Communicate as a Professional

Edited by

Carel Jansen
Leon de Stadler
Aline Douma

Amsterdam University Press

Communicate as a Professional is largely based on a Dutch communication textbook: Steehouder, M., Jansen, C., Van Gulik, L., Mulder, J., Van der Pool, E., & Zeijl, W. (2016). Leren communiceren [Learning how to communicate] (7th, rev. ed.). First published in the Netherlands by © Noordhoff Uitgevers B.V., Groningen/Utrecht, The Netherlands

Illustrations interior pp. 6, 8, 44, 104, 144, 180, 216, 250, 296, 354, 388, 416: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
Cover illustration: A writer trimming his pen, Jan Ekels (II), 1784. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden
Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout

ISBN978 94 6298 810 1 (paperback)

e-ISBN978 90 4854 014 3 (ebook)

DOI10.5117/9789462988101

NUR810

© C. Jansen, L. de Stadler, A. Douma / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2019

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book.

Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher.

Foreword

Students across a wide range of programs in international higher education are all preparing themselves for a career in a particular professional field. Learning how to communicate as a professional is an essential part of that preparation. No matter how diverse the professional situations in which graduates are employed, they are always expected to behave professionally in their communication—both within their own organization and beyond.

In order to be able to carry out their communication tasks adequately, professionals must not only possess a large repertoire of knowledge and skills, they also need to be able to deploy that repertoire effectively and appropriately in their communication. They must make the right choices on what best suits the situation in which they are communicating with others and the goals they want to achieve.

During their training, students already come across a variety of tasks that are largely new to them. For these tasks, too, they need a broad knowledge and skills repertoire from which they can make the right choices. Communicate as a Professional offers a solid foundation for students to develop the communication knowledge and skills they need, both when working as a professional after they have graduated and when following an educational program that prepares them for this future.

In the first chapters of this textbook, the emphasis is on tools that can be used for the analysis of communication processes and products. In later chapters, the attention shifts to advice on how to apply this knowledge when performing more specialized communication tasks. These tasks can be complicated and demanding. This is the case, for example, when having to carefully and critically read diverse forms of professional literature, or when asked to write a research report. Carrying out such communication tasks is a bit like juggling: It may look quite easy when you see a professional do it, but if you try it yourself you will notice how difficult it is and how much experience you need to keep all the balls in the air.

This book does not offer customized recipes for performing communication tasks. The tasks are too difficult for this, and too much depends on the circumstances in which the tasks have to be carried out. What this volume does offer to the professional (or prospective professional) are tried and tested strategies to bring various communication tasks to a successful conclusion.

Each chapter opens with an image of a work of art that is directly or indirectly related to that chapter. We are grateful to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam for granting us the permission to use these images. More information about the works of art can be found on the website of Communicate as a Professional: www.communicate.amsterdam. This website also includes answers to and explanations of the assignments in the book. Furthermore, it contains test questions and additional practice material.

The wardens of the Amsterdam drapers’ guild, known as ‘The syndics’, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1662. The master drapers assess the quality of a number of cloth samples that were submitted to them as masterpieces by weavers who wanted to join the guild of the cloth makers.

Nowadays, students also have the ambition to gain entrance into an (informal) guild, when they are preparing for their careers. At the end of their training they, too, will have to deliver one or more masterpieces to show that they possess the knowledge, insights and skills needed to start a professional career.

As the editors of this book, we are grateful to the authors and the publisher of Leren Communiceren,¹ the Dutch textbook on which Communicate as a Professional is largely based. We also thank the many generations of Dutch students who have provided useful feedback on the seven editions of Leren Communiceren that have been published since 1979, and who have thus contributed to a textbook that we believe can be of value to students and other communicators not only in the Netherlands, but also in the rest of the world.

Aduard / Stellenbosch / Groningen, December 2018

Carel Jansen, Leon de Stadler, Aline Douma

1Steehouder, M., Jansen, C., Van Gulik, L., Mulder, J., Van der Pool, E., & Zeijl, W. (2016). Leren communiceren [Learning how to communicate] (7th, rev. ed.). Groningen, The Netherlands: Noordhoff.

Contents

Foreword

1Communication

2Structure

3Argumentation

4Style

5Visualization

6Reading and summarizing

7Writing—the process

8Writing—reporting

9Oral presentations

10Professional conversations

Suggested readings

References

Index

1Communication

1.1The four-sides model of communication

1.2The appeal side: communicative goals

1.2.1Communication goals of senders

1.2.2Underlying goals

1.2.3Goals of receivers

1.2.4Unclear goals

1.2.5Effectiveness of communication

1.3The self-expression side: the sender

1.4The relationship side: the receiver

1.5Feedback

1.5.1Indirect and direct feedback

1.5.2Giving and receiving feedback

Key points

Assignment

Eighteen years of age in New Aduard

Rhetorica, Cornelis Cort, after Frans Floris (I), 1565. Rhetorica sits on a chair and listens to the speech of a young man sitting behind her. An older man looking over the young man’s shoulder inspects his concept. Through the window you can see the square in front of the building where a stage is being built. Rhetorica holds a messenger staff in her hand. The caption reads: ‘She cleverly adds the pleasing hues of rhetoric to speech, by which it flows more sweetly to the ears.’

This chapter explains the basics of communication, so that you, through practice, guidance, and training, may embark on your career as a professional—just like the young man in this picture who is about to deliver a speech, and receives feedback from experienced communicators.

An impressive speech

Source: ANP/Andrew Gombert

On 17 July 2014, a plane crashed in the eastern part of Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when an attack from an officially still unknown party took the lives of 298 people, among them 196 passengers from the Netherlands.

Four days later, Frans Timmermans—then Foreign Minister of the Netherlands—gave an impressive speech to the UN Security Council. Among other things, he requested that the Netherlands and the other countries involved be enabled to safely bring home the victims’ remains, and that an official international crime investigation be conducted. Below, parts of his speech are reprinted.

Mr. President,

We are here to discuss a tragedy: the downing of a commercial airliner and the death of 298 innocent people. Men, women and a staggering number of children lost their lives, on their way to their holiday destinations, their homes, loved ones, their jobs or international obligations. How horrible must have been the final moments of their lives, when they knew the plane was going down. Did they lock hands with their loved ones, did they hold their children close to their hearts, did they look each other in the eyes, one final time, in an unarticulated goodbye? We will never know.

[…]

For the Netherlands, one priority clearly stands out above all others: Bring the victims’ remains home. It is a matter of human decency that remains should be treated with respect and that recovering victim’s remains should be done without any delay.

The last couple of days we have received very disturbing reports of bodies being moved about and looted for their possessions. It must be unbearable first to lose your husband and then to have to fear that some thug might steal his wedding ring from his remains.

To my dying day, I will not understand that it took so much time for the rescue workers to be allowed to do their difficult jobs and that human remains should be used in a political game. I hope the world will not have to witness this again, any time in the future.

Images of children’s toys being tossed around, luggage being opened or passports being shown are turning our grief and mourning into anger. We demand unimpeded access to the terrain. We demand respectful treatment of the crash site. We demand dignity for the victims and the multitudes who mourn their loss.

I call on the international community, on the Security Council, on anyone with influence on the situation on the ground: Allow us to bring the victims’ remains home to their loved ones without any further delay. They deserve to be home.

[…]

I also welcome the setting up of a proper investigation into the cause of the tragedy of MH17, as envisaged in today’s resolution. […]

Once the investigation ascertains who was responsible for the downing of the flight MH17, accountability and justice must be pursued and delivered. We owe that to the victims, to justice, to humanity. I call on all relevant countries to provide full cooperation.

My country will not rest until all facts are known and justice is served.

I thank you, Mr. President.

Source: Timmermans (2014).²

Timmermans’ speech was a great success. The UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution condemning the attack that had caused the downing of the aircraft, ordered the United Nations Civil Aviation Agency to perform an international investigation, and urged armed forces in the area to give access to the crash site. The speech also received a very favorable response from the general public, both in the Netherlands and around the world—although later there was also some criticism of Timmermans’ striking depiction of what must have taken place in the plane in the final moments before the crash.

The immediate effectiveness of this speech can, of course, partly be explained by the tragic event it referred to. But there is more to it than that. Frans Timmermans succeeded in reaching not only the minds but also the hearts of the people he addressed. He clarified what he wanted and why he wanted it. More importantly, he supported his demands by showing his emotions and by sketching a detailed and moving picture of what in his view had happened to the innocent people on the aircraft. It is hardly possible to listen to or read the speech without imagining the picture that is sketched and without being touched by it. Frans Timmermans proved to be a very proficient communicator by not only conveying factual information but also evoking emotions in his audience that contributed to the acceptance of his request.

Not every professional communication situation involves including such heavy emotional components in the messages exchanged by the communication parties. But as the four-sides communication model discussed in this chapter will show, messages that only convey factual information simply do not exist. Communication messages always reveal other information too—information that is often less explicit but that nevertheless can be decisive for their effect.

Analyzing communication

In order to see the strengths and weaknesses of a communication message clearly and to find possibilities for improvement, it is useful to have an analysis model. A model can also be useful when you develop effective messages yourself or when you discuss a particular message with someone else. In the analysis model that will be introduced in section 1.1, communication is understood as a goal-driven exchange of information between two parties. One party acts as a sender (writer, speaker, developer of a website, and so on); the other party acts as a receiver (reader, listener, user of a website, and so on).

When person A sends a message to somebody else, that person is called the sender at that moment, and person B who receives this message is called the receiver at that moment. We explicitly say ‘at that moment’ because the roles of sender and receiver can change very quickly. In fact, especially in oral communication, people are often both sender and receiver at the same time. Person A says something, and at the same time he or she notices how person B responds, with or without words—for instance by showing a facial expression. And vice versa: Person B hears or sees the message from person A and person B reacts immediately, often even before person A’s message comes to an end.

The model presented in section 1.1 is called the four-sides model of communication. It was introduced by the German psychologist Friedemann Schulz von Thun. The model is based on the principle that a communication message always has four sides. Apart from the factual content, messages also always include information about the image created by the sender of him- or herself, the relationship between the sender and the receiver, and the goals that the sender and the receiver are trying to achieve.

Chapters 2 and 3 deal with the factual content of the information that is exchanged. In this chapter we discuss the other three sides of a communication message. The final section of this chapter will discuss how communication parties can let each other know how they are experiencing each other’s messages.

1.1The four-sides model of communication

What do we mean by the word communication? Studies in this field have proposed all kinds of descriptions and definitions. In this book, we stick to the basics. We regard communication as a goal-driven process in which messages are exchanged between two parties: senders and receivers. Communication messages include not only written or printed texts but also oral presentations, photos, videos, website pages, e-mails, messages on social media, and so on. In a conversation, we consider each individual contribution (‘turn’) of a participant as one short message.

A verbal message (an oral or written message in words) may consist of a single sentence, but it may also contain a number of sentences. If the sender uses signals other than words (posture, gestures, signs, images), we speak of non-verbal communication. Most forms of communication include both verbal and non-verbal elements.

Communication is more than simply exchanging messages. Communication always takes place with certain goals in mind. People who communicate always want to achieve something—even if that is only creating, establishing, or ending a relationship. Not only senders but also receivers have certain goals that lead them to pay attention to the messages they receive. One goal that cooperative senders and receivers always have in common is mutual understanding. Communication parties need each other in order to make progress on what they want to achieve. The content and form of a message are primarily determined by the goals of the sender, but sensible senders will also take the goals of their receivers into account.

When we consider the content of a message, we tend to primarily think of the factual information that is provided. To give some examples: A policy document sets out plans and proposals, a technical document describes an apparatus or a system, and a quotation presents the nature and costs of services offered to the potential customer. There is more to communication messages, however, than just factual information. Messages always present a certain image of the sender to the receiver, whether the sender wants to or not. Consciously or unconsciously, senders always provide information about themselves and about the organization they may represent. Communication messages also always show how the sender perceives the relationship with the receiver. When problems arise with a particular message, the causes often lie in these non-factual aspects of the communication at hand. In order to do justice to the complexity of communication, we distinguish four different sides of a communication message.

–The matter side concerns the actual subject of the message and the factual information provided about this subject.

–The appeal side concerns the purpose of the message: the goal or goals that the sender wants to achieve with the receiver.

–The self-expression side of the message concerns the image it reveals of the sender—his or her person, norms, and values.

–The relationship side concerns the way in which the sender views the receiver and also the relationship between the sender and the receiver, as attested by the message.

The four sides of a message.

Successful communication requires that the communication parties—both senders and receivers—consider the interplay of the four sides of their messages. Senders try to choose the content and form of their messages in such a way that their intentions in each respect are well understood by their receivers. And receivers try to interpret the sender’s messages in each respect properly so that they can respond adequately.

Each message contains all four sides. The emphasis placed on the different sides may differ, however. The sender is always faced with the choice of whether to place the emphasis on the matter side, the appeal side, the self-expression side, or the relationship side. This choice is decisive for both the content and form of the message.

In the next three sections of this chapter, the focus will be on the appeal side (1.2), the self-expression side (1.3), and the relationship side of the message (1.4). The matter side will be further explored in chapters 2 and 3.

In the educational program Advertising Psychology at an Irish university, there have been multiple cases of plagiarism. Many students seem to habitually copy long parts of articles they found on the internet without proper references to the sources of their information. The program board has now decided that a clear warning is appropriate. They have asked George Wilbury, the program coordinator, not only to write an article for the university’s digital newsletter, but also to design some posters that may draw the students’ attention. The posters will be displayed in places where students often come. George is now faced with the question of what the emphasis in those posters should be on.

The first option is to provide a brief explanation of the concept of plagiarism, including the sanctions for students who get caught. In this option, the emphasis will be on the matter side of the message: What is plagiarism and which rules apply in our educational program?

George could also choose to let the students know that they have to keep away from everything that smells of plagiarism, and to refer them to a manual where they can find concrete advice on how to use sources carefully and prevent plagiarism. In this option, the emphasis will be on the appeal side of the message: the behavior that the staff wants to achieve among the students.

A third possibility is to make it clear that the staff members in this program despise every form of plagiarism and regard it as a form of deception. Now the emphasis will be on the self-expression side of the message: the image that the poster creates of the norms and values of the program staff.

Finally, George could use the posters to make it clear that the staff does not regard students as potential fraudsters but as prospective professionals who may not yet know how to prevent plagiarism. In this case, George puts the emphasis on the relationship side of the message: What view does the staff have of the students who participate in the program?

Differences in emphasis in a message about plagiarism.

It is important to distinguish between different communicative goals. Often, the first aim of a message is to change the knowledge of the receivers. Sometimes the communicative goal is limited to this knowledge aspect, for example in the case of news items that are only meant to provide information. However, most messages also aim to achieve other goals: in the case of the CDC (see the next page), influencing the beliefs, attitudes, and behavior of the receiver (safe sex) and ultimately improving the public health situation. Whether or not these goals are achieved often depends on more than just the quality of the communication.

1.2The appeal side: communicative goals

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) aims to protect the USA from health, safety, and security threats, both foreign and at home. Part of its website (cdc.gov/std/prevention/) is devoted to the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as chlamydia, HPV, and HIV/AIDS. Site visitors are informed about STDs and about the use of condoms and other means of preventing infections. From the website it is clear that the communicative goals are threefold: providing site visitors with sufficient knowledge about the subject of STDs, convincing them of the need to have safe sex, and informing them of what to do. The underlying goal is, of course, that more people have safe sex. If this goal is achieved, the next underlying goal is reached: The CDC has contributed to the improvement of the public health situation. Whether people have safe sex evidently does not depend solely on the CDC’s website. There are also other factors that influence the behavior of the visitors, such as their social environment, possible psychological barriers, their partner’s willingness to have safe sex, and also the availability of a condom.

Communicative goals and underlying goals.

In this section, we will first discuss the sender’s communicative goals. Subsequently, underlying goals and the receiver’s goals are discussed.

1.2.1Communicative goals of senders

Through communication, senders want to influence the knowledge, skills, opinions, behavioral intentions, or emotions of the receivers of their messages. The following table shows a breakdown of communicative goals according to the type of influence senders may want to exert.

Communicative goal | The sender wants to | In order to exert influence on the receiver’s
informative | inform | factual knowledge
instructive | instruct | skills
persuasive | persuade | beliefs, attitudes
motivational | motivate | behavioral intentions
affective | emotionally affect | feelings

Breakdown of possible communicative goals of senders.

–Informative. The sender wants to transfer knowledge, for example by reporting on an event, clarifying what products and services a company provides, or explaining the causes of a certain problem.

–Instructive. The sender wants to help the receiver in performing a specific task, such as setting up an Apple Watch, preparing an Ossobuco, or applying for a student grant.

–Persuasive. The sender wants to influence the receiver’s view or position. By means of an advertising message, a company wants to convince the public of the quality of its products. By means of a policy paper, the government wants to convince the parliament that its position on a certain issue is justified or that a certain policy must be pursued.

–Motivational. The sender not only wants to convince the receiver of a point of view but also wants to ensure that the receiver is willing to do something, such as buying a product, attending a meeting, transferring money to a bank account, or quitting smoking.

–Affective. The sender wants to evoke certain emotions in the receiver, such as surprise, pleasure, anger, or fear.

In practice, different communicative goals are often combined; sometimes that is the only possibility. For example, a sender who wants to convince receivers of the quality of a certain product can hardly avoid providing information about that product as well. Most receivers will only be convinced if they are informed about the characteristics of the product. Moreover, most advertisers not only want to convince, they also want to motivate the public to actually buy the product.

The combination of communicative goals in a message is not arbitrary; there is almost always a certain hierarchy. Usually, there is one main goal that the other goals serve to support.

The Belgian city of Ghent publishes a brochure with information on the most important tourist sights, such as the Gravensteen castle, the Saint Bavo Cathedral, the belfry, and the Museum of Fine Arts. The goal of this brochure is first and foremost informative: The city wants to pass on factual knowledge. But that is not all, of course. The brochure also aims to convince the reader that Ghent is an attractive place to visit, and it wants to convey a positive feeling about the city. And even those goals are not what the text is ultimately all about. The brochure intends to persuade the reader to visit this city: The main goal of the brochure is therefore motivational. Once readers want to visit Ghent, they must also be informed on how to get there, how to book a room in a hotel, and so on. The brochure should therefore also include instructions.

Different communicative goals in a tourist brochure.

Coherence between communicative goals in a tourist brochure. The main goal is to motivate the reader (to visit Ghent); the other goals support this main goal.

Instruction manuals primarily serve an instructive goal. The reader has to learn, for example, how to operate a newly purchased orbital sander. The sender assumes that this is what the reader wants. The instructions, therefore, do not have to serve any motivational goal—with the exception of the warnings in the instruction manual, for instance that you should unplug the machine when you want to change the grinding belt. In order to motivate users to take this action, it is necessary to convince them of the risks they will run if they fail to do so. For this purpose, information must be provided: If you do not unplug the device, the machine may accidentally turn on while changing the grinding belt and you may get injured.

Various goals in an instruction manual.

Different goals of warnings in instruction manuals. The main goal is to give instructions (on safe behavior); the other goals support this main goal.

1.2.2Underlying goals

In section 1.2.1, the main focus was on the communicative goals of the sender. What does the sender want to achieve ‘in the mind of the receivers’: changing their knowledge, skills, beliefs, attitudes, behavioral intentions, or emotions? But communication in a professional context also always serves the underlying goals of a sender: an organization or an individual. These underlying goals determine to a large extent the content and the form the message needs to have.

The underlying goals of an organization can be arranged hierarchically. For instance, a Ministry of Education must, among other things, ensure good and affordable education (general goal). In that context, it must also provide facilities for children with learning difficulties (more specific goal). Various means are used for these more specific goals: money, labor, legislation, and in a number of cases also communication, for instance through the internet.

Just like organizations, individuals who communicate have underlying goals. If you apply for a job, you not only want to inform the selection committee about your education and experience. Above all, you want to convince the committee that you are the best candidate. In this case, your underlying goals will be to get a nice job, to develop your skills, and to earn an attractive income.

When we look at the messages of others, or when we communicate ourselves, we must always do so against the background of the underlying goals. After all, these goals determine to a large extent what the communicative goals will be, and what the content and form of the message will be.

The Oblex Communication Consultancy company receives an assignment from the Ministry of Education. They are asked to develop a new part of the ministry’s website about the new rules for admitting children to special schools. The information is intended for parents who, possibly on the advice of the teacher, are considering a special school for their child. The new section on the website should serve two purposes. It should be informative (offering information on special schools) and it should be instructive (explaining what parents must do to have their child placed at a special school). Oblex Communication Consultancy gets access to the official texts of the new rules and the brochures that schools have already received.

Staff member Karen McDevor reads the information she has received and decides to visit a school for special education in order to experience the atmosphere. While she is there, she is informed that many parents find it difficult to send their child to a special school, but that almost all parents are very enthusiastic once they have done so. It therefore seems clear to Karen that the new pages on the website should not only be informative and instructive, but also persuasive and motivating. The website should convince parents of a child with learning difficulties of the advantages of sending their child to a special school, and encourage them to actually do so.

After two weeks, Karen is able to present a draft of the new pages to the client, a manager at the ministry. To her surprise, however, the client is not satisfied. He finds the information far too positive: He thinks it should be presented in a more neutral tone. Karen explains why she presented the information in the way she did, but that does not convince the client.

What is the problem here? For a number of years now, the ministry has been following a ‘joint schooling’ policy. This policy implies that children with learning difficulties are cared for as much as possible within the mainstream primary education system by means of extra guidance, and that access to special education will be limited. Considering this policy, there is definitely no need for a highly persuasive and motivating text on the ministry’s website.

Underlying goals of an organization play a decisive role in its communication messages.

1.2.3Goals of receivers

As with the sender’s goals, we can distinguish five types of goals that the receiver may have.

–Acquiring knowledge. One of the main reasons for receivers to pay attention to a message is that they want to know more about its subject, understand how it works, learn what is going on, and so on. The motives can vary: pure curiosity (people reading the newspaper), practical usefulness (potential customers collecting information about a smartphone because they want to buy one), but sometimes also external pressure (students studying a textbook for an examination). The acquisition of knowledge is also a prominent goal when, for example, the receiver listens to the radio news, watches a documentary on TV, or conducts an interview for a newspaper.

–Acquiring skills. Many texts that people have to read in their professional career are intended to enable them to perform certain tasks. The type of tasks can vary from operating a device to registering a new customer in the administration or dealing with a customer’s complaint. More often than not, the receiver will want at least two questions answered: ‘What should I do?’ and ‘How should I do it?’.

–Defining your position. An important motive for reading texts, participating in conversations, or listening to a presentation can be to find the answer to questions such as ‘What do I think of […]?’ and ‘How do I evaluate […]?’. Sometimes the motivation is purely personal: People want to form their own opinion about something. There can also be a social motive: The people around you expect you to have an opinion on a certain subject. Are you for or against euthanasia? Do you think that the current immigration policy is humane or too strict? Should the regulations for receiving a study grant be changed or not?

–Making a decision. One step further than forming an opinion is making a decision: What am I going to do, or what is our organization going to do? What type of computer am I going to buy? Where am I going on holiday? What policy should be pursued? In which areas should we invest? Are we going to work with company X?

–Being touched. Messages can also touch the receiver. This effect is generally associated with reading a novel, watching a film, or attending a theatre performance. It is often thought that such affective goals do not play a role in professional communication, but this is an incorrect assumption. Even if it is not on the foreground, professional communication can (and should) also be pleasant, nice, and perhaps even exciting. Such an effect may even be decisive for the ultimate success of the communication.

When the goals of the receiver seamlessly fit those of the sender, we speak of symmetrical goals. The following table shows when this symmetry exists.

Type of goal | The sender wants to | The receiver wants to
informative | inform | know something
instructive | instruct | acquire skills, be able to do something
persuasive | persuade | take a position, form an opinion
motivational | motivate | make a decision, do something
affective | emotionally affect | be touched, have a good time

Symmetry between sender goals and receiver goals.

However, reality is often less clear-cut. Even if goals are symmetrical, that does not necessarily mean that both parties will achieve their goals. If a sender informs the receiver about a subject in which the receiver is not interested, or if the information is very unclear, then neither the sender nor the receiver will achieve their informative goal. And a politician who tries to arouse feelings of indignation at the government’s scandalous proposal may find that many voters remain indifferent, even if they were willing to be moved.

Especially when it comes to convincing and motivating, the goal of the receiver is not always in line with the goal of the sender. If receivers want to form an opinion or make a decision, it does not always have to be the opinion that the sender wants to convince them of or the decision that the sender wants them to make.

Elisabeth Schulze is a member of a German political party. She is active as a volunteer in the reception of asylum seekers. The German media are discussing the question of whether the reception of asylum seekers should take place in a European context, or whether all European countries should define and pursue their own policies. An article in the party paper, written by a foreign policy specialist, argues in favor of the European approach. The article is intended as a persuasive text, and Elisabeth is interested in forming an opinion. The communicative goals are therefore symmetrical. But that does not mean that Elisabeth will be convinced by the arguments provided in the article. On the contrary, when Elisabeth reads that European policy will lead to a higher percentage of rejections of asylum applications, she is actually inclined to oppose that policy.

Sender and receiver goals are symmetrical, but the receiver does not accept what the sender wants to achieve.

Asymmetric goals do not necessarily create unsolvable problems. But sometimes things can go really wrong. The goals of the sender and the receiver may be so far apart that neither party can successfully attain their goals.

After studying electrical engineering, Sarah Ericsson joins ITF, a Swedish manufacturer of state-of-the-art telecommunications equipment. Her first task as a junior research assistant is to conduct a laboratory study into the reliability of three types of advanced interference suppression systems. At a certain point, she is asked to present her findings in a meeting of the management team. As a new employee, Sarah naturally tries to do her best. She prepares a presentation to explain in detail which measurement methods she has used. She makes digital slides of the measuring setups and she takes copies of a handout with her, with an overview of all the data analyses she has performed.

However, the reactions of the management team to the well-prepared presentation are disappointing. Most of the attendees clearly show a lack of interest: They are continuously looking at their smartphones and their paperwork. After only ten minutes, Sarah receives a friendly but urgent request to conclude her presentation quickly.

What went wrong? Sarah had assumed that the attendees would mainly be interested in detailed technical information. That turned out to be an incorrect assumption. The task of the management team was to define a position on the soundness of the various systems and to decide whether one of those should be put into production. The receiver goals were therefore quite different from the sender goals.

The goals of the sender do not match those of the receivers.

1.2.4Unclear goals

We often communicate without being fully aware of our goals. That may be a good thing. If we had to think about our goals all the time, even the most ordinary conversations would be difficult. It is only when something goes wrong that we may find ourselves giving more thought to our goals and asking ourselves questions like ‘What did I want from my audience?’ or ‘Why did I say that?’.

In more complex communicative situations, it is important to think in advance about what we want to achieve. Senders who have to write a report, take part in a meeting, or address a committee, should start by asking themselves what they want to achieve and also what the goals of the readers of the report, the other participants in the meeting, or the presentation’s audience might be. From the perspective of the receiver, it is not always possible to deduce from the message what the sender exactly wants to achieve. It may be particularly difficult if the sender wants to influence the beliefs or the attitudes of the receiver without being explicit.

–Sometimes senders think their communicative goal is clear enough but in fact this is not the case at all. For example, the sender gives a hint (‘It is quite cold in here!’), expecting that a receiver sitting next to a heater will understand the appeal included in the message and turn the heater on. Sometimes, however, such a hint is not clear enough: The receiver does not notice the appeal side of the message and takes no action.

–Sometimes senders do not feel they are in a position to influence the receivers’ behavior in a direct way. Especially in organizations where hierarchy is important, junior employees may find it difficult to explicitly advise their superiors on the decisions to be made, even if they are convinced they have a better understanding of the issue than their superiors.

–Sometimes senders consciously choose not to be too clear because clarity also entails responsibility. Someone who unreservedly recommends making a certain purchase to the management may run into problems if the decision later turns out to be wrong. If senders want to avoid such problems, they may opt for a message with an appeal side that is not quite clear.

–Often, politeness is an important motive for lack of clarity about the communicative goals of senders. Senders want to give receivers the freedom to decide for themselves what to think or do and therefore do not explicitly say what they want to achieve. These messages are indirect. Fortunately, indirect messages do not necessarily lead to misunderstandings and communication failures. Indirectness is often more or less conventional. When someone asks you: ‘Do you know where Jenny lives?’ and you do know Jenny’s address, you understand that probably a simple ‘yes’ will not do: The question was intended as a request for Jenny’s address. Senders often count on the goodwill of the receivers to understand the meaning behind their literal message, and this confidence is usually justified.

A report from a company’s internal audit department states: ‘It was found that there is no overview of persons who are entitled to make payments of more than €5,000.’ The writers do not explicitly say what they want to achieve with this message because they deem it self-evident: Such an overview is needed.

The company’s CEO, however, does not consider the appeal side of this message and does not notice its motivational goal, and therefore takes no action.

The sender wrongly thinks that the motivational goal is clear.

CEO Mathieu is a regular visitor of the meetings of her company’s Sales Promotion Department. Today the colleagues have little to discuss with Mathieu, and the rest of the meeting’s agenda is quite long. Unfortunately, Mathieu is very talkative: She elaborates extensively on all kinds of incidents from the time that she was an employee herself in this department, which was then called Recruitment and Advertising. ‘Well, and since then the work load of the department has increased a lot, as today’s agenda illustrates […]’ says meeting chairman Aristides, carefully putting an end to the discussion.

Aristides cannot bluntly ask his CEO Mathieu to leave; being up front about such an appeal would be impolite. He decides to give a hint in which the matter side, superficially seen, seems to be the most important, and which also fits in elegantly with the theme brought up by Mathieu.

1.2.5Effectiveness of communication

Communication is only fully effective when sender and receiver both reach their goals. That can only be achieved if both sender and receiver are able and willing to cooperate. What does that imply for a communication message? Below we look at how effective communication can be facilitated for informative, instructive, persuasive, and motivating messages.

The effectiveness of informative communication

In most cases, communication has an informative goal at least to some extent. The sender wants to transfer knowledge to the receiver. The following conditions determine whether informative communication will be effective.

–The information must be sufficiently consistent with the receiver’s prior knowledge. The sender should not assume prior knowledge that the receiver does not possess, otherwise the message may be incomprehensible. At the same time, however, the information must also contain some news, otherwise the receiver may quickly lose interest.

–The information must meet the needs of the receiver. No matter how interesting the senders themselves may find the information in their messages, if they do not include an answer to a question that is relevant to the receiver, the messages will have little or no effect.

–The message must be well-structured: It must have a clear organization. A good explanatory text, for example, progresses from easy to difficult and does not skip from one subject to another.

–The language used must match the receiver’s language skills. Too many complex sentences and too many unknown words make it difficult for the receiver to understand the content. But texts full of short sentences and easy words may also be risky. Then there is a chance that the receiver does not feel he or she is taken seriously and loses interest.

–The information must arouse sufficient attention. Senders can capture and hold the receivers’ attention by way of excitement, humor, a surprising twist, or a captivating style.

The effectiveness of instructive communication

The goal of instructive communication is to enable the receiver to carry out certain tasks such as operating a device, solving a mathematical problem, or completing a tax form. Instructive communication is effective when such a task is successfully accomplished. However, in addition to this requirement of effectiveness in a narrower sense, instructive communication also needs to meet other requirements.

–The communication must help to carry out the task in an efficient way, that is, with as little effort as possible. Efficiency is particularly important when it comes to tasks that need to be carried out as a matter of urgency, like emergency measures in the event of accidents.

–The message must provide insight into the structure and the rationale of the task. Receivers should not only be able to perform the task, they should also understand what they are doing.

–Often tasks have to be performed more than once. In such cases, the information provided should also be learnable. Instructions for using the calendar function of a smartphone, for example, must take into account that people will want to remember how to do that. They do not want to have to look up the instructions every time they want to enter a birthday of a new friend or colleague, for instance.

–The message should also motivate the receivers to carry out the instructions correctly, for instance by showing what can be gained or lost by either following or ignoring the given directions.

How can you ensure that an instructive message meets these requirements?

–The instruction should be complete. There should be no missing steps unless they are completely obvious, such as ‘unpack the equipment before setting it up’.

–The instruction should have the right level of detail. Each step should be elaborated in such a way that the receivers can carry it out. The instruction should not be unnecessarily detailed, however, as this would make it less efficient.

–The steps should be given in the order in which they are to be carried out.

–The instruction should be logical in the eyes of the receivers. This makes them confident that it makes sense to follow the instruction meticulously.

–The language used and the illustrations provided should be so clear that the receivers understand exactly what to do.

The effectiveness of persuasive and motivational communication

An important characteristic of persuasive and motivational communication is that the goals of the senders and receivers, although often symmetrical, can still easily collide with each other. Of course, receivers often want to form an opinion or take a decision on a particular issue, but they rarely a priori want to conform to the sender’s point of view. We all like to decide for ourselves what we think about something and what we want (or don’t want) to do.

If receivers are confronted with messages that somehow conflict with their current opinions or behavior, they will easily ignore these messages or even develop a certain resistance to the goal of the sender and the messages that follow from this goal. There are many ways in which receivers can resist a sender’s attempt at persuasion.

–Receivers can try to avoid messages with an unwanted appeal. For example, most newspaper readers do not subscribe to a newspaper with views they do not like, but instead choose to read a newspaper with opinions with which they usually agree. In this way, they avoid confrontations that could bring them out of balance.

–Receivers can ignore the persuasive or motivational character of the message. A lack of emphasis on the appeal makes it easy for the receiver to pretend not to notice it. A surgeon who reads in a complaints report that her patients often have to wait a long time because she is called away for consultation with colleagues, may interpret this remark as no more than factual information and thus ignore the motivational goal (‘Please give higher priority to waiting patients’).

–Receivers can downplay the authority of the sender, making it easier not to take the appeal side of the message seriously. ‘The committee is now proposing that the Research and Development Department be reduced, but we must not forget that the committee mainly consists of marketing people who have a lot to learn about research.’

–Receivers may seek counterarguments to justify their current behavior. ‘Drinking may be bad for my liver, but do I not have the right to enjoy things that make life easier?’ ‘Research has shown that a daily glass of wine is good for the heart and blood vessels. And indeed, look what happened to your own grandfather. He loved a good drink and last month he turned ninety-four.’

How can senders convince receivers? It often helps when the appeal in the message is very clear. Otherwise, there is always a risk that the receiver will simply not understand what the sender is trying to convey. But clarity about the appeal side can also have an unwanted effect: Receivers may feel that their freedom is impaired. In that case, a negative reaction is almost inevitable. Showing respect for the receivers is important: The receiver should feel that the sender is someone who is helping them weigh their options, and not someone who is imposing his or her will or, worse still, someone with a hostile attitude.

Senders can further increase their chances of success by emphasizing the ‘benefits’ in order to offset the ‘costs’ for the receivers (giving up their own freedom to take a stand or to make a decision). To achieve that goal, the message should clearly explain the benefits the receivers will enjoy if they comply with the appeal. The following elements can help to convince the receivers.

–Advantages of the new behavior. ‘Quitting smoking leads to better health.’ ‘This new production process leads to more profit.’ ‘Following these guidelines for using sources leads to a higher thesis grade.’ If the sender succeeds in demonstrating that such consequences are to be expected, it is more likely that receivers will be prepared to reconsider their views or behavior.

–Disadvantages of the current behavior. ‘Smoking can lead to lung cancer.’ ‘Continuing the present production process is likely to lead to a drop in profits.’ ‘Careless use of sources may inadvertently lead to plagiarism, which may result in study delay or even suspension.’

–Norms and values. ‘A contribution to this charity expresses solidarity with people in need.’ ‘A vote for the Labour Party is an act of solidarity with the weaker members of society.’ By linking the appeal to the norms and values that are important to the receiver, the sender increases the chances of success.

–Ethos of the sender. Receivers with a high opinion of a sender are more likely to be persuaded than receivers who have little respect for the sender.

–Sense of community (‘we’ feeling). The sender may show that the desired behavior is desirable for the group the receiver belongs to or wants to belong to. ‘Intelligent and dynamic young people are now joining this new political party in great numbers!’ Who would not want to be seen as young, intelligent, and dynamic?

Chapter 3 elaborates on arguments that can contribute to the persuasiveness of the message.

1.3The self-expression side: the sender

In communication messages, the senders—willingly or not—provide information ‘between the lines’ about themselves and about the organization they represent. This self-expression side of a message is even more pronounced in oral communication than in written communication. Listeners not only hear what the speaker says, they also deduce information from the speaker’s posture, movements, clothing, and use of voice. The conclusions that listeners draw from this information about the speaker often overshadow what they deduce from the words that are being uttered.

The following two letters from a municipal sanitation department illustrate how written messages, in this case from the municipality of New Aduard, also create an image of the sender. The municipality is formally represented here by city manager J.M.J. Johnson, who signed the letters. We do not really know anything about the real Mr. or Mrs. J.M.J. Johnson. Most likely he or she did not even write the letters; they may well have been written by one of the subordinates working in the sanitation department or perhaps in the communication office. The actual writer of the first letter may well be a very nice lady, and the actual writer of the second letter may be an unfriendly gentleman, and the same may be true for Mr. or Mrs. Johnson. What matters here is how the municipality presents itself in these messages. And that differs quite a bit in the two letters.

MUNICIPAL SANITATION DEPARTMENT
P.O. Box 20
New Aduard

To the residents of this building

Today a municipal official on duty established that, contrary to Article 13 of the Municipal Waste Collection Bye-Law, the contents of your household waste container exceeded the maximum permitted filling weight of 75 kg. Nevertheless, from the point of view of service, it was decided to accept the container. If in the future, however, your household waste container is not correctly presented, it will not be emptied.

Yours sincerely,

J.M.J. Johnson, City Manager

Letter depicting an official, formal, and authoritarian city manager.

MUNICIPAL SANITATION DEPARTMENT
P.O. Box 20
New Aduard

To the residents of this building

Dear Sir, Madam,

Earlier today, when we emptied your garbage container, we noticed that it was heavier than 75 kilos. This is not how it should be: Garbage containers that are too heavy may pose a risk to the health of our garbage collectors, and such containers also increase the risk of equipment failure. For your convenience, however, we have emptied your container. But could you please pay attention to the weight of your container in future? Should it happen again, then regrettably we will have no choice but to leave your container unemptied.

Kind regards,

J.M.J. Johnson, City Manager

Letter depicting a friendlier city manager (but perhaps perceived as a bit patronizing).

For specific groups of senders, such as politicians and media personalities, the self-expression side of their messages is so important that they receive special training that teaches them how to create and maintain the image they want to convey of themselves.

Other professionals, too, should not neglect the self-expression side of communication. If senders have built up an unfavorable image of themselves without realizing this, it may be quite harmful to the effectiveness of their messages.

Displaying dominance and creating a facade

Senders sometimes tend to exaggerate their strengths. They try to display their dominance by showing off their qualities, expertise, indispensability, or important relationships (‘my good friend Professor John Hayes from Pittsburgh’). As a result, senders may spend excessive attention to complicated issues, or they may come forward with a pompous presentation of relatively unimportant details. In such cases, the need to adapt to the audience’s interests is sacrificed for the sake of the sender’s desire to brag.

Conversely, senders sometimes try to hide their weaknesses by creating a facade. People who feel they do not have enough knowledge of a certain topic can, for example, try to divert the conversation to subjects they think they have more to say about, or they may downplay the importance of the topic at hand. They may also take refuge in complicated sentences to hide that they really have nothing to say: a combination of displaying dominance and creating a facade.

The possibility cannot not be excluded that one of the potential causes of the dioxin content in milk fat is the fact that the emission of the waste incineration plant is related to the aforementioned dioxin content.

Creating a facade? In any case, what the sender does here is no more than saying in a difficult and cumbersome way that the dioxin in the milk may come from the waste incineration plant.

‘Avoid displaying dominance and creating a facade and just be yourself’. This could be an encouragement to only utter messages with a clear, self-expression side. Sometimes, however, it is desirable for senders to consciously choose what they want to show about themselves. If, for example, senders never show their strengths in a conflict situation, they run the risk of not being taken seriously and thus shooting themselves in the foot. Politicians and leaders, on the other hand, sometimes need to hold back a little because they have to consider conflicting needs and interests.

Communicative roles

In the two letters from the municipal sanitation department, the goal was to motivate the residents to reduce the weight of their garbage containers. The communicative role chosen by the sender determined the content and wording of the text. In the first letter, the city manager was presented as a sender who only wanted to provide information about the garbage weight regulation, while in the second letter the city manager was presented as a sender who wanted to persuade the receiver to adopt a different behavior.

A well-considered choice of a communicative role can have a major positive impact on the effectiveness of the communication. Senders who want to convince a skeptical audience are usually more successful when they present themselves as a neutral information provider than as an enthusiastic missionary or as an intrusive seller. If the audience is less skeptical, however, a certain level of enthusiasm may be quite helpful. In that case, senders acting as neutral information providers may raise the suspicion that they do not really believe in their own case.

–Neutral information provider

–Enthusiastic missionary

–Obtrusive seller

–Strict evaluator

–Helpful assistant

–Confident expert

Some communicative roles.

Effects of self-expression

Receivers are sensitive to the self-expression side of a communication message, and it often greatly influences their reactions. If senders succeed in creating a sympathetic, expert picture of themselves or their organization, receivers are more inclined to take their message seriously and are more likely to be persuaded and motivated. Senders who want to be successful should therefore pay sufficient attention to the self-expression side of their messages.

However, there are limits. Senders may not always be able to fully adapt to the taste of the receiver, nor is it always necessary to do so. It is essential that a sender is credible. Senders who demonstrate that they do not actually believe in their own story engender distrust. The same applies to senders who are ostentatiously playacting and who present themselves as more sympathetic or easygoing than they really are. Such behavior is often counterproductive, for the receiver is likely to take the sender and the messages less seriously.

1.4The relationship side: the receiver

As simple as it may sound, the secret of effective communication mainly lies in the ability and the willingness of the communication parties to put themselves in the other’s position. Successful communication parties understand how their messages may come across. They are able and prepared to take into account the possible effects of their messages before determining the content and wording of what they want to convey. They treat the other as they would like to be treated themselves.

Now that you are retiring, various problems are likely to arise at home. What will you do with all your free time? Are you not constantly in the way of your wife? Fortunately, there is a solution. With the municipal senior citizens card, you can take part in all kinds of relaxing activities at a reduced rate. You can participate free of charge in the recreation afternoons, visit the museum at a reduced rate, and take part in the annual bus trips for the elderly. In short: We are here to help you do everything you have wanted to do for years but just did not have the time for.

From a brochure distributed by the municipality of New Aduard about its senior citizens card. The writer has apparently forgotten that there are also female citizens, and he or she has a strong view of what is going on in the reader’s mind. Whether that view is correct is questionable. It is also questionable whether readers will appreciate the writer’s prejudices. ‘What I have wanted to do for years but just did not have the time for is no business of the municipality’, many readers may think. By distributing this brochure, the municipality runs a serious risk of irritating readers and launching an unsuccessful information campaign.

Messages not only show something (and sometimes a lot) about the sender, between the lines, they also often reveal what the sender thinks about the receiver. In the example about the senior citizens’ card, the writer’s ideas about the readers are rather clear. But the relationship side of a message can also be more subtle. The way we address each other, for example, already indicates how we perceive our mutual relationship. Do we use first or last names? Do we use ‘Mrs.’ and ‘Mr.’? The content of a message also often shows what the sender thinks about the receiver. For example, what kind of arguments does the sender think are fit to convince the receiver? And how much prior knowledge is assumed?

Do you strive for a good future, a nice job, and a fine income? Then you should definitely register for our Communication Science program.

This message suggests that readers will mainly base their choice of an educational program on future perspectives.

The field of communication is undergoing vast developments. Technological innovations are constantly leading to new forms of communication. If you are interested in this, our Communication Science program is right up your alley.

This message suggests that readers will mainly base their choice of an educational program on their curiosity and their interest in innovations.

EORGPLUS uses advanced digital techniques to get the most out of your electronic organ. For example, you can manually adjust the speed and depth of the tremulant to your preferences. If you wish, you can also adjust the tuning of your instrument, and give voice to the old masters in a completely authentic way. You can opt for equal, midrange, Pythagorean, Werckmeister, Kirnberger, and Valotti & Young temperaments.

In this advertising brochure for electronic organs, it is assumed that readers have a lot of prior knowledge. They know what a tremulant is and are familiar with six temperaments, listed here without any further explanation.

What kind of assumptions about the receiver play a role in communication?

–Assumptions about the receiver’s prior knowledge. Some things have to be explained, others may be familiar.

–Assumptions about the receiver’s language skills. Senders who use difficult words and complicated sentences apparently assume that their receivers have no problem with understanding their messages. Senders who ‘bend down’ to their receivers and approach them with overly simplified sentences apparently assume that these receivers lack the language skills of a grown-up.

–Assumptions about the receiver’s norms, values, and preferences. What does the sender apparently consider to be important in the eyes of the receivers, and what expectations does the sender have about the kind of arguments that will convince them? Senders’ ideas about these topics are almost always reflected in the content and the tone of voice of their communication messages.

–Assumptions about the relationship between sender and receiver. Do senders feel they are positioned ‘above’ their receivers and therefore think they can call the shots? Or is it the other way around, and do senders put the receiver in the leading role? Or do senders perhaps place themselves and the receivers on an equal footing? Messages often reflect a sender’s ideas about the parties’ positions in the communication.

When we try to determine how a message reflects the sender’s view of the receivers, we have to take into account that a sender may be playing a strategic game in which he or she deliberately attributes unrealistic characteristics to the receivers. Then the purpose is to flatter the receivers, making them more susceptible to the sender’s persuasive or motivating communicative goals.

Advertisements for sound equipment sometimes seem to be intended only for people with an expensive taste, who listen to opera music, buy design furniture, and also have a great understanding of topics such as noise reduction and frequency characteristics.

But such advertisements are, of course, also intended for people who mainly love Elvis Presley, who are already happy if they are able to configure the tuner’s presets, and who put their hi-fi equipment on a simple bookshelf.

This way the advertiser attributes characteristics to the readers that most of them do not have. But the idea behind this is that many readers will appreciate being addressed as someone with an expensive taste and a good understanding of technical equipment. The ad is not so much about the kind of people the receivers can identify with, but about the kind of people they want to identify with.

A strategic game with the presumed prior knowledge and taste of receivers.

The intranet of the O’Hara software company publishes a monthly column by the owner, John O’Hara, on the ups and downs of the organization. The column always radiates a sense of enthusiasm and positivity. John O’Hara apparently assumes that all readers of his column are dedicated to the company with heart and soul. But does he really think that is the case? Probably not. He may very well be aware that there are occasional tensions and signs of dissatisfaction. Evidently, he tries to guide his readers into the role of an enthusiastic employee.

A strategic game with assumptions about the receiver.

‘Would you perhaps have some time this afternoon to copy this report and send it to the members of the committee? I would be very grateful if you could do this before six o‘clock.’

Mary Steinberg, the manager who addresses her assistant Florence Davids in this way, acts at first glance as if Florence is free to decide whether or not she will accept the request – as if Mary and Florence occupy the same position on the hierarchical ladder. Both Mary and Florence, however, know that in reality this is not the case. This request is not free of obligations; it is an assignment that must be carried out. Mary is probably aware that Florence likes to be addressed as if they were equals, and Mary probably also feels more comfortable this way. The suggestion of equivalence is beneficial for the working atmosphere.

A strategic game with assumptions about the relationship between the sender and the receiver.

Reactions of receivers to the relationship side of a message

In general, receivers are very sensitive to the way in which they are addressed. Two general human characteristics are decisive in this: the need for self-determination (our desire for freedom) and the need for appreciation (our self-esteem).

–Need for self-determination. We all want to decide for ourselves what to do and what not to do. We want to be free and not be bossed around. As a result, senders with a strong tendency to control their receivers can count on a lot of resistance to their messages.

–Need for appreciation. We all want others to judge us in a positive way. Nobody wants to be belittled or criticized. Senders who take an aggressive stance toward their receivers can also count on serious resistance to their messages.

The microwave

You can take the test immediately. For example, try to heat this morning’s coffee. It will taste as if it has been freshly brewed.

1Take a cup without gold or silver decor and place a spoon in it. Slide the grille in the oven on rack 1. Place the cup in the middle of the grid.

2Press the MAX button.

3Use the TIME SELECTOR button to set the time to 1 minute.

4Press the START button.

5After one minute, you will hear a signal that you can switch off prematurely, if desired, with the DELETE button.

6The coffee is hot.

7In addition to this example, you will find other examples in the table on page 4.

While you are quietly enjoying your cup of coffee, you read the safety instructions in the first part of this manual. They are very important.

From a microwave manual. The sender shows a strong tendency to direct the receiver’s behavior. He or she tells the receiver exactly what to do. On reading the first sentences, the receiver may not yet find this a nuisance. After all, this is a user manual, and the sender focuses on receivers who do not yet know how this microwave works. Most receivers will appreciate a sender who clearly tells them what to do and when. On reading the last paragraph, however, many receivers may get irritated by the tone of the text. Now they are no longer being informed about how to operate the machine, they are being told how to read this text (‘while quietly enjoying a cup of coffee’). And that is something receivers will want to decide for themselves. Here, the sender’s directing behavior will go against the receivers’ desire for self-determination.

In a newspaper interview, Frank Olsen, the former manager of a Danish Open Air Museum, expresses his annoyance at the behavior of Jesper Eriksen, one of his former colleagues. Eriksen was once invited to address an international group of managers of open-air museums. Olsen remembers very well how the ambitious Eriksen addressed those present at the meeting by saying: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, you are the past, I am the future.’ The attendees were shocked; this was how Eriksen apparently perceived their work and themselves. Olsen, too, felt very hurt in his self-esteem. After this public show of disdain, things never got better between Olsen and Eriksen.

A problematic relationship between communication parties.

1.5Feedback

The preceding sections discussed all kinds of problems that can arise in communication: misunderstandings, goals that are not achieved, incorrect images that are created, and relationships that come under pressure. In order to address such communication problems, it is necessary for senders to clearly understand how the receiver perceives their messages. The receivers’ responses to a message provide information to the sender about the way the receivers interpreted the various sides of this message: the matter side, the appeal side, the self-expression side, and the relationship side. This information about the effects of their messages that senders deduce from the receivers’ reactions is called feedback.

1.5.1Indirect and direct feedback

Feedback is a natural phenomenon in communication between sender and receiver. When people exchange messages in a conversation, for instance, they continuously also give and receive feedback, consciously or not. They give verbal reactions (using language) and non-verbal signals (nodding or shaking their head, for instance) that reveal how the messages of the other communication party came across.

Feedback as part of oral, spoken interaction is usually indirect. Receivers generally do not straightforwardly tell senders how they perceived their messages. They give such information indirectly, between the lines. We have already mentioned non-verbal signals. There are also the so-called minimal reactions, such as saying ‘hmm’ or simply saying ‘yes’. Other responses may also contain indirect feedback. After a presentation, for example, there is often an opportunity to ask questions. From these questions, the speaker can sometimes deduce that certain parts of the lecture did not come across clearly or that some people were annoyed by an unfortunate remark the speaker made.

An obvious difficulty with indirect feedback is that the sender may sometimes find it difficult to interpret. How should one understand a smile from a listener in the audience—as a token of amusement or as a slightly mocking sign of disapproval? Or maybe it does not mean anything at all. For this reason, there is often a need for direct feedback in which receivers, be it at the sender’s request or not, clearly express how they feel about a message. ‘Sorry, but the arguments for your position are not yet clear to me’, ‘So you think I am angry with you now?’, or ‘From what you just said, I understand you agree with me on this subject. Is that correct?’ Direct feedback is often necessary when there is a potential misunderstanding: Receivers can ask senders to clarify their message (on all four sides), and senders can then try to remove any ambiguities.

Direct feedback plays a particularly important role when communication itself is the subject of a discussion. This is called metacommunication: communication about communication. Situations in which a lot of metacommunication may be expected include performance reviews, evaluations of meetings, and review rounds to comment on a draft version of a text.

An internship supervisor points out to a trainee that the funny emails that he regularly sends to her and the other colleagues of the department are not appreciated. People are annoyed that the trainee acts as if he has been working for the company for many years, while in fact he only started a couple of weeks ago.

An example of metacommunication.

1.5.2Giving and receiving feedback

Giving feedback can be quite difficult. Especially direct feedback may be experienced as a criticism of the other person’s way of communicating and may hence be perceived as a threat to his or her self-esteem. This threat may not only put the mutual relationship at risk, but there is also a chance that receivers of such feedback will shut themselves off. Their self-esteem prevents them from taking the feedback seriously. It is, therefore, crucial to present feedback as constructive, as a way of helping receivers of feedback to achieve their own goals even better.

–Make a conscious choice about the message sides that your feedback will focus on: the matter side, the appeal side, the self-expression side, or the relationship side. Do not be too quick with a reaction aimed only at the matter level or at the appeal level (‘I do not understand what you want to achieve with the second paragraph’), while the real problems may be at the self-expression or at the relationship side (‘You take a patronizing attitude, and you clearly underestimate your audience’).

–Emphasize positive feedback. It may be tempting to criticize the weaknesses of the messages you are discussing—and thereby also the person responsible for those messages. But by honestly pointing out the strengths of the messages, and therefore also the strengths of the sender of those messages, you show appreciation for what is already good, and you pay respect to the receiver of the feedback. He or she is usually perfectly able to deduce from this feedback what apparently did not go well and what could therefore be improved. When the receiver of the feedback wishes to learn more about possibilities for further improvement, then that may be a good time to make specific comments that are perhaps a little less positive.

–Give productive feedback. Offer comments that the other person can act on. Do not limit yourself to generalities (‘I must confess I found this story a bit boring’), but try to make clear what exactly is lacking (‘In my opinion, a few more examples could be added here’) and how things could be improved (‘Maybe it would help if […]’).

–Give feedback from your own perspective; try not to blame the other person. ‘Your way of speaking is really boring’ is a remark that the other will perceive as an attack. He or she will probably start defending himself or herself or decide to plainly neglect the feedback. ‘Sometimes I found it difficult to focus on what you were saying’ sounds less threatening because it is about the person who is giving the feedback. In short, emphasize the self-expression side of your feedback, not the relationship side.

Receiving feedback is not easy either. As a receiver of feedback, you must try to suppress the tendency to regard the feedback as an attack on yourself as a person, even if the feedback was formulated in a negative way. It is wiser and more productive to see the feedback you receive as a tool that can help you to improve your messages and make the communication more effective.

–Do not interpret feedback as a personal attack. At least until proven otherwise, assume that the criticism relates to the message and not to you as a person.

–Do not get defensive. Try to take feedback to heart and carefully examine to what extent the criticism is justified and what you can learn from it.

–Do not forget to listen carefully to what is not being said. Suppose you gave a presentation and you receive many compliments for the visuals you used in your introduction. If, however, your listeners say nothing about the visuals you have shown in the other parts of your speech, this may suggest that they were less enthusiastic about those. The absence of such comments may be an indication that there is room for improvement.

–Ask for more. Try to prevent the feedback from being restricted to general, vague comments that do not tell you much. Ask for the exact meaning of what is being said.

–Show appreciation. Communication parties who give feedback also reveal themselves to some extent. They show how they have interpreted the message, and by doing so they run the risk of their weaknesses coming to the fore (‘He didn’t even understand that simple way of reasoning!’). Showing your appreciation and respect for feedback providers may lead to more specific and useful comments.

Direct feedback is of great importance for good communication. But such feedback presupposes a good, open, and honest relationship between the communication parties. There is always a risk of the feedback provider falling into the role of prosecutor and the feedback receiver falling into the role of victim. In such a situation you need to make an effort to improve the communication climate—preferably by exchanging clear but respectful metacommunication messages.

Key points

The four sides of a communication message

–Communication is a goal-driven process in which messages are exchanged between two parties: senders and receivers.

–Messages always have four sides: the matter side, the appeal side, the self-expression side, and the relationship side.

–Providing and receiving useful feedback is essential for full-fledged communication.

Matter side

–The matter side of a message concerns the actual subject and the factual information provided about this subject (see chapters 2 and 3).

Appeal side

–Messages are intended to inform, instruct, convince, motivate, or evoke feelings. These goals can often be combined.

–The communicative goals are to a large extent determined by the underlying goal.

–The goals of senders and those of receivers do not always match.

–Senders can purposely make their communicative goals unclear, for example to evade responsibility.

–For informative communication to be effective, alignment with the receiver’s prior knowledge, information needs, and language skills is important, along with an adequate message structure and an interesting way of presenting the information.

–For instructive communication to be effective, completeness, level of detail, order of the steps, logic of the instruction, and clarity of the language and the illustrations are decisive.

–For persuasive communication to be effective, arguments based on advantages and disadvantages or based on norms and values are important. The ethos of the sender and the sense of community may also play an important role.

Self-expression side

–Senders sometimes convey a distorted picture of themselves by displaying dominance and by creating a facade.

–Senders often behave in accordance with a certain role that is determined by the organization they represent and by the goals they are trying to achieve.

–Essential for the receiver’s evaluation of the sender is the sender’s credibility.

Relationship side

–The relationship side reveals what the sender thinks about the receiver’s language skills, prior knowledge, norms and values, and also about the relationship between the sender and the receiver.

–Successful communication requires that parties are able and willing to take the potential effects of their messages into account before determining the content and wording of what they want to convey. They treat the receiver as they themselves would like to be treated.

–Receivers may be expected to react negatively to messages that go against their need for self-determination or their need for appreciation.

Feedback

–Feedback is information about the effects of messages that senders can deduce from receivers’ reactions.

–Feedback can be given either indirectly or directly.

–Good feedback is selective, positive, and productive and is given from the perspective of the feedback provider.

–When receiving feedback, it is important not to see it as a personal attack, not to become defensive, to also pay attention to what is not being said, to continue asking, and to show your appreciation for the person providing the feedback.

Eighteen years of age in New Aduard

Purpose of the assignment

You will practice recognizing different sides of a communication message and you learn to identify possible communication problems.

Subject matter

Section 1.1

Section 1.2

Section 1.3

Task 1

The mayor of New Aduard has written to some of the residents about the so-called 18-year-old regulation. According to this new national regulation, from now on all citizens, male or female, are expected to take care of their own finances from the moment they are eighteen years old. This has serious consequences for childless couples of which both partners are unemployed. From now on they will receive a much lower social security benefit than they did before. The general idea is that not only a husband but also a wife may be expected to apply for a job and to earn a decent income.

1Who do you consider to be the sender and the receivers of this letter?

2Briefly describe the four sides of this message and indicate how much weight the sender apparently wanted to give to each of these message sides.

Task 2

Imagine that you belong to the target group of this letter. Please give your well-argued opinion on each of the four sides of this message. Ask yourself the following questions.

1Matter side: Would the content of this letter be important and interesting to you?

2Appeal side: How do you feel about the appeal that the sender addresses to you here? How do you feel about the way the sender supports this appeal? Why would you be willing or unwilling to comply?

3Self-expression side: How do you feel about this sender? Sympathetic, reliable, sincere, credible?

4Relationship side: How do you feel about what the sender apparently thinks of you? Is the sender treating you as you would like to be treated?

Task 3

Write a brief report on the positive and negative points you have noticed in this letter.

The letter

Dear Joan, Sandra and all other girls in New Aduard aged 15, 16 or 17 years,

A letter from the mayor especially for you! That is something unusual.

Perhaps you have already heard of the changes in our social security system.

What do these changes mean for you? Well, our parliament has taken a new decision about who can get a social security benefit from now on and who cannot. This has consequences for you too.

Imagine a couple, a man and a woman, living together. Perhaps they are married, perhaps not. Suppose now that the man is unemployed. This couple has so far been receiving a family allowance, whether or not the woman has a job of her own.

This will change soon, however. In the new situation, the family allowance will expire. The man will get a much lower allowance, just enough for himself. This couple can therefore no longer live off the benefit together. Just like the man, the woman is now also expected to go and find a job. An exception will, of course, be made for a mother with children. She can stay at home to take care of the children.

All well and good, you may think, but what do I have to do with this? Let me try to explain this to you. Everyone, including you and me, runs the risk of being unemployed and having to live off a benefit. That is why it is important for today’s youth – and this also applies to boys – that they have enjoyed a proper education. Such an education increases the chance of finding and keeping a nice job and not becoming unemployed. That’s why I think it is important that you know all of this.

If you have any further questions about this letter, do not hesitate to ask your class teacher or school dean. You can also call the town hall; asking questions is free. Please call between 9 and 12 am and ask for Mrs. Teresa Delaware (0345-52215).

I wrote this letter especially for you. But, of course, it is completely okay with me if your parents and your friends also read this letter. In fact, this is important information for everyone!

I wish you a good future.

The mayor of New Aduard

G.W. Barker

2Timmermans, F. (2014, July 21). Speech at the UN Security Council. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/frans.timmermans/posts/765080793514782

2Structure

2.1Text schemata

2.1.1The elements of a text schema

2.1.2When is a text schema useful?

2.1.3Making a text schema

2.1.4The theme

2.1.5The main questions

2.1.6The key answers

2.1.7Sub-questions and further elaboration

2.2Set schemata

2.2.1When are set schemata useful?

2.2.2Problem schema

2.2.3Measure schema

2.2.4Evaluation schema

2.2.5Opinion schema

2.2.6Action schema

2.2.7Design schema

2.2.8Research schema

2.2.9Networks of set schemata

2.3General principles of organization

2.3.1Four ordering principles

2.3.2Arrangement requirements

2.4External structure

2.4.1Text format

2.4.2Paragraphs

2.4.3Referential ties

2.4.4Signal words and phrases

2.4.5Lists

2.4.6Structure indicators

Key points

Assignments

Assignment 1: The mandatory language test

Assignment 2: Fear appeals to combat obesity

Assignment 3: A minority majority

Assignment 4: Primary school Desmond Tutu

The Transept of the Mariakerk in Utrecht, seen from the Northeast, Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, 1637. On the foreground some visitors and cripple beggars.

Just as churches–or indeed, any building–need a solid structure to remain standing, so too does a text need both a logical internal and a clear external structure if it is to reach its goals.

Risk analysis

In a risk analysis, risk is often calculated as the product of the probability of a certain accident happening and the severity of that accident (the consequences). When one has little experience in the field in which the risk analysis takes place, one constructs so-called error trees in which you examine what errors can occur in a certain system step by step, how big the chance is of this happening and what consequences they can have. Risk analysis is a branch of applied mathematics that has attracted increasing attention in recent years. Risk analysis is mainly applied in decision-making about industrial enterprises, such as in the field of nuclear energy, where the government wants to know whether the risks outweigh the—usually economic—benefits that can be gained from them.

This text is very hard to follow: It is an unstructured series of sentences.