Chapter 3 of TCT taught me a very valuable piece of information: the profiles of people reading documents I write. Usually, I would simply write for a generalized audience, but this chapter showed me that there are different levels of interest in everything I write. The most important idea, I think, is the idea of a tertiary reader - a reader who will be evaluating you and your documents. It shows that you always have to expect your writing to be circulated around people who will be critical of you - the press or interest groups - and write assuming that they're going to see it as well.

Chapter 8 taught me quite a bit about the flow of information in a document. The main idea of setting up a document using the model of introduction, body, and conclusion is what's important here. Much like a public speech, the introduction should tell people what the document is about, before heading into the body of the writing. The idiom tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them seems to hold true here. Obviously, most documents for the class will be written in this style.

These chapters can help with the Crisis Analysis. Chapter 8 sets up the format for the summaries we're writing, and by profiling our readers, we can write our summaries to fit the expectations of all three group profiles. For example, when writing about a matter of pollution, it's important to consider that an environmentalist group may find your document. With this in mind, it must be written so as not to make the company look environmentally unfriendly. I look forward to the Crisis Analysis project with the knowledge I've gained from these chapters.

I believe that the two most important information in TCT Chapter three are:

1. the needs, value, and attitude analysis on one hand, and

2. the four advices for intercultural communication (listen, be polite, research the culture, seek for counsel).

When focusing on the audience, I do not think we should spend too much time analyzing rationally what people want. On the contrary, too much hypothesis about needs, values, and attitudes can lead to make mistakes, and I would rather concentrate on avoiding making them than trying to please the audience. During my internship, I had to communicate a lot by e-mails with different people around the world who had different levels of authority and implication in the company, and I am sure that if I had spent time to carefully search for every need, value, or attitude about them, I would never had the time to complete my tasks. Instead I followed the four advices at the end of chapter. And this is why I consider them as very important. They help to be concise and accurate, as much as effective.

In the TCT Chapter seven, I think the most important concept is about patterns of arrangement to organize information. In my opinion, this is crucial to reach your objective when writing a document. Having a structure well established is of course important, but knowing how to articulate your ideas in order to finish with a specific thought is even more significant. Because of the way you write your paper, readers will react differently.

These readings might help us create our Crisis Analyses to select the meaningful information, to organize them in a way that the target audiences will find interesting, and also to avoid plagiarism. I would say that after having read these chapters, I have a better idea of how I will process: first read many papers about the subject to make my own opinion, and then try to establish an order in the chaos created in my mind. Finally, this will help me create a path for the analysis.

Chapter 3 presented many important points however the one that I found to be the most useful and important was the section on international and cross-cultural communication. I think that it is very important because it is something that is often over looked and is not taken into consideration. I liked how the chapter gave examples according to the area that a person may be from. This section is important because it is an aspect that is so over looked. The internet has made communication with people from different countries easier. You don’t want to offend someone when writing a document and you want them to be able to understand it. This section gave you a brief overview of things that differ in the different countries. I think that knowing how to write a document for an international audience is important, especially if a business wants to reach the international level.

In chapter 8 I think that the most important idea is the section about how to write and organize an introduction for a document. This is very important because it is one of the first things that people read. If your introduction is not well organized and written correctly then it could mean that the reader will not finish the document. The six moves provided a good guide on how to write an introduction. I thought that it was interesting that the main point is suppose to be introduced to the reader so soon in the introduction, because normally it is at the end of the introduction. I really liked how the chapter also mentioned organization for an international audience. and how to appeal to them more.

The readings will help us in create our Crisis Analyses because from reading them we have learned how to select the meaningful information and organize it in a way to grasp our target audience’s attention. The chapters teach how to really appeal to the audience in a professional manner. It also teaches how to communicate with people from all over the world which is an important thing to know.

In Chapter 3, a few majors topics were touched up on but I feel the most important idea the textbook conveyed was the section on profiling your writing towards your readers. It is essential to recognize the types of people that will be interested in your writing so you can gear your attitude, vocabulary, tone of voice, etc. towards those specific groups of people. There is a "writer-centered analysis chart" aimed at accomplishing this very thing. It ranges from the primary readers (who your document is addressed to) to tertiary readers (evaluators who have only some interest in your writing). One must understand that there is always more of an audience than just the intended audience. And just because your writing is not specifically written for everybody, there is an unintended audience.

In Chapter 8, there is a stress on pre-writing activities, specifically organizing. When writing a document, it is completely necessary to organize your information into ways that are familiar to your readers. This chapter really seems to feed off of Chapter 3's reader profiling. If your information is not gathered in a sensible, logical way your readers may not be able to grasp your complete thoughts and ideas. Outlining occurs once you identify the genre of your document. Even though the thought of outlining is a bit boring and out-dated, often times there is an excess of information. Especially in this case outlining is essential so you can avoid leaving out important details.

Although both of these readings contain some generic information, profiling and outlining are very important. It certainly does not hurt to repeat and stress their importance in the writing process. Whenever there is a crisis, there are tons of details. This plays into how vital outlining is. Take the following example that relates to profiling. A car company's apology would not be the same as JetBlue's. Sure they would involve totally different situations but the audience is different as well.

I feel the most important aspect of chapter 3 is profiling the readers. It is obviously extremely important to target the audience which will be reading your text and provide them with whatever information is most important to them. Primary, secondary, tertiary and gatekeepers are all important for this chapter. However, I think that the primary and tertiary groups are most important. Primary are your main audience and therefor require the most attention but we also need to be aware of tertiary readers because of there importance in evaluating you, your team, and your company.

For me, the most important aspect of chapter eight is outlining a document. I find it very useful to always create a plan or outline before writing anything. It makes organizing the document much easier. Ceating a rough draft can also remind the writer to include something they may have forgotten. It is also a way to write in the clearest possible manner to make sure the reader understands you.

The main point of chapter three is that the writer should be able to tailor his work to the audience that he or she is trying to reach. I never realized that there are so many people that could potentially be reading my work, such as advisers and evaluators. The most important thing in the chapter was how a writer can make their work better depending on where the people are that they are writing to. I have always thought that the language of professionalism was the same all around the world, but this chapter explains how it can differ depending on the people.

Chapter eight outlines the basic form of a written document. We all already know that documents should have an introduction, body, and conclusion, and this chapter expands on exactly how each part should be organized depending on what is being written. Another important point was the discussion about outlines. I don’t normally like to use outlines, but it seems like they could be useful in the future when I start to write things that are more in-depth.

We can use the ideas from these two chapters in our crisis analyses because they need to be directed toward a certain audience. In this case, each of us will need to decide how to address the company that we choose, and that could differ depending on which company we choose. An analysis is the type of document that needs good organization as well, and that is where the main ideas in chapter eight will help form a clear purpose and message.

In reading chapters three and eight of TCT, I found that the Reader Analysis Chart and “Using Genres to Organize Information” were two important sections to focus on. They are both practical and could easily be applied with a crisis situation.

First, in doing a Reader’s Analysis Chart, the writer is forced to consider the needs, values, and attitudes of the primary readers, secondary readers, tertiary and gatekeepers. It makes the writer look at what he thinks the reader would need to motivate them to make a decision or take action. Also it makes the writer consider what his audience’s values are, which will motivate what kind of stand point the writer will want to take for his piece. Lastly it makes the writer consider the overall attitude the readers will have when faced with the piece. I think it is important to understand you audience on all three of these levels, it makes for a more personal piece.

Secondly, I believe “Using Genres to Organize Information” is important from the chapter. It is a simple enough concept, but it’s often the simple things that prove the most effective. Although this is meant to be implied for an “intro-body-conclusion” style piece, it can also be used for other practical day to day purposes. For example, organizing any set of tasks or rules, in a neat, accessible form.

I believe that by using both of these ideas, it would benefit trying to manage a crisis. You would have a neat categorized list of information needed to handle the crisis combined with ideas that were inspired by the needs, values and attitudes of the consumer. This will help the employer handling the crisis to maintain order as well as good ethics.

The Chapter 3, the big important idea is being able to identify you audience and their needs of information. Its importance comes from varying audiences. Based on who the reader is going to be (Primary, secondary, etc.), one should then determine their differing needs of information and how it should be presented. Not giving the reader the content that they value in the correct organization, style, and design could cause them to develop a negative attitude towards you and your company.

From the Chapter 8 reading, there is a large amount of emphasis put on organization of your document. The important part in this is being able to decide the genre in which you are trying to relay your message. These genres correlate with different types of document with different purposes. In finding the correct genre, you can be guided in how you should organize and what should be in your document's introduction, body, and conclusion.

From these readings, we should be able to determine what our Crisis Analyses should contain and be presented. We will now know what needs to be in the analysis, being that it is already given that our audience is the actual corporation. In knowing who will be reading it, we know how it should presented in a certain style and design. Also knowing what the body of the document will pertain to.

The most important idea in Chapter 3 is learning to tailor a message for an audience. There are, however, multiple audiences for each publication. Each audience must be profiled and then communicated with in a way that they will best understand. This is not an easy task, as each audience may have different expectations and needs. This ties closely with the importance of realizing international and cross-cultural communication. Cultures have different expectations for content, organization, style, and design. Writers must be well informed about expectations and be able to adapt.

Chapter 8's greatest lesson is that professional writing is not a task to be taken lightly. Crafting an effective document takes effort and planning. It is made up of different, yet crucial parts. For me, the construction of an outline in the pre-writing process is very important. Outlines allow the writer to organize thoughts and try different ideas of display.

In creating the crisis analysis, the information from chapters 3 and 8 will be important. Most crises affect more than one type of person with only one slim demographic profile. Each reader is as important as the next and so all must be addressed effectively. A crisis is by its very nature a confusing thing. A corporate response should be inversely plain and easily understood. By building an outline prior to document creation, we will better be able to articulate our ideas to ourselves as we figure out how to bring them to others.

The most important concept of Chapter 3 is to know your audience. If you fail to consider the various levels of reader of your document, you may find yourself alienating an important subsection of individuals important to the document's purpose. The example given in the case study regarding the possible incinerator comes to mind. If the writer fails to consider the opinions of the skeptics, the incinerator won't be built and all the good it could do will never happen.

Chapter 8 focuses on the proper way to organize your document. The most important concept seems to be how to effectively deliver your message to the reader using the proper context. A document that has been improperly drafted can be confusing or deceptive to the reader. Everything should be organized to best relay the message to any and all individuals who will be reading it.

These two chapters help create a Crisis Analysis by first showing us how to know our audience, and then finding the best way to organize our Analysis for that audience. By using the lessons from both chapters, we can create a Crisis Analysis that speaks directly to our readers in an easy to understand manner.

The most important concept in chapter 3 is that you need to find out the readers profile. This is also one of the hardest parts because you need to ask the five w questions: who is it, what are they looking for, where are they reading this, when are they reading this, and why are they reading this. Also there are the five guidelines that need to be followed. The guide lines are: Readers are “raiders” for information; Readers are wholly responsible for interpreting your text; Readers want “need-to-know” information; Readers prefer concise text; Readers prefer documents with graphic and effective page design. So in other words make the information short, sweet, and right to the point for the right audiences.

In chapter 8 organization the most important part the document. Organization keeps the flow of the document and makes it easier to read. Without organization the document can be choppy and confusing to the readers. Organization is best done through making an outline to set your information in making the draft of the document. Doing this will, in the end, make the paper flow smoothly and have a better understanding for the reader.

All in all, it is important to draft through an outline and organize the document so that it can adapt to the readers profile. This helps because we learn to think about all audiences and not to just write about what we think. The drafting and organizing chapter gives us the basics of how to write a strong and well organized document from the intro to the body to the conclusion. By combining what is learned in the chapter with chapter three we can write a perfected and to the point document that answers the five w questions for the right audiences.

Chapter 3 addresses a crucial and often overlooked element to achieving an effective argument. Reader profiling lets you customize your writing to appeal to the particular crowd you are trying to reach. Being able to create a style that your target audience will find most interesting and/or convincing I feel is one of the most important concepts discussed in this chapter. A paper written towards a more generalized audience may be much less powerful overall. Writing in a style your target group can relate to will make accepting what you are trying to convey much easier.

In chapter 8 they discussed overall writing structure. It covered proper organization and drafting techniques to make the argument more effective and comprehensive. This chapter discussed outlining techniques which I often use when putting together an argument. I think outlining was the most important topic discussed in this chapter. Outlining is a quick and easy way to plan out your entire paper. It allows you to easily organize your ideas and see how they flow before beginning you actual writing. Having this prototype in front of you ahead of time will allow you to spot any trouble areas in the way your ideas are presented and make the appropriate changes before they come up in the actual writing.

I think the material covered in these chapters will be very applicable to our crisis analysis papers. Especially in a crisis recovery situation, knowing how to appeal to your target audience as effectively as possible will be a huge advantage in winning them over. Considering your target audience will probably not be the only ones reading this, being able to write to a tertiary audience is also an extremely important factor in your success. Having a well structured argument will help keep everything clear and concise and keep the reader on track and more involved.

Chapter 3 of TCT explained the importance of understanding all levels of readers, from the primary to the tertiary to the gatekeeper. The most important and novel concept in the chapter was the approach one should take in writing to an international readership. The text provided very specific examples of the ways in which Arab, Chinese, Native American, or even African readers interpret the American style of professional writing, and how one can cater to a broader audience, including readers who speak English as a second language. The specificity and examples were extremely helpful, much more so than the general, almost common sense information at the start of chapter 3.

The most important and helpful information from chapter 8 were the tips for drafting an outline. These strategies were new to me, but in the near future I will find this organizational tool useful for academic papers. I especially liked the idea of using PowerPoint to organize information, even if there is no presentation involved. I have never used the Outline program in Word before, but I plan on investigating it for use in future projects. I appreciate the technical information that the text provides; rather than being too general and wordy about the way one should go about things, it provides an actual formula and sometimes information from other disciplines (using software, communication in other cultures) to abet the drafting process.

After reading these chapters from TCT I feel more confident about what is expected in terms of language and style from the crisis analysis project. I have always paid close attention to detail and the flow and structure of sentences in my writing, but for this project that may not be necessary. The language must be professional and correct, but it should also be clear and concise. Writing for professors is quite different than writing for general audiences, and completely different than writing for an international reader with different conventions of professionalism altogether.

Chapter 3 of the TCT book explains the importance of analyzing and communicating effectively with your reader and target audience. This is extremely important because ultimately a document is no good unless it gets your point across to whoever it is directed towards. Profiling the needs of the reader from why they will be looking over the document to their cultural norms and values can make or break the overall comprehension and success of the piece. The ability to variate your work to satisfy the needs of each particular person or group of people is invaluable. I thought the half-moon chart noting which inner groups need more and quicker information was also an important concept to think about because in a crisis situation, charts like this need to be strictly followed. Being able to know your audience and how to reach them was a very important lesson taught in this chapter.

TCT Chapter 8 gave a comprehensive overview of the actual drafting and organization processes of documents. Having any piece of information set up in a way that is easy to understand and laid out correctly can be the difference between a good and a poor document. I thought it was especially important to note the section on introductions. The introduction that starts a document sets the tone for the rest of it, and thus must be interesting, informative, and to the point. The other six step drafting methods for each section also make it more clear what a document should have, which is very important to understand and put into practice.

These chapters will be very beneficial to our crisis analysis because they give the start to the documents we will be crafting. Before we can analyze anything, we need to know who we will be writing to, and how we will be writing it. We will probably not have to worry so much about writing for different cultural groups, but knowing who the information will be going to will be crucial as to how much detail is given. Knowing this information will also help us pick different moves to use for the introduction, body, and conclusion that will most effectively reach our audience.

I believe that the most important idea in TCT Chapter 3 deals with profiling your readers needs, values, and attitudes. When writing professionally, one needs to be familiar with their audience. Without having an idea of their characteristics such as their familiarity with the subject or skill level, as the book explains, a piece cannot be properly written. Readers want to read pieces that they can understand and relate to themselves. When we can relate our work to the audience and present the material in a way that will be comprehended by them as well, then we have successfully done our job. The Reader Analysis chart in Chapter 3 is a great way to organize the needs, values, and attitudes of the readers.
I believe that the most important idea in TCT Chapter 8 to be the part that discusses outlining one's document. Some may see this as a waste of time when doing their writing, but from my own personal experience I know that this step is very important. This puts all of one's ideas in an organized fashion, and therefore makes for better writing when the time comes around to put the main ideas and details together. This segment in the chapter discusses how to prepare a proper outline, which is very useful.
These readings will help us with our Crisis Analyses by showing us important steps we need to take when writing a document. As Chapter 3 discusses, knowing your audience is an important step when writing. Knowing and understanding who will be reading our documents will help us when we write components of the Crisis Analyses project such as the press release and internal memo. Chapter 8 discusses organizing and drafting our writing. This will be helpful to us because we need to know how to properly prepare before we begin our writing. Proper organization of our information and details beforehand will make for successful writing.

I believe the most important idea in Chapter 3 is the importance of knowing one's audience and being able to cater one's writing to that audience. It is vital to do the necessary research and be thoroughly informed on who will be seeing your document and how they will be using it, and also what they need to know. That way your document can be clear, concise, to the point, and not include any arbitrary information that may lose the reader's interests. I realized that it is also important to consider the culture and/or ethnicity of the person or group of people one is writing to, because different peoples handle business using many approaches. That said, sensitivity is a requirement in any document, memo, email, etc. because you never know who might end up reading it or how they will interpret it.

Chapter 8 discusses the importance of organization in one's writing. The concept I found most interesting was the one involving methods of organization. It suggested several avenues I had never considered, such as using a program like Microsoft PowerPoint to organize a letter, memo, or other definitive or descriptive piece of writing. Organizing one's writing properly to include a beginning, middle, and end is good advice for anyone writing anything, but I think it will be especially important in professional writing documents such as those we will be producing in this class.

Our crisis analyses will have to incorporate a polite, factual approach as explained in Chapter 3. I for one will definitely use the who, what, when, where, why and how questions as well as the charts provided in the book for defining primary, secondary, tertiary, and gatekeeper audiences. Chapter 8 provides quite a few examples for organization and planning so that a document is the most effective and powerful as it can be, which will be required in order to win the votes of the class when we present the crisis analyses.

The contents of TCT chapter 3 mostly touched on audience and context of communication. For me, the most important aspect of this chapter was thinking about who will actually read your document. Most of the time we think about an intended audience, or primary readers, but we often neglect others who may read the document. In other words, I would not cater my documents to someone who i do not intend or expect to read it. Chapter 3 taught me to consider the view points of competitors and other secondary and tertiary readers.

Chapter 8 stresses the importance of organization and presentation of professional documents. I found that the most important aspect of a text is the organizing it so it flows logically and is understandable. I like the quote on page 175 which states that a successful speaker should "Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Then, tell them what you told them," referring to the introduction, body, and conclusion. Repetition is important to a certain degree to instill your ideas, but can be insulting and boring if used extensively. It is important to draw the reader in during the introduction and not just start with random facts and other content.

These two chapters may help us in our Crisis Analyses. We will have to analyze our target audiences based on different documents. For example, the internal memo is only for employees of the company, the phone message and press release will reach our customers, clients, and competitors. We will have to organize these documents to explain the crises up front (in the introduction) and then stay organized to explain how we aim to alleviate the problems. The target audience and organization of our documents will help manage the crisis situations.

From chapter 3, I saw the idea of preparing for the needs of international and cross-cultural readers as very important. Businesses are becoming more and more internationally active and therefore it is very important to be able to produce documents that can effectively present your information to international customers with their customs and ideals in mind. The text mentions the various differences in content,organization, style, and design. These need to be considered when drafting documents to be successful internationally.

From chapter 8, I again felt that the information pertaining to organizing your document for international readers was the most important. Considering the readers culture will help to avoid the reader becoming distracted or irritated with your work. This is especially important if your document is proposing multi million dollar business with an international firm. Different cultures have different ideals in what makes a document easy to read, and if you want their business, then learning how to adhere to some of their cultural ideas is very important.

By learning how to address specific audiences and how to setup a well organized document we will be able to execute our Crisis Analyses far easier. We will also be able to analyze the needs of our audience and with that information we can properly design our project.