiences in Business Communication” by Chirantan Basu of Demand Media in The Houston Chronicle)

Genre

• What genres might be appropriate in this situation?
  • If there is more than one appropriate genre, what are the benefits and drawbacks of each?
• Which genre is best (or which do you choose)? Why?
• What are the conventions (or the “rules) of the genre(s)?

Organization

• How should you organize?
• Will you start positive or end positive?
• Will you get straight to the point or provide an explanation or persuasive details first?
• Will you buffer bad news? Or provide it right away?
• Does the genre influence organization? How?

Relationship Between Genre & Organization:
Genres are familiar and recognizable. To some degree, the genre of the document shapes readers expectations of what sort of information is contained within. Genre also provides the audience some information about the document is organized and how to “use” it. For example, audiences of formal reports know they can scan the executive summary for a quick overview of what’s contained in the report, or they can read through each section more slowly. Audiences of textbooks know they don’t have to read from the first page to the last–they can often read sections out of order, browse the table of contents, or use the index to find what they’re looking for. For these reasons, a document’s genre often affects its organization.

Relationship Between Organization & General Purpose:
In the same way that genre affects organization, a document’s general purpose also affects organization. There are different “best practices” and techniques for organizing information depending on whether the general purpose is positive/neutral/informative, negative, or persuasive. We will cover those in more detail at a later time.

Style

• Will your writing style be formal? cordial, sympathetic, informative, concise? Will you write in first person active or passive? Will you use passive and impersonal construction?
• Will you use lists, headings, paragraphs, bullets, or graphic highlighting such as bold or italic fonts?
• Will you use visual aids? Will you use non-textual elements such as boxes or organizational lines? Will you use clip art or color? Will you use a graphic organizer?

Academic v. Professional Writing (Take 2); Brief PAGOS Organization

Let’s take another look at the differences between academic and professional writing–this time, using the PAGOS categories (purpose, audience, genre, organization, and style).

• What was the purpose of your writing in composition I and II?
  • You wrote in composition I and II to prove that you could write according to the conventions of standard English. You wrote to demonstrate that you could make cogent or convincing arguments and to show
    that you could write papers for classes in your majors. You wrote papers so that hopefully, you could get a good grade in the class.
• Who was the audience for your writing assignments?
  • The audience for your writing assignments was generally the teacher of the course, and occasionally, the other students in the class. Hopefully, you knew what the teacher wanted and could write to satisfy her requirements.
• What genres did you write in?
  • You may have written compare & contrast papers, argument papers, research papers, and expository papers.

• How did you generally organize your essays and papers?
  • Most of these papers were in five paragraph form
    • Paragraph 1 – Introduction which is generally “broad to narrow,” ending in a thesis statement
    • Paragraph 2 – First point, supported with evidence
    • Paragraph 3 – Transition, then second point, supported with evidence
    • Paragraph 4 – Transition, then third point, supported with evidence
    • Paragraph 5 – Conclusion, generally starting with a restatement of your thesis, and organized “narrow to broad.”
• What was the style of your writing in composition I and II?
  • Perhaps you were urged to write in a “mature” voice, to write clearly, to avoid being confusing or awkward. I remember being told that my writing wasn’t “academic” enough, whatever that meant. In addition, we all know what traditional academic essays look like–they are written in 12 point, Times New Roman font, double spaced, 1 inch margins on all sides, title centered, academic heading in the corner, etc. All academic essays look virtually the same.

How is professional and business writing different?

• What is the purpose of business and professional writing?
  • When you write professionally in your careers, you might write to inform, to request something, or to persuade. You always try to build goodwill with your writing. Writing for business within your profession is real writing — writing for a real purpose; writing that has consequence.
• Who is audience for business and professional writing?
  • Of course, you will write for a variety of audiences in your professional settings. Your audience may be your supervisor, your employees, or a potential or current client. In professional settings, it’s important to keep in mind that your audience has a particular level of knowledge, they have a particular level of investment in hearing your message, and they will act (or not act) based on your ability to communicate your message.

• What genres will you write in business and professional writing?
  • Regardless of your discipline or career, you will likely have to write business letters, emails, letters, and various types of reports. These genres have particular rules that you must learn and follow when you write within your career.
• How do you organize business and professional writing?
  • When organizing business writing, you must first be aware of the rules of the genre you’re writing in. Particular professional genres have certain rules that must be followed (for example, the subject line of an email always comes before the body of an email). Second, you must organize according to your audience. Does your audience want to hear your message? If so, then organize your writing with the “good news” up front. Is your audience going to dislike your message? If so, then you might want to buffer the bad news with something positive or neutral.
• What is the style business and professional writing?
  • As with nearly all considerations in business and professional writing, you should adapt your writing style to your audience. For the most part, you want to be friendly and understandable, as well as clear and concise.

In short, business and professional writing is real writing for real audiences. It’s writing that has consequences and writing that gets things done.