English Communication Skills (Improving Your Speech)

Basic English Communication Skills I. RATIONALE Regardless of the size of business you are in – whether a large corporation, a small company, or even a home-based business – effective communication skills are essential for success. Let’s start to look at some of the key ideas behind successful communication, and a brief quiz that helps you evaluate how effectively you communicate, so that you can identify the areas you should focus on for improvement. The articles that follow help you develop the skills you need to produce effective and inspiring spoken, written and electronic communications to individuals and groups. Start improving your Communication Skills with the articles below. “Communication Skills - Start Here!” Why you need to get your message across Effective communication is all about conveying your messages to other people clearly and unambiguously. It's also about receiving information that others are sending to you, with as little distortion as possible. Doing this involves effort from both the sender of the message and the receiver. And it's a process that can be fraught with error, with messages muddled by the sender, or misinterpreted by the recipient. When this isn't detected, it can cause tremendous confusion, wasted effort and missed opportunity. In fact, communication is only successful when both the sender and the receiver understand the same information as a result of the communication. By successfully getting your message across, you convey your thoughts and ideas effectively. When not successful, the thoughts and ideas that you actually send do not necessarily reflect what you think, causing a communications breakdown and creating roadblocks that stand in the way of your goals – both personally and professionally. In a recent survey of recruiters from companies with more than 50,000 employees, communication skills were cited as the single more important decisive factor in choosing managers. The survey, conducted by the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Business School, points out that communication skills, including written and oral presentations, as well as an ability to work with others, are the main factor contributing to job success. In spite of the increasing importance placed on communication skills, many individuals continue to struggle, unable to communicate their thoughts and ideas effectively – whether in verbal or written format. This inability makes it nearly impossible for them to compete effectively in the workplace, and stands in the way of career progression. Being able to communicate effectively is therefore essential if you want to build a successful career. To do this, you must understand what your message is, what audience you are sending it to, and how it will be perceived. You must also weigh-in the circumstances surrounding your communications, such as situational and cultural context. “Communications Skills – The Importance of Removing Barriers” Problems with communication can pop-up at every stage of the communication process (which consists of the sender, encoding, the channel, decoding, the receiver, feedback and the context – see the diagram below). At each stage, there is the potential for misunderstanding and confusion. To be an effective communicator and to get your point across without misunderstanding and confusion, your goal should be to lessen the frequency of problems at each stage of this process, with clear, concise, accurate, well-planned communications. We follow the process through below: Source... As the source of the message, you need to be clear about why you're communicating, and what you want to communicate. You also need to be confident that the information you're communicating is useful and accurate. Message... The message is the information that you want to communicate. Encoding... This is the process of transferring the information you want to communicate into a form that can be sent and correctly decoded at the other end. Your success in encoding depends partly on your ability to convey information clearly and simply, but also on your ability to anticipate and eliminate sources of confusion (for example, cultural issues, mistaken assumptions, and missing information.) A key part of this is knowing your audience: Failure to understand who you are communicating with will result in delivering messages that are misunderstood. Channel... Messages are conveyed through channels, with verbal channels including face-to-face meetings, telephone and videoconferencing; and written channels including letters, emails, memos and reports. Different channels have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, it's not particularly effective to give a long list of directions verbally, while you'll quickly cause problems if you give someone negative feedback using email. Decoding... Just as successful encoding is a skill, so is successful decoding (involving, for example, taking the time to read a message carefully, or listen actively to it.) Just as confusion can arise from errors in encoding, it can also arise from decoding errors. This is particularly the case if the decoder doesn't have enough knowledge to understand the message. Receiver... Your message is delivered to individual members of your audience. No doubt, you have in mind the actions or reactions you hope your message will get from this audience. Keep in mind, though, that each of these individuals enters into the communication process with ideas and feelings that will undoubtedly influence their understanding of your message, and their response. To be a successful communicator, you should consider these before delivering your message, and act appropriately. Feedback... Your audience will provide you with feedback, as verbal and nonverbal reactions to your communicated message. Pay close attention to this feedback, as it is the only thing that can give you confidence that your audience has understood your message. If you find that there has been a misunderstanding, at least you have the opportunity to send the message a second time. Context... The situation in which your message is delivered is the context. This may include the surrounding environment or broader culture (corporate culture, international cultures, and so on). “Removing Barriers at All These Stages” To deliver your messages effectively, you must commit to breaking down the barriers that exist within each of these stages of the communication process. Let’s begin with the message itself. If your message is too lengthy, disorganized, or contains errors, you can expect the message to be misunderstood and misinterpreted. Use of poor verbal and body language can also confuse the message. Barriers in context tend to stem from senders offering too much information too fast. When in doubt here, less is oftentimes more. It is best to be mindful of the demands on other people’s time, especially in today’s ultra-busy society. Once you understand this, you need to work to understand your audience’s culture, making sure you can converse and deliver your message to people of different backgrounds and cultures within your own organization, in your country and even abroad. II. Oral Composition Suggestions for Effective Oral Delivery 1. Make a good set of notes you can follow at a glance, and PRACTICE your presentation. 2. Dress for the occasion and tidy yourself up. Do something about hair that tends to fall into your face. Avoid wearing a hat or cap because it can obscure your face. 3. Arrange the environment to suit your presentation and get rid of distractions—erase needless information from the boards, turn off equipment you’re not going to use, close or open windows, blinds, and doors to aid audience visibility, hearing, and comfort. Turn on enough light so people can adequately see you, your eyes, and your facial expressions. 4. Check the operation of audiovisual equipment before your presentation. Have a backup plan in case it fails. 5. Make sure your notes and other materials are in proper order before you begin. 6. Get rid of any gum or food you might have in your mouth. Don’t hold a pen or paper clip or anything else that you might twiddle and distract your listeners. 7. Stand or sit up straight with your weight balanced. Avoid slumping, twisting, or leaning on the lectern, table, or computer console. Don’t stand in the light from the projector. 8. Make eye contact before you start to speak, as you normally do in beginning a conversation. 9. Don’t start with “um” or “okay.” 10. Talk to your listeners as if you are having a conversation with them. • Make plenty of genuine eye-to-eye contact with members of the audience. • Avoid merely reading your presentation. • Focus on sharing your ideas. Communicate. 11. Use your voice expressively and meaningfully. • Minimize the uhs, ums, likes, and y’knows. • Enunciate words clearly. Don’t mumble or garble them. • Speak with appropriate loudness and speed. Consider audience, place, and topic. • Use variations in speed, inflections, and force to enhance your meaning and hold audience attention. Avoid monotony. 12. Use your body expressively and meaningfully. • Look interested in your topic. Show your enthusiasm, sincerity, commitment. • Minimize distracting mannerisms and aimlessly shifting weight or moving about. • Use gesture and movement naturally to describe things, underscore transitions, and emphasize points. Remember the 3 Es of Effective Delivery: Energy, Eye Contact, and Expression! Improving Your Speech It is a recognized fact that good speech depends on the ability to reproduce correct intonation patterns the sounds of the language the rhythm proper to the language (Different languages use different sets of sounds. Sounds are very important in distinguishing words. Inability to produce the basic sounds in a language prevents one from speaking that language correctly. To speak good English, you must follow English intonation patterns. Intonation refers to the way you change the pitch of your voice to convey meaning. It is the combination of tones in which you pronounce the syllables that make up your speech.) Tonal Flexibility Rising Intonation (Simply asking a factual question) there? you Are 2. Falling Intonation (speaker knows that one being spoken to is physically present but the speaker wants to make sure that the person is also attentive) Are you there? 3. Rising-falling Intonation (shows some kind of disbelief) you Are there? III. Written Composition Suggestions for Effective Written Communication Skills I want to do this! What's This? The world has gone high-tech and people communicate through writing through a number of media. Even though the devices used may be top of the line, not everyone's written communication skills match up. A number of aspects need to be kept in mind when you send out written correspondence. Types Written correspondence runs the gamut from a simple email to an applicant's cover letter used to apply for a job. It also includes press releases, newsletters, news stories, columns, commentary, photo captions and a whole lot more. Effective written communication skills start with using the proper format for the type of correspondence you want to send. For instance, a cover letter should be set up like a business letter, containing the elements found therein, such as date, return address and a body of the letter offset by the salutation and closing. Clarity The purpose of your communication should be clear from the beginning. "I am writing to inform you of your raise. You will be making $15,000 more every year," is an effective opening. This one is not: "Our company has a tremendous increase in revenue. We have amassed more than $53 billion in sales in the past month alone. We have added 460,000 new clients and...." Why are you telling me this? Cut to the chase. Length Think Hemingway, not Faulkner, when it comes to sending out effective communications. Ernest Hemingway was known for his short sentences and very short stories. William Faulkner, on the other hand, would go on and on, often including myriad thoughts in a single sentence and, even if the grammar and spelling were impeccable, it would only serve to make the reader work very hard to get to the point (kind of like the sentence you just read). Keep everything as concise as possible. Grammar There is no excuse for sending communications that contain spelling errors and poor grammar. Even if you use the most eloquent writing and poetic turns of phrases, you are going to give the impression that you are a dolt. Always have someone proofread your work, if possible, before sending it out. She could catch obvious mistakes you may be missing or do not even know are mistakes. Tone The tone of the correspondence also goes a long way in making it effective. It's imperative to match the tone to the audience. Cover letters for job openings, corporate communications and even e-mails to your boss should be wholly professional. "Hey, Dude, Would you like to hire me?" just won't cut it for such situations. Likewise, your friends will think you're nuts if you start a note with: "Dearest John P. Doe III, How art thou?" Improving Your Writing Skills Improving your writing ability can make a greater difference in your life than you may think possible. No matter what your occupation, good writing gives you a distinct edge in the workplace—it can allow you to express yourself more clearly and persuasively, and lead to raises and promotions. When it's time to move on, your way with words will make your resume, cover letter and interview all the more impressive. Perhaps most importantly, writing is a skill that can improve your verbal skill, which is crucial in nearly every human interaction. Step 1: Read Good writers are good readers. Not only do they read a lot, but they're attentive to what they read. Read whenever and wherever you can. Try reading newspapers, magazines, novels, poems, short stories, plays—anything you can get your hands on. If you get your reading material from a broad variety of sources, you'll become acquainted with different writing styles, or "voices." However, you may reap the most benefit by immersing yourself in the work of writers whom you admire and enjoy. The more you read, the better your writing will become—particularly if you read good writing! As you read, remain thoughtful and critical, asking yourself what it is you like about the author's writing, what you don't like and whether or not you agree with author's perspective. Step 2: Know the Rules The better you know the basic foundations of writing, the more readable your text will become. It will also make the writing process more enjoyable. Make an effort to learn the rules of the English language so well that they eventually become second nature. Buy some grammar, punctuation and spelling work guides. One such guide, A Grammar Book for You and I (Oops, Me) has been acclaimed by Writer Magazine as, "...a valuable grammar manual written in a highly accessible, conversational tone." You can also find help on the Internet, through online dictionaries and grammar sites such as these. Merriam-Webster Online Guide to Grammar and Style Thesaurus.com Guide to Grammar and Writing One particularly fun online resource is The Grammar Vandal. The blog's writer, Kate McCulley, is a Sharpie-wielding grammar aficionado, who corrects bad grammar wherever she finds it. Below are two of the most common errors:  Run-on sentences Apostrophe abuse is something you may regret, but at least it's not permanent. Run-on sentences occur when two independent clauses either have no punctuation between them, or are connected by a comma (the latter is also called a "comma splice"). Example: Eric got tired of his striped shirt he sold it on eBay. One way to correct this sentence is to use a period to separate the clauses: Eric got tired of his striped shirt. He sold it on eBay. Otherwise, you can use a semicolon to separate them: Eric got tired of his striped shirt; he sold it on eBay. Alternately, you could correct the sentence by adding a conjunction, such as "so." Eric got tired of his striped shirt, so he sold it on eBay. Step 3: Prepare Before you get out the pen (or laptop), a few quick considerations can smooth out the writing process.  Eliminate distractions Before you sit down to write, get rid of anything that will cause you to lose your focus. Turn off the TV, iPod, cell phone, etc. It's hard enough to sit down and write without these distractions. If you find that you still can't hear yourself think, see Mahalo's guide to How to Beat Writer's Block.  Know your audience Identifying your audience will help you to develop the paper's tone and how its ideas will be presented. In the planning and research stages of your writing project, think about who will be reading the finished product. You wouldn't write a cover letter the same way you would a letter to a friend, would you?  Determine the thesis Before you start writing, identify the single idea that you're trying to get across. Boil it down to a sentence or two: this is called a thesis statement. A particular piece of writing should only contain passages that support its thesis in some way. Naturally, nothing should be included that contradicts the thesis. Sticking to the thesis will keep you from straying from the topic.  Make an outline An outline is a diagram of what you plan to write. It can be indispensable for organizing your thoughts before you begin writing. It charts your paper's introduction, body and conclusion. See an example of outline format at English Works. Step 4: Keep It Simple If you hope to hold the reader's focus, you're writing should be direct, crisp and concise.  Clear Language Use plain, accessible language whenever possible. Showy, "big" words don't necessarily make you seem smart (particularly if they're used out of context). Your job as a writer isn't to convince readers that you are sophisticated—it's to make them understand whatever it is you're trying to say. Newspaper articles are excellent examples of clear, unfussy writing.  Shorter is Better Use short sentences and paragraphs. Sentences don't have to be run-ons to be too long; some perfectly grammatical sentences are simply too long for most readers to follow. Shorter paragraphs are more visually pleasing to the reader, making the text easier to scan. Perhaps more importantly, readers don't like to wade through an ocean of text to get to the point.  Avoid wordiness Writers who are uncertain of their subject often overcompensate by writing too much. If you are not confident about your subject, perhaps you need to do more research before sitting down to write. Wordiness in writing also stems from attempts to impress the reader by sounding intelligent. More often, it just sounds long-winded and dull. Step 5: Use Active Voice Writing in active voice, rather than passive voice adds force and clarity to your work. Active voice means that the subject of the sentence performs the action specified by the verb, rather than the subject being acted upon. Here is an example of a sentence written in active voice: "The truck hit the pole." The subject is "the truck," "hit" is the verb and "the pole" is the object—the truck acts upon the pole. Here's the same sentence, written in passive voice: "The pole was hit by the truck." In this construction, the pole is the subject—and it's a passive subject, being acted upon. Passive voice is often used by people who are trying to dodge responsibility—for instance, politicians and young children. Here is an example of a passive sentence that leaves the cause of the action vague (perhaps deliberately): "The vase was broken." Here's the active version: "I broke the vase." The active version assumes responsibility. There are occasions when passive voice should be used, particularly when the object of the verb is more important than the subject. For example, here's a sentence written in active voice that lends undue attention to the subject: "People can see Mount Sinai from the roof." Changed to the passive voice, this sentence places emphasis where it belongs: "Mount Sinai can be seen from the roof." Step 6: Use Strong Verbs Using strong, active verbs will make your writing more dynamic and provocative. Here is an example of a sentence that uses a strong, active verb: "She devoured the stew." This reads better than the following sentence: "The stew was eaten hungrily." In the above example, the second sentence sounds dull compared to the first. This is due to three factors: It's written in passive voice. It uses the weak verb "eat." It adds the adverb "hungrily," though a more expressive verb would be more effective. Here are two more examples of sentences that contain potent verbs: "The writer soared to prominence after his appearance on Oprah." "Her lengthy keynote speech tranquilized the audience." Keep a thesaurus and dictionary close at hand and you'll always have a variety of strong verbs to choose from. You should also bookmark links to some good online dictionaries and thesauri. Step 7: Avoid Redundancy and Repetition Using the same word unnecessarily in a sentence is a sign of carelessness, or even worse, laziness. Reread your sentences to check if there are any unnecessary repeated words. If there are, eliminate them. Don't say it twice if once will suffice. (In some cases, you may need to pare the sentence down. For example, "We went to Manhattan, the main borough of New York City, and later went to the other boroughs of New York City—Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens and the Bronx." This could be reduced to: "We went to the main borough of New York City, Manhattan, and later toured the others." In other instances, it may just be a matter of replacing a proper noun with a pronoun, e.g., using "he" instead of "John." Sometimes, you may need to search for an alternative. Consult a thesaurus to find substitutes for repeated words. If you settle on a word that's new to you, make sure you're using it in the right context. Also watch out for repetition in phrases. For example, the repeated use of these phrases can clutter your writing: "as well as," "the fact that" and "which range from [blank] to [blank]." Step 8: Make Your Writing Flow Good writing flows like a good conversation. That's not to say it should be informal, but that it moves smoothly from one thought to another and doesn't have a tone of extreme formality.  Use transitions The use of transitional words and phrases is key. Transitional words and phrases connect sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph. They're often used at the beginning of a sentence to suggest continuity. Common ones include "therefore," "namely" and "of course." See Writer's Web's guide to transitional words and phrases.  Vary sentence structure It's easy to forget sentence structure when you're focusing on the content. One key to "loosening up" your text is to use a variety of structures. Here's an example of repeated use of the same structure: Despite being an aggressive politician, President Johnson decided not to run for re-election. Even though he might have won, he chose to retire to his ranch in Stonewall, Texas, instead. Here's a revision with varied sentence structures: Johnson may well have won in 1968. But despite his reputation as an aggressive politician, he chose his Stonewall, Texas, ranch over the White House. He would not to run for re-election. Step 9: Write Vividly Show, don't tell. This is a mantra of journalists and creative writers, but it can also be of great benefit for writing essays, speeches, blog posts and even instruction manuals. Showing invites the reader into a full sensory experience, transporting him or her from the page to the imagination. The following examples demonstrate how much more effective it can be to show: Telling: "The kitten was under the tree. It missed its mother." Showing: "The mottled kitten clung to the roots of the old birch as if to its mother's bosom." Telling: "The suitcase closed on his fingers and injured him." Showing: "The steel rim of the suitcase flashed as it fell, crushing his fingertips." Telling: "It was simultaneously sunny and cold." Showing: "The bright sky grinned, but the chill wind bit." Step 10: Review and Revise Reviewing and revising are as essential to the writing process as writing itself. Here are some things to keep in mind.  Come back to it later When you feel you have a solid draft, it's a good idea to take a breather. Time permitting, wait until the next day before you start making revisions. It's wise to revisit your work with fresh eyes. You'll be surprised at some of the awkward passages and errors that you didn't catch the first time around. On the other hand, you will be equally surprised at how well other passages have come out.  Be hard on yourself Print out your work and closely examine each sentence and paragraph; then put a circle around all the passages that sound uninspired, dull, awkward or just plain bad. It's a good idea to follow a revision checklist when going over your work: The writing should flow, with graceful transitions and varied sentence structures. The piece should be balanced, with a beginning, middle and end. Your work should not have unnecessary repetitions of words or phrases.  Read it out loud Reading out loud is an excellent method for spotting choppy transitions, awkward phrases, or repetitious sentence structure. Listen to see if what you have written has a rhythm to it. The best writing has a sense of rhythm—and it's easier to get a feel for its rhythm when reading it aloud.  Have someone else read it Solicit feedback from someone who isn't your mother or best friend—in other words, someone inclined to be honest—and ask them to be brutally honest. Ideal candidates include co-workers and supervisors. Choose someone with more of a stake in the quality of your work than the quality of your relationship with them. Even constructive criticism can feel painful at first. Unless you're dealing with outright rudeness, be polite. Thoughtfully evaluate whether or not the criticism is valid. Put it to use and see if the piece improves. If not, simply change it back—people haven't written in stone for thousands of years!  Proofread your work Don't proofread until all of your revisions have been completed—proofreading and revision are two different things. Proofreading involves mainly spelling and grammar, rather than the deeper issues of structure and content that revision entails. Don't rely on spell check, which in most cases will only catch incorrect spelling, not incorrect context. Look out for homophones. Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings and often different spellings. Some common homophones are their (possessive), there (location), and they're (contraction of they are) it's (contraction of it is) and its (possessive) your (possessive) and you're (contraction of you are) to (directional), two (number), and too (also) One particularly confusing set of homophones is "effect" and "affect." Just remember that, in most cases, "affect" is a verb and "effect" is a noun. For example, "That's a neat special effect," or "The movie really affected me." For the rare exceptions to this rule, see Grammarmudge's Affect/Effect page. Spot misused words: When writing, we sometimes use words that we haven't yet mastered. When proofreading, it's crucial to note any words that you might have used out of context, look them up and make necessary corrections. Step 12: Write Whenever You Can The more you write, the more you'll notice subtle improvements in your work. Eventually, you'll develop your own unique style of writing, known as your voice. In the meantime, don't give up. Writing well is not easy. It takes patience, tenacity and passion, but the rewards are worth the effort.