Report on Communication

There are three types of communication, General, interpersonal and Written. The principles apply to each type of communication differently. General Communication is your basic things that are needed for effective communication. Interpersonal Communication works with face-to-face commination and when talking to an audience. Written Communication is specific to its name, writing, this can be electronic or on paper.

General Communication
The principles of General Communication are: Cultural differences Adapting for the audience Accuracy Engaging the audience Question & answer General Communication focuses on conversing with your audience. Which is used in many different ways. The cultural differences between you and your audience can form a barrier, so take in account that some things can be taken in an offensive way and that some things may be disrespectful to either you or them. Age if culture is also something that should be considered as culture to a 50 year old would be very different to culture of a 19 year old. I overcame this by just using my past knowledge on how some cultures are. When adapting for your audience you may want to consider working on your use of words, so as not to confuse the audience by trying to impress them. You can also vary your tone of voice to be heard and portray your message in a certain way, like using music or a PowerPoint. I tried to adapt to my audience by using very popular examples such as Wednesday from The Addams Family when talking about use of emotion in Interpersonal Communication. Your accuracy needs to be good, you cannot stretch the truth to try and win your audience over. Use only facts when presenting to an audience. Remember facts and opinions are two different things; sometimes people just want the facts and not care about how you feel about the matter. I was only stating facts when I was presenting because opinions were not needed. When engaging the audience you should vary your tone of voice and move about to keep the audiences alert. You could vary your sentence length and if presenting use heading and bullet points so the information can be seen in nice sized chunks. In my presentation I use short simple sentences and then added on to them when presenting. For question and answer you should think a lot before answering, some people think that all Q&A sessions are on the spot, however on things like the radio for example this isnt the case. The questioner calls ahead and then their answer is seen and thought on,

Talib Hussain 12A Ruby 6

if the answerer feels like answering it they will and if not theyll simply leave the question out of the interview.

Interpersonal Communication
The different parts of Interpersonal Communication are: Techniques and cues Positive & Negative body language Active engagement Barriers to communication Types of question Speed of response Two or more people are needed for communication to happen. The message is usually sent using speech but can sometimes be written. To aid the conversation one would use things like signs, facial expressions, body expressions and even silence. Techniques and cues used to aid verbal communication can be to raise your voice or thump your hand on a table to show anger and lower your voice or pull your shoulders in to show fear. With positive and negative body language things like your facial expression, cutting in while someones speaking or even a simple yes can be taken as a positive or negative reaction. This is why when speaking to an audience try to keep a positive body language so as not to give off a negative vibe to anyone. To actively be engaged in a conversation is usually seen in one-to-one conversations, simply nodding or just giving a smile while the other person is speaking helps them realize that you havent wandered off in your head. Looking the other what is something that usually makes the speaker stop talking and ask if youre listening, which ruins the flow of the conversation. Barriers to communication can be things like background noise, distractions and a lack of concentration. You should prevent any barriers to come up when communicating. Face your audience, keep your voice projected so everyone can hear it and try to keep the audience concentrated. There are 3 different types of question, open, closed and probing questions. Open questions give your answerer the freedom to either give a sentence or one-word reply. For example, you could say How was your weekend? which leaves the answer open to anything. A closed question is the exact opposite; there is no freedom, its simply a yes or no answer. For example, you could say Do you like sushi? and theres only really a one-word answer for that. Probing questions are used to extract the information that you desire. A question can be replied to in different ways. One could answer quickly and with passion, slowly with consideration, in-between the two or not at all. The speed of response also gives off how well youve thought about the question and whether youre telling the truth or not.

Talib Hussain 12A Ruby 6

Written Communication
The properties of written communication are: Grammar & Spelling Note Taking Structure Proofreading

With grammar & spelling you must take into account the difference of how a word is pronounced and spelt internationally. Its the main body of a text, which can be a letter, fax, email or report. Mistakes in spelling and grammar indicate an unprofessional approach to the work at hand. As well as being unprofessional mistakes can also confuse the reader. To overcome this situation many word processors like Microsoft Word have a spell check, which is automatic and will tell you when something is spelt incorrectly or if the grammar is not right. When taking notes people usually do it in a manner that they can understand be it short form. Notes can be taken when in lectures, meetings and interviews. Sometimes before a meeting you can be given a document that you need to read and maybe refer to during the meeting. Taking notes from the document could help you. When writing something it is best to structure your work. You can structure it by moving it into paragraphs, making bullet points and even adding in tables or charts to represent data. I added some notes onto my PowerPoint for Barriers to Communication so that the audience could have nice simple bite size chunks of information. Proofreading your work helps so that there are no spelling or grammar mistakes there. It is best to proof read your work alone first, then to ask someone to proof read it again so youve not missed anything out.

Talib Hussain 12A Ruby 6