COMMUNICATION AND

PRESENTATION SKILLS

Lecture 1
Introduction to the course
This course seeks to develop communication skills needed for those
preparing for, or who are already in a business or management
position.
Course Objectives
• The goals of this course can be summarized in the following skill
areas:
• To put in use the basic mechanics of grammar.
• To prepare and present messages with a specific intent.
• To provide an outline to effective Organizational Communication.
• To underline the nuances of Business communication.
• To impart the correct practices of the strategies of Effective Business
writing.
Textbooks to be used for the
Course

• Effective Business Communications, 7th edition, Herta A. Murphy,

Herbert W. Hildebrant, Jane Thomas, 2011
• Effective Communication Skills: The Foundations for Change, John
Nielsen, 2008
Course Learning Outcomes
• Understand the role of communication in personal & professional
success.
• Develop awareness of appropriate communication strategies.
• Prepare and present messages with a specific intent.
• Analyze a variety of communication acts.
 Course Outline
Communication & Presentation Skills
Credit Hours: 3 (3,0) Prerequisites: English Composition and
Comprehension

Course Content:
Principles of writing good English, understanding the composition process: writing clearly; words,
sentence and paragraphs; Comprehension and expression; Use of grammar and punctuation. Process of
writing, observing, audience collecting, composing, drafting and revising, persuasive writing, reading
skills, listening skills and comprehension, skills for taking notes in class, skills for exams; Business
communications; planning messages, writing concise but with impact. Letter formats, mechanics of
business, letter writing, letters, memo and applications, summaries, proposals, writing resumes, styles
and formats, oral communications, verbal and non-verbal communication, conducting meetings, small
group communication, taking minutes. Presentation skills; presentation strategies, defining the
objective, scope and audience of the presentation, material gathering material organization strategies,
time management, opening and concluding, use of audio-visual aids, delivery and presentation.
Detailed Lesson Plan
Week1 Principles of writing good english, composition process, Business Communication and its types

Week2 Need for effective communication, Communication Process, components of communication

Week3 Business Letter: Elements, Types, Layouts, Elements in detail

Week4 Letter writing: Apology letters, Appreciation letters, Congratulatory letters

Week5 The Seven C’s of Effective Communication

Week6 Preparing Effective Business messages, Direct organizational plan, Indirect organizational plan

Week7 High Impact Communication, Be concise, General to specific sentences

Week8 Message design: Good news and Neutral messages, recommendation letters, granting requests for adjustment,

Week9 Bad News Messages : Message design for Letters and Memo

Week10 Composing letters in various scenarios, when seller or customer is at fault

Week11 Resume writing : Formats and Components for fresh graduates and experienced people

Week12 Cover Letter, compose and analyze for fresh graduates and professional graduates of software engineering

Week13 Conducting Meetings, agenda, roles of chairperson, members, ineffective meetings

Week14 Presentation skills

Week15 Non Verbal Communication

Week16 Exercise and Applications

 PRINCIPLES OF GOOD WRITING
Introduction: Some important rules to create a master-piece will be discussed here.

Lecture Plan:
Be grammatically correct
Use active voice
Be concise
Use Proper Structure
Correct choice of words
Keep audience in mind
Take care of punctuation

Resource:
https://sumankher.com/2015/01/16/principles-good-writing-skills/
1. Grammatically correct: Grammatical errors are an unpardonable sin!
Have you ever seen a building with slanting walls jutting at odd angles
instead of a straight structure supporting the edifice? Grammar, in
writing, is like the straight walls that gives the piece its beautiful, erect
structure. Good to look at and sturdy in construction. With the basic
structure gone wrong, the intention and feelings behind your words
don’t matter.
2. Active voice: Makes communication clear and direct. Active voice,
apart from making the meaning clear, also helps forms less wordy
sentences. Using passive voice may sometimes confuse the reader.
3. Concise: Nothing kills written communication like long winding
sentences. William Zinsser, in his book, On Writing Well – talks about
simplicity and clutter. He says that one needs to edit and re-edit one’s
work to ruthlessly strike out every single word that does no service to
your thought or language. We do tend to use a lot of unnecessary
words and have a lot of scope for making our writing more concise and
clear.
4. Structure: A clear beginning, middle and an end. Let’s look at the
building we mentioned earlier. How would it look if we had floors
stacked haphazardly instead of neatly piled up one on top of the other?
Structure is the like the floors that lead you logically to each floor of
thought. And also tells you where it’s leading you to. It is more
challenging to understand the chain of thought in written
communication than when it is expressed verbally. Hence, it is our duty
to stay on track to be able to guide our readers better.
5. Choice of words: The words that you use determine your style. Your
writing could be easy on the reader or have lot of long, hard words just
for embellishment, hampering the readers‘ comprehension. What is
more important is to be able to use the right words that convey the
exact meaning. Words can convey positive, negative, strong or weak
messages depending on what you choose to express yourself. Hence,
building your vocabulary is important.
6. Audience: The most important element of your writing! Unless you
are writing your personal journal, you need to constantly keep your
audience in mind. Whether you are writing for a bunch of 5 yr olds or
for science scholars – the style will differ. You can’t treat all audience
equally.
7. Punctuation: Yes, it still matters! Thanks to all forms of instant chat,
we seem to have forgotten that commas and semi-colons exist for a
reason. But when you communicate formally or are writing meaningful
prose, you cannot afford to ignore this important principle of writing.