1.

Verbal Communication

Effective verbal or spoken communication is dependent on a number of factors and cannot be fully isolated from other important interpersonal skills such as non-verbal communication, listening skills and clarification.

Clarity of speech, remaining calm and focused, being polite and etiquette will all aid the process of verbal communication.

This article is designed to help us think about how we and others communicate verbally, the processes involved and the steps we can take to ensure that verbal or spoken messages are received as intended.

Opening Communication In many encounters, the first few minutes are extremely important as first impressions have a significant impact on the success of further communication. Everyone has expectations and norms as to how initial meetings should proceed and people tend to behave according to these expectations. If interpersonal expectations are mismatched, communication will not be effective or run smoothly, and negotiation will be needed if relations are to continue.

At a first meeting, formalities and appropriate greetings are usually expected: such formalities could include a handshake, an introduction to yourself, eye contact and discussion around a neutral subject such as the weather or your journey may be useful. A friendly disposition and smiling face are much more likely to encourage communication than a blank face, inattention or disinterested reception.

Reinforcement The use of encouraging words alongside non-verbal gestures such as head nods, a warm facial expression and maintaining eye contact, are more likely to reinforce openness in others. The use of encouragement and positive reinforcement can: Encourage others to participate in discussion (particularly in group work) Signify interest in what other people have to say Pave the way for development and/or maintenance of a relationship Allay fears and give reassurance Show warmth and openness. Reduce shyness or nervousness in ourselves and others.

Effective Listening Active listening is a very important listening skill and yet, as communicators, people tend to spend far more energy considering what they are going to say rather than listening to what the other person is trying to say. Although active listening is a skill in itself, covered in our articles on listening, it is also vital for verbal communication.

The following points are essential for effective and active listening: Arrange a comfortable environment conducive to the purpose of the communication, for example a warm and light room with minimal background noise. Be prepared to listen. Keep an open mind and concentrate on the main direction of the speaker's message. Avoid distractions if at all possible.. Delay judgment until you have heard everything. Be objective. Do not be trying to think of your next question while the other person is giving information. Do not dwell on one or two points at the expense of others. The speaker should not be stereotyped. Try not to let prejudices associated with, for example, gender, ethnicity, social class, appearance or dress interfere with what is being said

Questioning
Effective questioning is an essential skill. Questioning can be used to: Obtain information. Start a conversation. Test understanding. Draw someone into a conversation. Show interest in a person. Seek support or agreement.

Closed Questions
Closed questions tend to seek only a one or two word answer (often simply 'yes' or 'no') and, in doing so, limit the scope of the response. Two examples of closed questions are "Did you travel by car today?" and "Did you see the football game yesterday?" These types of question mean control of the communication is maintained by the questioner yet this is often not the desired outcome when trying to encourage verbal communication. Nevertheless, closed questions can be useful for focusing discussion and obtaining clear, concise answers when needed.

Open Questions
Open questions broaden the scope for response since they demand further discussion and elaboration. For example, "What was the traffic like this morning?" or "What do you feel you would like to gain from this discussion?" Open questions will take longer to answer, but they do give the other person far more scope for self-expression and encourage involvement in the conversation. For more on questioning see our pages on Questioning and Types of Question.

Reflecting and Clarifying

Reflecting is the process of feeding-back to another person your understanding of what has been said. Although reflecting is a specialised skill used within counselling, it can also be applied to a wide range of communication contexts and is a useful skill to learn. Reflecting often involves paraphrasing the message communicated to you by the speaker in your own words, capturing the essence of the facts and feelings expressed, and communicating your understanding back to the speaker. It is a useful skill because: You can check that you have understood the message clearly. The speaker gets feedback as to how the message is received. It shows interest in, and respect for, what the other person has to say. You are demonstrating that you are considering the other persons viewpoint.

See also our pages on Reflecting and Clarifying.

Summarising
A summary is an overview of the main points or issues raised. Summarising can also serve the same purpose as 'reflecting'. However, summarising allows both parties to review and agree the communication exchanged between them up to that point in time. When used effectively, summaries may also serve as a guide to the next steps forward.

Closing Communication
The way a communication is closed or ended will, at least in part, determine the way a conversation is remembered. A range of subtle, or sometimes not so subtle, signals are used to end an interaction. For example, some people may avoid eye contact, stand up, turn their body away, or use behaviours such as looking at a watch or closing notepads or books. All of these non-verbal actions indicate to the other person that the initiator wishes to end the communication. Closing an interaction too abruptly may not allow the other person to 'round off' what he or she is saying so you should ensure there is time for winding-up. The closure of an interaction is a good time to make any future arrangements. Last, but not least, this time will no doubt be accompanied by a number of socially acceptable parting gestures.

3.

Developing Writing Skills

Writing skills are an important part of communication. Good writing skills allow you to communicate your message with clarity and ease to a far larger audience than through face-to-face or telephone conversations. You might be called upon to write a report, plan or strategy at work; write a grant application or press release within a volunteering role; or you may fancy communicating your ideas online via a blog. And, of course, a well written CV with no spelling or grammatical mistakes is essential if you want a new job.

Today, when anyone can be their own publisher, we see more and more examples of poor writing skills both in print and on the web. Poor writing skills create poor first impressions and many readers will have an immediate negative reaction if they spot a spelling or grammatical mistake. As just one example, a spelling mistake on a commercial web page may cause potential customers to doubt the credibility of the website and the organisation.

For many of us it will have been a long time since we were taught any writing skills and a refresher may be needed. This section of SkillsYouNeed aims to make you think about grammar, spelling and punctuation, how to plan your writing, and the various processes and checks to go through before pressing print or broadcasting your message online.

Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation Correct grammar, punctuation and spelling are key in written communications. The reader will form an opinion of you, the author, based on both the content and presentation, and errors are likely to lead them to form a negative impression.

If you are unconvinced about the importance of accurate writing, think of the clues we use to identify spam emails, phishing websites, and counterfeit products: poor grammar and spelling. Simil arly, some employers state publicly that any CV containing spelling or grammatical mistakes will be rejected immediately, whilst a BBC news article quotes research that calculates spelling mistakes cost online businesses millions in lost sales.

In addition, checking for poor writing and spelling mistakes should be seen as a courtesy to your readers since it can take them much longer to understand the messages in your writing if they have to think and re-read text to decipher these.

Therefore, all written communications should be re-read before sending to print, or hitting the send button in the case of emails, as it is likely that there will be errors. Do not assume that spelling and grammar checkers will identify all mistakes as many incorrect words can indeed be spelt correctly (for example, when their is used instead of there or principle instead of principal) or entire words may be missing. If at all possible, take a break before re -reading and checking your writing as you are more likely to notice problems when you read it fresh.

Even if you know spelling and grammar rules, you should still double check your work since our brains tend to work faster than our fingers can type and accidental typographical errors inevitably creep in.

Improving Your Writing Skills A trick to checking your work and improving your writing skills is to read your work aloud. Reading text forces you to slow down and you will pick up problems with the flow that your eye would otherwise skip over.

Another way to improve your writing skills is to read. However, the best way to improve is to write. Try writing practice pieces that you do not even need to show anyone else. As your confidence as a writer grows, you may feel happy to show your writing to friends or others and, when you do, ask for their honest feedback and constructive criticism. You might even find a friend or colleague willing to act as a writing mentor to work with you as your writing skills develop.

4.

Inter-office communication

Interoffice communication means communication between two separate offices. Intra-office means within the same office. So an email to your boss at work or a boss's memo is intra-office communication. Intra-office communication between the departments gives clarification, updates, or announcements related to the business' policies and procedures.
Inter office communication (in this case we refer to communications within the office) can be viewed as the grease that keeps the machine running smoothly. Without it, everything can come to a grinding halt. Inter office communication is a major function of the modern office and choosing the best strategies for maintaining open and seamless communication is vital. With well-maintained communication, co-ordination between departments is seamless, office systems become routine and, overall, it projects a positive image of your company as a whole, in the eyes of your clients. Often inter office communication is overlooked, as it is not dealing directly with clients. The first step to good communication within the office is to establish professionalism.

Email is the most commonly used inter office communication method. Dictate clear guidelines to your team and require that emails follow a specific protocol. Develop an email format that is used uniformly throughout the office to simplify. Many offices employ the use of an intranet- a network operating within an organization.

Benefits are increased productivity and the immediate delivery of information.

This private extension of the internet acts as a platform for posting office materials, announcements, files, directories, sales, projects, etc. Benefits are increased productivity and the immediate delivery of information, in a secure and efficient manner. Intranet also encourages collaborations and builds corporate culture. It is built for your specific audience, has cross platform capabilities and is cost effective. Employ the use of instant messaging systems that are simple and use friendly. These quick messaging platforms increase productivity and reduce time spent on tracking down answers. We use a system called PowWow an online collaboration tool, which allows a simple, clear and secure interoffice communication on projects and group tasks. PowWow functions like a cloud, retaining files and allowing for multiple users to access and edit files, send messages, create milestones and to-do lists, etc. This sort of system is useful because it encourages team members to utilize the same platform for all office communications and keeps things organized and fluid. Regardless of the type of inter-office communication, it is important to stress the need for professionalism. Short, succinct and to the point should be standard.

5.

The prefix intra- means "within" so that intra-office (intraoffice) communications would be those within a

given office or division. The opposite would be interoffice communications, which are those that involve another office, division, or company. In many companies, this is done by office mail.

6.

Memos:

What is a memo? A memo is:

o o o o o

a hard-copy (sent on paper) document used for communicating inside an organisation usually short contains To, From, Date, Subject Headings and Message sections does not need to be signed, but sometimes has the sender's name at the bottom to be more friendly, or the sender's full name to be more formal. If in doubt, follow your company style.

Example Memos
MEMO To: From: Date: Subject: Katherine Chu, Regional Manager Stephen Yu, Sales 7 May 2013 Notification of My Resignation

I am writing to inform you of my intention to resign from G & S Holdings. I have appreciated very much my four years working for the company. The training has been excellent and I have gained valuable experience working within an efficient and professional team environment. In particular, I have appreciated your personal guidance during these first years of my career. I feel now that it is time to further develop my knowledge and skills base in a different environment. I would like to leave, if possible, in a month's time on Saturday, 8 June. This will allow me to complete my current workload. I hope that this suggested arrangement is acceptable to the company. Once again, thank you for your support.

Why write memos? Memos are useful in situations where e-mails or text messages are not suitable. For example, if you are sending an object, such as a book or a paper that needs to be signed, through internal office mail, you can use a memo as a covering note to explain what the receiver should do. How to write a memo Memos should have the following sections and content: 1. A 'To' section containing the name of the receiver. For informal memos, the receiver's given name; e.g. 'To: Andy' is enough. For more formal memos, use the receiver's full name. If the receiver is in another department, use the full name and the department name. It is usually not necessary to use Mr., Mrs., Miss or Ms unless the memo is very formal. 2. A 'From' section containing the name of the sender. For informal memos, the sender's other name; e.g. 'From: Bill' is enough. For more formal memos, use the sender's full name. If the receiver is in another department, use the full name and the department name. It is usually not necessary to use Mr., Mrs., Miss or Ms unless the memo is very formal.

3. A 'Date' section. To avoid confusion between the British and American date systems, write the month as a word or an abbreviation; e.g. 'January' or 'Jan'. 4. A Subject Heading. 5. The message. Unless the memo is a brief note, a well-organised memo message should contain the following sections: a. Situation - an Introduction or the purpose of the memo b. Problem (optional) - for example: "Since the move to the new office in Kowloon Bay, staff have difficulty in finding a nearby place to buy lunch." c. Solution (optional) - for example: "Providing a microwave oven in the pantry would enable staff to bring in their own lunchboxes and reheat their food." d. Action - this may be the same as the solution, or be the part of the solution that the receiver needs to carry out; e.g. "we would appreciate it if you could authorise up to $3,000" e. Politeness - to avoid the receiver refusing to take the action you want, it is important to end with a polite expression; e.g. "Once again, thank you for your support.", or more informally "Thanks". 6. Signature This is optional. See above.
7. Notices

Notices are methods used to keep the workforce as a whole up to date with what is going on. There are impersonal methods of communication i.e. the same communication is sent to all the workers. Notices may relate to vacant posts, holiday arrangements, union matters or social events and are likely to be displayed on a notice board. Sometimes important notices are included with wage or salary slips. They keep workers informed and attempt to make them feel a part of a large company. / the essence of serving notices is to pass on information within an organization. the main

issue here is that notices are drafted in a very summed up or summarized way so much such that the reader need not spend lots of time reading it. many a time, its contents can be properly gotten at a glance. it may be meant for a specific group or all the members in an organization. should the intended message have a lot of details, other methods like newsletters or e-mails are resorted to. in short, notices may be defined as the medium of passing information(usually written or typed) in a summed up way so as to keep them abreast of certain issues.

The advantages of this method

It can contain diagrams as well as written information. A written record of the message is kept. They can be created in such a way as to attract attention. Employees tend to look at notice boards in their breaks.

The disadvantages to this method

The message isnt clearly sent across, as not a lot of detail can be included in the notice. The notice can easily be taken down to be read by an employee or covered up by another notice. It can time to distribute the notices around the organisation. If they dont look attractive, people tend not to look at them as they may think from their first impressions that it doesnt seem very interesting.

This would have open channels to communication because the information will be put up on a notice board so that everyone can read it not just to one specific individual unless otherwise stated.

8.

Notices

9.3 Circulars and Notices Like memos, circulars and notices are also written forms of communication within the organization. The difference between a circular and a notice is that circulars are announcements that are distributed to small or selective groups of people within the organization, whereas notices are meant for a larger group of people. Example: If a manager wants to call a meeting of heads of departments, he will pass around a circular only to the heads, requesting them to attend that meeting. On the other hand, notices generally contain information or announcements that are meant for all the employees of an organization. Example: A list of declared holidays for a calendar year is a notice, since the information is relevant to all employees. A notice is therefore a legal document that has to be put up on an official notice or bulletin board

Sometimes, under special circumstances, notices may also be sent to individual employees. An example of this type of notice is the Show Cause Notice, which is sent when an employee is found to be guilty of major misconduct. The notice mentions the allegations against the employee and asks for a written explanation within a specified time, failing which the action that would be taken against him/her (e.g., being suspended from the job) is stated. Notices are read by a large number of people and can also be used as evidence in court cases. Therefore, care must be taken when writing them. They have to be worded very precisely and clearly, to make sure that there is no ambiguity. They should also be brief and to the point. The tone should be firm, but not offensive and arrogant. Depending on the type of notice, the duration of display of a notice is specified under various legal provisions.

9.

Minutes, also known as protocols or, informally, notes, are the instant written record of a meeting or hearing.

They typically describe the events of the meeting, starting with a list of attendees, a statement of the issues considered by the participants, and related responses or decisions for the issues. Minutes may be created during the meeting by a typist or court reporter, who may use shorthand notation and then prepare the minutes and issue them to the participants afterwards. Alternatively, the meeting can be audio recorded, video recorded, or a group's appointed or informally assigned Secretary may take notes, with minutes prepared later. Many government agencies use minutes recording software to record and prepare all minutes in real-time. For private organizations, it is usually important for the minutes to be brief and only include a summary of discussion and decisions. A verbatim report is typically not useful. The minutes of certain groups, such as a corporate board of directors, must be kept on file and are important legal documents.

10.

An agenda is a list of meeting activities in the order in which they are to be taken up, by beginning with the call to

order and ending with adjournment. It usually includes one or more specific items of business to be discussed. It may, but is not required to, include specific times for one or more activities. An agenda may also be called a docket.

11.

What is a business report?

Organisations need accurate, timely, objective and concise information to make effective decisions. One way they can obtain such information is from a business report. This document can be defined as an organised presentation of information to a specific audience for the purpose of helping an organisation achieve an objective. While business reports share similar characteristics, they also need to be customised for their particular purpose. An informal report may be a brief summary while longer reports follow a more complex and formal structure. Informal reports may feature: letter or memo format minimal use of headings and visual aids personal pronouns and contractions a length from a few paragraphs up to five pages content primarily for internal audiences

More formal reports however tend to have: a more standard format organised into separate sections front and back matter (sections) along with the body of the report a greater number of headings (including subheadings) and visual aids third person pronouns and no contractions or slang a length from five pages to several hundred content designed for internal and/or external audiences

4. How do I write a business report?

There are several major steps typically involved in writing a business report. These include: 1) planning (including determining the scope and target audience) 2) researching, organising, evaluating and analysing your information sources 3) drafting the body section

4) devising conclusions and recommendations based on the findings 5) further drafting and editing/proofreading You need first to consider exactly what you have been asked to do - that is - the overall purpose of your report. Carefully considering the assessment task and related criteria should help you clarify:

your objective and readership what information you need the format and level of detail required

The example business report presents the four essentials that every business report should include:
Terms of Reference Procedure Findings Recommendations