When you have successfully completed this course, you will be able to:

• Analyse how communications are shaped by their cultural, experiential, belief and value contexts and apply this knowledge to communication that displays awareness of the legal implications of business writing.

To support you in your progress towards achieving the learning outcome described above, each learning pathway in this course has its own set of learning objectives:

• Orientation
  • Create the relevant website accounts you need to engage in the OERu learning experience.
  • Test drive the technologies by completing short activities using these tools.
• Introduction to business communication
  • Define communication and explain its importance to business success.
  • Describe the eight essential elements of communication and their functions.
  • Analyze the transactional and constructivist communication models.
  • Explain how culture, experiences, beliefs and values impact on communication.
  • Describe intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, institutional, and mass communication contexts, and their influences on the communication process.
  • Explain the two main responsibilities of a business communicator, and their related challenges.
  • Describe different levels of competence in inter-cultural communication.
• Understanding your audience
  • Describe the role of experiences, attitudes, beliefs, and values in self-concept.
  • Explain how selection, organisation, and interpretation of words and ideas influence our perceptions
  • Outline three ways to better understand and communicate with your audiences.
  • Apply active listening and reading skills.
• Effective business writing and legal considerations
  • Compare and contrast written and oral communication.
  • Recognise and analyse appropriate contexts for different writing styles.
  • Use word choice, tone, conciseness and other techniques to make your business writing more effective.
  • Use non-biased language in writing.
  • Outline some key legal considerations that relate to business writing.
• Business writing in action
  • Describe the changing nature of business communication channnels.
  • Write messages for different contexts and channels.
  • Recognise and analyse different types of business report.
  • Select an appropriate style and structure for different types of report.
  • Use appropriate tools and language for communicating with a business team.
  • Select the appropriate channel for business communications.