Practice what you’ve learned

Review the terms context, message, audience, purpose, and channel:

Read the following scenario. Then, answer the questions about the context, audience, and purpose which follow.

Scenario: You are working on a team project at Langara College, but one of your teammates hasn’t showed up to the last two meetings. You are getting worried that you won’t meet the report deadline that is coming up. You’ve tried to reach out to your teammate,  but they have ignored your emails and text messages. At the beginning of the term, your instructor gave you a list of guidelines for working in a team. Your instructor told you that you could only email them if the problem was really big. Now you want to write an email to your instructor explaining the problem because you don’t want to fail the assignment.

Read the scenarios below and choose the best communication channel. For example, would you text, email, or call the person?

1. Look at the instructions for an upcoming assignment. Analyze it using CAP analysis model discussed in this chapter. What do you know about the assignment’s context, audience, purpose, and channel? How can this knowledge help you produce a better assignment (message) and a more successful result?
2. Google a famous company, business, or organization in your community.  (If you’re stuck for ideas, I suggest you Google the Canadian grocery chain Loblaws and their CEO Galen Weston, as they are frequently in the news.)  Take a look at the company’s website, any ads or commercials they are using to sell their products or services, and any communication they have had recently with their customers (for example, on social media or in response to online customer reviews).  Based on what you see, determine the following:
   • Do you think the company considers the context of their messages when creating their ads and marketing materials? (For instance, do they refer or respond to what is going on in the community / world in their messages?)
   • Who is the company’s target audience? (Who are they trying to sell products to?)
   • Do you think the company understands its audience and their needs?  Why/why not?
   • What channels do they use to communicate their messages?
   • How effective do you think these messages are to help the company achieve their purpose (i.e, of getting people to buy their products and think well of the company)?
   • What, if anything, can we learn from their example (positive or negative)?

Review Anmol’s email to his instructor in the CAP Analysis Overview section of this chapter. Then read the instructions below:

• After you have analyzed the context, audience, purpose and channel, write an effective message to Anmol’s instructor.
• Here’s a recap of the message: