Business Communication Chapter 3.pptx

Business Communication

1. CHAPTER THREE PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

2. Objectives and Competences to be Acquired After completing this chapter, students will be able to: Explain the meaning of principles of business communication and communication in general. Understand the different principles of communication.

3. BUSINESS COMMUNICATION PRINCIPLES Your careful planning of the message is most important for effective communication since your goal is to gain desired reaction or action from the recipient. Thus, think and plan before you communicate. The application of business communication principles helps to communicate effectively through letters, memorandums, reports, speeches, telephones, face-to-face conversation, etc.

4. BUSINESS COMMUNI. …Cont. The principles of communication used to achieve both specific and general objectives of a message are collectively justified as the 7Cs. The commonly used principles are: Completeness 5. Correctness Conciseness 6. Consideration Concreteness 7. Courtesy Clarity

5. 1. Principle of Completeness Your business letter is “complete” when it contains all facts the reader needed for the reaction you desire. To achieve both the specific purpose of the message and goodwill, examine your messages to make sure that you have covered everything you intended to cover and that you provided sufficient detail for your receiver to know what you expect of him/her. Complete letter also minimizes the possible cost of additional letter. To make your message complete, make sure the reader/receiver knows who is to do what? as well as where, when and why he/she is to do it.

6. Principle of Completeness …Cont. Furthermore to ensure completeness: Answer all questions asked by the reader/receiver. Answer anticipated questions the reader may have but forgot to ask. Provide all the information necessary for the reader/receiver to make a logical decision. Explicitly ask the reader/receiver to perform an action required, as may be necessary. Make the subject content sufficiently clear to accomplish the business objective and Make the feeling suitable to accomplish the human objective.

7. 2. Principle of Conciseness Conciseness is one of the most important principles of effective business writing because a wordy message requires more time and money to type and read. Conciseness is writing a message in the minimum possible words without sacrificing completeness and courtesy. Conciseness involves eliminating unnecessary words. This means economy in writing saves time and money.

8. Principle of Conciseness …Cont. The following are suggestions that could help to achieve conciseness. i ) Omit unnecessary and longer expressions Example: Use “thank you” instead of "I want to thank you", “May 4” instead of ”from this coming Saturday'', etc. ii) Avoid unnecessary repetition and wordy statements Use a short name after you have mentioned the longer one once. For example, instead of the ABC Trading company, use “the company”. Use pronouns rather than repeating long names. For instance, instead of using “the Ethiopian Insurance Company" again and again, uses “It.”

9. Principle of Conciseness …Cont. Omit unnecessary articles, relative pronouns and prepositions. Example: Article : the evidence we have. Evidence we have. Relative pronoun: He said that he agreed. He said he agreed. Prepositional phrase: Date of the policy. Policy date.

10. Principle of Conciseness …Cont. Wordy Concise During the year of 1993. During 1993. For the reason that since. Because. Wordy sentence There is no question that the increased use of advertising benefited the company. Revised Unquestionably, the increased advertising benefited the company.

11. Principle of Conciseness …Cont. iii) Include only relevant facts with courtesy Include only those ideas that develop the purpose of the message. The major causes of irrelevancy include: Failure to stick to the purpose of the message. Including information obvious to the reader. Using big words to make an impression. Beating around the bush. Being excessively polite, etc

12. 3. Principle of Concreteness Writing concretely means being specific, definite, and vivid rather than vague and general. The following guidelines help you write concretely. i ) Use specific facts and figures – To make your message concrete, use exact facts and figures rather than general words. Example: Vague, general, indefinite, Concrete and convincing Our product has won several, (Name) product has won first prize, in four national contests within the past three years. Please send your check for the please send your check for $500 full amount soon, on or before June 5.

13. Principle of Concreteness …Cont. Often vague, general words may have different meanings to the sender and the receiver. The list that follows give words, which can lead to uncertainty, misunderstanding, or confusion. A few, more, short High, most, slow Large, nice, small Low, quick, soon Many, several, tall Using plenty of examples, prefixed by phrases like “for instance,” “for example,” “such as,” also helps make your writing concrete as well as clear.

14. Principle of Concreteness …Cont. ii) Put action in your verbs – Strong verbs can activate other words and help made your sentences definite. To write strong sentences: Use active rather than passive verbs, and Example: “The board of directors decided” is more explicit than “A decision has been made.” The passive requires more words and thus, slows both the writing and reading. For instance: “Figures show” is more concise than “It is shown by figures”.

15. 4. Principle of Clarity Clarity is the transfer of the writer’s thoughts to a reader without misunderstanding. It is the single most important factor in communication. A misunderstood message is worse than no message at all. A message that is not clear to a reader cannot possibly communicate the writer’s intentions. Thus, clarity is the writer’s first responsibility. The first and most important task of the writer is to be understood.

16. Principle of Clarity …Cont. The following are some specific ways that help to make business writing clear.   i ) Choose short and simple words rather than long and complicated words – Generally, short, familiar and everyday words communicate more effectively than longer and less known words. Therefore, use short and familiar words if your reader is to understand your message. Example: Complicated word Simple word Interrogate ask Subsequent to after Give consideration to consider Under date of on As of this writing now

17. Principle of Clarity …Cont. In addition, when you select words you should make sure that the words you have selected would mean the same thing to your audience as they do to you. Words have both denotations (dictionary meaning) and connotations (associated, personal meanings). The words inexpensive and cheap can denote the same thing. But their connotations are different. For most people, inexpensive simply means low in cost while cheap means poorly made or a poor value.

18. Principle of Clarity …Cont. ii) Avoid ambiguous and equivocal words Ambiguous words have more than one meaning and equivocal words. Whenever possible, avoid technical jargons when you talk or write to a person who is not familiar with such words. If you must use technical words, define them briefly and clearly, otherwise you will confuse, embarrass, or irritate your reader, and perhaps be forced to explain later.

19. Principle of Clarity …Cont. Technical jargon, Expressions familiar to lay person Annual premium, annual payment Assessed valuation, value of property for tax purpose Charge to your principal, increase the balance of your loan Maturity date, final payment date Per diem, money paid daily Sentence: Days of grace under this policy expire May 15, 1980 Revised: The extra 30 - days allowed you to pay your premium without interest end May 15, 1980

20. Principle of Clarity …Cont. iii) Use concrete and specific words rather than general and abstract words – Specific language enables the reader to visualize the action of your letter and it creates believability. Always give exact facts, figures, details, explanations and examples. For example, instead of soon use March 15, 2019.

21. Principle of Clarity …Cont. iv) Use short and simple sentences Sentence structure is also an important consideration in achieving clarity. The easiest sentences to read and to understand are short, simple sentences using active voice in the past, present, or future tense and making an explicit statement. While it is true that to avoid monotony, sentence length should be varied; short sentences are easier to read and are therefore usually clearer than long sentences.

22. Principle of Clarity …Cont. v) Your message must be definite and straight forward – State your message explicitly rather than implicitly. Using specific and concrete words will help you make explicit statements. Example: Implicit: It will be to your advantage to order now. Explicit: By ordering now, you will receive two issues absolutely free.

23. Principle of Clarity …Cont. vi) Construct effective sentences and paragraphs Clear writing depends on logical structure. A clear message requires a definite beginning, middle and end. In addition to the logical structure, the writer also needs to provide the reader with a unified message that moves clearly from point to point. A unified message has continuity of thought. Unity and structure requires planning. You should group related ideas together and then arrange the groups into a logical sentence.

24. Principle of Clarity …Cont. In a sentence, unity means having one idea and other ideas closely related to it. For instance, The manager of the firm- X is Abraha and Alemu won a gold medal in the marathon, game. These two ideas do not relate; the second idea is irrelevant to the first idea. Sentences and paragraphs should have logical sequence showing the reader the relationship between them. The use of linking words is important in this case.

25. Principle of Clarity …Cont. vii) Include visual Aids, when desirable Visual aids - such as headings, tabulations, itemizations, pictures, and charts are definite aids to clarity and easy reading.

26. 5. Principle of Correctness Presenting a message correctly helps you to avoid the risk of miscommunication. Mistakes cause misunderstanding and they can destruct the recipients from concentrating on the intended message. Besides, errors can affect the credibility of the sender and the message. As a principle of effective writing the broad term correctness refers to: Correct figures, accurate statements, facts and explicit identification of assumptions and opinions. It is obvious that without correct figures and statements, accurate communication is impossible.

27. Principle of Correctness …Cont. Correct spelling, grammar, mechanics, and language usage. Misspelled words, faulty punctuation, and awkward constructions will be barriers to communication. Your ability to use language correctly and to write a message free from superficial errors is a nonverbal message that tells your readers that you are an intelligent, careful person who cares enough about them to pay attention to the details of your message.

28. Principle of Correctness …Cont. Because your letters, memos, and reports provide a lasting record of your abilities to think, write and communicate about business matters, you should take the time to ensure correctness since communication errors will undermine your business effectiveness. Thus, as a writer of a business letter, you should apply the following guidelines in your communication.

29. Principle of Correctness …Cont. i ) Use correct level of language, spelling, and grammar and mechanics. Use short, well-known, and conversational words. Spelling - misspelled words are the single most common error in business letters. Punctuation - Review the rules for using commas, semicolons, and quotation marks. Use colon before a list of items, Example: Use the first five English alphabets: A, B, C, D, and E. Use commas to separate items in a series. Use quotation- Example. For direct quotations when said, “I will go to USA”

30. Principle of Correctness …Cont. Subject - verb agreement - Subjects and verbs must agree in number and in person. Example: The manager (singular) is (singular) quite young. Pronoun - antecedent agreement – Pronouns and their antecedents must agree in person, number and gender. Example: Abraham (singular, masculine, third person) is pushing his (singular, masculine, third person) product. Tense progression - Use the simple tenses (past, present, and future) whenever possible. Make sure that the verbs used for each event accurately depict the time appropriate for that event.

31. Principle of Correctness …Cont. Parallel construction – Like ideas should be expressed in like grammatical structures. Pay particular attention to series, lists, appositives, and ideas proceeded by correlative conjunctions (either--- or, neither--- nor, not only--- but also). Example: He should either quit his job or learn to operate the machine. Neither his supervisor nor his assistant filed the paper. The manager prepared not only the reports but also the tapes.

32. Principle of Correctness …Cont. Correct placement of modifiers – Place modifiers close to the word or idea that requires the modifier. Example: Dangling: by working hard, the report will be finished soon. Correct: by working hard, I will finish the report soon. Misplaced: I know a man who sells filing cabinet named smith. Correct: I know a man named smith who sells filling cabinets.

33. Principle of Correctness …Cont. ii) Ensure that the facts, figures and words used are accurate: One erroneous digit can make a difference of thousands of money. Even small errors of a few cents can be annoying to customers and undermine goodwill. To be sure of the accuracy of your facts, you should verify all statements before writing and again before you sign approve the message. You also need to be up-to-date on laws that affect your organization.

34. Principle of Correctness …Cont. Guessing or assuming that you are right can be costly. Just because a certain fact was true about a customer last year- or even last month- does not assure it is true now. You should also realize that, like most things in life, language is alive and ever changing. This is to say that language is in a continuous development. New words emerge; old words die. The change in words may result confusion in usage.

35. 6. Principle of Consideration The relationship between the message, the sender and the receiver profoundly affects communication effectiveness. Consideration means that preparing a message with the recipient in mind. This includes trying to put oneself in his/her place. It involves visualizing and evaluating the recipient's situation, the desires, problems, circumstances, emotions and probable reactions to one's request so as to adjust the message from the recipient's point of view. This includes taking into account the language and tone of your message. This thoughtful of consideration is also called “you - attitude” empathy, the human touch, and understanding of human nature.

36. Principle of Consideration …Cont. To achieve consideration, it is necessary to apply the following: i ) Focus on “you” instead of “I” and “we” Readers are usually more concerned about themselves than about the writer or the company they represent. They are more likely to read the writer's message when they see their name and the pronoun “you” rather than “I, We, Us.” Usually it is desirable to get the reader into the first paragraph. If psychologically desirable, begin with “you” or “your,” and keep your reader in the message (tactfully) until you finish. The opposite of the you–attitude is the we-attitude, in which the writer views every matter from his/her own (or organization’s) standpoint rather than from the reader’s.

37. Principle of Consideration …Cont. We – attitude & You - attitude I want to send my Congratulations to you on Congratulations……. Your … Study the following example: We - attitude: May I take this opportunity to express my thanks for the account you recently opened with our store. We are pleased to furnish a wide variety of products for the home or individual. You – attitude: Thank you for the account you recently opened at DASHEN’S. Serving you with your needs for clothing and a home furnishing is a pleasure.

38. Principle of Consideration …Cont. As the foregoing example illustrates, a letter is likely to have better you – attitude when it contains more “ you’s ” than “I’s.” However, in two kinds of situations it is advisable not to use “you.” 1. When the reader has made a mistake: Don't say You failed to enclose your check in the envelope. Say The envelope we received did not have your check in it.

39. Principle of Consideration …Cont. 2. When the reader has expressed an opinion different from your own. Don't say You are entirely wrong in your attitude. Say the proposed plan has three aspects which are extremely important and which we need to explain now.

40. Principle of Consideration …Cont. ii) Shows interest in the reader Whenever possible and true, show how readers will benefit from whatever the message asks or announces. They will be more likely to react favorably and do what you suggest if you show that benefits be worth the effort and cost. For instance, reader-benefits are desirable in job applications, favor requests, and announcements to your customers, prospective buyers, stockholders and employees.

41. Principle of Consideration …Cont. If your company provides employee benefits such as, health insurance and various retirement plans, management should make every effort to assure that all employees understand and appreciate those benefits. To inform employees effectively, management can use such media as memos, employee manuals, bulletins, reports, etc.

42. Principle of Consideration …Cont. iii) Emphasize on pleasant & positive facts Here, reader is required to accent the positive. This means: Stressing what can be done instead of what cannot be done and Focusing on ideas your reader can view favorably. The reader wants to know what the writer can do for him/her. For most people negative words like no, won’t, cannot, never and impossible trigger unpleasant emotional reactions. By making clear what you can or will do, you (by implication) often make clear what you cannot do, without using a single negative word.

43. Principle of Consideration …Cont. Negative-Unpleasant & Positive-Pleasant It is impossible to open an account. As soon as your signature card reaches us, we will gladly open an account for you today. When a customer closes an account, try to begin your follow-up letter to the former customer with a favorable positive paragraph. A negative opening emphasizes ideas you would rather not have the reader think about.

44. Principle of Consideration …Cont. iv) Be honest To be truly considerate, apply integrity - high moral standards, personal honor, truthfulness, sincerity-to your messages. Integrity is always indispensable. Without it business communications would prove worthless and our confidence in people would be shattered. Since you are an agent of your company, always remember that your messages help build the company’s image. And to make this image one of integrity requires consistently fair treatment of customers and to be honest and sincere for them.

45. 7. Principle of Courtesy Courteous message helps to strengthen present business friendship, as well as make new friends. Courtesy stems from sincere you-attitude. It is not merely politeness with mechanical insertions of “pleases” and “thank-you”. To be courteous, the communicator should follow the following suggestions regarding tone and promptness of messages.

46. Principle of Courtesy …Cont. Be sincerely Tactful, Thoughtful, and Appreciative A truly courteous person sincerely likes people, is thoughtful of their feelings, and tries honestly to help them. The courteous communicator tries to make messages tactful and shows thoughtful appreciation in special messages as well as in every day communication. Tactless Tactful Your letter is not clear at all: If I understand your letter I can’t understand it. correctly….. Apparently you have already As mentioned in my May 15 forgotten what I wrote you letter (or memo) to you , two weeks ago. (continue with the facts)…

47. Principle of Courtesy …Cont. Words that convey cordial and courteous messages in congratulations and appreciation (to persons both inside and outside the organization) help build goodwill. Much money is spent on advertising to attract new customers and to keep desirable old customers. While advertising may bring buyers into the front door of your firm, discourteous letters can drive customers out the back door. Remember, since customers indirectly help pay your salary; you should let them know you appreciate their orders, payments and inquiries.

48. Principle of Courtesy …Cont. ii) Omit Expressions that Irritate, Hurt, or Belittle The thought-full business writer should avoid expressions that might offend the reader. Therefore, in order to keep your letter courteous you have to avoid: Irritating expressions - such as “contrary to your inference”, “I do not agree with you” Belittling statements - Talking undermining a reader is another form of discourtesy that can have a profoundly unfavorable effect.

49. Principle of Courtesy …Cont. iii) Grant and apologize Good-naturedly Whenever you have occasion to comply with a customer’s request, begin your letter with the best news first and inject a courteous, ungrudging tone. Notice the difference in tone of the following two paragraphs   Grudging Your request causes a great deal of extra paper work to change monthly payments. However, in compliance with your request, we…

50. Principle of Courtesy …Cont. Good-natured As you requested, we will reduce the monthly interest and principal payments called for in your note to…. If a request has caused you extra work, you may tactfully tell the customer somewhere in the letter - but not the first paragraph. Occasionally you may get a “nasty” letter from a customer, who is wrong in his/her accusations. A courteous reply can lead not only to an apology from the customer but also future staunch loyalty as a boaster for your organization.

51. Principle of Courtesy …Cont. iv) Answer your mail promptly For courtesy as well as better results one should answer a business inquiry promptly. If you need time to gather information, or have a stack of other urgent work, before you can answer a request, send a short note like the following: I will gladly send you the information you need. It may take a few days to assemble the facts. You will hear from me by….

52. End of Chapter Three