Freelance Writing & Business Communication

Communication process: follow it to be an effective writer

Communication is a process. If you want to communicate effectively—in writing or when speaking—you should understand and follow the process.

Communication requires a sender who sends a message through a channel to a receiver. However, the process is not complete without feedback; feedback closes the communication loop. Sometimes, noise (distractions, misunderstandings) interferes with your message; feedback lets you know if the receiver understood your message.

When you are communicating in person, you can ask for feedback. You can ask people if they understood you or if they have any questions. When you are communicating in writing, it is more difficult to ask for feedback. In business writing, if you do not close the communication loop, how will you know if the desired action has been or will be taken?

Does closing the communication loop mean asking for replies from everybody you e-mail or from everybody to whom you send information? Not necessarily. In many instances, your writing purpose might not require you to close the loop. You might simply be sending information that the recipient can choose to act on or ignore. Or you might be making recommendations that the recipient can act on or choose to ignore.

In other instances, however, you might have to know if the recipient has taken action or has any questions. If that is the case, you need to close the communication loop. You can ask for a reply by a specific date, you can send a reminder e-mail or make a follow-up phone call, you can monitor the situation to see if action has been taken, and so on.

Deciding whether to close the communication or not should be a conscious decision based on your business needs.

If you don’t care who shows up, or how many people show up, to a meeting, then there is no reason to ask people to reply. But if you need to know how many people will be coming to the meeting so you can arrange lunch, then you had better ask people to reply and let you know if they can attend. Do you have to give the caterer three days’ notice to arrange lunch? Then you had better ask people to reply at least four days before the meeting.

The important point here is this: If you need to know that the receiver has received and understood your message, then you have to put into place a method of closing the communication loop. If the loop does not close in a timely manner—timely as dictated by you—then it is your job to troubleshoot the communication process. In other words, you can assume that your message has been received and understood, or you can build feedback into the communication process.

And if you think asking for a reply ASAP is an effective way to close the communication loop, think again! We’ll explore why it is not in an upcoming blog post.

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Paul Lima is a freelance writer and a business writing instructor. He is also the author of several books on business writing and the business of freelance writing. His latest book is Harness The Business Writing Process: E-mail, Letters, Proposals, Reports, Media Releases, Web Content.