Assignment

1. Choose a country of interest to you. Go to the Executive Planet website (www.executiveplanet.com) or another website with cross-cultural comparisons and analyze the country in terms of the following cultural dimensions:

? Individualism and collectivism

? Egalitarianism and hierarchy

? Assertiveness

? Performance orientation

? Future orientation

? Humane orientation

? Uncertainty avoidance

? Gender egalitarianism

2. Describe each of the three components in the AIM planning process for business messages: audience analysis, idea development, and message structuring

3. Choose a business message to evaluate. You could find a recent letter you have received from a business, go to a website or choose a message for customers or a message specified by your instructor. Select a message that contains at least three or four paragraphs.
Evaluate the message in the following ways:

A. How effectively are facts and conclusions written?

B. How effectively is the message targeted to its audience? Do you have any suggestions for how it could have been better adapted for the audience?

C. Does the message portray a tone of positivity? Other-orientation? Describe your viewpoint with examples.

D. Assume that you are a consultant to the company that produced this message (the one you just examined). What advice would you give to create a more effective message in terms of content and tone?

4. Identify three writing principles from this chapter that you most need to work on. For each principle, write a paragraph about why you want to improve in this area and how you will go about doing it. Choose from the following writing principles: be specific; be accurate; control paragraph length; use short sentences in most cases; avoid redundancy; avoid empty phrases; use action verbs when possible; use active voice; use short and familiar words and phrases; avoid buzzwords and figures of speech.