Welcome to part six of weeks three and four of the capstone project. We will continue to discuss how you can write an email to request for a professional colleague's participation in an e-survey. The email is a quick and efficient way to send a request. We will review how you can apply the 7 Cs of communication in the writing of this email of request. We will also review how we can sign off the email on the right note. The earlier modules have made reference to the 7 Cs of communication. Let's review each of them briefly. Especially in the context of writing an email to request for the respondent's participation. Commonly referred to as the 7 Cs of effective communication, they include qualities of being clear, concise, concrete, correct, coherent, complete, and courteous. Clear, the email should be clear about these aspects of the message. The audience, the address salutation, the purpose of the email, the content in terms of details, and your identity. For instance, state the purpose of the email clearly. I would like to seek your participation in a survey. This is a 10 question survey which will take about 20 minutes to complete. The survey requires your opinion on the best ways to communicate policy changes at the workplace. Conciseness and concreteness apply to the email in this way. Consider the example in the slide, is the message concise and concrete in its details? I am writing to you to ask for your participation in a survey. The survey is designed to gather as much professional opinion as possible on a very important topic. How we can communicate with colleagues on the many changes at the workplace in the best possible ways that communication can be carried out. The survey is not very long and it wont take too much time to complete. In the example, the red words present information that is not strictly necessary. You must surely be seeking a professional opinion, not an unprofessional one, by doing the survey. Also, it is immaterial whether the topic surveyed is important. It is probably important for you, the surveyor. Though it is not necessarily important to the participant. Also, the best possible ways will clearly refer to ways that the communication can be effective without once stating it explicitly. The underlying works show the lack of concrete details in the length of a survey, and the amount of estimated time needed to complete it. It is better to provide concrete details. Correctness in this instance would be seen as accuracy in terms of the information supplied and accuracy in terms of grammar. For instance, the details of the number of questions in the survey must be accurate. In the example, the wrong spelling of three does not help the correctness of information. The information on the general topic around which the survey centers must also be accurate so that the respondents know what to expect in the survey. If the topic is a relatively sensitive one, for example communicating policies on hiring candidates with special needs. The email must inform the respondents correctly, so that they can decide if they would like to to the request to participate. In the example, the email writer makes a sudden reference in sentence two to the e-guide. Which he or she has to develop after doing the survey. But the respondent has no knowledge of the e-guide. Connection or coherence breaks down here. The reference to we in sentences three and four also cause some incoherence as there were no prior nouns for the reference item we. Who does we refer to? Also, specific references to the ideas suggested by us, what ideas are they and where do the other ideas edit refer to? Connection between these four sentences breaks down. Perhaps, a revised version would help develop coherence amongst the four sentences. The results of the survey is strictly confidential. All responses will be used to guide the design of an e-guide to communication for our company. The e-guide consists of ideas mainly suggested by the designers. Ideas suggested by respondents will be very helpful in shaping the specifics of communication strategies. Completeness, in the context of this email request for participation, may refer to all necessary information regarding the purpose of the survey, and the role of the potential respondent. So that he or she may make a decision on whether to agree to the participation. Completeness in the details of what the potential respondent has to do. And related date lines would help them decide if they would be able to participate in the survey. For instance, you simply access the link provided to participate in this survey. You do not need to provide personal information at the beginning of the survey if you do not wish to. At the completion of the survey you will need to click on upload button on the bottom left of the survey form. That will be the end of the survey. We would appreciate the survey response by the 20th of March 2016. Last but not least, for your communication to be effective, it has to be courteous. Courtesy in this case goes beyond saying please and thank you. In this respect, we also have to consider the phrasing of our email. In the context of this email request, it is important to be courteous in the following ways. Use modal verbs, for example, would, to avoid too strong a statement of intention, purposes and deadlines for responses. Express your appreciation for the participation at appropriate points. In the pairs of sentences, the ones in red convey a slightly more courteous tone with the use of modal verbs, would and may. I would like to request for your participation. Invite you to participate in the survey. I want to request for you participation, invite you to participate in the survey. We would like to use professional opinion to guide the design of the e-guide. We need your opinion to guide the design of our e-guide. You may contact me for further clarification at XXX. The number to call is XXX if you need some clarification. In this pair of sentences, to show appreciation and to convey a dateline, the use of would, again, softens the message of a dateline to observe. We would appreciate the survey response by the 20th of March. We need your response by the 20th of March, 2016. Ending the email on the right note. After all the information regarding the invitation to participate in a survey has been presented, it is a good idea to provide an appreciative end to the email. And to indicate a reminder for a response to you request, before signing off the email. Once again, thank you for considering the request to participate in this survey. I look forward to hearing from you soon. For official emails, it is best to sign off with a neutral term like, regards, or best regards. Rather than the more informal sign off phrases like best, cheers, or ciao. In summary, we have looked at the context of writing an email to request for a professional colleague's participation in an e-survey. We discuss how we can start the email on the right note, how we can apply each of the 7 c's in this email. And how the email can be ended off on the right note.
