Cognate Strategies In Business Communication

799 Words4 Pages
A/N: Please note, to protect my anonymity, I am not providing direct quotes of any pieces of business-related writing that I've shared previously at University of the People or in business-related settings associated with my identity. Additionally, as I have not yet had a formal job in a traditional business environment, my business-related writings are practically limited to the work I have submitted in the various Business Administration classes I've taken here. Please don't penalize me for these things. The three rhetorical elements of Aristotle, logos, ethos, and pathos, can be expanded out into nine effective cognate strategies for business communication (McLean, 2010)). Below, I will explain four of those nine cognate strategies…show more content…
Conciseness is, in essence, conveying a message in as few words as possible, while still being understandable. While I have yet to enter an actual, physical business setting for work, I am a student of business and my essay submissions to the Business Administration classes have been alternatingly praised and disparaged for being "concise" or "too terse." A comparison of my work and a few peers' work showed that I was conveying the exact same points as they were, just in much fewer words; it made me look like an underachieving student when word quantity was being valued over quality by my peers and professor. On the other hand, in my history class, I recently opted to outline the various causes of the Roman Empire's fall in a bulleted list, and received favorable responses from my peers in the class forum. They recognized the thoroughness of my work, and appreciated the ironically concise form of…show more content…
In my own words, I define credibility as proof that I am qualified to convey the message that I am. In between classes at University of the People, I have found work as a freelance writer. (This is the extent of my career, as I am a fulltime student, and I don't feel telecommuting from my living room counts as a "business setting.") I was sought out by a particular client because of my religion, and expected to write an article about particular rituals practiced by members of my faith. Doing something because your religion says so and knowing why it says so are two very different things. So is being able to explain to others what you do and know. In order for my article would be fully credible, I chose to rigorously research the subjects before writing about them, despite having a basic understanding of what they are from experience. The cognate strategy of expectation also falls under ethos (McLean, 2010), and gives the reader a tentative plan or idea for what the future holds. As a teenager, I tried selling handmade trinkets on sites like Etsy. Some were pre-made and ready to sell; others were made to order. When I wrote my product descriptions, I was sure to state exactly how much time it would take to produce a made-to-order good. That way, if anyone placed an order, they would have less reason to get anxious or impatient during the wait
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