Functional English Notes: 1st semester

Communication and 7Cs:

Communication means to share or convey information through experience, speech or behavior.  Communication is considered as a great skill and its importance is not negligible. Different strategies are recommend to polish your communication skills .7 C’s of communication is one of those famous strategy to develop good communication skills.

7 C’s of communication

·         Completeness

·         Conciseness

·         Consideration

·         Concreteness

·         Clarity

·         Courtesy

·         Correctness

COMPLETENES

Completeness is a very demanding characteristic.  In order to impress your audience you need to give a brief information about the topic. The sense of Completeness of an article satisfies its readers fully and clear their doubts. Moreover Completeness also demands that you yourself should answer those questions which you think can arise in the mind of readers.

CONCISENESS 

·         Avoid wordy expressions

·         Relevant information

·         Avoid repetition

Conciseness means to clear the point of view in fewest possible words. No doubt Conciseness is very important to keep the reader interested in your writing.  Conciseness also demands that you must only provide the relevant information and do not keep repeating the words and sentences. Irrelevant information and repetition give readers a view that you are not well researched about the topic and just filling the pages.

CONSIDERATION

·         Focus on you instead of I

·         Emphasize positive and pleasant facts

Consideration means writing every message with message receivers in mind.  In other words it can be said that bring ‘You attitude” in your writing. Show a sense of warmth and sincerity to your readers, this will bring a belief on you and your readers will trust you. Try to emphasize on the positive aspects. It will surely motivate the readers and will urge them to work more and harder.

CONCRETENESS  

·         Use facts and figures

·         Use active voice

Concreteness refers to the element of being strong and authoritative. Inclusion of facts and figures boost up the limit of belief and faith on your writing. In addition to this always try to write in active voice rather than passive voice.

CLARITY 

·         Precise and familiar words

·         Construct effective and well-structured sentences

Clarity demands the use of precise and familiar words that are easily understandable. In addition to this construct effective and well-structured sentences that clarify the meanings properly. Avoid long sentences as they sometime mislead the readers in sense of meanings.

COURTESY

·         Be sincere and appreciative

·         Respectful expressions

Courtesy involves being aware not only of perspective of others, but also their feelings. So while writing use respectful expressions and clear your point of view sincerely. Moreover if you do not agree to some point, discuss it in a positive way. Especially reply to negative comments humbly.

CORRECTNESS

·         Follow the language rules.

·         Accuracy of facts and figures.

·         Vocabulary

Correctness demands the follow of language rules, accuracy of facts and figures and vocabulary. Whenever you are writing, follow the language rules strictly. Moreover in order to add Concreteness to your writing never compromise on the accuracy of facts and figures. Lastly, proper use of grammar and vocabulary is also essential.

The Seven Cs of effective Communication

Communication principles providing guidelines for choice of content and style of presentation adapted to the purpose and receiver of your message

The 7 C’s of Effective Communication are:

1. Completeness         تکمیل شده

2. Conciseness            فشردگی

3. Consideration        دقت

4. Concreteness          وضاحت            

5. Clarity                    فصاحت            

6. Courtesy                 نزاکت

7. Correctness            درستی

1-Completeness:

Completeness offers numerous benefits:

1. Bring the desired results without the expense of additional messages

2. They can do a better job of building goodwill - (حسن نیت، خوشقلبی، حسن تفاهم)

3. Can help avert costly lawsuits that may result if important information is missing.

For achieving completeness:

1. Provide all necessary information (Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?).

2. Answer all questions asked, look for questions, locate them and then answer precisely.

In an organization we have two types of questions:

i.                    Stated

ii.                  Implied

Give something extra, when desirable1

2-Conciseness:

What you have to say in the fewest possible words without sacrificing the other C qualities. A concise message is complete without being wordy.

Eliminate Wordy Expressions

Include only Relevant material

Stick to the purpose of the message

Delete irrelevant words and confused/rambling sentences

Omit information obvious to the receiver, if you fell it is important to remind the audience of known (familiar) information, subordinate the known information.

 Avoid unnecessary repetition

Use shorter name after you have mentioned the long one once

Use pronouns or initials rather than repeat the long names

Cut out all needless repetition of phrases and sentences.

Omit unnecessary Expression

Wordy- please advise that your admission statement has been received.

Concise- your admission statement has been received.

Wordy- allow me to say how helpful your response was.

Concise- your last response was helpful.

3-Consideration:

Consideration means preparing every message by keeping the receivers in mind:

Put yourself in their place

You are considerate, you do not lose your temper

You do not accuse

You cannot charge them without facts.

Emphasize positive, pleasant facts Stress on what can be done instead of what cannot be done.

Negative/ unpleasant: We don’t refund if the returned item is soiled and unassailable.

Positive/ pleasant: We refund when the returned item is clean and resalable.

Positive words to which people react favorably are:

Benefit, cordial, happy, help, generous, loyal, pleasure, thanks, thoughtful.

Words with negative connotation that often allow unfavorable reaction are:

Blame, complaint, failed, fault, negligence, regret, reject, trouble, unfair.

4-Concreteness:

Communicating concretely means being specific, definite, solid and vivid rather than vague

Often it means using denotative (direct, often dictionary based) rather than connotative words (ideas or notions suggested by or associated with a word or phrase).

Advantages of concrete massages:

Save time for both.

Too many simple sentences, too many simplistic ideas gave the impressions of the writing of a first-year student.

Proposals submitted this quarter were uninteresting It is along letter. (Not concrete)

You send me a letter as long as you said it would be. (Concrete)

Use active voice rather than passive voice.

The tests were administered by professors. (P.V)

The professors administered the test. (A.V)

Exception when we use passive rather than active voice.

When you avoid personal, blunt, accusations or comments.

You failed to enclose the check. (A.V)

The check was not enclosed. (P.V)

When you want to stress the object of the action.

You are invited. (Active Voice)

We invite you. (Passive Voice)

5-Clarity:

Getting the meaning from your head into the head of your reader—accurately is the purpose of clarity. Of course, you know this is not simple. We all carry around our own unique interpretations, ideas, experiences associated with words Clarity

1. Choose precise, concrete and familiar words

Familiar:	Unfamiliar
About After Home For example Pay	Circa Subsequent Domicile E.g. Remunerations

Construct effective sentences and paragraphs:

At the core of clarity is the sentence. This grammatical statement, when clearly expressed, moves thoughts within a paragraph.

Important characteristics to consider are:

Length: Generally, short sentences are preferred. The suggested average sentence length should be about 17 to 20.

Unity: in a sentence—whether simple, compound or complex—unity means that you have one main idea and any other ideas in the sentence must be closely related to it.

Coherence: in a coherent sentence the words are correctly arranged so that the ideas clearly express the intended meaning.

Emphasis: the quality that gives force to important parts of sentences and paragraphs is emphasis.

6-Courtesy:

True courtesy involves being aware not only of the perspective of others, but also their feelings. Courtesy stems from a sincere you-attitude

Be sincerely tactful, thoughtful, and appreciative

-          Tactless, Blunt: Stupid letter; I can’t understand any of it.

-          More Tactful: it’s my understanding

Use expressions that show respect

-          Omit irritating expressions.

-          Omit questionable humor.

Note: 1. Offensive

E.g. Hay man, what’s this I hear about the good news? You sure pulled a fast one this past weekend and then didn’t tell any of us about it.

Note: 2. More Courteous

E.g. Warm congratulations on your wedding!

Well, you certainly took us by surprise. In fact, just a few of us even suspected you were taking off to get married. But even through we didn’t hear about it until later, we-my wife and I- wish you the best.

Choose Nondiscriminatory Expressions:

Another requirement for courtesy is the use of nondiscriminatory language that reflects equal treatment of people regardless of gender, race, ethnic origin, and physical features.

Singular Pronouns:

-          Questionable: Anyone who comes to class late will get his grade reduced.

-          More Desirable: students who come late to class will have their grade reduced.

7-Correctness:

At the core of correctness are proper grammar, punctuation and spelling. Use the right level of language

More Formal	Less Formal
Participate Procure Endeavor Ascertain	Join Get Try Find out

Check accuracy of figures, facts and words:

-          Verify your statistical data

-          Double-check your totals

-          Have someone else read your message if the topic involves data

-          Determine whether a “fact” has changed over time

-          Maintain acceptable writing mechanics.

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