Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Effective Communication
Effective Communication
II. Q & A
WHAT DOES ‘EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION’ MEAN?
● is a process of exchanging ideas, thoughts, knowledge,
and information such that the communicative purpose
or intention is fulfilled in the best possible manner;
● is the presentation of views by the sender in a way
BEST UNDERSTOOD by the receiver
● effective communication may be extra-challenging for
people using English as a second language.
5Cs OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
● are words that sound the same but are spelled differently
and have different meanings (eg two, to, too);
(eg homonyms (match/match); homographs
HOMOPHONES
HOMOPHONES
HOMOPHONES
HOMOPHONES
(AND PUNS)
●TAKE OUT
A. go on a date
B. kill
C. eliminate from choices
D. bring outside (vs
dine-in)
TAKE UP =
BRING
TAKE UP = PICK
UP
https://www.skypeenglishclass
es.com/english-phrasal-verbs/
DEFINITIONS OF ‘CUT OFF’
1. to stop supply, as in “MERALCO cut off our electricity last
week.”
2. to prevent someone from receiving your money or property, as
in “Her father cut her off without a single peso”
3. to make a place difficult or impossible to enter, leave, or
communicate with, as in “The floods completely cut off the
town.”
4. to remove something by cutting it, as in “Why did you cut off
all your hair?”
5. to stop someone from going somewhere, especially by
blocking their way, as in “A second policeman cut off their
DEFINITIONS OF ‘CUT OFF’
6. to prevent someone from continuing what they are saying,
as in “Don’t cut me off when I’m talking.”
7. to stop having a close or friendly relationship with someone,
as in “Why did all his friends suddenly cut him off?”
8. (American, INFORMAL) to not allow someone to buy any
more alcoholic drinks in a bar because they have already
drunk too many
9. (Idiomatic, INFORMAL)
cut off your nose to spite your face MEANING to do
something intended to harm someone even though you
know that it will harm you too.
3. WORD COLLOCATION
● refers to the ‘company that words keep’; words
that are habitually placed together or tend to
co-occur because of their propositional
meaning;
● words that belong to the same semantic field
are more likely to be found together (eg steak is
more likely to co-occur with salad or fries than
with books)
● collocation often reflects cultural differences
TWO TYPES
‘dies with’?
‘dies of’?
‘dies from’?
WORD COLLOCATION
● break rules (or engagement) BUT violate
norms and regulations
● grill meat BUT toast bread (even if you use the
same grill for toasting)
● blink your eyes AND shrug your shoulders
● land a deal OR close a deal (NOT win a deal)
● open an account (NOT establish an account)
compared to? compared with?
* ‘compared with’ was often used in the past century on practically any
occasion that calls for comparisons; now, one is bound to see ‘compared to’
used more often
● use ‘compared with’ when referring to two objects of similar
classifications (dogs to dogs), and ‘compared to’ when pointing out
similarities in different classifications (dogs to cats)
Ex. Fewer than 1% of the public sector employees lost their jobs in 2013,
compared with 3.3% in the private sector.
Ex. Despite the heavy decline in its share price, this stock is still more
expensive (when compared to its current earnings) than most other
companies in its industry.
Exercise: BIG, GREAT, LARGE ?
● admiration
● joy
● disappointment
● mistake
● accomplishment
● pride
● donation
● scale
QUICK QUIZ 1:
4. CLICHÉS
● are once effective words and phrases but over time
have become hackneyed expressions (‘gasgas na’);
● lose some of their power when used in inappropriate
contexts or when used over and over;
● who here cringes when hearing these?: game-changer, at
the end of the day, think outside the box, one size fits all,
uphill battle, costs an arm and a leg, time immemorial,
calls the shots, new ballgame?
● while for some they may sound ‘new’, but to more
seasoned writers, these phrases are already ineffective.
CLICHÈ
WHAT TO DO
● When unsure, look up the meaning of a phrasal
verb in a dictionary (Longman’s is a good
dictionary for phrasal verbs) or google meanings
of troubling words/phrases;
● check out the link for the 390 most frequently
used (and useful) phrasal verbs;
● avoid clichés by using more specific/concrete
terms;
● take note of the context when you come across
phrasal verbs or word collocations; then, try them
out the next time you write.
5. BIG WORDS
● Choose familiar words, especially if the alternative is a
‘big word’ which would turn off your audience. Unless
truly indispensable, use concrete, specific, and exact
words.
● Why use ‘ameliorative’ when one can use ‘helpful’?
● Why use ‘consummate’ when one can use ‘close’ or
‘bring about’?
BIG WORDS
IMPRECISE
DICTION
6. FILIPINISMS
● a coined terminology for loosely translated English
phrases that are used by most Filipinos; used during
informal conversations but not in business-related
communication which can cause unanticipated
misunderstandings;
● words, like commute, traffic, bottomless, tuck out, CR, etc
are unique to the Philippine experience
● phrases, like fill up the form (one fills out a form and fills
up the gas tank, cope up with (we cope with hardships)
6. FILIPINISMS
Instead of Use
next next week week after next
last September 15, 2019 on September 15, 2019
with regards to with regard to; as regards
for the meantime in the meantime
despite of despite (word); in spite of
discuss about discuss (what?); talk about
based from based on
one of the reason one of the reasons
WRITING CLEAR
SENTENCES
QUICK QUIZ 2 (via Google Forms):
1. He bet me that I couldn’t run five miles without stopping. I ______ him
wrong.
A. prove B. proved C. had proved D. will prove
2. By the time I arrive, my husband ________ cooking.
A. will finish B. would finish C. had finished D. will have finished
3. If I ______ about her financial situation, I would have helped her out.
A. know B. knew C. had known D. have known
1. TENSES in the English language
1. Simple Present
2. Present Perfect
3. Present Continuous
4. Present Perfect Continuous
1. Four Present Tenses and their uses
Supply 3 context-dependent verbs in
correct tense
(3 minutes)
Which ‘present’?
Four PAST Tenses and their 10 Uses
1. Simple Past
2. Past Continuous
3. Past Perfect
4. Past Perfect Continuous
The writer who --- the rise of the totalitarian state
(5 minutes)
Six FUTURE Tenses and their 12 Uses
1. present continuous
2. simple present
3. simple future
4. future perfect
5. future perfect continuous
6. future continuous
Supply the correct tense of the verbs
(3 minutes)
TikTok: US halts app store ban
TikTok has avoided a government-ordered block
on new downloads in the US after a judge issued a
temporary injunction. The video-sharing app has faced
being removed from Apple’s App Store and Android’s Google Play
marketplace at midnight local time in Washington, DC.
Existing US-based users would have been able to have
continued using it. But they would not have been able to have re-
download the app if they had deleted it from their
phones, nor have been offered software updates.
TikTok: US halts app store ban
Judge Carl Nichols of the US District Court for the
District of Columbia issued the injunction on Sunday
evening after having held a 90-minute hearing earlier in
the day.
Tiktok welcomed the intervention, and vowed to keep
defending its rights.
It (argue) that forcing it off the iOS and Android
phones (violate) the First and Fifth Amendments of the
United States Constitution.
2. MOOD in the English language
Mood is a grammatical feature of verbs that allow speakers to
express their attitude toward what they are saying. There are three
main kinds:
● INDICATIVE - used when stating a fact.
● IMPERATIVE - used when issuing commands/demands
● SUBJUNCTIVE - used when declaring wishes, counterfactual
events
A. THE INDICATIVE MOOD
● tells the reader/listener something factual. This mood
is generally used in making a statement or asking for
a statement by a question. The statement can be
factual or presumed to be factual.
Example:
● He is resigning soon.
● What is history but an agreed upon myth?
A. THE INDICATIVE MOOD
We have to know what are the guidelines.
Examples:
● Her job requires that she know about carbon footprint.
● If his temperature rises, they suggested that he go to
the ER.
Let’s try our hand!
In the chat box, re-write the sample sentence into the
subjunctive by integrating the clause found in the
parentheses.
For example:
● What did the Democrats demand of William Barr? (To
make the Mueller Report fully public.)
Answer:
● Democrats have demanded that William Barr make the
Mueller Report fully public.
Let’s try our hand!
In the chat box, re-write these sample sentences into the
subjunctive by integrating the clause/s found in the
parentheses.
● What did the hostage-takers demand of the police?
(For police to surrender their weapons)
●https://youtu.be/quXqD18
XA2Q
REPORTED QUESTIONS
In reported questions, back shifting is used again, do/does is eliminated,
wh-question is retained, and if/whether is inserted, thus:
● Direct Speech Reported Speech
●“Where do you live?” She asked me where I lived.
●“Where is Jacob?” He asked me where Jacob was.
●“Who was that fantastic girl?” He asked me who that fantastic girl had
been.
●“Are you living here?” They asked me if (whether) I was living here.
●“Will you sit down?” She asked me if I would sit down.
REPORTED ORDERS
In reported orders, back shifting is used again, thus:
The sales associate was unhelpful. The sales associate was not very
helpful.