Making Your Main Point Easy to Find | Episode 11 Video Lecture | Business Communication: The Ultimate Guide

hey thank you for being with us here and
today we're going to be covering a brief
some of the brief content out of chapter
5 which is on making our main points
easy to find now during this brief
lecture we're going to cover obviously
some of the benefits of communicating
upfront in terms of the information
we're trying to convey we'll also
discuss some of the other techniques
that we can use to ultimately make our
communication a little more effective
we'll start with some of the benefits of
our main points coming up front versus
at the end is what you see which most
predominantly in writing will discuss
utilizing blueprints in our writing and
also creating to-do lists in our writing
as well now starting with our main point
now the reason that what I always
suggest is in your first sentence maybe
the first couple um you always want to
communicate what it is that you're
trying to convey either if you're trying
to convince someone over to your way of
thinking what your recommendation is
what your conclusion is really what is
the bottom line and the reason that you
want to do that early is because early
on you have a greater probability of
your writing being read the first
sentence is easily the most likely to
actually be read in a document that kind
of goes without saying and so if we're
gonna go ahead and put our main point at
the end and maybe try to provide all of
the proof evidence and documentation to
support what we're going to conclude at
the end the chances are is that our
readers may not get to that point
because we all have different competing
interests and what you do want to do is
put yourself in your readers shoes so
put yourself in their perspective try to
show some empathy and get to the point
to where if I was sitting here would I
want to read this you know if I didn't
have a background in this subject would
I care about this if I hadn't wasn't
passionate about this you know what
what's the likelihood that I would
continue to read you know we've all been
in bookstores where we flipped to the
very end of the book because we want to
know where are we going the same type of
thing in writing readers want to know
where we're taking them and starting
with your main point gives them some
kind of context where they know
where you're going so the arguments that
you they bring up or that you bring up
they know where you're taking them they
know where you're going it's not a
constant battle and struggle to try and
figure out where ultimately you're
taking them I think a lot of writers are
under the impression that if they fail
to make the main point early on that
they're gonna kind of hook the readers
in because you'll want to continue
reading to understand what the main
point is we're kind of hooked and we
want we have an interest and that sort
of thing and that's false unfortunately
you know we all know we have competing
interests there's an opportunity cost
associated with the actions that we
engage in the second that I engage in a
specific action I'm eliminating my
ability to do other things so like if
you study for an exam you give up social
time with your friends watching
television studying for another course
you give up everything that you can do
with that time so if I as a reader pick
up a document written by you that has to
be the most important thing that I can
do at that moment in time and so that's
the very reason why you'd want to
communicate upfront what your main point
is now some people say that if you do
that and if they don't agree with it
people won't read it that's fine I would
argue that that same person probably
wouldn't continue through pages and
pages of text to try and figure out what
point you're making in the first place
so I encourage you to start with the
main point early on and then work on
justifying what your reasoning is
actually in the body of your text now
with that set there's not necessarily
every single time you're going to
communicate with a main point at the
front you don't always need to start
with your main point at the beginning or
at least in the first sentence I always
would suggest having it early on
obviously versus later on in your text
but you don't always have to communicate
it in that first one to two lines and
there's a couple of situations in which
you wouldn't need to do that the first
of which is if you have to give some
type of background information a lot of
times we're communicating highly
technical material things that people
may not understand and so maybe they
need a little bit of background
information
guarding the situation in which you know
was present before the decision was made
or some type of information with regards
to technology that would be pertinent
for your recommendation that's fine you
know I would encourage you not to go on
and on and on before making that point
but if you have to put some a little bit
of background information so the reader
has an idea on what you're referring to
that I encourage you to do that and that
is completely okay another situation
that you will not want to start with
your main point is if your reader could
potentially act negatively a lot of
times we have to soften our tone when
we're writing and I would for the most
part if you're going to communicate
something that could be very negative a
lot of times you don't necessarily want
to communicate that in a letter or email
right that's usually a face-to-face
conversation people generally don't like
to be fired via email or a memo or
whatever you know formal communication
that you use and so that would be
probably a face-to-face conversation but
let's just say for the sake of you know
this example that you were gonna fire
someone via you know and you didn't want
to necessarily have that face-to-face
conflict because you thought they were
going to be hostile or whatever the case
may be you know you wouldn't start the
first sentence or the subject line with
your fired right instantly they're gonna
be very upset and they don't understand
your reasoning usually what you would do
in that situation is start upfront with
explaining your reasoning right kind of
softened that impact so to speak because
once the reader sees that you're fired
they're not gonna read anything else you
have to say and that would be a
situation in which I believe that your
main point would go at the end versus at
the beginning because you have to
justify what you're doing you know costs
or you know extremely high you know
you've had a lack of demand all this
kind of things you're the last person
that's hired yada yada yada all that
kind of good stuff to soften the blow so
to speak so in that situation I think
that be perfectly okay now obviously
that's an example I don't recommend
firing anybody over an email or anything
other than a face-to-face conversation
but just an example for you another
thing we want to talk about doing is
utilizing blueprints okay so first off
really what is a blueprint a blueprint
essentially is kind of a road map it
gives you an idea on where it is that
you're going
where it is that you're taking the
reader um typically the blueprint will
look almost like a table of contents
kinda I included the blueprint at the
beginning of this PowerPoint
presentation slash video lecture to give
you an idea on where I was taking you
that way you didn't constantly go
through you know the slide deck
wondering okay when is this gonna end
and where are we going I have no idea
what we're gonna talk about next
so blueprints are good blueprints
provide some type of structure to your
to your actual writing in terms of where
you place them you're gonna want to put
your blueprint usually before your main
argument or your discussion okay and
once again you're essentially
essentially establishing a roadmap on
where ultimately you're going to take
the reader and I want to know where I'm
going there's nothing more frustrating
than reading somebody's writing and not
knowing where it is that you're taking
them so I encourage you utilize
blueprints up front like I said most
often they take the form of a table of
contents your textbook provides examples
of blueprints every chapter at the
beginning the author is really good
about telling you we're gonna be
covering these particular topics even
though you kind of get the idea on what
they're talking about in the actual
title of the chapter they still include
brut blueprints to tell you what they're
gonna talk about individually in that
chapter there next thing here are you
required to utilize bullets for
blueprints no yes and no um you're not
required essentially to do that so that
would be and no but it is recommended
blueprints are the best way or I'm sorry
bullets are the best way to convey
blueprints and the reason for that is
you remember from last week we talked
about the reasons that we use bullets
when were conveying more than one of
something more than one of
recommendation tasks those types of
things procedures so on and so forth and
so if you're communicating more than one
thing you're going to do in terms of the
chapter or terms of your writing then
bullets would be the best thing to do in
order to utilize that as far as some of
the advantages for blueprints we've gone
over some of those over the course of
the last couple minutes here but just to
kind of rehash
but the first thing is is it
communicates to your writer instantly
where you're taking them I believe that
it communicates a sense of appreciation
to the writer as well you're
communicating that you value their time
and you want them to continue reading
your your document whatever that may be
after they've gotten a good indication
on what it contains and they can make a
decision early on if they want to
continue forward I mean we are
completely inundated with emails text
messages letters all those different
types of things and so we instantly no
matter what it is we instantly when we
open up an email we go through and we
try to figure out do I have to do
anything that's typically the best
question right or the most commonly
asked question is it does this email ask
anything of me and we're kind of
skimming through the email to see if
there's anything of relative importance
so to speak now how great would it be if
you communicated to your reader early on
that you want you value their time by
putting the blueprint in there so that
they know what it is that you're going
to be doing blueprints also provide you
with some great structure and they
provide the body of your text with great
structure because it's organized around
those main points whatever it is that
you put in their blueprints also look
really nice because they mix up how your
page looks we talked about layout last
week
I mean utilizing bullets the reason you
want to do that in Arlen is because
you're communicating a lot of
information in a fairly organized way
but you're also allowing for white space
to show up on your paper which looks
very appealing to the eye we like seeing
a little bit more white space than
versus an entire block of text so those
would be several of the advantages for
blueprints lastly creating to-do lists
first off really what or when would you
utilize a to-do list in your writing I
encourage you to utilize them whenever
you're sending any type of email
correspondence or written correspondence
where you want someone to do something
okay the reason that you want to do that
is because you can't assume that the
reader will keep track of what it is
that you're asking to do if they're
sporadically put
all across your written communication
you can't think that they're gonna print
your email message out and highlight
everything needed them to do or have a
notepad handy and write everything as
they're reading and things they have to
do because they won't write put yourself
in that position would you do it I know
that I really wouldn't so you want to
make it as easy as possible for your
readers to get the information they need
and figure out what it is that they have
to do if anything and so I encourage you
utilize to-do lists you typically
utilize bullets for this and kind of
reiterate you know these are the things
that we need you to do you know bullet
bullet bullet bullet and then maybe
below that even explain the why behind
it right people always want to know why
why am I doing this what's the
importance of it what's the significance
and what if I didn't want what happen
I'm so you can communicate that in the
body of your email or the body of your
of your letter written communication
memo whatever it is that you're sending
but it's important to have lists that
way the reader can get a good idea on
what it is that you're asking of them as
opposed to trying to find that
sporadically laid out in the body of
your text with regards to problems with
avoiding to-do lists I did go over this
before once again just to kind of rehash
obviously if you're not using to-do
lists you force your writers to try and
scour your email message looking for
what it is that you want them to do now
we don't want to do this right because
remember that if we're communicating
something we want our writers if we're
asking them to do something to do it so
by not laying it out in a very easy and
plain to see way we're essentially
increasing the likelihood that they
won't actually do what we're asking them
and we want to eliminate any barriers
that they can possibly encounter and
actually doing that all right that
concludes this brief video lecture hope
you found some of the contents valuable
in there if you have any questions any
concerns obviously fee free fill-in
email me and let me know otherwise have
a great week thanks for being with us