Principles

of Business
Communications
Choosing Communication Words and Developing Sentences

Course Code : BUS 313

Md. Hasan Tawhid
Sr. Lecturer, Khwaja Yunus Ali University
Index

• Principle of Choosing Words in Business Communications

• principles for developing clear sentences
• Six ways to emphasis idea
• The Advantages and Disadvantages of Written Messages
Choosing Words

• Words are the smallest units of messages. Give attention to each word used to be sure it is
the most effective one. An effective word is one that your receiver will understand and
that will elicit the response you want. You can improve your ability to choose words by
following the six principles of business communication described in this section.
 Principle 1:Choose Understandable Word
• The first principle of word selection is to choose words that your receiver will understand. Prior
to composing your messages(before delivering your message), you should analyze your
receiver’s knowledge, interests, opinions, and emotional reactions. An understandable word is
one that is in your receiver’s vocabulary. Consider your receiver’s educational level and
knowledge of the message topic. The words that will communicate best are those slightly below
the receiver’s vocabulary level. For example :

Less Understandable More Understandable

abdicate resign
ambiguous Uncertain
affluence wealth
amenities (technical) features of the property
Principle 2:Use Specific, Precise Words

• Specific words are clear and precise in meaning. In

your messages use words that are clear and that
will leave no question in your receiver’s mind
about the intended meaning. Words selected for
your message should be so precise that they
accurately mirror what you want the receiver to
understand. For Example use 1,000 or 500 to
1,000 instead of many; use 5 a.m. instead of
early
• An open door policy is one that encourages employees to come to their
managers with questions, concerns and for discussion about issues.
Principle 3:Choose Strong Words

A strong word is one that creates a vivid image in the receiver’s mind. Weak Strong
Give preference to verbs and nouns in your business messages. The The conflict is ongoing The war rages on
strongest verbs are those that express action (identify, explain,
melted, sang) rather than a state of being (is, are, was, were). Think of
these action verbs and specific nouns as power words. Power words The situation was The problem created
creating contention conflict.
have a distinct meaning and create a visual image in the mind of the
receiver. For example, the verb melt or melted creates a mind picture; The contract expires in a The contract expires in
thus, it is stronger to say, “The ice melted” instead of “The ice few years five years.
disappeared.”
Principle 4:Emphasize Positive Words
• A positive, can-do attitude makes a good impression. Communicate a can-do message to your
receivers by selecting positive words and avoiding negative words. Positive words convey
optimism(আশাবাদী) and confidence and help achieve communication goals maintaining a favorable
relationship, and gaining goodwill. Negative words trigger unpleasant emotions in receivers. Here
are examples of negative words you should avoid using: accuse, angry, blame, deny etc.

Negative Phrasings Positive Phrasings

Your understanding was wrong Let us review the facts
Your order cannot be shipped until Your order will be shipped on Friday
Friday.
Principle 5: Avoid Overused Words

• An overused word is one that loses effectiveness because it has been used too much in
normal conversation or in written messages. Because you have heard them over and over,
these words have become trite and uninteresting. Keep your message interesting by
avoiding overused words such as these. Actually, awesome, been there; done that,
below the belt, bottom line, by leaps and bounds, dude, get over it, impact (as a verb)
etc.
Example 1: Wordiness, overused words and complex
language
Does the following message
communicate clearly?
• You need to think outside the box and be
cautiously optimistic that this process
will be cutting edge. Communicate your
implementation intentions and prioritize
the minimal minutia that you deal with
on a daily continuum.
Would this be an improvement?
• Be creative in planning and optimistic
that implementing this process will be
successful. Share the plan with your
staff, and find time for effective
communication by reducing routine tasks
Principle 6: Avoid Obsolete Words (অপ্রচলিত শব্দ ব্যবহার
না করা)
• An obsolete word is one that is out-of-date, pompous, dull, or stiff. Business messages in
past years used these formal, unnatural words and expressions, and they continue to
appear in today’s business messages. Everyday conversation does not use these words,
and they should be deleted in business communication.
• Example :permit me to say, permit us to remind, pleased to inform, regret to advise,
enclosed herewith, enclosed please find etc. Such obsolete words should be avoided in all
business messages. Conversational language communicates best with receivers.
Developing Sentences

• In the first part of this chapter, you learned how to choose effective words. Now you are
ready to study the principles that will guide you in combining those words into effective
sentences. Businesspeople prefer concise, efficient, effective communication. Use clear,
short sentences with active-voice verbs to emphasize your important points. Study the
following principles for developing clear sentences.
• Principle 1:Compose Clear Sentences
• Principle 2:Use Short Sentences
• Principle 3:Prefer Active Voice in Sentences
• Principle 4:Give Sentences Appropriate Emphasis
Developing Sentences

• Principle 1: Compose Clear Sentences

• Word choice based on the principles discussed in the preceding sections will help you
compose clear sentences. A clear sentence uses words that are understandable, precise,
strong, and positive. In addition, clear sentences have unity; that is, they contain one
main idea and have related words placed close to one another. Finally, clear sentences
are grammatically correct.
• GIVE SENTENCES UNITY, KEEP RELATED WORDS TOGETHER , USE CORRECT
GRAMMAR ,
Developing Sentences

• Principle 2: Use Short Sentences

• A short sentence is more effective than a long sentence. Generally, short sentences are
easier to understand. The average length of your sentences depends on your receiver’s
knowledge of the message content. For an average-level receiver, short sentences should
range between 15 and 20 words.
• Generally, you should use sentences of longer-than-average length only in messages for
receivers with a high degree of knowledge. For receivers who have less knowledge of the
topic, use short, simple sentences. Vary the length of your sentences to provide interest and
to eliminate the dull, choppy effect of too many short sentences.
Developing Sentences

• Principle 3: Prefer Active Voice in Sentences

• Sentences using the active voice of the verb communicate more clearly, concisely, and
forcefully than those in the passive voice. In the active voice the subject does the acting;
in the passive voice the subject is acted upon. For example, Gloria issued the teaching
schedules (active voice) becomes passive voice when the subject becomes the receiver of
the action: The teaching schedules were issued by Gloria. The active voice emphasizes
Gloria and the action. The guilty party paid the $1,000 fine’ instead of “The $1,000 fine
was paid by the guilty party”
Developing Sentences

• Principle 4: Give Sentences Appropriate Emphasis

• Giving your sentences appropriate emphasis means emphasizing the important ideas and
de-emphasizing the unimportant ideas. Every speaker or writer wants a particular
message transmitted to the receiver. As you develop sentences in a message, ask yourself,
“Should the main idea of this sentence be emphasized or de-emphasized?” Then design
each sentence to give the appropriate emphasis.
Six ways to emphasis idea

• Length : Use short paragraphs to emphasize content; use long paragraphs to de-
emphasize content.
• Location : Place ideas at the beginning or ending of paragraphs to give the greatest
emphasis. The middle of a paragraph is the location of least emphasis.
• Repetition : Repeat key words throughout the paragraph to emphasize the ideas those
words represent
Six ways to emphasis idea

• Explicitness: Emphasize an idea by telling your reader that it is important.

• Format: Emphasize ideas by arranging them in lists or using wider margins.
• Mechanics: Emphasize ideas by using mechanical means: underlining, boldface, type
color or size, type style, uppercase letters, bullets, arrows, or circles.
Using Unbiased Language

• Avoid words that reflect unfavourably on any group or individual. The use of such
language will offend not only those persons referred to in the message but also the
message receiver or others who respect people, regardless of differences. To increase
your effectiveness as a communicator, analyze your messages to ensure language is
unbiased
Avoid Other Biased Language
• To treat people of different races and cultures in a bias-free manner, avoid all negative
stereotypes of the group. A key point in respecting diversity is to think of people as
individuals. Avoid categorizing groups of people as having specific common
characteristics and do not use terms that set them apart from others.
• “The Jewish investor from New York City funded the construction of the regional mall.”
“The white teacher spoke to the inner-city youths.”
• When referring to a person with a disability, use people-first language and focus on the
person, not the disability. Use patient with AIDS instead of AIDS patient and person with
mental illness instead of mentally ill person
Using Unbiased Language
• Avoid Gender-Biased Language:
• Some English-language listeners and readers subconsciously tend to picture a male when
words such as man, he, or chairman are used. This is true even though such word use
generically represents both men and women. Avoid stereotyped images in your messages.

Biased Unbiased
chairman chair, moderator, group leader
policeman police officer
salesman sales agent, representative, sales associate

businessman businessperson
Executives and their wives Executives and their spouse
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Written Messages

The advantages of written messages are that they

• Provide a permanent record that can be filed and referred to in the future
• Can be reread and studied, which is important if a message is long, is complex, or has
been written in anger
• Can be revised and edited to ensure they adhere to the principles of business
communication
• Can have legal value
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Written Messages

The disadvantages of written messages are that they

• Are generally transmitted slowly; e-mail and fax are notable exceptions
• Are viewed as being more formal, in part because they are permanent
• Do not lend themselves to quick or thorough feedback because there are few nonverbal
cues and because the sender and receiver are in different locations
• Require storage, which can be time-consuming and expensive
End