 Lecture 6, As-Salaam-Alaikum. Welcome to virtual university's course on business and technical communication. In lecture 5, we looked at how to define objectives, we looked at the purpose of documents and we looked at the different types of purposes which could be explicit and implicit. In this lecture, we will continue our discussion on defining objectives and also talk about appropriateness. You will learn to identify the tasks that will help your readers to perform while they read. You will also tell, we will also talk about how you want to change the reader's attitudes. All readers have attitudes towards you and towards what they're reading and we will talk about how you can help your readers change their attitude. You will also learn about your reader's important characteristics in addition to learning about how to find out who your readers are and what you need to keep in mind when you know who your readers are. You'll also learn to fill in a sample worksheet that should be kept in mind when defining objectives. We'll have a worksheet which you will keep in mind when you are defining your objectives and based on that worksheet, you will be answering a lot of questions that will help you when you are actually doing your writing and when we have a look at that, we'll discuss this further. You'll also learn the importance of appropriateness in business and technical communication. Now, talking about identifying the tasks that will help your readers perform well while they read. When you identify the tasks, you are performing the enabling element of purpose. In the previous lecture, we talked of purpose and we talked of the fact that depending on whatever purpose the readers are reading for, you have to enable them to perform that purpose better and to get for them to reach their goal better. You are the one as the writer who has to enable them, who has to help them fulfill the tasks of finding information, locating information and understanding the information better. At a general level, all tasks are the same for all readers. All readers will be looking for information and understanding it, but on specific levels, there will be different strategies that they will be using. As we said, they perform the tasks of locating, understanding and using information in many ways depending on the situation. Obviously, based on whatever situation they want to use the information for, that is how they will use it. Every reader uses information in different ways and also finds that information in a text in different ways. Therefore, as a writer, you have to try to help your reader to find that information and use it better. For example, Ali's progress report would be read from front to back by the vice presidents. Now, I hope you all remember Ali from a previous lecture. Ali is the person who was asked by his superiors in Adamsoft to write a progress report and because the vice presidents of the company wanted to know about his progress. As we discussed earlier, not only do readers vary, but different reader's tasks are helped by different writing strategies. So now, for example, Ali would be helped by different writing strategies as opposed to when his boss is writing Ali's progress report. When Ali writes his progress report, Ali will use different strategies and when Ali's boss's progress report writes Ali's progress report, he will use different strategies. Similarly, when Ali's vice presidents will give their comments on Ali's progress report, they will write it in a different way. When writing, part of your aim is to enable your readers to perform their reading tasks quickly and efficiently. Let's consider the example of Ayesha, an engineer who is employed by a steel mill. Her task is to study two types of furnaces and to present a proposal to help the upper management decide which furnace to buy. She has two options to present the immense amount of information she has gathered. Now, obviously, when she has to help her management decide between two furnaces, she needs a lot of information about each type of furnace. Now, she can use two different types of patterns in which to present her information. Now, she can use two different types of patterns in which to present her information. Now, she has to choose how she can present her information in a better way so that her boss and colleagues can clearly understand which furnace is better for her purpose. She could talk about the cost, the efficiency construction time, air pollution of furnace A and the same five points cost, efficiency construction time and air pollution of furnace B. So, that this way she would be using a divided pattern in blocks. She could have one block for furnace A and then one block of information for furnace B. On the other hand, she can use an alternating pattern. She can look at the different elements that we talked about, cost, efficiency construction time and air pollution and talk about each in terms of furnace A and furnace B separately. For example, she could have one paragraph or one section on cost and talk about the cost of furnace A and the cost of furnace B. Similarly, she could take one section on efficiency and talk about the efficiency of furnace A, furnace B and so on. This is called an alternating pattern where the information is being alternated between the two main topics given based on the dividing pattern is where the information is all chunked together for one topic and then all chunked together for the other topic. As the information is all chunked together and then we will start talking about the other topic. Whereas, in alternating pattern, both the topics or the areas that we are talking about or the subjects that we are talking about, you will talk about them together, discuss them together with different points. As the information in both the patterns is exactly the same, Aisha cannot decide for herself which furnace to choose but she has produced the results of a study in a manner so that it is easy for her superiors to judge the best path. Now, all the same points are seen in the information cost, efficiency, air pollution, etc. Aisha does not have to decide which furnace to buy but Aisha has to present the information in such a way that the superiors are easy to make decisions. So, the information they have to present in such a clarity, in such a clear way that their bosses cannot make any decisions. Now, she has to decide the pattern. Which pattern should she choose? Should she choose the pattern which is easier to write or should she choose a pattern which is easier to read? Now, you have to understand that the ease of writing, choosing a pattern which is easy to write is a writer center consideration. In this pattern, if you think that it is easy to write, then you should not consider yourself as a reader. That is why your pattern should be writer-centered, not reader-centered. Or should she choose a pattern which is easier to read? So that the readers can find it easier. If she wants to keep the readers in mind then she should choose an alternating pattern because that is a more re-descented approach. As we saw, in the alternating pattern, each and every point is compared to the cost of both the subjects with the furnace A and furnace B. Then, with the efficiency of furnace B and furnace A is compared. So, it is much easier for the reader to understand. Whereas, the divided pattern was much easier to write for the writer in this example. She got all the information from the furnace A. She wrote it in one section and wrote all the information from the furnace B in one section. But it is difficult to write it separately. But it is much easier for the reader to read. So, if the reader is a center-centered approach and the reader needs to be enabled then it is better to use the alternating pattern in this case. She knows that her readers will surely want to compare the two furnaces in detail in terms of various criteria that they consider important. Obviously, when it comes to the purpose comparison, then when you write in the alternating pattern, it will be easier for the reader to choose which furnace to buy. You also, when you are making these considerations, for example, of which pattern to use, the consideration of how you will enable your readers to perform their tasks better, you need to identify the questions your readers will ask. When a reader reads something, he will also get a lot of questions in his mind. And as a writer, you need to think about what questions the reader can ask in his mind. It is not very easy because, obviously, you do not know what the reader will think. But many times, if you think about it a little, then if you keep yourself at the place of the reader, then many questions will be cleared for you to know which questions can be asked in your text. Also, you need to identify the strategy to answer all these questions. Whatever questions will arise in the reader's mind, now, as a writer, you need to think about how to answer these questions in a better way. Finally, you need to identify the ways in which your readers will use your answers. Whatever information you get from the text, as a response to your questions, how will the readers use that information in a better way. You also need to think about the ways in which the information will be used, how it will be found in the text, and how it will be applied in the future. Also, we talked about altering your reader's attitudes earlier. Now, you need to consider how you want your communication to alter your reader's attitudes. Whatever your reader's point of view is, how you can use your text in a better way, so that their point of view matches with you. You will need to begin by identifying the attitudes you want to alter. First of all, you need to know which points of view you want to change, which points of view you want to change for your readers. Sometimes, there will be a point of view which you want to reinforce. You might want to reinforce an existing attitude. For example, you might aim your presentation, so the readers feel more favorably impressed by your qualifications. Now, if you are making a resume, and the readers who want to read your resume know about it, but they don't know much about you, your impression is good on them, but if you want to make your resume like this, your impression is better on them. So, now you have an existing attitude that your impression is good on the reader. You want to reinforce that attitude. At other times, you might want to try to reverse an attitude. You want your readers to abandon it. Your readers have an attitude that you want them to leave. This is their point of view. This is their point of view that you want them to reject. So, you want to reverse that attitude. You want to differ from what you had. For example, you might want to persuade them to like something that they don't like. If we take the case of Ayesha, which works in steel mills, it is possible that their superior wants to take one furnace, and Ayesha thinks that the other furnace is better. So, they will gather information about the first furnace and the second furnace will gather information about the second furnace. But when they present it, they will think that they will present it. This is how the information will be written, that the furnace that they think is better, their readers will be miles away from that furnace. You might need to persuade them that a problem exists, where they feel that everything is fine. Many times, it is possible that your superiors are not seeing any problem in your company or if they have understood it or if they have come to know it. And you want to show them that there is a problem here. So, you will have to change their attitude again. So, you have to persuade and convince them so that they change their point of view about this thing, that there is no problem when you see a problem. Finally, at times, you might need to shape your readers' attitudes about a subject they haven't thought about seriously. Many times, it is possible that one of your readers has a point of view about which no one has thought about, that there is no specific attitude about it. So, you will have to shape and make your readers' attitudes. Now, how can you change your readers' attitudes? Suppose, your reader is a manager who wants to decide whether or not to purchase a certain piece of equipment. If you want to purchase a certain piece of equipment, the situation is that your readers are your managers, who have to decide whether it is a particular equipment or a piece of equipment or a machinery, whether they want to purchase it or not. And your job is to change or mold your readers' attitudes. You have to make your readers' attitudes in such a way that they buy a machine or a piece of equipment that you think is better. So, your action is that you will write a memo or a report or a proposal so that they can then base their actions on that. So, for example, you write a memo evaluating the equipment in terms of the benefits it will bring the company. So, in your memo, you will obviously look at all the details of that equipment and outline whatever benefits it will bring the company. Now, the pattern that you will use to write that memo will be determined by who your audience is, by the purpose as we talked about earlier. And obviously also very primarily it will be dominated by the action that you want your manager to take, how you want things to be, how you want the attitude to be changed. So, and that is what the end result will be. If your memo is effective, if you have written it well and you have been able to persuade your manager, then the way that the things will be at the end of the manager reading it will be that the manager decides to buy the equipment and feels confident that he has made the right decision. Now, if based on your memo, the manager buys the equipment that means that you have been successful in persuading the manager and that in turn means that your writing has been a good piece of writing. If, however, your manager rejects your proposal, then it means that your writing has not been persuasive enough and you have not been able to put forth the points that you wanted to in a proper manner. Obviously, if you have written the benefits of one thing and you really believe that this thing is better for the company but despite your writing, your manager did not feel that the points you have written are beneficial for the company. So, this does not mean that your manager is wrong. This means that you have not been able to convey the benefits of this equipment to the company. So, in your writing, you had to add a persuasive element in some way or another. Let us have a look at some other examples. The way things are now, let us, in this example, could be that your reader is a director of a plant that is using an outdated process. The director feels that the process is fine. Now, you will write a report on the problems with the current process and all the ways that these problems can be overcome by using various new processes because that is what you sincerely feel. If your writing is successful, if you have been successful in what you have written, then the result will be that things will turn out the way you want them to be and that will be that after reading your report, the plant director will feel that the processes being used now are faulty and a new one or some new processes are necessary and they will then be adopted. So, if you want to bring some change in your director's thoughts or if you want to show something that is happening in your company, then you will have to write a memo or a report and as a result, if your recommendations or proposals work, that means the writing was a good and beneficial writing. It is not necessary that all business or technical communication is for your superiors. There will be a lot of communication that will be read by junior people and you will have to change or alter or reverse their attitudes or mold them or shape them. For example, your readers could be, if you are a banker, could be bank clerks who will be using the computer system which is new and they are afraid of the new system and are therefore reluctant to use it. There has been a new system installed but the people working in the bank are not comfortable using it because it is completely new to them. Many people are afraid of new systems especially computerized things because they do not have the knowledge of it. It is also possible that you are a senior and your juniors have to teach them how to use the new computer system. So in this situation, your action will be that you could write a procedure manual which shows them how to use the new system and the action as a result of your writing could be that the bank clerks now feel confident in using the new computer system and that means that you have been successful. They are relaxed, they are self-confident and they have learned how to use the system properly and wherever they need to, they can still refer back to the procedure manual to find out more about the system. So in this way, if you have any juniors or superiors who have to change their attitude you can do it this way. In this example, the bank clerks were afraid of the computer system you wrote the procedure manual and then they were afraid of the computer system and they could easily use it efficiently and quickly. Now how will you identify and learn about your readers' important characteristics? You might want to think of your reader in terms of the following three roles. They could be decision makers, advisors or implementers. Whatever your readers are in a company or whatever you write, they will decide on their own. Or it is possible that they will not just decide on their own. They will implement that. They did not take any decision but they implemented it. Or it is possible that they are just advisors. They will not even take a decision and they will not even implement it themselves. They will not do it on their own but they will advise someone or give someone advice that this work is better, it is better to do it. So decision makers, advisors, implementers. And you need to learn that each has different characteristics. Decision makers will have different characteristics from advisors and implementers and so on. Now decision makers, their role is to say how the organization or some part of the organization will act when confronted with a particular situation. Generally decision makers are senior people of the company who will decide that when there is a situation in a company or in a division of a company or in a part of a company then how to implement it. Advisors will only give information or advise decision makers. They will not make the decision they will be giving advice. A lot of the time these advisors could be consultants or there could be other people within the company in senior positions who are not directly taking the decision but giving advice on what decision to take and also giving information. So that it is easier to take a decision. The third type of readers would be implementers who will actually carry out the decisions that have been made. Decision makers when decisions are ok they will now implement the decision makers. These decisions can also be read by three type of readers. Decision makers then they will show the advisors that we have this report and this memo what do you think? The advisors have read it and told their opinions and then according to that whatever decision has been taken it has gone to implementers and what you have written has also been given to implementers to see that this report has come according to this you have to work in this way. So your readers can also read what you have written to decision makers and take a decision and give orders to implementers but what you have written they will not be taught because they do not need it. So it can be any scenario. Now no matter who your readers are whether they are decision makers advisors or implementers you will have to keep in mind their familiarity with your topic because you are the one who is writing but you need to keep in mind and this will determine the amount of background information that you need to give. Obviously if your readers are not very familiar with your topic then you need to give more background information to make your topic more understandable more comprehensible to your readers. If they do not know about your topic then it is obvious that you will have to explain to them what you are talking about. Barak says that he has a special familiarity he is a special expert in this topic then you do not need to give any background information. Also people who are unfamiliar with your topic will also need to be told or will also need to be made to understand how the topic relates to them. They need to be convinced that this information is actually of their use. Many times it can be that what you are writing and readers are not familiar with it. When you write even at the beginning why should we read it? So it is important that when you are writing if you know that your readers are unfamiliar with that topic then you should clarify in the beginning why it is important for them. Most people have preferences concerning the style of communication they read. To a certain extent the people's communication preferences are shared by the customary practices in the organization that employ them. Now for every communication there are different styles and a lot of the times people have their preferences about which style they want to read. It can be that in their organization for example a certain style of writing can be adopted or it can be that they have seen that they are more familiar with it. And information styles may vary from the simple prose writing to illustration with tables, graphs and charts etc. Now if somebody has been is more comfortable with prose writing they might not be very comfortable with reading information from a graph and vice versa. So those different styles should also be kept in mind. You need to know who your reader is and what type of style you are comfortable with or what type of style is that reader expecting to see in the writing and that will also determine how you write. And for every reader there are some special factors each reader is unique so you should be on the outlook for special reader characteristics you would not normally need to consider. For example you might be facing an individual who detests certain words, insists a colleague or boss or junior whoever you are writing for might you might know that this person might not have a liking for certain types of words or certain phrases or that you might know that this person gets irritated by the use of certain words. So if you want to make your writing impressive or if you want to have a favorable impact then you should avoid that language that is irritating to your reader. Sometimes you will also need to consider the setting in which your reader will be reading. That is also important. Who is your reader and where is your reader placed? The setting is also important not necessarily at the time when he is physically reading but is the reader a part of your organization is the reader part of your social setting etc. You also need to consolidate information about the readers. Obviously all the different information you have, who your readers are, what is their setting, what are their preferences, likes and dislikes. All these things will not be kept in isolation you cannot have them in separate compartments. You will need to consolidate them, bring them together so that your writing becomes more effective. So you should keep all this information as key points about your reader and remember that you should view the key points not merely as a list of facts but as a dynamic resource you can use to guide you as you perform the rest of your writing tasks. Don't just use the information that you have, the key factors that you have about your reader. Don't just use them as facts that you have. Use them to change the way you write. Use them to adopt your writing to their needs and to adapt your writing where needs be. Now you also need to learn who all your readers will be. A lot of the times your readers could be phantom readers or future readers. Two types of readers that we will be looking at phantom future. Phantom readers are those where the readers may be hidden from you. You may have addressed your written communication to one person or one type of reader, one set of people but it may be written by, it may be sorry, it may be read by other people and you do not know that these people are going to be reading your communication as well. For example you may have written your communication for decision makers in your company but those decision makers then pass on your material to advisors and you do not know when you are writing that your material is also going to be read by advisors. So in this case these real but unnamed readers are called phantom readers. You know that they might be there but you do not really know who they are. You only know that your communication has gone to your decision makers and you do not know exactly who they are being passed on to but there is a chance that they might be passed on to phantom readers. Future readers are those where your communication may be, by whom your communication may be read not necessarily immediately but after some time. So while identifying your readers, you should keep in mind the possibility that your communication may be used weeks, months or even years from now. Not all communication is read immediately or read immediately and discarded. A lot of the times it is read immediately but also read again and again in the future. So you need to keep both these type of readers in mind, phantom readers and future readers. Obviously you are keeping immediate readers in mind though that is what we had been talking about up till now but in addition to those you need to keep in mind phantom readers and future readers also. Now let us have a look at a worksheet. What will you be keeping in mind when you are defining your objectives? This is something that is an outline. It is a grid that will help you define your objectives. You need to look at overall purpose of your writing. What are you writing? What prompts you to write and what outcomes you desire? You also need to look at the reader profile. Who is the primary reader? What is the reader's relationship to you the writer? What is your reader's job title and responsibilities? And who else might read your communication? This is where we talked about phantom readers and future readers. Also how familiar is your reader with your communication, the topic about which you are writing? How familiar is the reader with your specialty? If you are an expert, is he also an expert or not? And does your reader have communication preferences? Is there a certain style that your reader would like to read? Also you need to keep in mind the information needs of the reader. What are the key questions your reader is likely to ask while reading? And also how will your reader search for an answer? Will the reader be reading sequentially from beginning to end? Will he or she start reading your proposal outline, report, memo, etc. whatever it is? Will they start reading it from the beginning and then read it all the way to the end or will they do selective reading? Only look for key items or any others. If there are any others you need to identify for yourself what others they will be. So think of the next of a task that you will be writing and keep all these points in mind. Have a look at this worksheet keep this worksheet in front of you and try to fill out answers to all these questions and that will help your writing become a lot more concrete, a lot better. You also need to determine how the information you provide will affect your reader. Also you need to determine how you the information you've provided how that will affect the whole organization and that will determine how you write or will your reader be following instructions step by step? All these are things that you need to think of when you're filling out how the reader will use the information. If there are any other points that you feel any other ways in which you feel your reader will use the information, list those in your worksheet when you're making your profile. You also need to think about reader attitude as we talked about earlier and on your worksheet you need to fill out what your reader attitude is towards your subject and their attitude towards you. Now let's suppose that you need to write something and you need to fill out this worksheet that we talked about before you write to define your objectives. The first question that you will answer is what are you writing? For example you're writing a proposal that your software company Adamsoft should assign the international projects to most reliable engineers. What prompts you to write? You probably feel that this way by assigning international projects to reliable engineers you would complete foreign projects promptly and build the company's capability. Then you need to think of what outcome you desire. The outcome in this case would be that you would like the new method to be put into effect as soon as possible what you have proposed. Now coming to the reader profile part of your questionnaire, what would be your primary reader? In this case maybe your primary reader is for example somebody called Miss Zara Saeed. What is the relationship of the reader to you? The relationship could be that you see each other differently but you still have a formal relationship. Your colleagues but your relationship is still formal. What is your reader's job title and responsibilities? The reader could is the Miss Zara Saeed is the head of the project assignment committee for your company Adamsoft. Who else might read your communication? Mr. Umair Hafiz, Mr. Khwaja Osman both of these people could read your communication since they are Miss Zara Saeed's chief assistants. And you need to be, you need to know in your mind that though your communication is addressed to Miss Zara Saeed it might be read by these readers as well. Now, how familiar is your reader with your communication? She is the head of the present system of assigning. She has used the current system for three years and she doesn't know that you are presenting making an alternative presentation or that you are proposing an alternative. How familiar is the reader with your specialty? She is very familiar with it because she has been assigning engineers for the past three years so she is very familiar with the way engineers would be assigned to international projects. Then you need to consider does your reader have communication preferences? Yes, your reader probably has communication preferences. In this case Miss Zara Saeed prefers all communication to be business like so that's the style that she requires. Now, coming to reader information needs. What are the key questions your reader is likely to ask while reading? What makes you think that something is wrong with the present system? This is something your reader could ask. Also they could ask what will be the criteria for selecting the appropriate engineer for a particular project. Now that's obviously a very key question and that is when you are saying hire a good engineer your reader is obviously going to ask what is the criteria? What is a good engineer? They could also ask how exactly will the new system work? Or they would want to know what would I have to do to differently? If your reader has been doing something in a particular way while reading they might consider based on this proposal what do I change? Also you need to consider how will your reader search for answers? Will they be reading sequentially from beginning till end? In this case probably yes. Also will they be doing selective reading? Only reading part of it, part of what you have written. And in this case Ms. Zara said will probably be doing selective reading as well. She would probably first skip through your proposal just look at key parts and then read it from front till back then do the sequential reading. So they could be a combination of both. Now you also need to consider as we talked about earlier how your reader will provide the information you've provided. Will they compare only point by point? In this case yes. Ms. Zara said will obviously be comparing your proposed system with the present system and looking at key points of comparison as well. Things like cost efficiency etc. Will your reader attempt to determine how the information you provide will affect him or her? Yes of course Ms. Zara said will want to determine what you've information you've provided the proposal you've given. How will that affect her? How will it affect her current policy and her future practice? Will she want to determine how the information you provide will affect the organization? Of course she will want to examine what difference it will make in terms of efficiency and maybe even cost. Will she follow instructions step by step? Yes it could be that you've given some recommendations and she could follow them step by step. If there are any other questions that you feel you should try to answer those as well. Readers attitude. What is the reader's attitude towards the subject? Ms. Zara said in this case let's assume is not in favor of the new system because she thinks that it will create competition among the new employers. She is very happy with the present system. She probably does not want to change. So the attitude towards your proposal is not going to be favorable. What about the attitude towards you? In this case she probably thinks of you as a novice. Let's assume that she thinks of you as a novice. So in this case then you need to your writing needs to be much more effective in order to persuade her because her attitude towards your subject is not favorable in terms of wanting to create change and her attitude towards you is also not favorable in the sense that she does not think of you as an expert in this topic. Yes, you feel that your subject matter does not have a very positive attitude towards your reader because they feel that you are giving recommendations, you are giving advice and there will be complications. And you also know that she does not bring you too much attention because you are a junior, you think she is a newcomer or a novice so you will have to make more effort in order to make your point across quickly. So let's quickly have a look at all we talked about in terms of defining objectives. There are guidelines that you need to use in defining objectives how to enable your readers to perform their tasks better etc. You need to identify readers by their role type whether they are decision makers, advisors or implementers and you need to identify the readers by what type of readers they are. Are they phantom readers or future readers? Now when we talk of appropriateness we need to make our documents appropriate to our goals in writing it appropriate to our audience's purpose in reading it and to the specific institutional context in which the document is written and read. Because a reader's knowledge or experience determines the level of comprehension of technical material appropriateness is largely determined by your audience. Now obviously the knowledge of a reader which he knows according to that the reader will understand that is why it is very important that you are familiar with the level of knowledge of your reader and are familiar with who your audience is that is why what you are writing can be appropriate for that audience. And appropriateness is the factor to be appropriate for your audience. For example a fact expressed in a mathematical equation may not be effective in a report addressed to a managerial audience. There is one thing written as an equation it is not necessary that if your audience is a manager it is not appropriate to write that thing as an equation for managers. All technical writing should also be appropriate to the specific institutional context that motivated its creation. It should not only serve the purposes but also conform to the goals and conventions of the institution in which it exists. Now obviously every institution every organization has a context and it has its own culture so all writing should be appropriate to that context and that culture. Institutional goals and conventions are sometimes clear and explicit other times not. For example in large companies the specific goals of various documents as well as the preferred form and style are often described in company correspondence and style manuals. In many companies in many institutions in colleges and universities there are style manuals in which it is known that your sub correspondence or communication is from this style. Although the context is not always clearly marked it can always be worked out. It is not necessary that the style manual is written in the context but you can understand it. Classwork should be done within the context of goals of the class as well as the specific assignment for example. Research reports for example should conform to the general goals and specific conventions of the scientific or technical community in which they are created. Then there are style guides which are widely used in the profession and in organizations to achieve a uniform document look by identifying formal requirements for document appearance. These style guides are task oriented documents in the sense that they provide definite instruction for preparing a document. In style guides instructions are generally provided for numerous document elements including page formats. You are told how to write the title page what kind of sample pages you will have how you will put the headers and photos etc. Numbering systems how you will number pages graphs systems tables etc. Headings and subheadings how those will appear in a document all graphic elements usage grammar usage etc. punctuation and mechanisms and document packaging how the complete document will look all these things are dictated in style guides for a particular context or a particular institution. A letter which has been written in order to request changing something that was bought from a shop and let's see if this is appropriate if the style is appropriate or not. My Abha Jaan was in an accident last year and he hasn't been able to work full time so we don't have as much money to spend as we used to but my Amiji works as a lady health visitor with the health department so we aren't destitute by any means and soon my Abha Jaan will be going back full time. My family has shopped at your store since I was a kid it was smaller than and it was located in the corner of main market. My Abha Jaan bought me my first school back there when I was 6. I still remember the day he paid cash for it we always pay cash I have 5 brothers and sisters and they need plenty of things the cassette player that I bought for my sister Suraiya for Eid has been a problem we've taken it in for repairs 3 times in 3 months to the authorized service centre and my sister is very careful with the machine and hasn't abused it she likes classical music and she doesn't work right and I'm tired of hauling it back and forth because I work at the cafeteria after school and don't have a lot of spare time I paid cash for the tape player this is the first time I've returned anything to your store and I hope you'll agree that I deserve a better deal now is this really an appropriate way in which to write a letter on a note to a store saying that you want to return a purchase have a think about it how would you write if you wanted to return something how would you communicate the fact that something you have bought is faulty and needs to be repaired would you include all this information would you share so much detail about your family with the reader or not for many documents it is a good idea to identify a standard of style so that you achieve a consistency of style consistency is important when you're writing not only because it genuinely improves the reader's ability to understand your material but also because it gives the reader confidence and control over detail you need to be consistent you need to keep to the same style within your writing so basically in this lecture you learnt to identify the tasks that will help your reader perform better while they read you learnt to tell how you can change your reader's attitudes and what attitudes you want to change you also learnt how about your reader's important characteristics you learnt who all your readers will be you also learnt how to fill out a sample worksheet that should be kept in mind when defining objectives and the importance of appropriateness in business and technical communication so until next time Allah Hafiz