Unit Title: Communication for Work Purposes

Title of the Lesson: Communication in the Workplace and its Genres

Duration: 1.5 hours

Introduction

Lesson three, “The Communication in the workplace and its genres” presents
the different communication genres- its features, qualities, and uses to make
meaning.

Strategically, each lesson is designed to provide a lesson discussion,

methodologies that enhance and confirm learning along the process- activity,
analysis, abstraction, and application. The level of difficulty of the activities
presented hopes to cater all learners with different levels of capability, with
special consideration to developing independent and critical learners.

Since the design of the curriculum is outcomes-based, application of the

learning provides learning opportunities to deliver outputs that are useful and
engaging. A reflection activity is provided in every lesson to give opportunities
for students to develop maturity in using decision making skills and in
integrating professional and knowledge in communication.

Objectives/ Competencies:
1. Define the different communication genres.
2. Identify the qualities of writing used in the workplace.
3. Classify communication genres.
4. Write an audit of communication genres.

Pre-test
Instructions: Identify the writing as to A-Academic writing, B-Business writing;
C- Common to both academic and business writing. Write letters only.

Item Classification

1. Abstract 1.

2. Academic paper 2.

3. Book review 3.

4. Email 4.
 5. Essay 5.

6. Executive summary 6.

7. Manual of operations 7.

8. Proposal 8.

9. Slide presentation 9.

10. Thesis or dissertation 10.

Lesson three

“Although we live in an information technology age, we often find ourselves in failure

to communicate situations. “
-Johnny Tan

The system of communication by which people engage in everyday are for the
purpose of interaction, transaction, and relation. Typically, there are four different
communication genres: verbal, nonverbal, written, and visual. These
communications are factual and formal in nature. Formal communication has
acceptable features which defines the culture of communication in one's
organization. As previously discussed, there is no existing standard as to qualities,
but there are common practices that will determine its acceptability across
disciplines. Commonly, the workplace uses both academic writing and the business
writing as we commonly call them. These two types of writing are used in the
communication in the workplace. On the other hand, workplace communication also
uses informal communication that is casual and unofficial, spontaneous and direct.
(www.businessjargons.com) It is characterized as unconventional. There is no clear
chain of command as to how information flows, no official rules and formalities.
Often, this is discouraged in the workplace because it creates a certain division in
the purpose of unity, and it defines a certain culture like the silo and the silence.
These communication cultures cause division which affects the objectives of the
organization and later the production.
The acceptable communication in the workplace must possess the following
qualities: academic writing is planned, specific, structured, factual, formal; while
business writing is purposeful, informative, substantive, and professional in nature.
Also, a writing is: Planned, if it carefully identifies the purpose of writing; Specific, if
it presents the concrete description of the content of the writing; Structured, if it
presents an aesthetically organized and logical thoughts; Factual, if it presents
correct information and evidences as proofs for arguments; Formal, if it uses correct
diction, appropriate language for the right context, and correct grammar;
Purposeful, if it reaches the target audience and elicits response by providing
relevant information to give readers the background about the business;
Informative, if it conveys information about the business; Substantive, if it only
presents true, correct, and honest information about the business; and Professional
in nature, if it addresses appropriately the industry with the use of technical jargon,
the internal communication with formal tone, and the customer's concerns with less
technical communication.

Communication genres

The written language

The popularity of written communication be it conventional or the
unconventional electronic with the aid of technology speeds up transmittal of
messages in no time the real time sent through different appropriate preferred
channels. Meaningful expressions and exchanges of transactions regardless of
which channel the messages are encoded, and no matter how updated and
upgraded the form of expression may be, but with regard to the purpose of
communication, it always boils down to capturing the target audience and achieving
the desired response or feedback in the communication process.
The needs in the communication process continuously change with time,
technology, and purpose. In the early days, communication skills are measured
independently from the others- listening, reading, writing, and speaking are
independent from each other. This means that listening competencies are taught
separately from reading as well from writing and speaking. The learning of one skill
is different from the other in hierarchical order – one is a prerequisite from the other.
This form-based scaffolding approach is the popular approach to achieve
communication skills. Today, multitasking skills are impressive.
The need to produce records gave birth to written language. Written language
that is either factual or literary is used for future reference or for interaction.
Documents like letters, reviews, laboratory reports, anecdotal records, recounted
events, evidence of transactions, criminal reports, and narratives have become the
purpose of writing be it in the academe or in the world of work. As Halliday suggests,
written language is used to get things done, to provide information, and to entertain
(Nunan, 2009).
Written language / written text / written literature is used to get things done if
the purpose is to produce public signs, product labels, television and radio guides,
bills, menus, telephone directories, ballot papers, and computer manuals. Written
texts that are used for information are produced when there is the need to write
newspapers, current affairs, magazines, advertisements, and political pamphlets.
Written texts for entertainment are comic strips, fiction books, poetry and drama,
newspaper features, and film subtitles.
There are two types of writing. Written works are produced firstly for learning,
secondly for display. This is further differentiated as to the type of text used which is
either factual and literary. Factual texts inform, instruct, or persuade by giving facts
and information. Literary texts entertain or elicit an emotional response by using
language to create mental images. (www.schoolatoz.com.au)

The spoken language

Humans are social beings adept at utilizing systems of communication for
self-expressions, the exchange of ideas, and organization. As what Aristotle said
“Man is by nature a social animal; society is something that precedes the individual.
Anyone who cannot lead a common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and
therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god”.
The etymology of the word communication originated from the Latin word
commūnicāre meaning “to share”. The infix ic means having the nature of, and the
suffix ation means a process. In its real sense, communication means the process of
sharing. In the early times dating back to when Jesus Christ was believed to be
teaching his disciples, the very first thing shared by the people was food.
Metaphorically speaking, food is the bread, and the bread refers to the bread of life
or the food for the soul. Jesus Christ shared with his disciples his teachings which by
nature means words. Even then people try to communicate with each other by
sharing. This means people engage in sharing of words, exchanging of words, and
organizing people.
The communication using spoken language / oral / verbal is the use of spoken
texts to share. Spoken language is used to articulate ideas that do not need written
texts which usually occur in interaction with one’s self when doing a reflection or
monologue, with someone, peer, clique, team, group and when needed to speak in a
big group of people.
The fundamentals of communication are reason or purpose, message
composition (internal or technical), message encoding, transmission of message/
channel/ medium, reception of signals and reassembling of message, decoding of
reassembled encoded message, interpretation and making sense of the encoded
message, and response and feedback to the encoded message. Interference
or noise blocks the process of communication. Sources may be from the encoder of
the message, from the decoder of the message, or from the setting itself.

The nonverbal language

Silence they say is the most overlooked powerful nonverbal communication.
(courses.edX.org) The manner of delivering messages or the way messages are
expressed affects its meaning and impact on the message. This is important
because in the workplace what is built is relationship, synergy, rapport, trust, and
understanding to achieve the company objectives. Nonverbal communication must
always complement the meaning and the purpose of communication. The messages
in the nonverbal language and in the verbal language must be consistent. A study
shows that nonverbal language is the most honest form of communication because
the body language rarely lies like what is proven by a psychologist that 93% of the
attitude communicated are in the form of tone of voice, inflection, facial expression,
and body language, and only 7% of attitude is communicated with words.
(www.kent.edu)

The visual communication

Visual communication is the use of graphical representation of information to create
meaning. It includes the use of infographics, interactive content, motion graphics,
and more. Elements like interactivity, iconography, illustration, supporting text,
graphs, data visualization, and animation are used to give effective representation
and to make data visual like in giving reports. (killervisualstrategies.com)

Analysis

List down twenty communication genres used in the workplace.

Abstraction

Fill in the diagram below with the common genres listed on the analysis. Note
that vertical communication is the flow of communication upward-downward;
horizontal is the flow of communication between people of equal rank like collegial or
departmental; internal is communication activity within organization and technical
may include computer aided communication.

Communication Diagram

INTERNAL V
E
R
T
I
C memo
Academic council meeting A
 L

TECHNICAL
\
manuals
Stand up meeting

HORIZONTAL

Applications

Write an audit of the communication genres used in any organization.

Suggested Readings and Links

https://youtu.be/IOn3Ay0Uiio

References

HYPERLINK "http://trial.ebscohost.com"Eunson, B. (2007).ebook database: ebook

academic collection.Retrieved from HYPERLINK
"http://trial.ebscohost.com"http://trial.ebscohost.com
HYPERLINK "https://www.bing.com/images"Images of communication in the workplace.
Retrieved on September 2020 fromHYPERLINK
"https://www.bing.com/images"https://www.bing.com/images
Images of Interculturality. Retrieved from https://www.bing.com/

HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/"Faizal, Fesmina. "What is Workplace

Communication? (& Why Does It Matter)". Feedough. Feedough. Retrieved 12 November
2019.HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/"https://en.wikipedia.org/
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"https://concordiacanada.com"https://concordiacanada.com
Kent, D. (2020). How to Fix Workplace Silos in 2020 [without starting over] Retrieved on
September 2020 from https://dispatch.m.io/workplace-silos/
Literary devices.Retrieved from www.literarydevices.com
Merriam Webster. www.merriam-webster.com
Nunan, D. (2009). Second language teaching and learning. Cengage learning asia pte ltd,
Philippine branch, Pasig city, Philippines
HYPERLINK "https://safetyculture.com/"Standard Operating Procedure Templates (SOP).
Retrieved from HYPERLINK "https://safetyculture.com/"https://safetyculture.com
Villacorte, A., et. al. (2020). Purposive communication. st. andrew publishing house.
Bulacan, Philippines