Business Writing: Cultural Differences, Biased Language Analysis

This discussion board post analyzes cultural differences and biased language in business writing. The student examines the Elspeth case, highlighting miscommunication stemming from cultural differences between the United States and India, specifically focusing on authoritative communication styles and a lack of respect. The post then addresses biased language, providing examples and offering bias-free alternatives. Finally, it explores the 'you attitude' in writing, illustrating its application with a personal experience involving REI's customer service. The student uses the PAIBOC framework for analysis and provides references to support their arguments. The assignment covers topics like cultural sensitivity, inclusive language, and effective communication strategies in a business context.

Running Head: BUSINESS WRITING 0
Business Writing
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BUSINESS WRITING 1
Post 1: Elspeth Case
The high-context culture of India shows the low reliance on words in case of communicating.
So, after Elspeth trying to conduct of getting workers group to input ideas, she started to gets
a response in negative due to task-oriented culture of India. There are authoritative cultures
preferring communication strategy where figures are most of the time in control. In India,
management are not prepared having a participatory manner type and wanted Elspeth to
prevent while giving suggestions showing no respect for her in a proper manner which
generates miscommunication. This high-context shows the inferring of information within a
message and explicitly conveyed a little (Locker).
It is to suggest that it is easy to analyse business communication situations by trying PAIBOC
consists of purpose, audience, information, benefits, objections and context (ellemccosker).
Miscommunication occurs frequently while individual making meaning by using reference
different frames which is possible at the time of transferring meaning through PAIBOC. It
might occur while causing receiver to misinterpret by individual values and personal biases to
the internal message of sender which can cause cultural differences as per the case (Iryna and
Olga). Hence, this case shows cultural difference of Elspeth coming India from the United
States for the assignment to suggest better option but Indians did not respected her due to
their mentality of women being a boss which led to miscommunication between her and
Indians. The reason of cultural difference shows miscommunication in business because
people were not ready to listen to Elspeth at any cost.
Post 2: Eliminating Biased Language
In this post, three examples for discussing elimination of biased language are:
1. “While he is a victim of muscular dystrophy, Salvatore is one of our top salesman”
2. “Though she was born and raised in south, Terri is surprisingly open-minded about
people of different races”
3. “We’ll be showing a video at the conference, but Salvatore, who is blind, probably
will have little interest in it”
So, here the first example showing biasness by highlighting Salvatore as a victim of muscular
dystrophy even being the company’s top salesman rather than just depicting him as the best

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one and not mentioning his concern. There is a possibility of framing it as a bias-free version
that can be “Despite of facing personal difficulties, Salvatore is still our one of the top
salesman”. Another example shows the factor of discrimination by stating that Terri is from
south where most of the population is narrow-minded but still she works open-mindedly
among different races. This affects her personality and morale by placing such language that
shows biasness. This statement can be converted into bias-free version that can be framed as
“Even after coming from different culture, Terri is open-minded with individuals from
different races”. Last example shows pointing out Salvatore’s disability which depicts
biasness by praising him as well. This can be written as “Salvatore takes a little interest in the
conference at the time of showing video even after his disability concern”.
Post 3: Strategies
6.4 In writing style, ‘you attitude’ emphasizes on readers instead of the writer not focusing on
themselves but receivers and their problems, emotions, desires, probable reactions and
circumstances that are needed to be take into consideration (Nordquist). There can be
situations of not creating you-attitude through strategies that is possible by giving priority to
other individual or reader, looking toward others concern rather than personal, give time to
individual or a reader, create a positive environment for the readers and not to think only
about self, and make sure to not have a negative impact on readers while dealing with the
challenges. There are some specific situations where it not shows a ‘you attitude’ towards
individuals with cultural values. It requires adaption of messages from them for ensuring to
meet the needs of the reader even if emphasizing ‘I’. This shows the form of ‘you attitude’
even if not generally but requires to meet the needs and wants of the audiences as considered.
6.6 In business, the situation developed as care for individual along with approaching the
situation overall within a positive attitude considering REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.). So
being an individual, I thought of going to shop as there was 20 per cent off for members by
applying a coupon where I was not a member but my mom was of REI so thought of taking
one from her. But the issue faced was denying of purchasing from my mom’s account and
using coupon at the time of shopping. This was not that annoying but other night my mom
received an email from REI asking for apology due to inconvenience and offered her
additional coupon of 40 per cent within the member price. Here, REI aimed at reader fully
and concentrated on the misunderstanding created from my side.

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References
ellemccosker. “Assessment Item 2 – PAIBOC Analysis.” 20 April 2014. ELLEMCCOSKER.
https://ellemccosker.wordpress.com/2014/04/20/assessment-item-2-paiboc-analysis/.
24 February 2020.
Iryna, Kotovs’ka and Haluschak Olga. “BUSINESS COMMUNICATION.” 2016. Ternopil
Ivan Puluj National Technical University.
http://elartu.tntu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/17579/1/Navchalno_metodychnyj_pidr
uchnyk_Business_Communacation.PDF. 24 February 2020.
Locker. Business Communication: Building. New York: Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2011.
Online.
Nordquist, Richard. “Guidelines for Adopting the 'You Attitude' in Professional Writing.” 14
January 2020. ThoughCo. Online. 24 February 2020.