GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE

COMMUNICATION
KNOW YOUR PURPOSE IN COMMUNICATING
Are you communicating to:
• Inform
• Entertain
• Persuade
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Knowing your audience will dictate the speaking or writing style you are to employ.
Consider the following:
 Age
 Educational background
 Profession
 Culture
 Other salient features of your listeners or readers
KNOW YOUR TOPIC
You must realize that you are invited to speak or write something because you are
expected to be able to SHARE something.
Know your topic, backwards and forwards.
ADJUST YOUR SPEECH OR WRITING TO THE
CONTEXT OF THE SITUATION
The environment where your speech or writing will be delivered will determine the
type of language you are to use.
WORK ON THE FEEDBACK GIVEN TO YOU
Take advantage of the constructive criticisms given to you.
Do not react negatively to criticisms. You will appear defensive.
It will help you point out the areas where you can still improve.
PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE ORAL
COMMUNICATION
BE CLEAR WITH YOUR PURPOSE
You need to be clear of your objective(s) in speaking.
It will be helpful if you mention this during the beginning part of your speech.
BE COMPLETE WITH THE MESSAGE YOU DELIVER
Make sure that you support your claims with facts and essential information.
Do not state anything haphazardly.
BE CONCISE
You do not need to be verbose or wordy with your statements.
Brevity in speech is a must.
BE NATURAL WITH YOUR DELIVERY
Use appropriate gestures and other movements in your speech.
Exude a certain degree of confidence.
Observe erect posture as it will help exude high spirit and confidence.
Practice delivery of speech to sound natural and conversational.
Avoid sounding like a robot (monotone) or like a machine gun (too fast).
BE SPECIFIC AND TIMELY WITH YOUR FEEDBACK
Inputs are most helpful when provided on time.
PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE WRITTEN
THE 7 Cs
COMMUNICATION
CLARITY
Be clear about your message.
Look at this statement:
We will design a tall building.
Is the statement clear?
Or would you prefer:
We will design a 35-storey skyscraper.
Clarity is achieved by selecting more specific terms rather than vague ones.
CLARITY
Reconstruct the following statements to make them clear.
1. Our meeting will start in the afternoon.
2. Please see me as soon as possible.
3. Submit your work right away.
4. You will need a bigger container for your stock of water.
5. I have many books on the shelf.
CONCISENESS
Always stick to the point and do not go around the bush.
Examine this statement:
The reason why he came to Douglas College was because it was inexpensive in price.
The words reason, why, and because all express the same idea.
Saying something is inexpensive includes the idea of price.
A more concise version of the sentence might be:
He came to Douglas College because it was inexpensive.
CONCISENESS
Here’s another example of wordiness:
Despite the fact that she was feeling ill, she came to the conclusion that she would go to
work.
Despite the fact that is really just a long way of saying despite.
Came to the conclusion that is a long way of saying decided.
A more concise version of the sentence is:
Despite feeling ill, she decided to go to work.
CONCISENESS
Exercise 1: Omitting unnecessary words
Cross out the unnecessary words in the following sentences.
Example:
The children were tired and exhausted after the long climb to the high top of the mountain.
1. The stegosaurus was huge in size.

2. Now she is at school.

3. He was happy and joyful about the great gift.

4. Because of the fact that he got a good grade on the midterm, he decided to take the night off.

5. In the summer season, many Vancouverites like to picnic in Stanley Park.

CONCISENESS ERRORS
•Use of wordy phrases
•Use of long/complex words
•Nominalizations
•Clichés, hackneyed, trite, old-fashioned expressions
•Redundancies
•Expletives
•Extra words
SHORTEN WORDY PHRASES
SUBSTITUTE LONG AND COMPLEX WORDS WITH
SHORT SIMPLE ONES
AVOID NOMINALIZATION BY REPLACING WITH
ACTIVE WORDS
OMITTING CLICHÉS, HACKNEYED, TRITE, OLD-
FASHIONED EXPRESSIONS
AVOID REDUNDANCIES
AVOID EXPLETIVES
CANCEL OR DROP WORDS
CONCRETENESS
Support your claims with enough facts.
Your readers can easily know if you are bluffing.
CORRECTNESS
It is important to observe grammatical correctness in your writing.
Even simple spelling errors may easily distract your readers.
Your credibility may also be questioned when you commit numerous errors in
grammar.
COHERENCE
The ideas in your writing must be logically connected to each other and related to the
topic.
Cohesion may also be achieved by using transitional devices to express the
relationship of your ideas.
Examples:
The management gives importance to the safety of its employees. Thus, they make
sure to comply with the safety standards.
We salute all the men and women of the administration. Also, we are inspired by
their work.
COMPLETENESS
Include all necessary and relevant information so that the audience will not be left
wanting of any information.
COURTESY
The tone of your writing should be friendly.
Avoid any overtones or undertones or insinuation to eliminate confusion or
misinterpretation.