Business Communication and Professional Writing Skills

Vocal:

Vocal is the way how we sound. This carries 38% in communication.

Verbal:

Verbal is the words we use. This carries 7% in communication.

Visual:

Visual is how we look. This carries 55% in communication.

How do we introduce ourselves?

Hello Everyone, My name is Puspa Bista. I live in Baneshwor, which is 4 km from the center of Kathmandu. My hobbies are painting and singing.

( While introducing ourselves, at least we need to give brief information about our name, the place we live in and our hobbies. While mentioning about the place, we need to make clear about the distance that is very familiar among everyone, for example, the capital city and the distance away from that. )

6 C’s of effective Communication:

1. Complete
2. Concise ( to the point ), easy to understand
3. Clear
4. Courteous
5. Correct
6. Consistent

What are the types of decision making??

• Autocratic
• Consensus
• Democratic
• Consultative

Autocratic – One person ( or a small group ) makes the decision alone

When to use:

1. Emergency Situations
2. Financial Decision

Advantages: Quick Decision

Disadvantages:

I. Can sometimes be risky.

Consultative – One person ( or a small group) makes the decision alone after listening to the opinions of others ( including subordinates )

When to use:

I. Whenever he/she is not skilled in certain areaas and needs opinion from the expertise in that area.

Advantages:

I. Fair based on the experience, hence less risky.

Disadvantages:

Time consuming and not suitable in case of emergency situations.

Consensus:

When to use:

I. when it is very important that everyone both accepts and agrees with a decision and when decision directly affects many people.

Advantages:

I. Decision will almost certainly be agreed, accepted and implemented.

Disadvantages:

I. It takes very long time to make decision.

( All other decision making terms are familiar and much in use. So , I will not be discussing about them except for consensus. Example of consensus includes: Suppose that you are asked to rank 1st, 2nd 3rd, 4th and so on priorities for the Government of Nepal and asked to come to the conclusion by discussing among yourselves.

1. To reduce taxation.
2. To make people aware about the climate change.
3. To improve infrastructures.
4. To reduce corruption.
5. To improve education system.

Suppose that Person named ‘A’ ranks the above priorities as 2,4,3,5,1 thinking that climate change awareness is the most important factor and so on and the other person named ‘B’ ranks as 4,1,5,3,2 thinking that for bringing any positive change in a country, first of all corruption needs to be eradicated from the root, then only other priorities follows. Now person A and B tries to convince each other, discusses on the points and come to a same conclusion after certain time. But there will be so many people in the room. Now again, they will discuss the same with person ‘C’, ‘D’ and so on. However, concluding on the same point is very difficult in case of large number of people. Also, it will take lot of time.

Decision-Rule ( Democratic )

The decision is decided by the vote.

When to use : When the organizational (or social) culture demands this kindof decision-making.

Advantages:

I. Quality of decision can be high because people with different opinions contribute.

Disadvantages:

I. It is not certain that majority opinion is better than minority.

Topic Sentences and Controlling ideas:

For example:

“The use of fertilizers in organic farming should be prevented.”

In the above sentence,

“Use of fertilizers in organic farming” is the topic sentence.

“Should be prevented” is the controlling idea.

Example 2:

“There are a number of benefits of taking the Professional Writing Courses.:

(Topic Sentence – The main topic in which the sentence is written. The main focus point in the sentence) The topic sentence in the paragraph determines what the whole paragraph is about.

Controlling Ideas are the ideas in the sentence that supports the topic sentence.

Aggressive – Passive – Assertive

Examples:

If a bus conductor shouts after you because he thinks you got off the bus without paying your bus fare.

Aggressive: “I have already paid my bus fare. How dare you shout at me?”

Passive: “I am sorry but I have already paid the bus fare”

Assertive: “I think you have a confusion. I paid my bus fare as soon as I got inside the bus. You are confused with some other people I guess.”

Assertive is very rude way of communicating with the other people (bossy way). The situation is always “win-lose”. Passive ( Submissive way ) is a way in which no matter what the situation is the person is so passive as if he/she is guilty of the situation. The situation in always “Lose-win” type. On the other hand, Assertive is win-win situation. Both the parties win. Even if something is not acceptable, the situation is handled politely but the wrong situations are also pointed out.

Formal and Informal Way of writing Business Letters:

Characteristics of Formal Letter	Characteristics of Informal Letter
Greetings ( Formally ) Family Name Eg: Dear Mr. Williams	Dear Bill (just name can be used )
Your’s sincerely	We can just mention our name
We need to mention the full date ( Eg: June 12)	We can just mention the short forms ( For eg, Weds for Wednesday)
The word “apologize” is used instead of worry.	“Sorry” is used for apologizing.
Numbering is done for points.	No numbering is done for writing points.
Clear and more informative.	Less clear and less informative.
The letter is complete. ( so that we do not need to worry about reaching the respective person again in case of any queries.)	The letter is incomplete. ( we may need to contact again for any queries )

BL: BottomLine

A: Action

D: Details

E: Extras

• The most important information in an email should be in the beginning.
• Capitalization is very necessary while writing emails.
• In general, when replying to an email it is best to reply to sender.
• The most important part of email is the sender and subject line.
• We should always proof read our email before we send it.
• Writing in all capital letters implies Shouting.
• Carbon Copy others who are directly involved with the content.
• Complicated or detailed messages should be followed with a phone call.
• Emails are between me and the recipient.
• Very important emails should be marked as high priority when it is urgent.
• An appropriate amount of time to wait for a reply to an email is 24-48 hours.
• When writing a complicated or detailed email, informations should be short paragraphs.
• Closing an email with our contact details is always important and helpful to the reader.
• We should use words in color in our emails because it highlights important information.
• We cc someone in our email if we only want to keep them informed of the situation outlined in the email.
• We should not use Italics in an emails.
• Emails can never be deleted.
• We should check our emails first in the morning and before we go home.
• The idea number of topics to cover in an email is One.
• It is important to check our Spam Box weekly.
• If we wake a mistake and send incorrect information, send another email.
• If we are cc on email including incorrect information, we should reply to sender.

Top tips for a Good Presenter:

1. Know your audience. ( We should always be aware about the number of audience and why this presentation is important to them, type of audience, what do the audience want to hear.)

2. Practice a lot before presentation. Prepare well so that you become more confident.

2. Be Organized ( Reach before time, dress up in an organized way )

3. We should be loud and clear.

4. We should present with good body postures, smile on the face, eye contact with the audience.

5. Make clear and precise content ( Use Simple words ). The shorter the presentation, you avoid mistakes.

6. Use gestures that help you to communicate.

7. Avoid repeatations of the sentences.

8. Always follow the right pattern and direction of the flow ( Introduction, Body and Conclusion ).

9. Take your notes along with you.

10. Be energetic, positive, interactive and stick to the point.