Reading response #4 - whinchcl
Chapter 1 of the text really helped but “context” in perspective for me as far as communicating goes. It did a great job explaining the concept and most of the examples helped me quite a bit to understand what the text was actually telling me. Most helpful I found were the pictures followed by questions, it helped me understand how context can change pretty quickly depending on many different factors. It’s someone one doesn’t always remember to think about when writing in today’s world. We communicate in so many ways that are not directly face to face that I think we forget to consider what circumstances the reader may be receiving them under. I know there were other points throughout the chapter, but that was the one that struck me the most.
Taking the audience into account is going to be a little more difficult than I first thought. Reading through several blog posts reveals a more diverse audience than I had imagined. Even so though, they still all have a few things in common. They were all inconvenienced by Jetblue, they all lost time that they cannot get back, and despite the different reactions, there is a common feeling of being wronged and upset. The spectrum seems to range from “pretty upset” to people who will probably never feel enough was made up to them no matter how much JetBlue tries. The blog I found was one of the latter I believe. She had a short clip on youtube.com and from there I found a myspace page and a blog. The links are included at the bottom.
In the video and blog entries, it is apparent that this passenger feels more than wronged by JetBlue and is on a mission to find other passengers who feel the same way. She does not feel that what JetBlue gave her was adequate for her 11 hours on the plane, which is probably understandable. I have never had to stay 11 hours on a plane, but I would probably want a few free round trip tickets. However, many other people, other passengers included, feel her use of the word “Hostage” crosses boundaries. I have to agree with that sentiment and believe she may want to take a class on rhetoric. Even though I personally believe she is closer to the angrier end of the spectrum than most customers, I think it’s good to know and understand where she is coming from. You have to consider your entire audience not just the ones who will be easily satisfied.
http://www.jetbluehostage.com/
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendI...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZkQYjciGzc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27KogBQh9co
Comments
Reply
The readings really did help. The checklists are extremely useful because it helps you make sure you analyze your audience and situation. They will be helpful when writing our letters. I agree that the feelings of the passengers can be summarized as frustrated, upset, and wary of their future business with JetBlue. Your case of the woman being very angry is probably an extreme. I’m sure there were a lot of other people that were just as upset as her. I would probably be pretty upset if I had to sit on a plane for 11 hours without going anywhere. This is a perfect example of why we have to choose our words carefully for our letter; we don’t know exactly how each person feels. Some people might think a simple apology is ok. Others want more from the letter. We need to make sure we write a letter that will sufficiently satisfy all the different types of passengers who read it.
Re: Reply
Oh I completely agree that this is probably an extreme case, and I would hope that it does not reflect the majority of passengers. If you browse her site a bit, you can find an article where her boyfriend and her were invited to meet directly with Neelman to discuss the situation, yet that still did not seem to satisfy her at all. If you read enough of the site, you start to feel that maybe nothing JetBlue could ever do could make it up to her. This is sad, but can be true in many instances. There are people out there, that once they have been wronged will never feel anything can be done to make it right again. I will keep my complete opinion to myself, but sometimes I feel some of these people could be doing more constructive things with their time. With all that being said, you still must keep all this individuals in mind as you write the letter, because you're right people will want different things from the same letter. We need to craft the letter in a way to relate to as many of these people as possible, even knowing that some people may not get what they want.
Comment
I would agree that to state they were hostages is quite extreme. Obviously this woman is outraged at what happened but is unwilling to take a logical approach to understand the situation. If she would take time to investigate the facts and understand the logistical problems that prevented the movement of any aircraft she might feel differently. I feel many people do this in their daily lives, they are so caught up on being mad about something they don’t really know what they are mad about. And, even if she has a point it will be overlooked because she has already made it up in her mind that jetBlue is not going to do anything to help her. I disagree with the idea you must consider the entire audience, because there are some that you will never be able to please. You must only focus on the ones you can please.
RE: Comment
I don't think you should ever just focus on people you know you can please. That seems like you just don't want to try. Sure you will never be able to please everyone, that's pretty much given, but it helps to understand how everyone feels. I guess I'm not trying to say you need to give in to impractical demands when you are considering and writing this letter, but to me you need to be aware that this is out there. To me, considering only those people you can please translates to taking the easy road out. I feel that line of thinking leads to lowered goals, why even try to give the customers anything if they may not be happy with what you give them? That line of thinking just seems to lead down a bad road to me.
I agree with response that
I agree with response that when communicating with others, we never really stop to consider the possible circumstances one is undergoing. This is why content is important and vocabulary must be carefully reviewed before being presented. I am sure that passengers on a plane for 11 hours did feel that they were being kept hostaged. Although, I do believe that the word "hostage" is a bit extreme. It is worth noting that these people isolated from the public in a plane for a tremendous amount of hours against their will. This youtube clip is a great preparation and example for a passenger to write a business apology letter to. In this case, it is extremely imperative that proper context and wording is taken into consideration.