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Effective Communication

• Effective written or oral messages

follow certain principles
• These principles are guidelines for selecting content
and style of presentation required to meet the
purpose of properly receiving of the message
• These are principles are 7C’s of communication
• 7C’s must be followed so that the receiver
understands the message send by the sender in the
context it was meant to be
•
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 7C’s of Communication

• Completeness
• Conciseness
• Consideration
• Concreteness
• Clarity
• Courtesy
• Correctness

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 Completeness
• Business message is complete when it contains all
facts the reader or listener needs for the reaction
you desire
• Incomplete message keeps the receiver guessing
about the actual message
• Incomplete information also create
misunderstanding
• Complete communication is cost effective,
persuasive and helps in good decision making

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 Completeness
• Guidelines for completeness:
o Provide all necessary information
✓Answering the five W’s helps make messages clear: Who,
What, When, Where, and Why( requests, announcements, orders…)
o Answer all questions asked
✓Look for questions: some may even appear buried within
a paragraph. Locate them and then answer precisely

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 Completeness

• Guidelines for completeness:

o Give something extra when desirable
o Check for five Ws & one H
✓Who, What, When, Where, Why and How

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 5Ws and 1H

I keep six honest serving men,

They taught me all I know;
Their names are What and Why
and When,
And How and Where and Who.
from a poem by Rudyard Kipling

30 Sep 2020
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 Conciseness
• Conveying the message by using fewest words
without sacrificing other C qualities
• Concise message is complete without being
wordy
• It saves time and cost for both the parties
• It underlines and highlights the main message
• More appealing and comprehensible to the
audience

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 Conciseness
To achieve conciseness:
• Eliminate wordy expressions
– Use single words in place of phrases
• Wordy: At this time
• Concise: Now
• Include only relevant material
– Avoid unnecessary explanations, excessive adjectives
and prepositions, pompous words, gushy politeness
• Wordy: We hereby wish to let you know that our company
is pleased with the confidence you have reposed in us
• Concise: We appreciate your confidence
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 Conciseness
To achieve conciseness:
• Avoid unnecessary repetition
• Unnecessary repetitions lead to dullness
– Use a shorter names once mentioned eg WAPDA
– Use pronouns or initials
• Repetition: Will you ship us sometime or anytime during the
month of October or Early November would be fine, 300 of the
regular 3 by 15 inch blue armbands with white sewn letters in the
center. Thank you in advance for sending these along to us by
courier, and not post parcel , as post is too slow
• Concise: Please courier the shipment by 15th Oct 2020, 300
regular 3 x 15 inch blue armbands with white sewn letter in
center

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 Exercise-1
◼ Find single word substitutes for the phrases

◼ Along the same lines Similarly

◼ In due course Soon
◼ Consensus of opinion Consensus
◼ Date of policy Due date
◼ Have need for Need
◼ During the time of the day During the day
◼ During the year of During xxxx
◼ Few and far between Almost
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 Exercise- 2
• At this time I am writing to you to enclose an
interview card, which has been post-paid, for the
purpose of arranging a convenient time when we
might get together for a personal interview

– Please return the enclosed interview card to set up a

convenient time for an interview

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 Consideration
• Consideration means “stepping into the shoes of
others” or “consider the receiver’s
Interest/Intention”
• Effective communication must take audience into
consideration, i.e, the audience’s view points,
background, mind-set, education level etc
• Emphasize “what is possible” rather what is
impossible (reflects optimism)
• Thoughtful consideration is also called “You-
attitude”
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 Consideration
• Guideline for Consideration:
– Focus on “You” instead of “I” and “We”

• We-Attitude: I am delighted to announce that we

will be extending our hours to make shopping
more convenient

• You-Attitude: You will be able to shop for extended

hours

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 Consideration
• Guideline for Consideration:
– Show benefit or interest of the receiver
• Readers react positively when benefits are shown to
them
• Example. It has been long time we have heard from
you, please help us in updating our record for
payment of outstanding increment by filling and
returning the blank form

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 Consideration
• Guideline for Consideration:
– Emphasize positive, pleasant facts & avoid
negative words
• Unpleasant Communication: When you travel on
company expense, you will not receive approval for
first class fare
• Considerate Communication: When you travel on
company expense, your approved fare is for
economy class

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 Concreteness
• Communicating concretely means being specific,
definite, and vivid rather than vague and general
• Often it means using denotative rather than
connotative words
• Concreteness is achieved:
– Use specific facts and figures
– Put action in your verbs
– Choose vivid, image building words

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 Use Specific Facts and Figures
It is desirable to be precise and concrete in both
written and oral business communication

Vague, General, Indefinite Concrete, Precise

Eastern Europe is making In 1990 investment in

progress in obtaining eastern Europe were US$ 30
investments million; today that figure has
increased by 12%

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 Put Action in Your Verbs
• Verbs can make your sentences alive, more vigorous
– Use active rather than passive verbs
Example :
Passive. The tests were administered by the professors
Active. The professors administered the tests
– Put action in your verbs rather than nouns & infinites
Example:
Professor H. will give consideration to the report
Professor H. will consider the report (action verb)
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 Clarity
• Clarity means getting your message across so the
receiver will understand what you are trying to
convey
• Receiver to interpret your words with the same
meaning you have in mind
• Difficult to achieve as individual experiences are
never identical, and words have different meanings
to different persons

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 Ways to Achieve Message Clarity
• Choose short, familiar, conversational words
✓Eg Use “after” instead of “Subsequent”
✓“Error” in place of “Inadvertent”
• Construct effective sentences and paragraph
• Short sentences. Length 3-30words. >40 rewrite sentence
• Short paragraphs. Paragraph 8-9 lines
• Unity to express main idea. Have one main idea and
other ideas in sentence related to it
• Coherence for clear meaning i.e words are correctly
arranged to convey intended message
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 Ways to Achieve Message Clarity
• Include examples, illustrations, and other visual aids,
when desirable
✓Visual aids—such as headings, tabulations,
itemizations, pictures, charts are definite aids to clarity
and easy understanding
✓Important statements may be underlined, numbered,
colored, or typed in all CAPITALS

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 Courtesy
• Involves being aware not only of the perspective of
others, but also their feelings
• Courteous message strengthen relationships and
establishes good will
• Courtesy stems from a sincere “You-attitude”
• Courtesy involves:
– Be sincerely tactful, thoughtful, and appreciative
– Omit expressions that irritate, hurt, or belittle
– Apologize good-naturedly

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 Sincerely Tactful, Thoughtful & Appreciative

• Personal biases, bluntness and intentional

abruptness, are negative traits and common cause of
discourtesy
Tactless, Blunt More Tactful

Stupid letter; I can’t understand In my reckoning…

any of it.
Clearly, you did not read my Sometimes my wording is not
latest fax. precise; let me try again

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 Omit Irritating Expressions
No reader wants to receive message that offend
•You are delinquent •You forgot to
•You failed to •You leave us no choice
•Contrary to your inference •You did not tell us
•Inexcusable •Your complaint
•Simply nonsense •Your stubborn silence
•Irresponsible •You have to
•Why have you ignored •I do not agree with you
•We are amazed you can’t •You should know

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 Correctness
• It is proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling
• Message grammatically perfect may still insult or lose
a customer
• Following characteristics:
✓Use the right level of language (formal or informal)
✓Check accuracy of figures, facts, and words
✓Maintain acceptable writing mechanics (pronunciation,
spelling & capital letters)
✓Choose Non-discriminatory Expressions (Refer Last
lecture)
✓Apply all other pertinent C qualities
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 Practice Exercise
Rewrite the following in concrete form as the
sentences are too general and vague.
• This computer reproduces campaign letters
fast

• Our product has won several prizes

• These brakes stop a car within a short distance

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 Practice Exercise
Put action into the words by using active instead of
passive voice

• Tests were made by us

• A full report will be sent to you by the supervisor

• The contract had a requirement ….

• Mr. Singh will give consideration to the report ….

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 Group Assignment
• Write a circular inviting everyone in the
university to attend Independence Day
function
• The circular should cover all 7C’s
• Submission on Ms Word. Maximum one page
• Date of submission will be intimated on LMS

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THANK YOU
 References
• http://www.mbanotesworld.in/2007/12/seve
n-cs-effective-communication.html
• http://smallbusiness.chron.com/7-cs-
effective-business-communication-114.html
• http://www.ehow.com/about_5377807_seven
-cs-effective-communication.html
• http://www.mbaknol.com/business-
communication/seven-cs-of-effective-
communication/
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 “Every discourse
ought to be a
living creature;
having a body
of its own
and head
and feet;
there should
be a middle,
beginning,
and end,
adapted to one
another and
the whole.”

- Plato
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