1. Courtesy

1. Courtesy
Review of actual business correspondence reveals that special attention should be devoted to assuring the courtesy of business communication. Effective writers visualize the reader before starting to write. You will want to consider your reader’s desires, problems, circumstances, emotions, and probable reaction to your request. This step will enable you to develop your communication from the reader’s point of view.
You-Attitude
Writing with a you-attitude shows sincere concern for the reader. Emphasizing the reader’s (you) viewpoint rather than the writer’s ( I ) viewpoint demonstrates sincerity. Merely replacing a few I’s, we’s, our’s and my’s with you’s and your’s throughout a letter, however, will not guarantee the presence of the you-attitude. To establish a you-attitude, you must create a positive state of mind through your suggestions and decisions.
A you-attitude is more than simple courtesy or politeness. It hinges on demonstrating a clear understanding of the reader’s problem or question. If a reader feels that you are genuinely concerned about his/her problem or question, the overall impact of the message will be greatly enhanced.Incorporating a you-attitude into your message will help give them reader benefit, which shows the reader how he/she will benefit by complying with your request or announcement. Readers are more likely to comply if the benefits appear to be worth their time, effort, or cost. Even though the benefits of compliance may not be readily apparent to the reader, your message can be made much more effective by including reader-benefit material.Understanding some basic truths about human nature helps us humanize our business messages.
These truths are:
- People are self-centered
- People are defensive
- People are not perfect
- People expect courtesy
- People do the best they can
People are self-centered
Being self-centered does not mean egoistic and conceited. It means that people want to know what good they will get out of doing business with us. When a business executive receives mail, s/he asks two questions: what’s this and why me. Effective writers tell their readers how they will benefit from doing whatever they are asked to do.Readers are more likely to comply with your request if the benefit appears to be theirs.The first of the following two sentences got very little response when it was used in a collection letter; however, when the sentence was revised to include reader-benefit material, the letter was much more successful.
Change: Please send your cheque for the amount you owe.To: By sending your cheque for Rs. 5,000, you will be able to maintain your good credit reputation.Merely inserting the second-person pronoun you into a sentence does not necessarily assure a you-attitude or reader benefit. The first version of the text example lacks reader benefit, although it does contain the word you. The revised version, by mentioning “shopping convenience,” contains reader benefit.
Change: You will be glad to know that we are now open until 9:00 PM seven days a week.
To: For your shopping convenience, we are now open until 9:00 PM seven days a week.

Elements of Effective Written Communication

Because written communication plays such a significant role in our economy and in the daily routines of the vast majority of organizations, an understanding of the essentials of written communication is critical.

You must know what you want to say and how to say it. In addition, you must design your messages to portray exact meaning as well as create a favorable impression. Well-worded messages not only bring you and your reader closer together, but also make you appear more friendly, helpful, and interested.In order to choose the right words and sentences for your letters, you need to be familiar with the elements of effective written communication.
The elements are:
1. Courtesy
2. Correctness
3. Conciseness
4. Clarity
5. Concreteness
6. Completeness

we discuss one by one in upcoming slides 

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Strategies for Effective Oral Delivery

Volume
Listeners want to clearly hear a speaker without straining to do so and without being blasted out of their
chairs. A presenter who speaks too loudly may be perceived as bombastic, aggressive, or insensitive to
listeners. On the other hand, one who speaks too softly may convey the impression of being passive or
insecure.
It is commonly thought that. a point is emphasized by voicing it more loudly. The reverse is true. An
audience is more attentive to a point that is stated at a lower (but still clearly audible) volume. Emphasis
is added by lifting the pitch, slowing the rate, and/or changing the tone of voice. (Vocal emphasis is
further strengthened with appropriate visual cues.)
Rate
An average rate of speech is 140 words per minute. As with other vocal characteristics, the rate of speech
should be varied during a presentation. For emphasis, a speaker may periodically slow down to less than
100 words per minute to voice a point in a deliberate manner. To elevate the level of energy or quickly
convey a point of lesser importance, a speaker may occasionally accelerate the rate to more than 170
words per minute.
A consistently slow rate of speech conveys fatigue or disinterest. Flailing speech can suggest that the
speaker has difficulty formulating thoughts. Presenters who consistently speak at a rapid rate may be
perceived to be nervous, impatient, or hurried.
Tone
The quality of tone is a combination of pitch, strength, and character. Character refers to the sense or
meaning a particular tone conveys. For example, a tone of voice may be described as gentle, angry,
sarcastic, childish, or serious. The tone of voice with which a speaker expresses a point says more to an
audience than the words themselves. As with other vocal characteristics, tone also says something to an
audience about the speaker. A faltering tone of voice is perceived as timid or indecisive, a harsh tone of
voice as aggressive. A nasal lone lacks the depth that adds authority to a voice. A monotone or flat tone
that lacks variations suggests a lack of interest or energy.
Speech Patterns
The term speech pattern refers to any vocal trait that is habitual. Although usually learned behavior,
speech pattern are sometimes a reflection of a psychological or emotional condition. A person who
repeatedly voices the phrase like “you know" may have acquired the habit from a peer group, or the pattern
may signal that the person is nervous when speaking before a group.
Like the characteristics of vocal quality (pitch, volume, rate, and tone), speech patterns can either
contribute to or detract from a presenter's effectiveness.
Some speech patterns are very pleasing and add to the clarity and meaning of a message, others are very
distracting or muddle a message. The speech pattern with which presenters are most concerned arc inflection
articulation, fillers, pauses, and accents.

Strategies for Effective Oral Delivery

VOCAL CUES
A voice communicates a great deal more than words alone. A presenter’s voice is a potentially powerful
tool to make an oral delivery effective and impressive. Professionals whose careers depend on skilled
communication take seriously the need to develop positive and powerful vocal attributes.
The quality of a speaker's voice is determined by four characteristics: pitch, volume, rate, and tone. An
effective speaking voice is well modulated, meaning the pitch, volume, rate, and lone are altered to give
appropriate and interesting expression to the message. A voice that is pleasing and easy to listen to is
mellow, meaning it is rich in tone and sounds fully mature. It is moderate; the pitch is not too low or too
high, volume is not too loud or too soft, and the rate of speech is neither too fast nor too slow.
To add to the effectiveness of a delivery, the qualities of a speaker's voice should be varied and congruent
with the message. Vocal qualities should also be varied to provide contrast. In addition, since it is often
perceived that the nature of a person's voice reflects something of the nature of the person, a presenter
should develop and communicate with a steady, resonant, and mature voice.
Pitch
The term pitch refers to the degree of highness or lowness of a sound. Every voice has a normal pitch in
terms of what is '"normal" for the speaker. The norm for an effective communicator is a pitch that can be
raised a few levels without sounding squeaky and lowered a few levels without sounding grimly. Such a
range allows a speaker to vary pitch for contrast while maintaining a vocal quality that is pleasing to the
ear.
Pitch has a notable impact on how a presenter is perceived. In every species that makes audible sounds,
the young have higher-pitched voices than do grown adults. Consequently, a high-pitched voice is
associated with immaturity. An excessively high-pitched voice is shrill and unpleasant to listen to for
long. A person who speaks in a high-pitched voice will be taken more seriously if the pitch is lowered.
An effective presenter uses pitch changes to indicate a change in the message. At the end of a sentence,
dropping the pitch signifies a statement; raising the pitch signifies a question. For that reason, repeated
lifts in pitch ac the end of declarative statements create an impression of a speaker who is uncertain.
Occasional and appropriate variations in pitch can be used to accentuate meaning. Rapid, frequent, and
meaningless changes in pitch make it difficult for an audience to listen attentively, and may suggest that
the speaker is highly emotional or frantic.

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Modes of Delivery

There are four modes of Speech Delivery
Reading from a manuscript Reading from a manuscript is the most formal type of delivery. It is also an effective choice when you
want to have the greatest control of the wording of your speech.
You will probably use a manuscript when speaking on a highly sensitive topic for which it is important to
have precise wording. Or, if you have spent special effort embellishing your speech with stylistic
elements, reading from the manuscript will ensure that you speak the phrases just as you wrote them.
Often, however, reading your speech will rob the presentation of spontaneity and the conversational
dynamics that effective speakers strive to achieve.
To compensate for that, you will need to practice your reading to give it the feeling of being spoken for
the first time. Skillful manuscript readers will also make spontaneous changes in their speech at the
moment of delivery.
Reading from manuscript seriously limits your ability to:
1. exhibit a natural style,
2. maintain eye contact,
3. observe and evaluate feedback, and
4. adjust the messages.
Therefore, never use the written style just out of fear of facing an audience, of forgetting the material, or
of encoding messages improperly. Overcome that fear through practice and experience.
If the formality or complexity of an occasion demands the use of the manuscript, observe these important
procedures:
• Write a draft of the speech according to sound writing principles.
• Revise by reading the written speech aloud sentence by sentence and making adjustments
necessary to convert a readable piece into a speak-able piece.
• Type the revised manuscript in double- or triple-spaced, wide-margined form on only one side of
the paper, possibly all in capital letters.
• Practice reading aloud several times before a videotape camera, friends, or a mirror to improve
delivery, eye contact, etc.
• Mark the points of some of your important pauses, phrases, emphases, and other nonverbal cues
directly on the manuscript. Practice several more times.
• Apply all of the suggestions for good verbal and nonverbal presentations.
Presenting from memory
Unless you have had training and practice memorizing long passages of text, the memorized mode is the
hardest to pull off. Freed from a manuscript or notes, you are likely to have the added anxiety of
forgetting what you wanted to say.
A memorized speech can also sound "canned" and lacking in spontaneity. Some speakers, however, are
extremely skillful at memorizing. Others, who have presented the same ideas a number of times, will
memorize their lines whether they intended to or not. Each time they speak on that or a similar topic, they
can draw from memory.
The memorized speech may lead to the poorest delivery of all. Speakers must concentrate so completely
upon recalling memorized material that they do not make contact or observe, evaluate, and adjust to
feedback. Additional flaws exist in the memorized approach, which are:
1. the difficulty of memorizing more than a few paragraphs,
Communication Skills – MCM 301 VU
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2. the possibility of forgetting material during the speech, and
3. the difficulty to presenting a memorized speech in a no mechanical manner
Speaking extemporaneously
When you speak extemporaneously you are literally making up the words of your speech as you go. That
does not mean that you do not do preparation. Rather, as you rehearse you work from an outline or
speaker notes that remind you of the progression of ideas in your speech.
Because you are choosing the words at the spur of the moment, an extemporaneous speech is likely to be
very dynamic and sound spontaneous and fresh.
Choose the extemporaneous style all of the others. It has the advantages pf preparation, naturalness,
flexibility, spontaneity, and full interaction with the audience. To develop an extemporaneous speech:
• Develop the speech by first writing and revising an outline. Write only a few sentences – and
perhaps the opening and the closing.
• Place the outline or key words and phrases, possibly all in capital letters, on only one side of note
cards. Leave plenty of space around and between lines.
• Using the note cards only when necessary, practice speaking aloud several times before a
videotape camera, friends, or a mirror to improve delivery, sentence construction, eye contact,
etc.
• Avoid practicing to the point that you memorize a fixed pattern of words. Practice only you
know that you will speak in a coherent but spontaneous manner.
• Apply all of the suggestions for good verbal and nonverbal presentations.
Impromptu speech
The impromptu speech occurs with little or no time for preparation. The reduced chances for analyzing
the audience, organizing, and encoding require a fast-thinking speaker. When delivering an impromptu
speech, use these suggestions:
• At even a hint that you may have to speak, begin to apply the guidelines, even while walking or
turning to face the audience.
• Move the planning directly to the specific topic, objectives, and key points. Write them on paper
if you have the seconds necessary to do so.
• When first facing the audience, take a few seconds to form the first words silently before
speaking them.
• Watch for feedback to know when to repeat or clarify.
• Speak briefly, and conclude firmly.
• If appropriate, ask if the audience has questions.