Communication Skills 1

quiz
• Types of pronouns
• Types of conjunctions
• Types of sentences
• Composition of each type sentences
• examples
• Processes of sentence transformation
• examples
• Types of sentence errors
Paragraph and essay
• Essays are divided into paragraphs that work together
to express coherent thought and unified ideas.
• Paragraphs are sentence groups that are separated
from each other in physical presentation and their
content
Paragraph: Functions
• They provide visual cues that make your writing
“reader-friendly.”
• They divide writing into linked but separate sections.
Developing the topic
Some methods
• Tell a story
• Define your topic
• Use Examples
• Use quotation or a phrase
Tell a story
• Everyone loves to read stories – especially if they are
relevant and well-told.
• Anecdotes
Tell a story
• Ex.
I experienced culture shock when I travelled to
Egypt. I was walking down the main street on the day of
my arrival when it suddenly struck me that the crowds on
the street were stepping aside to make way for me. It was
1990, and my height, blond hair, and blue eyes were so
unusual to the Egyptians that I was an objects of intense
curiosity. The staring and pointing followed me
everywhere. Finally, unable to cope with being constantly
on display, I took refuge in the Canadian Embassy and
spent a couple of hours quietly leafing through back
issues of Time magazines.
Define your topic
• the definition paragraphs explains and clarifies the
meaning of a word or idea.
• use this to explain a term that may be unfamiliar to the
readers.
• note:
• write your own definition
Define your topic
• Ex.
Culture shock is the inability to understand or cope
with experiences on has never encountered before. It
commonly affects travelers who journey to lands whose
climate, food, language and customs are alien to them. In
addition to confusion and anxiety, culture shock may
produce physical symptoms such as chills, fever,
trembling, and faintness.
Using examples
• most common method in developing paragraphs.
• in supporting your topic, providing clear and relevant
examples, either personal or from researches.
Using examples
• ex
Culture shock can affect anyone, even a person who
never leaves home. My grandfather was perfectly content
to be an accountant until he retired and was confident
that his company would need his services for the
foreseeable future. Computers were “silly toys” and
modern business practices just “jargons” and “new
fad”. When he was laid off before his scheduled
retirement, he went into shock. It was not just the layoff;
it was the speed of change – the idea that he was
stranded in a new and unfamiliar culture for which he
was unprepared and in which he had no useful role.
Using quotations and
paraphrasing
• relevant and authoritative quotations, as long as they
are kept short are not used too frequently, are useful in
developing your topic.
Using quotations and
paraphrasing
• Ex.
“Because let's be very clear. Strong men - men who
are truly role models - don't need to put down women to
make themselves feel powerful. People who are truly
strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful
bring others together. And that is what we need in our
next president. We need someone who is a uniting force
in this country. We need someone who will heal the
wounds that divide us, someone who truly cares about
us and our children, someone with strength and
compassion to lead this country forward.” It is indeed
an important quality of a leader to be an agent for unity
in this times of division, as this quotation from the fist
lady, Michelle Obama, makes clear.
Using quotations and
paraphrasing
• Ex. Paraphrasing
Original Passage:
In The Sopranos, the mob is besieged as much by inner infidelity
as it is by the federal government. Early in the series, the greatest threat
to Tony's Family is his own biological family. One of his closest
associates turns witness for the FBI, his mother colludes with his uncle to
contract a hit on Tony, and his kids click through Web sites that track the
federal crackdown in Tony's gangland.
Paraphrased Passage:
In the first season of The Sopranos, Tony Soprano’s mobster
activities are more threatened by members of his biological family than
by agents of the federal government. This familial betrayal is multi-
pronged. Tony’s closest friend and associate is an FBI informant, his
mother and uncle are conspiring to have him killed, and his children are
surfing the Web for information about his activities.
Paragraph
• is a collection of related sentences dealing with a single
topic.
• Effective paragraphs normally contain the following
overlapping traits:
1. Unity
2. Coherence
3. A Topic Sentence
4. Adequate Development.
Paragraph
1. Unity:
• The entire paragraph should concern itself with a single
focus. If it begins with a one focus or major point of
discussion, it should not end with another or wander
within different ideas.
Paragraph
2. Coherence:
• Coherence is what makes the paragraph easily
understandable to a reader. You can help create coherence in
your paragraphs by creating logical bridges and verbal
cohesive bridges.
• logical bridges: The same idea of a topic is carried over from
sentence to sentence
• Successive sentences can be constructed in parallel form
• verbal cohesive bridges:
• Key words can be repeated in several sentences
• Synonymous words can be repeated in several sentences
• Pronouns can refer to nouns in previous sentences
• Transition words can be used to link ideas from different sentences
Paragraph
3. A topic sentence:
• A topic sentence is a sentence that indicates in a general
way what idea the paragraph is going to deal with.
• Paragraphs do not always have clear-cut topic sentences
and topic sentences can occur anywhere in the
paragraph (as the first sentence, the last sentence, or
somewhere in the middle). However, an easy way to
make sure your reader understands the topic of the
paragraph is to put your topic sentence near the
beginning of the paragraph.
Paragraph
4. Adequate development
• The topic introduced by the topic sentence should be discussed
fully and adequately. This varies from paragraph to paragraph,
depending on the author's purpose, but writers should beware of
paragraphs that only have two or three sentences. If a paragraph
is short, is it fully developed?
• Some methods to make sure your paragraph is well-developed:
• Use examples and illustrations
• Provide data
• Provide supporting arguments (quotes and paraphrases from other sources)
• Compare and contrast
• Discuss causes
• Deal with effects
• Proceed chronologically
Paragraph
Economy
• Adequate development also means economy in one’s
writing—sufficient but not excessive development
• Do not toy around with unnecessary words—keep the
number of words to a minimum.
• Are the following needed?
• tautology: future prospect  prospect
• intensifiers, qualifiers: very difficult  difficult
• formulaic phrases: due to the fact that  because
• unnecessary ’to be’, ’being’, passives
Cohesiveness
• The overall structure of academic writing is formal and
logical.
• Your writing must be cohesive, which means that it is
linguistically unified.
• The reader must be able to follow the flow of your
arguments and the logic of your ideas with the help of
cohesive links between sentences, paragraphs,
subsections, and sections
Developing a Cohesive Text
1. Use full and complete sentences to avoid
fragmentation.
2. Show Connections: Make sure that your logic is
clear. Use simple links to unify your ideas.
3. Pronouns such as it and they and this keep the focus
on the ideas that you deal with--as long as they are
clearly linked to specific antecedents.
4. Deliberate repetition of key words also helps.
Developing a Cohesive Text
• Pay attention to the use of cohesion markers
expressing connection, order, consequence, contrast,
concession, and so on. Depending on the situation, these
can be single words, phrases, sentences, or entire
paragraphs.
• Cohesion markers create a backbone for your writing
that the reader can follow to understand the
relationships between your ideas and arguments.
Developing a Cohesive Text
• Cohesive Markers
1. Connection: also, in other words, what is more, more
importantly…
2. Order: first, second, third; initially, finally; as stated in
section 1; as will be demonstrated…
3. Consequence: therefore, accordingly, thus, hence…
4. Contrast: instead, in contrast, on the other hand…
5. Concession: however, nevertheless, all the same…
Economy
On a number of occasions, authors clog up their own
prose with one or more extra words or phrases that
appear to add so very little new information to the
meaning of a certain expression but however do not add
to the meaning of the entire sentence overall. Although
words and phrases of these kinds can be utterly
meaningful in the suitable context, more often than not
they are used as ‘fillers’ and can quite easily be fully
eliminated.

What would you eliminate above?

Economy
Wordy
• A particle of any specific type
may well be used.
• Balancing the budget by the
upcoming deadline is an
impossibility without additional
extra help of some kind.
Concise
• Any particle may be used.
• Balancing the budget by the
deadline is impossible without
extra help
Economy
• You can often eliminate
expressions like these…
• kind of • definitely
• sort of • actually
• type of • generally
• really • individual
• Basically • specific
• quite • particular
Economy: Examples

Wordy
• Basically, industrial productivity
generally relies on particular factors
that are actually more psychological in
kind than of any given technological
type.
Concise
• Industrial productivity depends more
on psychological than on technological
factors.
Economy: Examples
• Using phrases to convey meaning that could be
presented in a single word contributes to wordiness.
Convert phrases into single words when possible.
Compare
• The type of experiment which caused difficulties…
• The difficult experiment…
Economy: Examples
Wordy
• The employee with skill...
• The department demonstrating the
best performance...
• Jack Stiles, our chief of consulting,
suggested at the latest board meeting
the installation of microfilm
equipment in the department of data
processing.
Concise
• The skilful employee...
• The best-performing department...
• At our latest board meeting, chief
consultant Jack Stiles suggested that
we install microfilm equipment in the
data processing department.
Economy
• Change unnecessary that, who, and which clauses
into phrases.
Economy: Example

Wordy Concise
• The report, which was released • The recent(ly released) report...
recently... • All job applicants must...
• All applicants who are interested in • The most efficient and accurate
the job must... system...
• The system that is most efficient and
accurate...
Economy
• Avoid there is & there are
• These expressions (the existential construction) can be
rhetorically effective for emphasis in some situations, but
they are also often unnecessary in academic contexts.
• The most common kind of unnecessary existential
construction involves an existential phrase followed by a
noun and a relative clause beginning with that, which, or who.
A more concise sentence can often be created by eliminating
the existential opening, making the noun the subject of the
sentence, and eliminating the relative pronoun.
Economy: Example
Wordy
• It is the President who signs or vetoes
laws.
• There are four criteria that should be
considered: ...
• There was uncertainty about the
reasons for the financial problems.
Concise
• The President signs or vetoes bills.
• Four criteria should be considered:...
• .The reasons for the financial problems
were uncertain.
Exercise
Improve these wordy sentences:
1. A surprising aspect of most government negotiations is their
friendly nature.
2. The fact of the recession had the effect of causing many
economic changes.
3. It is felt that a reorganization program should be attempted
by this company before ownership measures of any kind are
taken.
4. The hydro seal is said by most users to be faulty.
5. There is a tendency among many students who may be said
to show certain signs of lack of knowledge in their field of
expertise that their writing will demonstrate an overload of
unnecessary irrelevancies and comments which are generally
useless in function.
Key
1. Most government negotiations are friendly.
2. The recession caused many economic changes.
3. This company should try a reorganization program
before ownership measures are taken.
4. Most users find the hydro seal faulty.
5. Many students who seem to lack knowledge in their
field tend to overload their writing with irrelevancies
and generally useless comments.
 Writing isn’t just spelling; it’s much more than spelling.
Writing isn’t jut grammar; it’s much more than grammar.
Writing is grasping ideas, seeing images, harnessing
words– giving shape and thoughts to form. What matters
most in writing is not the rules and conventions of putting
words on paper. What matters in writing is the writer’s
mind.

-Flesh and Lass

WRITING AN OUTLINE
An OUTLINE
• An outline is a general plan of what you are going to
write.
• You can compare making an outline to drawing plans to
build a house. Before one begins to build a house, it is
best to draw up plans to make sure that a house is built
in the way you want. The same is true with writing an
essay and making an outline.
The Benefits of an Outline
• An outline will help make your essay more
organized. A careful plan will help your body
paragraphs stay focused on the ideas in your
thesis statement.
• An outline saves time for writers. Preparing an
outline can take time, but when you are finished,
you will be able to write the rough draft of your
essay more quickly than if you didn’t have an
outline.
 Example
Outline

Essay Outline

I. Introduction Thesis: _____________________

II. Body Paragraph #1- Topic Sentence: _____________

A. supporting idea
B. supporting idea
III. Body Paragraph #2- Topic Sentence: ____________
A. supporting idea
B. supporting idea
IV. Body Paragraph #3- Topic Sentence: ____________
A. supporting idea
B. supporting idea
V. Conclusion
 The Process
Making an Outline
In a formal outline, Essay Outline

Roman numerals can I. Introduction Thesis: ____________________

be used to represent II. Body Paragraph #1- Topic Sentence: _________

A. supporting idea
paragraphs. Capital B. supporting idea

letters can be used to III. Body Paragraph #2- Topic Sentence: _________
A. supporting idea
represent supporting B. supporting idea
IV. Body Paragraph #3- Topic Sentence: _________
details for the
A. supporting idea
paragraphs. B. supporting idea

V. Conclusion
 The Process
Thesis Statement
To begin an outline, you need to start with your thesis statement. The thesis
statement will be your guide throughout the process of writing your essay.
From the thesis statement, you can begin writing the topic sentences for the
body paragraphs in the outline.

ESSAY OUTLINE

Thesis Statement

Topic Sentence #1

Topic Sentence #2

Topic Sentence #3
 The Process
Topic Sentences

The topic sentence for each body paragraph

should support the thesis statement. The topic
sentences need to agree with the main idea or
sub-points in the thesis statement; otherwise,
the essay could be confusing.
 The Process
Topic Sentences
Thesis Statement
A job interview can often
make or break your chances
of getting your dream job.
There are several things
that you can do in an
interview to increase the
possibility of your success
such as dressing properly,
answering interview
questions thoroughly, and
asking good questions at
the end of the interview.
Topic Sentence Paragraph #1:
The way you dress can have a big
impact on an interview panel’s first
impressions of you.
Topic Sentence- Paragraph #2:
An interview is an opportunity for
potential employers to get to know
you better, so it is important that you
answer each question as completely as
possible.
Topic Sentence- Paragraph #3:
By preparing some thoughtful
questions for the end of the interview,
you can show the panel that you have
prepared for the interview and want
the job.
 The Process
Supporting Details

Under the topic sentence for each paragraph, list

some of the supporting details, examples, or ideas
you want to include in each paragraph.
 The Process
Supporting Details

II. Body Paragraph #1:

Topic Sentence: The way you dress can have a big
impact on an interview panel’s first impressions of you.
A. Men and women should consider
wearing dark suits.
B. Conservative dress will show the
interview panel you are serious about
supporting details, what you do.
examples, and ideas
C. Don’t carry too many things into the
interview. A notebook,
pens, and/or laptop
computer should be carried in a briefcase.
D. Hair and nails should be clean and
neat.
 Example Outline
I. Introduction- Thesis Statement: A job
interview can often make or break your
chances of getting your dream job. There are
several things that you can do in an interview
to increase the possibility of your success
such as, dressing properly, answering
interview questions thoroughly, and asking
good questions at the end of the interview.
II. Body Paragraph #1:
Topic Sentence: The way you dress can have a
big impact on an interview panel’s first
impressions of you.
A. Men and women should consider
wearing dark suits.
B. Conservative dress will show the
interview panel you are serious
about what you do.
C. Don’t carry too many things into the
interview. A notebook, pens,
and/or laptop computer
should be carried in a briefcase.
D. Hair and nails should be clean and
neat.
III. Body Paragraph #2:
Topic Sentence: An interview is an opportunity
for potential employers to get to know you
better, so it is important that you answer each
question as completely as possible.
A. Ask interviewers to repeat questions
you don’t understand.
B. Take some time to think about the
questions before you answer.
C. A notebook to write down key words
in interview questions is sometimes
helpful.
IV. Body Paragraph #3:
Topic Sentence: By preparing some thoughtful
questions for the end of the interview, you can
show the panel that you have prepared for the
interview and want the job.
A. Research the job and/or company
before you go to the interview.
B. The interview is your opportunity to
get to know your potential employer.
Ask questions about company goals,
mission, expectations of employees,
etc.
C. Don’t ask questions about benefits or
salary during the interview. You
should try to get this information
before you apply for the job.
IV. Conclusion: Don’t underestimate the
importance of a good interview.