Recommendation to Unfamiliar Audiences

If I were writing a recommendation report for an audience that doesn’t know me, I would use the indirect approach. I would focus more on logic than on the recommendation itself. If I were part of an audience who was unfamiliar with the speaker, then I would most likely be more influenced by their appeals to logic rather than their emphasis on the recommendation itself. As a speaker speaking to an unfamiliar audience, I would remain as neutral as possible. I would avoid personal opinions and would try to base my points on facts. This would hopefully keep the audience tuned in and unhostile. I wouldn’t want to offend anyone in the audience by being so biased toward my recommendation that they fail to understand the problem and solution that I am speaking of. Logic will gain an unfamiliar audience’s attention more efficiently than opinionated statements.

According to Business Communications Essentials, there are two types of indirect approaches to logically build the conclusion or recommendation. The first is the “2+2=4 approach” which persuades readers by demonstrating that everything ultimately adds up to the conclusion. The second approach is the “yardstick approach” which uses a number of criteria to decide which option to select (263). The main goal of an indirect approach is to give the audience a valid reason as to why they should agree with the recommendation. It relies on factual evidence and logical reasoning rather than opinions. Staying away from stating opinions helps the speaker remain unbiased and will gain the audience’s attention much quicker than the direct approach.