Technical Communication

Fundamentals of Communication
Unit 1
The first executive function is to develop and maintain a system of effective
communication. In the words of Allen, Communication is the sum of all the things one
person does when he wants to create understanding in the mind of another. It is a bridge
of meaning. It involves a systematic and continuous process of telling, listening and
understanding.

Communication is an integral element of interpersonal behaviour in organisations.

Human beings interact with one another through communication. It is the ability to
communicate effectively that has enabled people to build organisations and societies
for survival and better living.
Communication is a skill that you can learn. It is like riding a bicycle or typing. If you
are willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.
-Brian Tracy

1.1 Communication (Business Commu, Bovee, Pearson Education, 2003, p.3)(Prof.

Commu., Dr. Tyagi, 2011, p.3-4)
⚫ The word communication is of latin origin, derived from the latin word
communicare, which means to share or exchange information, news and views etc.
⚫ According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the word communication
means the process of expressing ideas and feelings or of giving people information.
It can be called an act of transferring an idea from one person to another.
⚫ According to Pauley and Riordan, Communication is the act of transmitting an idea
from one person to another person. Communication always requires at least two
people, the sender of the message and its receiver.
⚫ According to Keith Davis, Communication is the transfer of information and
understanding from one person to another person. It is a way of reaching others
with facts, ideas, thoughts and values.
⚫ It is a process of sharing information.

Communication is important not only in an organisation but also in daily life. In

everyday life, you will find that communication occurs everywhere. It is an integral part
of daily activity. When your alarm clock goes off, it is communication through sound
and urges you to get out of bed. You watch the morning news on T.V.-communication.
You say goodbye to your family as you leave home-communication. You retire to bed
and dream- also a communication.

Communication is an integral part of every person’s life. Effective Communication is

important part of our professional life. Communication is also important for social
relationships, international contacts when people verbally or non verbally, in speech or
in writing share with other persons their views, interests, opinions and so on. This type
of communication which is not specific is termed as general communication.
1.3 Features of Communication/ Principles of Communication (Business
Communication, Sathya S. Debashish, 2009, p.50-53) (Business Commu, Bovee,
Pearson Education, 2003, p.5)
⚫ Accuracy
⚫ Clarity- The communication cycle begins with the generation of an idea to be
transmitted by the transmitter. A great deal of clarity is needed on part of the
transmitter at this stage. If the beginning is jumbled, it may put an adverse effect
on the whole process of communication. Use simple words and short sentences.
⚫ Completeness- The message should be complete with respect to thought as well
as content. Incomplete message will create confusion in the mind of the receiver
and he will be forced to seek clarifications from the sender. You should organise
your message in such a way that the receiver has no doubts about anything
contained in it.
⚫ Brevity/ Conciseness- A reader’s time valuable. Don’t make him feel that he is
simply wasting his time in going through your unnecessarily lengthy matter. Be as
brief as possible to attract the readers’ attention. Include only relevant facts and
avoid repetition.
⚫ Consideration- We must show consideration in our letters for the reader. Though
we are primarily concerned with ourselves, but, to make the letter acceptable and
readable we must write letters to others considering their point of view. So to make
our letter effective, we must avoid I and we and have as many you’s as possible.
We should not forget reader’s point of view in the technical documents.
⚫ Courtesy- In business we must create friendliness, to improve our goodwill, with
all those to whom we write. Courtesy demands a considerate and friendly
behaviour towards others. It is general practice to answer a letter on the same day
it is received. If you have overlooked or failed to do something, express your
regrets promptly and sincerely.
⚫ Correctness- You should be sure that you are transmitting correct facts in correct
language. All messages must be transmitted and responded on appropriate time.
⚫ Circular flow
⚫ Goal oriented
⚫ Two way process
⚫ Consistency- The business communication should be consistent with the plans,
policies, programmes and objective of the enterprise. Above all the communication
should also be consistent. Inconsistency in communication may reduce the
effectiveness of communication and sometimes it does not remain reliable due to
inconsistency.
⚫ Continuity- This means that communication system in the organisation should be
kept always alive. There must be free flow of information across all levels and the
departments of the organisation.
⚫ Effective listening- A communicator must be a good listener too. Developed
listening skills can help a person to become a supportive companion, a more
sophisticated communicator. It is suggested that the sender of the message should
emphasize on the receiver or the attentive listening at the time of delivering the
message.
⚫ Cooperation/ Coordination- In order to make communication influensive, it is
necessary to have cordial relations based on trust and mutual faith in the
organisation. Lack of trust between management and workers, fails communication
in evolving positive response.
7 C’s of Business writing:

1. Clarity
2. Conciseness
3. Courtesy
4. Consideration
5. Completeness
6. Correctness
7. Concreteness
8. Cooperation

1.4 Types of Communication

⚫ Oral and written communication
Oral communication Written communication
It is expressed through spoken words. It is expressed in writing.
It takes less time. It takes more time.
It is informal in nature. It is formal in nature.
It may be taken casually. It is generally taken seriously.
It may not be verifiable. It is verifiable from the records.

⚫ Verbal and non verbal communication

Verbal communication means when we use words in order to convey our message or
information. Verbal is further sub divided into two. i.e. oral verbal and written verbal.
Non verbal communication means when we don’t use words. We use gestures or our
body language to convey our message. Non verbal is also divided into two. i.e. oral non
verbal and written non verbal.
Anthropologists theorize that long before human beings used words to talk things over,
our ancestors communicated with one another by using their bodies. They gritted their
teeth to show anger, they smiled and touched one another to indicate affection.
Although we have come a long way since those primitive times, we still use non verbal
cues to express superiority, dependence, dislike, respect, love and other feelings. Non
verbal communication is less structured, so its more difficult to study. You can’t pick
up a book on non verbal language and master the vocabulary of gestures, expressions
and inflections that are common in our culture. Other types of non verbal
communication, such as the meaning of colours and certain gestures, vary from culture
to culture.
⚫ Internal and external communication
⚫ Formal and informal communication
Formal communication Informal communication
It follows the officially established chain of command. It is independent of authority
Slow moving process. Fast moving process.
Easy to pinpoint the responsibility not easy to pinpoint the responsibility
Message is accurate and authentic message cannot be considered authentic.
It can be oral and written. It is mostly oral.
It serves organisational needs. It serves organisational and social needs
Order and systematic unsystematic and erratic
Work related matters work related as well as social
Task oriented people oriented
⚫ General and technical communication
Flows of Communication (Prof.Comm., Malti Agarwal, p.12-14)

To succeed, an organization shares information with people both internally and

externally. Each organization has a formal channel for the transmission of official
messages. In today’s fast paced e-commerce environment, organizations cannot limit
themselves to the decision taken by the top officials, rather they depend on team work
and collaborative efforts in order to make the fast decisions in the global and
competitive market place.
To function in a team based organization information flows from upward, downward
and horizontal in an organisation’s formal hierarchy. Managers and co-workers have to
exchange the information and ideas to one another. In the network of formal
organisational communication structure, there are four types of directional flow:
Downward flow
Upward flow
Horizontal flow
Diagonal flow
Grapevine flow

Downward Flow- Main decisions in an organization are usually taken by the top
officials and then they flow down to the subordinates who will carry out them. The
information passes through written orders, rules, manuals and directives from the
seniors to their juniors in the organizational structure. For example, the president of an
organization has vice president of finance, vice president of marketing, vice president
of research and development and so on. The orders flow from the president to these
vice presidents who further filter the orders to their respective departments. Such as
vice president of marketing communicates with sales manager, communication flows
downward to special project supervisor.

President

Vice president

Sales manager

Project supervisor

Purpose of downward communication-

1. To provide instructions how to do the job
2. To provide information which gives a rationale for the assigned job.
3. To provide information about organizational policies and practices.
4. To provide feedback on performance to the subordinates
5. To provide information regarding the organisation’s mission which the
organization wants to achieve
Limitation of downward communication-
1. When information flows from one level of an organization to the successive
lower levels, the real spirit of message is lost. Sometimes it results in the loss of
message also.
 2. When the message is transmitted orally, the danger is that message may be
distorted or mis-communicated. This is more when the message load is more
than the handling capacity of the lower level staff members.

Upward flow- To help the employees and make worthwhile decisions president or a
top official must be able to know what is going on in the organization. A manager
cannot be everywhere at once. An executive, therefore, has to depend on his subordinate
staff that can furnish him information regarding different problems. As an employee,
you are in a position to observe things that your supervisors cannot see: a customer’s
first reaction to a product display, a supplier’s brief hesitation before agreeing to a
delivery date. Managers need their little gems of information in order to do their jobs.
If you do not pass that information along, nobody will become aware of that. Upward
flow is the opposite of downward flow.
It includes the proposals, reports, requests, suggestions and some feedback.
President
Vice president

Sales manager

Purpose of upward communication-

1. To develop faith for the superiors in the hearts of the subordinates so that they
can communicate freely.
2. To provide a feedback
3. Sharing information of a organization helps to achieve organisational goals.

Limitations of upward flow-

1. Generally the subordinates highlight only the positive points of a survey. They
ignore the negative points which may lead to some problems in the long way.
2. The subordinates are reluctant to communicate upward, which turns into
ineffectiveness of the upward flow. Reason for this reluctancy is the
subordinate’s fear that his report may displease his superior and he will miss his
chance of promotion.

Horizontal Flow- Communication in an organization flows from one department to

another either horizontally or diagonally. Since organizations use teams and
collaborative work groups, horizontal communication becomes indispensable.
When employees of the same work group, of the same level or of the same status share
information with each other, in business world it is called as the horizontal flow of
communication. For example, the special project supervisor and the advertising
production chief work in the same section- Advertising and Promotion Department.
These two officials exchange their message and thus work smoothly. This horizontal
flow of communication is termed as a bridge or gangplank by Henry Fayol.
This form of communication takes place among peer groups. Such communication is
often necessary to facilitate coordination, save time and bridge the communication gap
among various departments. They are informally created to bypass the formal
hierarchical channels. They can also create conflicts when formal vertical channels are
bypassed by employees in order to accomplish their goals, or when superiors find out
that they had not been consulted before certain decisions were taken.

Purpose of Horizontal communication-

 1. It helps employees to share information.
2. It makes the coordination among peers possible.
3. Whenever a department comes across with some problem, it may contact
another department of the organization for its possible solution.
4. It is essential for effective functioning.

Limitation of Horizontal flow-

1. Misunderstanding and jealousy may be natural outcome of this channel of
communication.
2. This may result in blocking continuous flow of information or in the congestion
of modes of communication.

Diagonal Flow- Another flow of communication is known as the spiral or diagonal

flow in which people of different status and different departments share information in
pursuit of achieving the organizational goals.
Diagonal communication flows in all directions and cuts across functions and levels in
an organization. E.g. when a sales manager communicates directly with the vice
president, who is not only in a different division but also at a higher level in the
organization, they are engaged in diagonal communication. Though this form of
communication deviates from the normal chain of command, there is no doubt that it is
quick and efficient.

Grapevine Communication- There is an informal communication network in every

organization. This informal communication network, known as grapevine, carries
information unofficially. It is an important source of information that supplements
official channel. The employees at a work place often have casual conversations with
their colleagues in an organization. Most of these conversations deal with personal
matters, about 80 percent of the information that travels along with grapevine pertains
to business. This grapevine can be used to spread and receive informal messages.

Advantages:
1. It is not expensive.
2. Rapid
3. Multidirectional
4. A measure of public opinion
5. If carefully cultivated, is capable of resolving conflicts
6. Voluntary
7. Promotes unity
8. Serves as an outlet for anxieties, worries
Disadvantages:
1. Reveal some degree of error
2. Be harmful in case it is baseless or imaginary
3. Not be reliable
4. Lead to misunderstanding because of incomplete information
5. Cause damage to the organization because of its excessive swiftness at times.

Noise- When you communicate, you desire that the message received should be the
same as the message sent. But you might notice that this is not always the case.
Sometimes, this is due to the presence of noise. Noise is defined as any unplanned
interference in the communication environment, which causes hindrance in the
transmission of the message. Noise distorts interpretation of the communication process.

Noise can be classified as channel and semantic. Channel noise is any interference in
the mechanics of the medium used to send a message.e.g. noise in telephone lines, too
high volume from loudspeakers, faulty background. In written communication, illegible
handwriting can be termed as channel noise. Channel noise develops externally.
Semantic noise is generated internally, resulting from errors in the message itself. It
may be because of the connotative meaning of a word allowing the meaning to be
interpreted differently by the sender and the receiver.e.g.ambiguous sentence structure,
faulty grammar, misspellings, incorrect punctuation.

Barriers to Communication- (Technical Communication, T.N. Chhabra)

1. Semantic or Language Barriers-

i. Round about style
ii. Unclear message
iii. Faulty translation
iv. Specialist language
v. Unclarified assumptions
vi. Poor vocabulary
vii. Bypassed instructions
viii. Poor grammar
ix. Lack of common language
x. Use of words with different meaning
xi. Deceptive tactics
2. Physical or Mechanical Barriers-
i. Noise
ii. Distance
iii. Time
iv. Information overload
v. Gender
vi. Age
3. Socio-psychological Barriers-
i. Emotions
ii. Differences in perception
iii. Differences in attitude
iv. Closed minds
v. Inattention
vi. Abstracting
vii. Distrust
viii. Premature evaluation
ix. Cultural differences
x. Resistance to change
4. Organizational Barriers-
i. Status relationship
ii. One way flow
iii. Structure of the organization
iv. Rules and regulations
v. Distance
 vi. Poor listening
5. Interpersonal Barriers-
i. Attitude of superiors
ii. Poor health
iii. Lack of confidence in subordinates
iv. Bad listening
v. Goal conflicts
vi. Filtering of information
vii. Message overload
viii. Lack of time

Code and Content of Communication skills

Any human communication system involves the production of a message by someone

and the receipt of that message by someone else. To encode a message, one must
possess the necessary coding skills. Languages are codes. A code may be defined as
any group of symbols that can be structured in a way that is meaningful to another
person. The English language like any other language, is a code- it contains element
that are arranged in a meaningful order. A code has a group of elements (vocabulary)
and a set of procedures for combining these elements meaningfully (syntax).

A code has a group of elements (vocabulary) and a set of procedures for combining
these elements meaningfully. It is an arrangement of changing the words in a message
with some other words or symbols, so that information remains confidential and no one
can comprehend it unless one knows the system.
• A code may be defined as any group of symbols that can be structured in a way
that is meaningful to another person.
• In a way all languages are codes.
• It contains elements that are arranged in a meaningful order.

Content is the message that is selected by the source to express its purpose. It has
element and structure. It is the main subject matter or information in form of a magazine,
story, website etc. The topic or subject decides the content of the message.
• When more than one piece of information is to be presented, they should have
some order or structure.

Stimulus means to electrify a response. It is a force that leads to a response. The plural
form of stimulus is stimuli. It is anything that a person receives through one of his
senses.

Meaning of Technical Communication- (Prof. Commu., Malti Agarwal, p.3-4)

(Lesikar, Business Communication)

The word technical refers to something connected with the practical use of machinery,
methods etc in science and industry. It means the transmission of facts, figures, ideas
and all sorts of scientific and technical information from one individual to another.
Technical communication may be spoken as well as written. The technocrats may
conduct their professional jobs sometimes through oral communication which is
performed through speech while sometimes written communication which depends on
the written words. Hence, the technologist has to be proficient in both types of technical
communication- oral and written.
All communication, general or technical, involves two persons in the process in which
one is a speaker or a writer and the other is a listener or a reader. At the beginning, the
speaker or a writer encodes a concept which he wants to communicate. At the second
stage, that message is decoded by the listener and converted into meaning. At this stage
of decoding, the receiver analyses and interprets the meaning of the message so that
any confusion can be avoided. However, the technical communication can be internal
or external.
All the writing that deals with technical, scientific and professional subjects, for every
practical purpose can be defined as technical writing. All business documents, reports,
proposals, notices are the examples of technical writing.

Features of technical communication- (Business Communication, Lesikar)

1. Specific and technical content
2. Formal in style
3. Objectivity
4. For specific audience
5. Technical vocabulary
6. Precision
7. Brevity
8. Accuracy
9. Directness
10. Simplicity
11. Use of active voice sentences-
12. Use of familiar and easy words- Technical writing does not require verbose
style or circumlocution. Hence, the writer should not use too many words where
few would do. He should use familiar words.
13. Use of clear sentences- The writer should place the main idea at the outset. He
should follow normal word order (subject-verb-object). In this word order, the
first sentence is the topic sentence in which the main idea is presented.
14. Use of sentences of moderate length- Experts are of the opinion that sentences
should be of moderate length. Too much short or too much long sentences make
the writings either too simple or too difficult. Generally, sentences of 12 to 25
words should be written.
15. Avoid redundant phrases
16. Avoid inaccurate expressions
17. Logical division of paragraph
18. Avoid noun clusters
19. Avoid acronyms and abbreviations

Importance of Technical Communication-

1. Exchanging of information- In government or semi government, schools, offices
and hospitals and different business establishments people have to supply and also
receive information through an official document. All the information is circulated
in the organisation with the help of communication. The success of any
organisation is largely recognised by the quality and quantity of information
flowing through its personnel. An organisation becomes an organised whole
 because of its communication. It is this communication which enables employees
to work together. It is the vehicle through which management performs all its
functions. It is impossible for an organisation to survive without communication,
for all its activities would come to a standstill. Therefore, its importance can never
be ignored.
2. To instruct- Technical communication is also used in order to instruct.
Technocrats give instructions for using equipments or for performing duties.
Technical communication plays a pivotal role in an organisation, whether it is a
business enterprise, an industry or an academic institution. All managerial or
administrative activities involve communication, be it planning, organising,
recruiting, coordinating or decision making. When you read reports, give
instructions or read brochures and manuals, you are involved in the process of
communication.e.g. papers published by research and development organisations
bring to light their progress.
3. Persuasion- A technocrat uses the technical writing for persuasion also. He may
prepare a document to persuade readers to do certain things. Communication helps
in persuading or convincing someone for a desired response. Written as well as
oral communication is used to influence others.
4. Counselling- Seniors counsel the subordinate staff from time to time whenever
they face some difficulty at their work place.
5. Coordination- Communication is indeed an effective tool in coordinating the
working of the employees of different departments or positions. Mutual
understanding, joint consultation, seeking suggestions etc are all possible through
formal or informal communication. It leads to sharing ideas freely and in building
up a tension free atmosphere.
6. Education- Business firms frequently use effective methods of communications to
educate workers and consumers. They train and direct their employees for greater
productivity and educate consumers about the quality and uses of products. Good
communication helps in moulding employees’ behaviour favourably. It will lead
to better industrial relations and go a long way towards achieving greater
acceptance of new ideas. Professional communication must be studied by the
students of management so that they are able to do their business correspondence
with confidence.
7. Motivation
8. Extension of one’s interpersonal skills- Technical communication helps in
extension of one’s interpersonal communication skills. Technical writing conveys
your power of thinking logically even to the readers.
9. Business Correspondence- Technical writing conducts business. Through
technical correspondence instructions are maintained, technical description and
specifications are prepared, summaries and resumes are prepared and sites on the
worldwide web are prepared which inform the world about one’s companies
product. Communication and business activity cannot be separated.

Communication system plays the same in an organisation as the nervous system in the
human body.
Difference between General communication and Technical communication-

General Communication Technical Communication

Ornamental simplicity
Verbosity brevity
Obscurity lucidity
Circumlocution rationality
Subjectivity objectivity
Fancies facts
Both formal and informal style formal style
Artistic motive practical motive
Active and passive voice sentences active voice sentences
Extemporisation(without planning) pre planned and organised
Mirrors life as a whole mirrors business, trade and commerce
Pertains to society pertains to profession
purpose-amusement Purpose-inform, instruct & explain
E.g.journals, newspapers e.g. reports, business letters
Prose and poetic prose
Feelings, emotions logical

Communication Skills for Career Building

Unit 2

Job Application Letter-

Job application letters are written when someone needs a job. Since the applicant seeks
to sell his services, an application letter is a kind of sales letter and all the guidelines
useful in writing sales letters are applicable here.

The first objective of an application letter is to obtain an interview. So the letter must
be distinguished enough to attract immediate attention and to arouse interest. There are
two types of job application letters:

Solicited job application letters are written in response to an advertisement. Unsolicited

job application letters are written at the writer’s initiative. In both cases, a resume of
the writer’s own education, extra curricular activities and experience must be given.
Such a resume may form part of the letter itself or it may be written on an enclosed
separate sheet called cv.

⚫ Also called a cover letter

⚫ Written to apply for a specific position

It is a persuasive message that sells the applicant’s talents to a prospective employer. It

persuades the reader to believe in his/her suitability for a particular position. It is
basically a self promotion instrument used by the applicant to boost his/her professional
value and career prospects. The basic objective of every job application is to draw a
clear connection between the job one is seeking and one’s qualifications. It serves
several purposes. It;
⚫ Introduces the applicant to the hiring organisation
⚫ Introduces the applicant’s resume
⚫ Highlights the applicants positive personal traits and achievements
⚫ Emphasizes how the applicant is right for the job by matching the requirements of
the the job with his/ her qualifications
⚫ Asks for an opportunity to be interviewed by the organisation

Resume

A resume is an abstract or selective record of one’s professional and educational

achievements like formal education, work experience, qualifications, abilities and so
on. It refers precisely to one’s professional skills and educational qualifications, work
experience and other relevant information. It highlights a person’s suitability for a job
he is seeking for. In modern world of science and technology, resume writing has
become an art hence it must be inculcated among the young professionals who are
starting their professional life.

A resume reflects the complete achievements of a person in various fields. It enables

the employer to form some ideas about the proficiency of the applicant hence a resume
should be written cautiously, highlighting the best possible virtues of an applicant. A
resume is prepared according to the employment a person seeks. Your resume must
include details of what you are, what the potential employer is looking for and what
your employment goals are. Your resume must be well planned that means your
purpose and your audience should be well analysed. It is of one or two pages not more
than that.

We can say that resume is selling your skills or resume is a form of advertising. It is
intended to stimulate an employer’s interest in you and learning more about you. Thus,
the purpose of writing resume is to create interest- not to tell readers everything about
you.
Types of Resume-
Chronological resume
Functional resume
Hybrid resume
Electronic resume

Chronological resume- The chronological resume emphasizes your education and

work experience and is most effective when such experience clearly relates to the job
you are seeking. If you are a recent graduate, listing your education in a reverse order
make sense. The chronological approach is the most common way of organising the
information in a resume and it is preferred by most employers. It is appropriate if you
have a strong employment history.

Name
Address
Career objective
Experience
Education
Skills
Personal details
 Date
Place (Name)

Functional resume- The functional resume features the skills you bring to the job
(organiser, researcher, manager etc.). This type emphasizes individual fields of
competence and is hence used by applicants who are just entering the job market, who
want to redirect their careers or who have little continuous career related experience. It
demonstrates the applicants’ ability to handle the position they are applying for. This
pattern stresses individual areas of competence.

Name
Address
Career objective
Skills
Education
Experience
Personal details

Date
Place (Name)

Hybrid resume- This includes the best features of the chronological and functional
resumes. This type is not popular or not commonly used as it tends to be very long. It
turned out to be repeatative also.

Name
Address
Career objective
Experience
Education
Skills
Personal details

Date
Place (Name)

Electronic resume- These resumes are becoming more and more popular these days.

Biodata:
The biodata or personal record sheet, gives a detailed information about the personal
qualities, education, experience etc of the applicant. It refers to the biographical details
of somebody. It may include information about one’s background, educational
qualifications, skills, abilities, hobbies, interests and other particulars of the like nature.

Curriculum Vitae:
A curriculum vitae is a record of one’s professional and educational achievements it
refers to one’s professional skills and educational qualifications, work experience and
other relevant information. It is of many pages. It means that in cv a person discusses
in detail about his profession and educational qualification.
It is a detailed synopsis of one’s skills, education and experience.
Cv is a latin name. It means course of life.
It is used for academic positions and it is longer than resume.

Guidelines for writing good resumes:

The main function of a resume is to attract the employer hence the following guidelines
should be followed:
⚫ The resume should be well written, sentences and paragraphs should be short and
simple.
⚫ Use of jargon should be avoided
⚫ It should be typed
⚫ It should provide all necessary information, relating to the applicant’s education
and experience.
⚫ Adapt your resume to your receiver
⚫ It should be laid out well and visually appealing
⚫ Concise and honest
⚫ Focus on the employer’s need
⚫ Complete in all respects
⚫ Any personal information which is not directly related to the job target should not
be included.

Write a job application letter for the post of lecturer in an esteemed organisation.
Invent necessary details.

10th June, 2017

HR Manager
IPEC, Ghaziabad

Subject- Application for the post of Lecturer (English)

Dear Sir,

With my five years’ experience as the Lecturer in Maharaja Surajmal Institute, I feel I
am quite suitable for the post that you advertised in ‘The Hindu’ dated 1st June, 2017.

The enclosed resume gives you details about my academic achievements, teaching
experience and interest is extra curricular activities. May I have a personal interview at
your convenience so that I can substantiate my statements and answer any other
questions you may like to ask?

Yours’ faithfully
Sign
(Name)

Enclosures: 1. resume

Name
Address
Career objective
 Experience
Education
Skills
Personal details

Date
Place (Name)

Interviews

Meaning
The word ‘interview’ is derived from ‘intrevue’ which means ‘sight between’. It is a
face to face conversation between a person in his individual capacity and another one
representing some organization or between one individual and other group members
and vice versa. It is a process of assessment of one participant by another.
Objectives
• To provide students enough exposure to the preparation of employment
interviews by exercises on burning issues.
• To promote skills of interviews by exposing them to the techniques of
interview presentation.
• To train them in proper display of body language during the interview.
• To help them master communication skills.

Methodology
• The teacher will acquaint students on the concept of employment or general
interviews.
• The teacher imparts lessons on the art and techniques of interviews on
individual to individual basis.
• Teacher will answer to the relevant queries of students pertaining to form and
contents of successful presentation.
• Mock interviews will then be arranged by the teacher for students.

Types of Interviews (Personality Development and Soft Skills, Mr. Barun K. Mitra)

1. Patterned Interview

This is generally used to screen applicants. In this type of interview, usually the same
type of questions is asked to each candidate. The intent is to compare the answers and
thus evaluate the suitability of a candidate for a particular job.

2. Non-directive Interview

In this type of interview, generally open ended questions are asked to give an
opportunity to the candidates to open up and express what they feel about a certain
matter. Questions such as—‘Please tell us about yourself.’ Or ‘What prompted you to
apply for this job?’ serve this purpose. Proper answers to such simple questions give a
peek into the personality traits of the candidate.

3. Stress Interview

Handling stressful situations plays an important role in industry. Sometimes seemingly

awkward questions such as ‘Why did you leave your last job?’ or ‘What were you doing
when at a particular period, it seems, you were not attached to any organization?’ may
cause discomfort. He may feel nervous or irritated. But a candidate who is full of self
confidence, would be able to confront such questions with ease.

4. Behavioural Interview

The intent of this type of interview is to ascertain the behavioural pattern of working in
the mind of a candidate. This is based on the principle- ‘the present or future behaviour
of a person can be ascertained from his past behaviour. How a candidate faced a crisis
of any type- for example, a conflict amongst the employees of a company and
successfully resolved it- could be a possible question. Other questions could probe
events that the candidate is most proud of, or felt he could have done better.

Responses to these questions reflect the personality of a person, which is likely to show
itself in future scenarios too.

5. Telephone Interview

6. Exit Interview

Pre-interview
1. Photocopy of cv and documents
2. Employer research
3. Mock interview

During the interview

1. Relax and be positive
2. Reach the location of your interview before scheduled time
3. Dress properly (formals)
4. Before entering the interview hall, always knock the door and ask the
permission to enter
5. Greet the interviewer
6. Make eye contact. Be friendly and courteous.
7. Attitude is the key.
8. Never speak negatively
9. Be attentive and answer relevantly
10. Speak clearly and concisely

Post-interview
1. Wait for an email from the side of an employer
2. Thanksgiving email, if got selected
Job Interview Questions

Often, those who will interview you for a job have already read your resume, and they
know about your academic background. The reason they want to see you, in a personal
interview, is so they can evaluate what kind of person you are, whether you will fit into
the professional environment, and whether the quality of your English is up-to-
standard.

The questions during an interview generally fall under the following categories:
• Open-ended- Elicits your opinion/ position about some issue
• Critical- Makes you analyse a point stated
• Probing- Stretches your grasp/ understanding of the issue discussed
• Leading- Dares you to justify and propose a viable plan for implementation
• Challenging- Dares you to defend your view by suggesting something opposite

Few questions with answers:

1. Tell me something about yourself.
Certificates, achievements (highlight the positivity), family background, sports,
qualifications, strengths (positive sense), do not disclose weakness unless it is asked
2. Why do you want to join the company?
Good company, good salary
3. What is your salary expectation?
As a fresher do not talk about salary (numbers), not in a position to bargain, as per
industry standards, salary is not a constrain, no profit or loss, must get for my
expenditure, I do not want to take the money from my parents, I only want the
experience.
4. Strength and weakness
Action plan to overcome your weakness, highlight your strength
5. How do you want to see yourself after 5 years?
I want to grow, want to go to the next level, I want to get promotion if everything goes
well by the grace of god.
6. Hard work or smart work
Both are required
7. Why should I hire you?
Better company look for better candidate, better candidate look for better company, I
am hard working, leader and will take steps to bring the changes. I will work for the
betterment of the company.

They can ask you anything they want, but the usual sort of questions are as follow:

Why do you want to become an auditor (or whatever)?

What makes you think you will be a good auditor?
What personal qualities would make you an asset to the company?
What do you know about our company?
How did you find out about our company?
Have you had any previous experience in this field?
Do you like working on your own or in a team?
Are you a responsible person? Give an example.
Do you have a sense of discipline? Give an example.
What do you want from the company?
What sort of salary do you expect?
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Do you want to further your formal education?
Did you contribute to student life at university?
Tell us something about your family.
What do you do in your free time?
What kind of magazines do you like to read?
How do you normally spend your weekends?
What are your strong points?
What are your weak points?
Who is your role model and why?
Whatever they ask you, start speaking right away. Do not show any hesitation or
confusion. Be yourself and speak freely and openly and may be you will be exactly
what they are looking for. They already have a certain profile in mind, and if you fit
that profile, you will probably be accepted.

Evaluating Your English

Often, when you have passed the first job interview, the company will ask you come
back for further interviews, for example, with your potential boss or department head,
or even those with whom you would work in a team. If you get through that, and are
put on a short-list, you may have to do a final interview with an expert in English who
will make an impartial evaluation and submit it to the Human Resource Department. If
this is going to be the deciding factor, it would be helpful for you to know more about
how such an interview might be conducted. In this interview, the evaluator is only
testing your command of English, so there is no way of know in advance what you may
be asked, but he/she may listen to your answers and fill in a form something like the
one below. The candidate with the best score gets the job.

English Evaluation Sheet

Name of candidate: ………………………………..
excellent very good good fair weak

1. Skills evaluated
2. Loudness/clarity
3. Grammar/vocabulary
4. Accent/pronunciation
5. Body language
6. Confidence
7. Logic/organization
8. Content

a) What was good?

b) What could be better?
c) Other helpful comments:

Group Discussion

Meaning
 • Group Discussion is a modern method of assessing students’ personality.

• It is both a technique and an art and a comprehensive tool to judge the

worthiness of the student and his appropriateness for the job.

Objectives
The main objective of carrying out drill on group discussion lies in preparing them
efficiently for employment. Many public sector and private sector organizations have
prescribed G.D. tests.
One of their representatives sit through the group discussion and evaluates the
candidates’ group performance, mental ability, creative approach, aptitude of problem
solving, group harmony, power of tolerance, the capability to lead from the front and
group decorum. These qualities are analyzed and personality traits are confirmed.
Group discussions also afford an opportunity to promote communication skills. Regular
practice will lead to confident and natural speaking in a peer group. It does instill among
professionals a sense of courage to face any situation and to rationally put forth one’s
point of view. It will remove nervous uneasiness in course of official meetings, group
conferencing and individual articulation.

Methodology
Following methods can be adopted to sharpen group discussion skills of students:
• They will be trained in proper listening of what is being said by others.
• They will be put to intense argumentative conditions and their responses will
be recorded. They will be promoted to articulate words in speech clearly and
distinctly with required intonation and rhythm.
• Proper pause is necessary to send the message effectively.
• Frequent mumbling occurs when students are not well trained in group
discussion skills. Practice will aim at removing this handicap.
• The power of tolerance and decency in group will be cultivated keeping in
mind balanced approach while engaged in group activity. The ability of poise
and composure will be imparted to students.
• They will be taught the why and how of group decorum so that, group
discussion does not turn out to be noisy.

Types of GD:

1. Topic based group discussion- In this type of discussion general topic

based on current affairs are given. These discussions are time bound.

2. Case study-based group discussion- in this type of discussion students

are given situations and judged on how they reach a solution to the
problem. They will be required to analyse the situation and give their
views.

3. Abstract group discussions- This kind of discussion gives no outline of

the topic, which means no one knows which direction to take. The
 participants must use innovative strategies and ideas to steer the
discussion. The topic could be one word or a sentence.

4. Fish Bowl Technique- The fish bowl activity is used to manage group
discussion. The general idea is that rather than a large group having an
open discussion about something, which can be difficult to handle and
often only benefits a few active participants, a smaller group (ideally 3
to 6 people) is isolated to discuss while the rest of the participants
(maximum of 50 people) sit around and observe without interrupting.
Facilitation is focused on the core group discussion.

Fishbowls are useful for ventilating hot topics or sharing ideas or

information from a variety of perspectives. When the people in the
middle are public officials or other decision makers, this technique can
help bring transparency to the decision making process and increase
trust and understanding about complex issues.

Seminar- An occasion when a teacher, expert or a group of people meet to study and
discuss something. A seminar is a discussion in a small group. Its objective is to share
knowledge. Participants get their name registered. They are experts or knowledgeable
persons from different fields and places who come to exchange view or share
knowledge on a particular topic. It plays a significant role in business organizations.
Seminars are organized on a regular basis in organizations.

Conference Paper Writing- An event sometimes lasting a few days at which there is
a group of talks on a particular subject or a meeting in which especially business matters
are discussed formally. The term conference means to confer which means to discuss,
to converse or to consult. It is a sort of discussion in a large group. Its range or scope
of participants is wider than seminar. It is a large gathering having particular area of
interest. Conferences disseminate information. A theme is there and exchange of
information takes place. It ends with some conclusion, solution and suggestion. One
has to register for attending in the conference. The aim is to exchange the information.

Purpose of organizing seminar, workshop or conference:

1. They provide a podium for the cross fertilization of ideas.
2. They provide an opportunity to coordinate various activities.
3. They help in solving problems.
4. They help in reaching to a conclusion, after much healthy discussion.
5. Discussions held in seminars and conferences help in the successful layout of a
project/ plan.

Communication Skills for Presentation

Unit 3

Report Writing-

The word report has been derived from the Latin word’ reportare’ which means to carry
back. A report, generally, means to give an account of something seen, heard, done etc.
A business report is an orderly and objective communication of factual information that
serves a business purpose. The objective quality of a report makes the reporter to seek
truth and avoid human biases.

➢ A report is a formal statement of facts or information or an account of

something
➢ It is formal in nature
➢ It is presented in a conventional form
➢ It is written for a specific audience
➢ It includes information about the procedure of collecting data and the
significance of such data
➢ It contains conclusions reached by the writer
➢ It often includes recommendations

A report differs from other compositions in as much as it is written in a more or less

conventional form to meet a specific need or requirement. It is not an outburst of
powerful feelings or an expression of recollected emotions. A report writer should
examine and present objectively the data collected. His conclusions and
recommendations are strictly based on the facts included in the report.

Report writing has assumed tremendous importance in the modern democratic set up
and also in complex business organizations. The meetings are held, the commissions
are set up and the committees are formed to attend some special business where several
resolutions are passed, decisions are taken and the policies are laid down. The members
of these meetings, commissions and committees have to submit their reports on all the
proceedings. Today report writing has been developed into a technical art. A report can
be defined as a systematic account of facts for information, action and analysis to
achieve a definite business objective. A report may be either oral or written. An oral
report is simple and easy to present. But a written report is always preferred. It enjoys
several advantages over the oral one:
➢ An oral report can be denied at any time. But a written report is a permanent
record.
➢ An oral report tends to be vague whereas in a written report, the writer tries to
be accurate and precise.
➢ A written report can be referred to again and again.

Importance of reports

➢ Reports reflect the competence of an engineer at work

➢ Reports help in solving problems and taking decisions
➢ Reports serve as a good feedback since oral feedback is not sufficient
➢ Reports serve as major measures of progress and success of an organization
➢ Reports enable the engineers to communicate to their superior with greater
confidence and accuracy
 ➢ Reports sharpen the analytical acumen ship of the engineers

Features of a report-

These are some of the features of a report:

1. Precision- Effective reports clearly reflect their purpose. Precision gives unity and
coherence to your report and makes it a valuable document.
2. Factual details- Your report should be very detailed and factual. The point of your
report is to go into details, the kind of details your specific audience needs. The
scientific accuracy of facts is very essential to a good report. Since reports invariably
lead to decision making, inaccurate facts may lead to disastrous decisions.
3. Relevance- The facts presented in a report should be not only accurate but also
relevant. While it is essential that every fact included in a report has a bearing on the
central purpose, it is equally essential to see that no relevant information is excluded.
Irrelevant facts make a report confusing.
4. Reader orientation- A good report is always reader oriented. While drafting a report,
it is necessary to keep in mind the person who is going to read it. A report meant for
laymen will be different from one meant for technical experts.
5. Objectivity- If recommendations are made at the end of a report, they must be
impartial and objective. They should come as a logical conclusion to analysis. They
must not reveal any self interest on the part of the writer.
6. Simple language- A good report is written in simple; unambiguous language. It is a
document of practical utility; hence it should be free from various forms of poetic
embellishment such as figures of speech. It should be clear, brief and grammatically
accurate.
7. Clarity- A good report is absolutely clear. Clarity depends on proper arrangement of
facts. Report writers must proceed sytematically. They should make their purpose clear,
define their sources, state their findings and finally make necessary recommendations.
They should divide their report into short paragraphs with headings and insert other
suitable signposts to achieve greater clarity.
8. Brevity- A report should be brief. It is difficult to define brevity in absolute terms.
All that can be said is that a good report is as brief as possible. Brevity should not be
achieved at the cost of clarity. Nor should it be at the cost of completeness. Sometimes
the problem being investigated is of such importance that it calls for a detailed
discussion of facts. Include everything significant and yet be brief.
9. Grammatical accuracy- It is one of the basic requisites of a good report as of any
other piece of composition.
10. Special format- The technical paper or report uses a rather involved format
including cover, title page, table of contents, appendices. These have to be prepared
according to a set standard.
11. Illustrations- Most technical reports contain illustrations which may be tables,
maps, graphs, drawings, charts or photographs.
12. Homogeneity- Your report should deal with one topic at a time. All the sections of
your report should focus on that topic.
13. Documentation- Technical reports acquire more value when adequately
documented by acknowledging sources of information in an appropriate style. Reports
form an essential part of official, managerial and professional activity.

Steps to be kept in mind while writing a report-

The following five steps are suggested to write a report:
➢ Investigating the source of information- The first step to write a report is to
decide the sources from where the facts or information can be collected.
➢ Taking notes- Second step in report writing is to note down the relevant point
of information.
➢ Analyzing the data- Third step is to analyse the collected data. A lot of data
will have to be rejected while a need might be felt to collect more data.
➢ Making an outline- Once the data is analysed and the relevant data is collected.
The data collected should be organized preparing an outline. In this outline the
problem is stated, the facts are recorded, they are briefly analysed and the logical
conclusion is aimed at.
➢ Writing the report- The last stage is that of writing the report. First a rough
draft of the report is prepared. Then it is revised, polished and a fair report is
prepared.

Formats or layouts of report-

There are three ways in which a report can be organized:

➢ Letter form
➢ Memorandum form
➢ Letter text combination form

Letter form:
The brief informal reports are written in letter format. The arrangement of the parts is
that of business letter. The main parts of such reports are:
➢ Title/Heading (name, address, phone no., email id of the sender)
➢ Date
➢ Inside address (receiver’s address)
➢ Salutations
➢ Body (introduction, findings, conclusion)
➢ Complimentary close
➢ Signature
➢ Designation
 Heading/Title
Date

Receiver’s address

Salutation

Body (introduction, findings, conclusion)

_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

Complimentary close

Signature
Name
Designation

Memorandum form:

Very brief reports are written in this format.

Heading/Title

Date

To:

From:

Subject: Topic of report

Body (introduction, findings, conclusion)

______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

Complimentary close

Letter text form:

In this format we divide the content of report into three different sections:
➢ Front matter
Cover page
 Front page
Title page
Copyright note
Forwarding letter
Preface
Acknowledgement
Table of contents
Illustrations
Abstract or summary
➢ Main body
Introduction
Description
Conclusion
Recommendations
Appendix
➢ Addenda or back matter
References
Bibliography
Glossary
Index
PRELIMINARY PARTS

The preliminary parts of a report consist of the cover, title page, copyright notice,
acknowledgements, authorization letter, table of contents, list of illustrations, and
synopsis or executive summary. In certain cases, the synopsis is called abstract.

COVER

For cover, you can use your company’s standard cover imprinted with logo and the
company’s name. If the company does not insist on using a prescribed cover, then you
are free to choose your own cover. Nonetheless, you cannot use flowery and gaudy
covers. You should use a heavy paper or light coloured card for cover.

The basic purpose of a cover is to prevent the manuscript from regular wear and any
kind of damage. It carries the title with the writer’s name, the submission date,
classification (confidential, secret, etc.), and a number, if required. The inside of the
front and the back of cover is left blank.

THE TITLE PAGE

The title is placed on the first right hand page of a report. When the reader opens the
report, the title page is seen on the first right hand side. It contains detailed/additional
information of data presented on the cover. Thus, it gives the full title and/or adds the
subtitle. This is followed by the name and the address of the author; the name of the
authority who sanctioned the contract, the project number, approvals, distribution list
(to whom it should be circulated), and date.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

In present times, where people use Wikipedia for the first quick reference, copying is
done without any qualms. Literally, students cut and paste information from on line
sources and attach their names as authors. Thus, copyright, that is, the author’s
privileged ownership, is misread as the right to copy! However, when you have
produced something originally, then, you have the right to own the copyright, where
a future user needs to take your permission for quoting or reproducing your material
in any other form. Besides permission, the user has to pay royalty to the original
producer of a work.

Copyright is marked by the sign © and presented along with the name of the author
or the person who owns the product. You will find the copyright notice on the back
of this title page as, for example:
 © 2014 Sunita Agarwal
This will be further detailed with the following note:

All rights are reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced in any form or by
any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

You need to acknowledge the people who helped you write the report. So, here you
make a list of the names of persons and organizations that helped you in the production
of the report. You should include the libraries that you consulted, the librarians who
helped you, researchers who shared their materials, and so on.

AUTHORIZATION LETTER

The authorization letter refers to the written authorization either in the form of a letter
or in the form of a memo (short for memorandum). This letter specifies the problem,
the scope, the duration (that is, the time in which it should be finished—six month, one
year, two year, five year project), the budget restriction, specific instructions (related to
the methodology that has to be followed, the statistical information that has to be
collected) and the dead line (the final time in which it should be submitted).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Often the table of contents are simplified to contents. The contents outlines the coverage,
the sequence, and significance of information in the report. It will be usually mentioned
in the form of chapters: chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter
6. And it begins with preface, acknowledgments, etc., and ends with the back matter
containing conclusion, recommendations, glossary, and index.
Nonetheless, the contents are required only if the report exceeds ten pages. As it gives
a bird’s eye view, the reader can identify easily a specific topic and choose to read the
item that interests him/her.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The list of illustrations details all the figures, images, visual aids, pictures, graphic
designs, photographs and tables. In case the list becomes longer than a page, then the
tables are separated from the figures.

SYNOPSIS OR EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The ‘synopsis or executive summary’ is also synonymous with ‘Abstract’. You can also
use abstract to indicate the condensed content of the report. It tells in concentrated form
what the report is about. The extent of coverage is also mentioned here, and in summary,
it tries to give the substance of the report. Overall, it presents the report in a nutshell
without any illustrations and explanations. It often includes the method of analysis, the
significant findings, important conclusions and major recommendations.

MAIN TEXT

The main text comprises introduction, body that deals with discussion and description,
conclusions and recommendations.

INTRODUCTION

The introduction offers a good starting point by telling the reader what the report is
about. It updates the reader by informing about previous works and highlights the new
grounds covered in the present study. Thus, it sets the scene and prepares the reader to
follow and comprehend the information. It includes: the historical and technical survey,
the scope of study (specifying its limitations and relevance), methods of collecting data
and their sources, and definition of special terms and symbols.

BODY

The major component of the main text of report is the body, which contains the
discussion or description part of the report. In terms of length, this is the lengthiest part
of a report because it contains the central ideas and arguments of the report with all the
illustrations and tables. The body presents the data in an organized form, discusses their
significance, and analyzes the results. If the data is too much, it is not presented in the
main body; but it is given in the appendix. You can also find footnotes or parenthetical
statements in the body. While presenting the ideas, the backward order is used. This
means, it begins with the end result; what was found than with how it was found.

CONCLUSION

The main text ends with the concluding remarks by the author, which will actually
summarize the main idea and highlight the recommendations. If the writer wants to
reemphasize an important point that s/he thinks that the reader should not miss, this is
one more time where s/he can reiterate that important point and then summarize
succinctly. The conclusion will also suggest the course of action for the reader to take.
All conclusions must be supported by what has gone before, nothing new should be
added at this stage. If the results and findings of the conclusions are large, they may be
itemized in the descending order of importance.

RECOMMENDATION

Recommendation specifically suggest future course of action. However, if they are very
few then they are merged with conclusions. Sometimes only this part of the report is
frequently referred to and seriously read for taking decisions. Recommendations are
given only if they are expected or the nature of the report demands them.

SUPPLEMENTARY PARTS

The supplementary parts contain the following five components: appendixes,

references, bibliography, glossary, and index. Although they are the back matter of the
report, they are equally important because they give the scientific evidence of the fact
that you really conducted an objective report.

APPENDIXES

An appendix contains materials related to the report; but they are too detailed or lengthy
to be included in the main text. The reader can safely omit reading it without any loss
of understanding of the contents or feel disconnected from the main thought flow.
Whether to give certain material in an appendix or not is decided on two factors. One:
whether it sustains the theme and forms an essential and integral part of the report. Two:
whether it would interrupt the train of the reader’s thought if included in the main body.
All appendixes should be referred to in the text; whether they are questionnaires or
statistical data. They must also be labeled as for example:

Appendix A: Questionnaire

Appendix B: Statistical Data

LIST OF REFERENCES

In the list of references, the report writer gives credit to the works referred to or quoted.
This is done by citing such works in the text and listing them in alphabetical order at
the end. If their number is small, they can be mentioned in the form of footnotes at the
bottom of the page on which they are cited. The foot note is numbered sequentially by
superscript font or by simply superscribing an asterisk or star mark [ 1 *]. It gives in
detail the author’s name and title in full, and the details about publication (the place,
the name and the year), and the page numbers.
For example:
1
Alan Warner, A Short Guide to English Style, Oxford University Press, London,
ELBS Edition, 1964, pp. 40-42.
This is a typical example of a reference where commas are used to separate items and
the author name is arranged with the first name followed by the surname. However, in
a bibliography, the items will not be separated by commas but by full stops.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bibliography literally means the list of books that you have referred to. By extension,
it refers to the articles or any kind of work that you have referred to. It is alphabetically
arranged list of published/unpublished works, consulted before or during the
preparation of the report. You need to keep the following in mind; one, the order of
writing the names and surnames of authors; two: the sequences of details; three: the
punctuation marks, and four: the layout.
In bibliography, the second name or surname is placed first. All the items are separated
by full stops. The edition comes before the place of publication. Similarly, the place of
publication comes before the name of the publisher and the ear of publication. The
second line and the subsequent ones are intended.
For example:

Warner, Alan. A Short Guide to English Style. ELBS Edition. London: Oxford
University Press, 1964.

GLOSSARY

Glossary is a list of technical words used in the report and their explanations. It briefly
explains jargons and unfamiliar terms in the form of a small dictionary format. If the
number of entries is small, it can be explained in footnotes. The inclusion of it depends
on the level of understanding and background of the readers.

INDEX

Index is intended to serve as a quick guide to the material of the report. It enables the
reader to locate easily any topic, sub-topic or important aspect of the contents. Key
words are entered and arranged in alphabetical order, and then, cross referenced. All
page numbers on which information about an entry is available are mentioned against
it. For example:
Reports
audience for, 121, 156-157
characteristics of, 131-132, 148

CITATION METHOD

The citation method, which is sometimes called style sheet, varies as follows:
Types of reports-

➢ On the basis of nature, scope and length:

(i) Formal reports- A formal report is one which is prepared in a prescribed form and is
presented according to an established procedure to a prescribed authority.e.g. annual
reports, project reports, technical reports.
(ii) Informal reports- An informal report is usually in the form of a person to person
communication. An informal report is usually submitted in the form of a letter or a
memo form.e.g. lab reports, daily production reports, trip reports.

➢ On the basis of the frequency of issue:

(i) Periodic or routine reports- Such type of reports are prepared and presented at regular
prescribed intervals in the usual routine of business. They may be daily, annually, semi
annually, quarterly, weekly, monthly.
(ii) Special reports- Such type of reports are related to a single occasion or situation.
Special reports deal with non recurrent problems.e.g. thesis, dissertation.

➢ On the basis of function of a report:

(i) Informative report- If a report merely presents facts pertinent to an issue or a
situation, it is informative.e.g. seminar reports, conference reports.
(ii) Analytical report- If a report goes into the causes of facts and analyze them and
comes up to some conclusion and state some recommendations it is analytical report.e.g.
project report, market research report.

➢ On the basis of the nature of the subject dealt with

(i) Problem determining- Reports that try to determine the causes underlying a problem
or to ascertain whether or not the problem actually exists.
(ii) Fact finding- Reports that try to determine the reasons that give rise to a problem.
(iii) Performance- Reports that state the progress or decrease of output at a certain time
limit.
(iv) Technical- Reports dealing with the practicality of a concept.

➢ On the basis of the number of persons entrusted with the drafting of reports:
(i) Report by individual- Report submitted by one individual about a department is
called individual report.
(ii) Report by committee- Report submitted by association of more than one person. In
such cases committees and sub- committees are formed to draft a report. These reports
are formal in style and impersonal in tone.

Write a report on the negative effects of internet facilities.

MEMO REPORT
Modern Institute of Technology
Jaipur (Rajasthan)
Interoffice Memorandum

To: Dean, Students Welfare Division

From: Chief Warden
Date: 15 October 2005
Subject: Negative Effects of Internet Facilities

Please refer to your letter no.SWD/IM/2003 in which you have asked me to study the
negative effects of internet facilities provided by the institute. I would like to present
my findings and recommendations.

The data for the report was collected by interviews with wardens, mess managers and
the chief of information processing centre. Also, the medical records of the students
were collected from the office of the chief medical officer.

A preliminary look into the medical records shows that about 75% of the students
owning a computer and regular users of the IPC have complained about some physical
problem or the other during the past one year. Dr R.K. Sen, chief medical officer, told
me that these were the symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), a deadly disease
that affects many computer users all over the globe. He also explained that these were
due to excessive time spent in front of the computer, improper sitting posture and the
lack of physical exercise amongst the students. Also lack of proper sleep is a cause of
this fast growing disease.

Another disturbing trend has been the decline in academic standards of the student.
Most of the wardens and teachers have complained about the declining academic output
of the students since the facility was provided to the students. The most common use is
for chatting and watching movies over the web.

The food habits of the students have also been a cause of concern lately. Most mess
managers agree that the attendance for meals has gone down considerably since the last
year, after the introduction of the computer centre.

Given below are a few suggestions which may help in tackling the problem in question:
➢ The amount of time spent by a student in the computer lab should be fixed to no
more than 4 hours
➢ Undesirable sites should be blocked
➢ The computer lab must be shut down between 12pm and 9 am to give students
proper rest
➢ Student participation in sports and cultural activities must be encouraged to shift
their attention from computers

I hope that this report will give you an insight into the nature of the problem and also
its possible solutions. I would be glad to provide any additional information required in
this regard.

(Amit Chauhan)
Chief Warden

Technical Research Paper Writing

A technical research paper is a form of written technical communication. Today is an

age of science and technology. There is revolution in the field of writing also. Technical
research paper is intended to communicate to a specific audience a specific purpose. Its
aim is to provide technical knowledge for future growth. These are essential to all fields
of science, technology, humanities and management. They add to the existing
knowledge and understanding of a particular topic or subject.
Technical paper writing skills help in achieving academic and occupational goals by
establishing the authors’ presence in the professional world. It also gives a high degree
of professional satisfaction and help in career advancement.
The components are:
1. Title
2. Name of the author
3. Abstract
4. Key words
5. Introduction
6. Objectives
7. Methodology
8. Findings
9. Inferences/ Results
10. Conclusion
11. Appendix
12. Bibliography
13. References
14. Appendix
15. References
16. Bibliography
17. Index

Synopsis Writing

A synopsis is an in depth summary of a written work that describes the content of that
work from beginning to an end. Unlike a summary which just gives a general overview
of a story, a synopsis contains all the details including the end. Synopsis is submitted
to publisher or agents after you have written a novel, screen play, thesis or any other
long work. It is of 10 to 15 pages.
The components of synopsis are:
1. Title page
2. Topic
3. Introduction
4. Review of literature
5. Objectives
6. Methodology
7. Facilities available
8. References
9. Bibliography

Project

A project is written on a designed plan completed in an industry, Business Company

and in the institution itself. The project may be written under the supervision of a senior
faculty or under the joined supervision of an industry expert. It is also submitted as a
thesis or a dissertation under the guidance of a supervisor. First, a brief report is
submitted on the topic which the students undertake. It is also called a synopsis. This
includes the outline of the project to be done. It is a form of written communication
prepared by a researcher.
The components of project are:
1. Cover page
2. Title page
3. Certificate of approval by Supervisor
4. Preface
5. Acknowledgement
6. Table of contents
7. Table of illustrations
8. Abstract
9. Introduction
10. Review of literature
11. Methodology
12. Results
13. Conclusion
14. Appendix
15. References
16. Bibliography
17. Index

Thesis Writing

A thesis is longer and more detailed than a dissertation. It may span over a period of
two to five years. You may present extensive research on a particular topic in the form
of a thorough analysis, supported adequately by statistical data, survey findings,
experimental results and the like. Thesis is a long research report. It is done for the
award of doctoral degree in any discipline. There are certain stages through which a
researcher passes before he finally writes the thesis.
First of all the researcher selects a topic appropriately to focus on one aspect of the
subject. The research guide helps the scholars in the selection of topic availability of
the materials required. Then the research scholar tries to collect both printed and
electronic resource materials and relevant reference books. Further he takes notes from
reliable and useful resources. Finally the researcher has to organize his ideas and
accumulated research material into a logical, fluent and effective paper. He should be
aware of the MLA style sheet.
The components of thesis are:
1. Cover page
2. Title page
3. Certificate of approval by Supervisor
4. Preface
5. Acknowledgement
6. Table of contents
7. Table of illustrations
8. Abstract
9. Introduction
10. Review of literature
11. Methodology
12. Results
13. Conclusion
14. Appendix
15. References
16. Bibliography
17. Index

Stages in writing thesis:

1. Selecting the problem

2. Delineating the problem
3. Determine the need of the audience
4. Collection of source material
5. First draft
6. Final draft

Technical Proposal-

The word proposal is derived from the verb propose that means to offer. Proposal means
something proposed: plan or scheme. It is often defined as a plan or scheme that
persuades its readers to accept the writer’s ideas. The proposal is a suggestive plan of
future task where the proposer aims at getting the acceptance of the authorities. A
proposal is a special type of analytical report designed to get products, plans or projects
accepted by others.

Proposals can be made by individuals or organisations with some specific purpose.

They can be made by an organisation or some government agency. Proposals can be
submitted to government agency as bids for grants. University teachers submit
proposals to university grants commission, New Delhi.

A proposal is often defined as a plan or scheme that persuades its readers to accept the
writer’s idea. Proposals are often written by one firm as a response to a request from
another firm. Sometime proposals are written in order to secure contracts for firms. The
proposal should also present the financial implications of the proposed work; the
expenses involved and the gains expected. It must state the benefits that are likely to
result from it as well as the risks.
Proposals are made for several purposes: research, development, expansion,
improvement etc.

A proposal is a systematic, factual, formal and persuasive description of a course of

action or set of recommendations or suggestions. It is written for specific audience to
meet a specific need. The main objective of a proposal is to persuade the reader to
accept the proposed course of action. It explains and justifies what it proposes.

Features of Proposal-

➢ Aim should be to convince the reader

➢ Polite tone
➢ Persuasive manner
➢ Analyze the priority level of readers
➢ Use of simple language
➢ Precise and well organised
➢ Must state the benefits and the risks clearly

Importance of proposals-

➢ Provide fresh ideas

➢ Initiate new projects
➢ Solve problem
➢ Reinforce innovative strategies
➢ Financial returns
➢ Help promote various research activities

Types of Proposals-

Proposals can be classified on various grounds. According to structure, nature of the

audience, source of origin, objective:
➢ According to structure:
Formal- Long proposals with elaborate description and discussion.
Informal- Short proposals involving small projects

➢ According to nature of its audience:

Internal- addressed to readers within an organisation.
External- communicated to people outside an organisation.

➢ According to source of origin:

Solicited- written in response to a request for proposal.
Unsolicited- written without any request.

➢ According to objective:
Sales- Are also known as business proposals. They are sent outside the company to
potential clients or customers.
Research- Are usually academic in nature and mostly solicited.
Division of Formal Proposal-

Generally all proposals have three main divisions:

➢ Prefatory parts
Title page
Letter of transmittal
Draft contract
Table of contents
List of tables
Summary
➢ Body of proposal
Introduction:
Problem
Need
Background
Objective or purpose
Scope and limitations

Technical procedures:
Method and sources
Plan of action

Managerial procedures:
Sequence of activities
Equipments, facilities, products
Personnel qualification

Cost estimate

Conclusion
➢ Supplementary parts
Appendices
References

IFB and RFP (meaning and difference)

➢ IFB (Invitation for Bid)

⚫ More rigid in terms and conditions
⚫ More specific about its standards, price, delivery, schedule
⚫ Terms cannot be negotiated
➢ RFP (Request for Proposal)
⚫ Not so specific about the details of its requirements
⚫ States a problem and invites solution to deal with the problem
⚫ Flexible as far as it can be feasible

Write a Proposal for financial support for modernization of the concern. Invent
necessary details.

Sender’s Address
Date

Receiver’s Address

Subject- Proposal for financial support for modernization of the concern

Dear Sir,

In order to improve the functioning and efficiency of our concern we are in need of
funds. We, therefore, request you to consider our proposal for a modernisation plan.

Kindly let us hear from you soon.

Yours’ faithfully

(S.K. Chatterjee)
Manager

Enclosure-proposal

A proposal
For
the modernisation of the (topic)
commercial section

By
S.K. Chatterjee (writer)
Manager

Siddartha Machinery Works (writer’s company)

Unnao
August, 2017 (date)
 Summary

1. Project Title
2. Name and Designation
3. Address of the proposer
4. Name of the organisation where the project is to be carried out
5. Date of commencement
Duration
6. Amount required
7. Proposal summary
8. Introduction
9. Technical procedures
10. Managerial procedures
11. Cost estimate
12. Conclusion

Difference between report and proposal-

S.No. Report Proposal

1. Factual description Proposing suggestions
2. Narration of events Initiate new projects
3. No place for fantasy or imagination Fantasy may or may not be used
4. Subjective and objective Objective
5. Written in past Always written in present for future
time

Presentation strategies-

The way you say or do things is called presentation. Constant practice is the key to
acquire this skill of presentation. Presentation is a way of communicating ideas and
information to a group. A presentation carries the speaker’s personality better and
allows immediate interaction between all the participants.

Features/ Fundamentals of presentation-

⚫ Purpose- The purpose of presentation decides the content and style of presentation.
⚫ Analysing audience- The nature of audience has a direct impact on the strategy
you devise for your presentation. Hence it is necessary to have prior knowledge of
the audience’s aspects (likes, dislikes, age, gender, background, attitude, degree of
knowledge)
⚫ Locale- The beforehand knowledge of the environment is necessary for the
preparation of presentation. According to the setup, surrounding and environment
the final presentation is prepared.
⚫ Organising content- Some tips to organise the content of your presentation:
➢ Prepare more material than required. This helps feel confident.
➢ Start with a smile and pleasant tone by making eye contact.
 ➢ Organise the content in three sections.i.e. introduction, main body and
conclusion.
Introduction- Opening of presentation is the introduction section. Try to start your
presentation by greeting or quotation.
Main body- In this section the main points pointed in introduction are expanded. Any
of the following method can be adopted to expand the points.
➢ Chronological- expand according to the order in which event occurs according to
time, date.
➢ Categorical- the whole of the content is expanded by dividing it in into topics and
sub topics.
➢ Cause and effect- expanding by first mentioning the cause and than its effect.
➢ Problem solution- this method divides the content into two parts, problem and its
solution.
Conclusion- In this section review the main points started in introduction and expanded
in main body. Do not add anything new.
⚫ Preparing an outline- An outline is a mechanical framework in which are fitted
the pieces of presentation material. It seems as a guide to show you the right path
for presentation.
⚫ Visual aids- Due to the limitation of spoken words; speech often need strong visual
support like handouts, chalk boards, flip charts, slides, computer, tables, pictures,
graphs etc.

Importance of visual aids in presentation-

⚫ Increases audience interest

⚫ Illustrates key points
⚫ Easily understandable
⚫ To involve audience
⚫ To involve all the senses
⚫ Increases the impact of message
⚫ Help listeners retain information
⚫ To save time and avoid putting information on a board.
⚫ To avoid turning your back to the audience when writing on a board

Modes of presentation-

⚫ Extemporaneous- In this mode of presentation notes are prepared beforehand and

rehearsed. No efforts should be made to memorize the speech.
⚫ Manuscript- In this mode of presentation, presentation is written on a piece of
paper and the presenter reads it out from the paper to the audience.
⚫ Impromptu- This is a sort of informal presentation without preparation almost on
the spot.
⚫ Memorization- In this mode of presentation speech is written out beforehand, then
committed to memory and finally delivered from memory.

Nuances of delivery/ Tools of presentation-

By nuances of delivery we mean the factors that distinguishes your presentation on the
factors responsible to make your presentation effective.
Kinesics- Kinesics in the name given to the study of the body’s physical movements.
It is the way the body communicates without words i.e. through various movements of
its parts. Nodding our head, blinking our eyes, shrugging shoulder, waving the hands
and such other physical activities are all forms of communication.

It is true that words are the main medium of conveying one’s idea or expressing
ourselves. But in face to face communication, words are not the only medium. Here
communication takes place on two levels simultaneously. One is verbal that is through
words and the other is non verbal, which takes place through kinesics. For example, if
a person is congratulating two friends of his on their success in their exams and while
uttering the word ‘congratulations’ he extends his arm with a big smile on his face. The
appreciation would have more impact than the words is isolation. This smile and the
handshake are non verbal means of communication which enhance the impact of verbal
communication.

Kinesics or body language can be divided into the following sub parts:

Personal appearance- This includes clothes, hair, jewellery, cosmetics, shoes etc. It
carries a lot of importance because people see you before they hear you. One should be
clean and well groomed according to the need of the occasion. Appearances
communicate how we feel about ourselves and how we want to be viewed.

Posture- It refers to the way we hold ourselves when we stand, sit or walk. Body shape
and posture play a very important role in non verbal communication.

Gesture- Gesture is the movement made by hands, arms, shoulders, head etc. They are
important because they add to the impact of a speech. Gestures should be natural and
spontaneous. Irritating and offensive gestures should be avoided.

Facial expressions- The face is the most expressive part of the body. A smile stands for
friendliness, a frown for anger, raised eyebrows for disbelief etc. Facial expressions can
be used in a variety of ways.

Eye contact- Eye contact is a direct and powerful medium of non verbal communication.
Looking directly at listener build rapport. Eye contact is especially important when we
start the presentation and at the beginning of each new section.

Chronemics- It is the study of how human beings communicate through the use of their
time. In order to use time as an effective communication tool, we need to understand
the impact it has and then act accordingly. In the professional world, time is a valuable
commodity. If one gets late for an appointment people react negatively. If one arrives
too early he is considered either over eager or aggressive. So being on time is important.
Through time people communicate subtly and explicitly.

People have their own time language and this varies from culture to culture. Good
timing is crucial and one should achieve a formal presentation until it is underline,
because staying within limits is a mark of courtesy and professionalism.
The shorter the time allowed, the more difficult the task. The more difficult the task,
the greater the need not just for careful planning and effective visual aids but also for
diligent rehearsal.

Chronemics stands for time management during presentation. Try to reach at the proper
time (before 15 min) of presentation. Try to wind up the presentation in given time.
Give proper time for questions also.

Proxemics- Distance between the speaker and listener is termed as proxemics. The
distance between the speaker and listener is divided into four distinct zones as following:

Intimate zone- This zone starts with personal touch and extends just to 18 inches.
Members of family, relatives and parents fall under this zone.

Personal zone- This zone stretches from 18 inches to 4 feet. Close friends, colleagues,
peers fall in this zone.

Social zone- This zone falls from 4 feet to 12 feet. Official relationships fall in this zone.

Public zone- This zone starts from 12 feet and may extend to 30 feet or to the range of
eyesight and hearing.

Paralinguistics/ Dimensions of Oral Communication/ Paralinguistic features of

voice- Paralinguistic features are non verbal communication that help you to give
urgency to your voice. The following characteristics of voice are considered under the
paralinguistic nuances.

Accent Neutralisation
Stress
Pitch
Pause
Eye contact
Intonation
Rhythm
Volume
Speed
Pronunciation
Voice modulation
Syllable

Accent Neutralisation- When one learns a foreign language, one faces certain
difficulties caused due to the interference of one’s mother tongue. The learner has to
pass through a process of accent neutralisation by giving up his old habits of
pronunciation and accentual pattern. Thus accent neutralisation may be defined as a
process of neutralising regional accent while learning a foreign language. In learning a
second language, the learner has to make conscious efforts in order to understand the
grammar and the written and the speech forms of the second language since, learning
of foreign language is greatly influenced by the first language or the mother tongue.
A native speaker need not to make any artificial or conscious efforts to learn his mother
tongue. His rich and constant exposure to his language helps him to acquire that
language naturally because the child learns the framework of spoken language through
imitation. But in learning a second language, the learner has to make conscious efforts
in order to understand the grammar and the written and the speech forms of the second
language since the learning of foreign language is greatly influenced by the first
language or the mother tongue.
The problem arises at the phonological level, the morphological level, the grammatical
level and the semantic level. Prof. B.D. Sharma points out certain mistakes, committed
by the non native speakers due to the interference of the mother tongue. At the
phonological level, the learner tries to substitute the sounds of the foreign language
with the sounds resembling them in his mother tongue. For example, a hindi speaker
replaces the english speech sounds by the hindi sounds because they closely resemble
them.
Dr. R.K Bansal points out that the Indian speakers do not make any distinction in the
pronunciation of ‘v’ and ‘w’ which leads to confusion. The result is that the distinction
between vest and west, vine and wine is lost. Moreover Indians often have faulty
accentual patterns which eventually leads to many errors. They commit mistakes of
intonation or modulation of voice.
Thus in order to make their English intelligible, the non native speakers should learn
the correct accentual pattern for which they do the practice exercises regularly. It is
difficult for an alien speaker to learn the right pattern of stress, intonation and
pronunciation of the foreign language but it is no way impossible to acquire the skill to
use the foreign language correctly.
English has become a global language and whether at home or abroad, at his workplace,
a professional should be quite fluent in speaking correct English otherwise he finds
himself unable to perform quite simple everyday transactions such as answering in
English to a colleague’s questions.

Stress- The word stress means force or pressure. Stress means a greater breath force,
greater muscular effort and greater vibration of the vocal cords in producing certain
sounds. In the words of Daniel Jones, ‘Stress may be described as the degree of force
with which a sound or syllable is uttered.’ It has a meaning and by changing the stress
pattern of an utterance one can change its meaning completely. For example, if import
is used as a noun, the stress will be on the first syllable while the stress shifts to the
second syllable, if it is a verb.
The stress is said to be mainly of two types:
Primary stress or strong stress
Secondary stress or weak stress
Primary stress is marked with a vertical bar above and in front of the syllable to which
it refers. Secondary stress is marked with a vertical bar below and in front of the syllable
to which it refers.e.g.constitution. The accentual pattern or word stress changes
according to its function. It depends on whether the word is used as a noun, an adjective
or a verb.
Rules for accentual pattern:
⚫ Accent doesn’t not fall on the weak prefixes.e.g. across, apart
⚫ In words of more than two syllables, accent is placed on the third syllable from the
end.e.g. fortunate, separate
Pitch- Pitch denotes the degree of acuteness in a sound. In a melody, the pitch can be
high or low according to the vibrations per second. In speech, the higher pitch requires
a tightening of the vocal cords by the larynx. A lower pitch means less of that tightening
of the cords.

Pause- When we talk, we talk in group of words. These group of words may be uttered
either with or without a pause. Sometimes we use marks of punctuation such as full
stops, commas, colons and semi colons in order to divide the utterance into tone groups.
But if an utterance or a group is very short or of intermediate length, the speaker need
not pause. This dividing the utterance into tone groups is known as tonality.
Short tone groups-
Yes
No
Thank you
When the group of words is long, we need to pause in order to take breath. That is why
often the tone groups are known as breath groups.e.g. when I went to see her, she was
ill. When a word group is long, the speaker has to pause at appropriate places so that
meaning can be preserved. That is why tone groups are also known as the sense groups.
One cannot be absolutely sure about the number of tone groups in an utterance and one
speaker can divide an utterance into two tone groups while another can divide it into
three. For example, when I called to him, he was reading in the library. This sentence
can be divided into two tone groups-
i. When I called to him
ii. He was reading in the library
Or this sentence may be divided into three tone groups, namely when I called to him
and he was reading and in the library
Punctuation can correlate quite closely with breath pauses and can help in marking the
beginning and ends of groups.

Eye contact- Eye contact is an important means of maintaining immediate contact with
the audience. Face is an index of mind and primarily eyes of a person reveal whether
he is excited or angry or annoyed. Regular eye contact of a speaker and listener helps
in two ways. First it keeps up the interest of the listener and second it works as a
feedback. The speaker is able to know the response of the listener only by looking at
his face. The speaker can easily know how the listeners are reacting to what he says.
Thus eye contact is of paramount importance and plays a prominent role in oral
communication.

Intonation- Intonation is the term used for the level of pitch or the relative height of
the voice in a sentence. When we talk about intonation we include the rising of voice
or the fading of the voice into silence at the end of an utterance. The term intonation
refers to pitch patterns that are part of the structure of sentences.

The type of utterances also determines the choice of one intonation pattern. Whether a
sentence is merely a statement or a command or a request, it determines the intonation
pattern.

The speakers’ mood and his attitude to what he is saying determine the intonation
pattern. There are infinite moods and variations in mood so there can be several tunes
or kinds of intonation patterns. In English, words may have almost any intonation
depending on the context or the situation. Intonation is something which is added to the
utterance, whether a whole sentence or merely a single word said by itself, to give it a
special personal colouring or meaning.

Thus, intonation is greatly affected by the speaker’s emotions and the degree of
intensity he brings to bear on what he is saying. Generally, the more a speaker is
involved with what he is saying, by way of anger, grief, excitement, self importance
and so on, the greater will be the range of pitch and the amount of pitch change he uses.
Pitch often fluctuates in correspondence with the mood of the speaker whether he is
kind or angry, calm or excited, light or dignified.

Rhythm

Syllable- A syllable is that part of a word which is pronounced by a single effort of the
voice. It may consist of a vowel or a consonant. It can be described as the shortest unit
of sound. Words can have any number of syllables according to the pronunciation. E.g.
go, beauty.
Go-monosyllabic word
Beauty- bisyllabic word

The syllable is a unit adopted for the analysis of speech. It can be defined in terms of
pulmonic air stream mechanism. When we make use of this mechanism in speech, the
air from the lungs does not come out in a regular and continuous flow. The muscles of
the chest contract and relax alternately and thus the air is pushed out in small puffs at
the rate of approximately five times per second. Each such movement of the muscles,
called a chest pulse, corresponds to a syllable. Sometimes the muscular action is more
powerful than usual. This produces a reinforced chest pulse and a stronger puff of air.
Syllable may be defined as a unit of pronunciation consisting of a vowel alone or a
vowel with one or more consonants. On the basis of the numbers of syllables, the words
are classified into monosyllabic, bisyllabic and polysyllabic words. E.g. pen-cil, po-pu-
la-tion.

Pronunciation

Phonetics
Phonetics is the science of human speech sounds. It studies the defining characteristic
of all human, vocal noises and concentrates its attention on those sounds which occur
in the world’s language. It might have been derived from the Greek word phone which
means sound or voice. Phonetics is the study of speech. The production, transmission
and reception of speech sounds are covered under phonetics.
Phonetic studies have gained importance in recent times because of the large number
of people learning to speak second languages, and also because of the introduction of
various mechanical and electronic devices such as the gramophone, the radio, the tape
recorder and the telephone.
Phonetic alphabets
These are the symbols used to represent sounds. e.g. │ᴂ│, │m│. There are 44 sounds
in the phonetics, comprising of 20 vowels (12 pure vowels and 8 dipthongs) and 24
consonants.
Phonemes
Phonemes are the minimum meaningless distinctive units of sound. By distinctive we
imply that each phoneme is distinctive from the other. e.g. consider a word like cap
│kᴂp│. K is distinct, meaningless and is minimum. This word consists of three sounds.
When we say that each one of them is a distinctive unit, what we mean is that if we
substitute the sound │p│ by the │t│ the meaning of the word will be changed as it will
become a different word cat. Thus each sound is distinctive in nature, because the
substitution of one sound with the other sound will bring above a change in the meaning.
Phonetic transcription
Transcribing or changing the spoken sounds into written form is known as phonetic
transcription. e.g. Cat can be written as │kᴂt│.
Speech mechanism
It is the set up of inter relation and interaction between the manner of the functioning
of various speech organs for the purpose of articulating speech sounds. Speech is the
result of air stream mechanism. Air plays an important role in the art of speaking.
Organs of speech

Organs involved in the production of speech are called organs of speech. They can be
divided into three groups as mentioned below:
(i) The respiratory system (lungs, wind pipe, trachea)
(ii) Phonetory system (larynx, pharynx, vocal cords)
(iii) Articulatory system (nose, lips, mouth, tongue, teeth)

Vowel and Consonant Sounds

It is usual to divide all speech sounds into two broad categories- vowels and
consonants. In the production of vowels the air comes out freely through the mouth.
There is no closure of the air passage and no narrowing of the passage that would
cause audible friction. All other sounds are called consonants.
 Some Basic Sounds
sound example word internal final
ae A Ape aye A-train payday gay pray
be B Because beet bee husband maybe Toby
see C Big-C cleat Sisi faced fancy fantasy
dee D Detail divide daddy buddy freely fancy
eee E Evil e-mail easy been maybe sorry
eff F Jeff effort effect effort leaf beef
ghee G Jesus G-man garbage bungle bungee purgery
aa ch H H-bomb hate heat hurt pot rot
eye I Tie Ibex index high sky bonzai
jay J Jail Jay James injure storage forge
kay K Kay K-mart kid kitten forgotten forgiven
ell L elbow lot let below bell tell
em M Emmy emblem meet summer problem bathroom
en N Enable entry note fender fasten seen
oo O Oh oh only bone cone stone
pee P Pea peach please applause impression imprint
cue Q Queue queen quack baker clique boutique
are R Are rat rut murder rare scare
ess S Escape stress space best express depress
tee T Tea tee top better street delete
you U You unity union bluebell review due
vee V Vee Vera very every sleeve eve
double-U W we were why shower Harvey humvee
ex X PX extra express Dexter sex apex
why Y While YMCA where Hawaiian wai Thai wai
Zed(Br) Z Zee(Am) zero zone Disney crazy lazy
Simple Vowel Sounds
We can often, but not always, make basic vowel sounds using the letters of the
alphabet.
Aaeiou
B bad bed bid bog bud
C cad cod cud
D dad dead did Dodd dud
E
F fad fed fit fog fu
G gad get gin got gun
H hat her hit hot hut
I
J jab jet jinn jot jut
 K kit
L lat let lit lot lug
M mat met mutt moss mug
N Nat net nut not not
O
P pat pet pin pot put
Q quit quote
R rat red rid rot rut
S sat set sit sot sum
T tab Ted tit tot tug
U
V vat vet von
W wan wet wit woe
X
Y yap yet yin yon you
Z zap zip zoo
Alphabet Sounds
Just repeat these words to get your tongue around the sounds.
A ate await afraid age
B be bomb because better
C cat cot can comb
D delight debug destroy detonate
E easy eatery beacon devotee
F fee feel fail fair
G get got gate gun
H Hit hot hat hate
I in is ink injure
J jail James Jeer joke
K kale keel kull Ken
L Live love let lease
M my may might must
N no nay never now
O open order oven onto
P pit pot page pepper
Q quick quite quiz queen
R rat rot race rubber
S see saw sun sum
T tree tool take talk
U us unto utter urban
V very vast veer vest
W where why west waste
X extra exit export expo
Y you yours Yankee yahoo
Z zone zoom zest Zing
Haptics- concept of touch

Oculesics- eye contact

Artifacts- related to accessories

Communication and Leadership Development

Unit 4

Thinking

Thought (or thinking) encompasses an aim-oriented flow of ideas and associations that
can lead to a reality-oriented conclusion.

Positive thinking is an emotional and mental attitude that focuses on the good and
expects results that will benefit you. It’s about anticipating happiness, health and
success – essentially, training yourself to adopt an abundance mindset and cultivate
gratitude for your own successes and those of others.

How important is the power of positive thinking? It can make or break an individual.
Your thoughts affect your actions. Your actions, in turn, translate into whether or not
you succeed in your field, as well as influence the quality of your personal relationships
and how you view the world at large. The power of positive thinking can’t be
understated.

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to do or what
to believe. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking.
Someone with critical thinking skills is able to do the following:

• understand the logical connections between ideas

• identify, construct and evaluate arguments
• detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning
• solve problems systematically
• identify the relevance and importance of ideas
• reflect on the justification of one's own beliefs and values

Critical thinking is not a matter of accumulating information. A person with a good

memory and who knows a lot of facts is not necessarily good at critical thinking. A
critical thinker is able to deduce consequences from what he knows, and he knows how
to make use of information to solve problems, and to seek relevant sources of
information to inform himself.

Critical thinking should not be confused with being argumentative or being critical of
other people. Although critical thinking skills can be used in exposing fallacies and bad
reasoning, critical thinking can also play an important role in cooperative reasoning and
constructive tasks. Critical thinking can help us acquire knowledge, improve our
theories, and strengthen arguments. We can use critical thinking to enhance work
processes and improve social institutions.

The importance of critical thinking:

Critical thinking is a domain-general thinking skill. The ability to think clearly and
rationally is important whatever we choose to do. If you work in education, research,
finance, management or the legal profession, then critical thinking is obviously
important. But critical thinking skills are not restricted to a particular subject area.
Being able to think well and solve problems systematically is an asset for any career.

Critical thinking is very important in the new knowledge economy. The global
knowledge economy is driven by information and technology. One has to be able to
deal with changes quickly and effectively. The new economy places increasing
demands on flexible intellectual skills, and the ability to analyse information and
integrate diverse sources of knowledge in solving problems. Good critical thinking
promotes such thinking skills, and is very important in the fast-changing workplace.

Critical thinking enhances language and presentation skills. Thinking clearly and
systematically can improve the way we express our ideas. In learning how to analyse
the logical structure of texts, critical thinking also improves comprehension abilities.

Critical thinking promotes creativity. To come up with a creative solution to a

problem involves not just having new ideas. It must also be the case that the new ideas
being generated are useful and relevant to the task at hand. Critical thinking plays a
crucial role in evaluating new ideas, selecting the best ones and modifying them if
necessary

Critical thinking is crucial for self-reflection. In order to live a meaningful life and
to structure our lives accordingly, we need to justify and reflect on our values and
decisions. Critical thinking provides the tools for this process of self-evaluation.

Good critical thinking is the foundation of science and democracy. Science requires
the critical use of reason in experimentation and theory confirmation. The proper
functioning of a liberal democracy requires citizens who can think critically about
social issues to inform their judgments about proper governance and to overcome biases
and prejudice.

Discourse Competence

Discourse competence is generally a term referring to the ability to understand and

express oneself in a given language. Experts point out that there are different varieties
of discourse competence that measure different aspects of communication. An
examination of this subject shows how well an individual can communicate in a given
context. The word “discourse” is a general one that covers conversations and other
kinds of communication involving multiple parties.
One kind of competence in discourse is often called textual competence. This is
basically a measure of how well an individual can read different texts and understand
them. Different kinds of text include fiction and nonfiction, narratives, instructional
guides, and other types of written communications, like transcriptions of recorded
conversations or technical materials. The better readers can understand these texts, the
more textual discourse competence they have.
Another very common type of competence related to discourse is rhetorical or effective
discourse competence. This is often defined as how well an individual can contribute
to a conversation. This kind of discourse ability, or competence, also includes multiple
components. One is how well the individual can understand what is being said by a
range of speakers. Another is how well the individual can interject his or her own
opinions, and how well that person can express ideas to an audience within a general
scenario.
There are many different components to overall discourse competence. For example,
those who are examining this kind of skill or competence might study how individuals
process many different phrases or verbal ideas, such as those that announce narratives,
those that express specific emotions or feelings, or any of the wide range of idiomatic
or slang phrases that are frequently used in a particular language. When measuring
discourse competence in real-time, it can be helpful to note whether an individual
struggles with a specific kind of phrase or idiom.

Many experts contend that there’s also an element of timeliness in assessing discourse
skill or competence levels. Those at the top of the spectrum of ability are able to express
themselves quickly and effectively, which helps them to inject their own ideas into a
continuing discourse. Others might struggle with these tasks, and be placed lower on a
scale of conversational discourse competence. All of this helps linguists and other
experts to study how people build language skills over time, or to assess the progress
of a certain student or other individual.

Sociolinguistic competence refers to the mastery of the cultural rules of use and rules
of discourse that are at play in different languages. With respect to cultural rules of use,
the emphasis is on appropriateness of communicative acts and the naturalness of speech
within given socio-cultural contexts. Sociolinguistics takes language samples from sets
of random population subjects and looks at variables that include such things as
pronunciation, word choice, and colloquialisms. This data is then measured against
socio-economic indices such as education, income/wealth, occupation, ethnic heritage,
age, and family dynamics to better understand the relationship between language and
society.

Sociolinguistics is considered a branch of both linguistics and sociology. However, the

broader study of the field may also encompass anthropological
linguistics, dialectology, discourse analysis, ethnography of speaking, geolinguistics,
language contact studies, secular linguistics, the social psychology of language, and the
sociology of language. Sociolinguistic competence means knowing which words to
choose for a given audience and situation to get the desired effect. For instance, say you
wanted to get someone's attention.
In language proficiency competence and performance is the basic thing. Underlining
this communicative competence is important to perform well as per the target language.
Communicative competence is a combination of language knowledge and other aspects
of language use with skill essential for communication (Canale & Swain, 1980; Canale,
1983 cited in Altun, 2015:16). The aim of communicative language teaching is to
improve the communicative competence of students (Meenakshi, 2015). So, in
communicative competence there are four components which are grammatical
competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic
competence. Canale and Swain (1980) cited in Tarone (1983:122) have shown that
communicative competence incorporates at least three: grammatical competence,
sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence.

Although different scholars have explained strategic competence in different ways,

there is no big difference among their explanation. Some of their explanations are as
follow: “Strategic competence refers to the ability to get one’s meaning across
successfully to communicative partners, especially when problems arise in the
communication process. As Bachman (1990:102) puts it, the function of strategic
competence is to process the new information with relevant information available and
thus achieve the most efficient use of language abilities.

Empathy

Empathy is the ability to accurately put yourself "in someone else's shoes"– to
understand the other's situation, perceptions and feelings from their point of view – and
to be able to communicate that understanding back to the other person. It is a
critical skill for an individual to be as a leader.

It is the ability to recognize emotions in others, and to understand other people's

perspectives on a situation.

Leadership

Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a common
goal. In a business setting, this can mean directing workers and colleagues with a
strategy to meet the company's needs.

A leader is someone who can see how things can be improved and who rallies people
to move toward that better vision. Leaders can work toward making their vision a reality
while putting people first. Just being able to motivate people isn’t enough — leaders
need to be empathetic and connect with people to be successful. Leaders don’t have to
come from the same background or follow the same path.

Leadership is the process of influencing others towards the accomplishment of goals. It

is the ability of a manager to induce subordinates to work with confidence and zeal. A
key to effective leadership is helping followers to achieve their respective essential
goals as well as their maximum potentialities. Dynamic leaders, therefore, should have
the ability to awaken in others, the desire to follow a common objective in a given
situation.
Leadership can be an important modifier of behaviour of people working in the
organization. Effective leadership is necessary for inspiring the people to work for the
accomplishment of given objectives. It provides a cohesive force, withholds the group
intact and develops a spirit of cooperation. Effective leadership is also essential for
efficient direction of human efforts towards the predetermined goals.

Features and characteristics of leadership are as follows:-

1. Leadership is a personal quality. It is the ability to form a group of followers
voluntarily without the use of coercion.
2. It pre-supposes the existence of a group of followers.
3. It is the process of interpersonal influence by which leader influences the followers.
4. It involves the sharing of interest between the leader and his followers.
5. It is a continuous process of influencing behaviour.
6. It is situational. It is exercised in a particular situation at a given point of timeand
under a specific set of circumstances.
7. It not only influences the group also influences the leader. In a way it is a reciprocal
relationship.

Functions of a leader:-
1. Leader is a representative of subordinates
2. Leader is an appropriate counselor
3. Leader develops team spirit
4. Leader manages time
5. Leader strives for effectiveness

Leadership traits:-
Intelligence
Maturity
Sound physique
Self confidence
Objectivity
Empathy
Foresightedness and vision
Decisiveness
Responsibility
Human relations approach
Communication skill
Conceptual skill
Social skill
Counselling skill
Planning skill
Technical skill

Leadership Styles:-

1. Autocratic Style- The autocratic leader assumes full responsibility for deciding on
the group’s projects by assigning tasks to members and permitting no participation in
decision making process. He centralizes authority and decision making in him and
exercises complete and full fledged control over his subordinates. He sets group goals
and structures the work. He gives orders and the subordinates are expected to obey them.
The manager expresses decisions by the use of rewards and the fear of punishment.
Communication tends to be one way i.e. downwards.

The fundamental problem with this type of leadership style is that subordinates are
made aware of what to do but not why. Tasks are assigned, facilities provided and
directions given without consultation with the individual carrying out the work.
Subordinates are compelled to follow directives of the leader even though they may be
wrong. If the leader is weak and inefficient, the followers will also be weak and
inefficient.

2. Democratic Style- It is widely known as participative or employee oriented

leadership style. The essence of this style is the consultation. The leader consults the
subordinates before arriving at decisions. Participative leadership style takes into
consideration the wishes and suggestions of the subordinates as well as those of the
leader. All members of the group are seen as important contributors to the final decision.
The communication is a two way – upward as well as downward.

3. Free Rein or Laissez Faire Style- It goes a step further of democratic style and turns
the entire problem over the subordinates. Subordinates may be asked to set their own
goals and to develop plans for achieving them. Thus, in this type of leadership style, a
manager avoids power and relinquishes leadership position. The leader is a silent
spectator. In essence, this approach is characterized by the absence of any active
leadership by the leader. It is the total abdication of responsibility. The leader merely
functions as a group member, providing only as much advice and direction as is
requested. There is very little control or influence over group members of the leader.

Free rein leadership ignores the manager’s contribution approximately in the same way
as the autocratic leadership ignores that of the group members. It fails to give the group
the advantages of leader’s inspired motivation. The leader completely abdicates his
leadership position, gives all responsibility and most of the work entrusted to him to
the group which he is supposed to lead, limiting his authority to maintain the contact of
the group with persons outside the group. This mode of direction can produce good and
quick results if the subordinates are highly educated and brilliant people who have a
sincere desire to go ahead and perform their responsibility.

4. Paternalistic Style

It is a managerial approach that involves a dominant authority figure who acts as a

patriarch or matriarch and treats employees and partners as though they are members
of a large extended family. In exchange, the leader expects loyalty and trust from
employees as well as obedience.

Digital Communication and Personality Making

Unit 5
REFERENCES
• Bovee, Courtland L, John V. Thill & Barbara E. Schatzman.
Business Communication Today: Tenth Edition. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall, 2010.

• Lesikar, Raymond V., & John D. Pettit, Jr. Report Writing for Business: Tenth
Edition. Delhi: McGraw-Hill, 1998.

• Rutherford, Andrea J. Basic Communication Skills for Technology: Second

Edition. Delhi: Pearson Education, 2007.

• Seely, John. Writing Reports. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

• Shearing M. A., and B. C. Christian. Reports and How to Write Them.

London: George Allen and Union Ltd., 1965.

• Sharma, R. C. & Krishna Mohan. Business Correspondence and Report

Writing: Third Edition. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company
Limited, 2007.