There are nearly no "absolutes" in business writing, but here is one: your audience should shape every single piece of business communication you write. It is audience that fully determines the content you need to include in your documents.

As business writers, there is a natural tendency to shape a document from our own perspectives, but given the vast amounts of information everyone receives each day, your message will not be absorbed (or even read) if you do not shape it around your audience's perspective.

Sticky Situation of the Month Each month, I will examine a challenging writing situation a reader encountered, both to answer your specific questions and illustrate this for everyone. Karen, a project manager with a biotech firm wrote in and conveyed the following business writing problem:

My project team consisted of 6 people, and I was the Lead Manager. We had worked for weeks and weeks - often extra hours - and were nearly ready to launch the project and early sighs of relief were beginning. Late Friday afternoon last week, John sent an email to the group, which he intended to be light hearted and a joke, announcing that the "project had been cancelled and we can all go back to our happy normal lives." John didn't think anyone would take his message as anything but an obvious joke and his intention was to make everyone laugh. However, Clare read the message and began steaming over the weekend. On Sunday, she emailed the group, venting her rage at the dismissal of all the hard work and lack of commitment to the project, criticized our team and me harshly, and QUIT!

Dear Readers, please take the following survey and let me know who you feel most violated effective business writing techniques:

• John, for sending the joke email
• Clare, for sending an email while angry and quitting in a huff
• Karen, the project manager for failing to state her email communication best practices to her project team
  
• John and Clare equally
• Other