Purpose (Sender Role)

• Goals:
  • Describe purpose in the context of sending a message.
  • When you are in the sender role, achieve your purposes ethically.
  • When you are in the receive roles, figure out the sender’s most likely purposes.

Purpose (What)

Purpose refers to the reasons, both known and hidden, why an actor (person or group) does something.

In communication, purpose refers to the reasons why an actor or group creates and disseminates a message.

Examples

• Sender’s purpose: Inform someone
• Excellence: The receiver is informed in the best ways possible.
  
  
• Sender’s Purpose: Get someone to buy something.
• Excellence: The receiver made a purchase
  
• Sender’s Purpose: Request that someone do something.
• Excellence: The receiver did the thing that the sender wanted.
  
• Sender’s Purpose: Convince
• Excellence: The receiver was convinced

Why Purpose Matters

If you know exactly what your purposes are and you achieve them in the best ways possible then you maximize

Achieving Your Purposes (How To)

Framework

Repetitions: Take the following actions over and over until you excel with them.

1. Figure out and rank order your common purposes.

2. Design your message and select your media to best achieve your purposes.

3. Build your message; deliver it; determine how well you achieved your purposes; apply reflective thinking to learn from your experiences.

Tips

1. In many cases the sender is not aware of their purposes; that is, their purposes are implicit (hidden). Accept this and gradually become more and more aware of your purposes in communication.

2. Develop a list of common purposes (see next section) so that you can quickly and easily select purpose or gauge purpose.

Common Purposes for Sending a Message

1. Transactional

• Inform

• Request

• Instruct

• Justify

• Warn/Alert

• Coordinate

2. Influential

• Persuade

• Negotiate

• Resolve Conflict

• Seek Feedback

3. Relational

• Build Relationships

• Express Emotions

• Entertain

• Create/Maintain Social Norms

4. Reflective

• Reflect