Business English and Correspondence

Handout # 1

Professor Rocio Marie M. Tejido

First Semester S.Y. 2014-2015

Business English and Correspondence

Lesson 1: Communication
In our day-to-day life we exchange our ideas, thoughts and other information with
our friends, relatives and other people. Sometimes we directly talk to them and
sometimes we also write to them. In the modern times, letters, memos and informal
reports are the primary ways in receiving information in business.
The primary objective of Modern Business Correspondence is to help you develop
the ability to plan and write successful business letters, memos and informal
reports- the keys to efficient and productive business operations.

Communication
Communication is the art and the process of sharing ideas.
It includes exchanging of information, signals, or messages by talk (speech),
gesture, or writing
Communication is the process of meaningful interaction among human
beings (D.E. McFarland)
Communication is the exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions by two
or more persons. (Newman and C.F. Summer Jr.)
Communication is any behavior that results in an exchange of meaning. (The
American Management Association)
Communication is a process of passing information and understanding from
one person to another. (Keith Davis)

Process of Communication
Communication is a process that involves some steps. The transmission of
the senders ideas (message) to the receiver and the receivers feedback or
reaction to the sender completes the communication cycle. Such cycle is
called the process of communication.
Communication can be one way or two-way communication process.

Elements of Communication
1. Source or Sender initiates the process of communication by having a
thought or an idea that a person wishes to transmit to the audience. Sources
in public communication can be single individuals, groups or even
organizations. It may also be called speaker, or encoder.
- The source is the person (or thing) attempting to share information. The
source can be a living or non-living entity. The only qualifications
necessary for a source are an origin of information (in Information
Theory, the source generates data that one would like to communicate)
and an ability to transmit this information, through a channel, to a
receiver.
2. Encoding refers to the activities that a source goes through to translate
thoughts and ideas into a form that may be perceived by the sense. In oral
speech, your brain and your tongue work together (usually) to form words
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Business English and Correspondence

Handout # 1

Professor Rocio Marie M. Tejido

First Semester S.Y. 2014-2015

and spoken sentences. In writing your brain and your fingers cooperate to
produce word patterns or sentences on paper that can be seen.
- Encoding is the process of assembling the message (information, ideas
and thoughts) into a representative design with the objective
of ensuring that the receiver can comprehend it. Communication is only
established when it results in both the source and the receiver
understanding the same information.
People who are great
communicators are great encoders; they know how to present their
message in a way that their audience (receivers) can easily understand.
They are also able to identify information that is superfluous, irrelevant
or even accidentally offensive, and eliminate it in advance through
anticipation.
3. Message is the actual physical product that the sources encode. When we
talk, our speech is the message. Messages in a public communication can be
simple or complicated. They can be directed at one specific individual or at
millions of people.
- At first glance, the message is simply the information you want to
communicate. But it goes deeper than that. Communication theorists
examine messages from a semiotic perspective (the study of signs and
symbols, and how meaning is created through them; note: it is not the
study of meaning, just how meaning is created). For example, a
commencement speaker produces meaning through several criteria.
First, there is the object (in this case, the speaker has an inherent
meaning, maybe through being a local celebrity or famous alum). The
second criterion would be his or her image, acting as a symbol or
representation of the meaning of the object (a well-dressed, professional
and successful person). The third criterion is interpretation or derived
meaning. If the object and image (and, in this case, speech) are
successful, then the audience will leave with an understanding of how to
proceed toward a life of personal fulfillment.
4. Channel refer to the ways in which the message travels to the receiver.
Sound waves carry spoken words, light waves carry visual messages. Air
currents also serve as an olfactory channel carrying messaged to our nose
messages that are subtle but nonetheless significant.
- An encoded message is conveyed by the source through a channel.
There are numerous channel categories: verbal, non-verbal, personal,
non-personal, etc. A channel could be the paper on which words are
written, or the Internet acting in the client-server model that is allowing
you to read these words right now.
- A good communicator is one who understands which channels to use
under different circumstances. Unfortunately, there is no perfect
channel. All channels have strengths and weaknesses (smartphones are
great, for example, but a marriage proposal is best done in person).
5. Decoding the process that consist of the activities that translate or interpret
physical messages into form that has eventual meaning for a receiver.
This is where listening, and reading directions carefully, makes its claim
to famedecode with care, my friends.
As we discussed in
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Business English and Correspondence

Handout # 1

Professor Rocio Marie M. Tejido

First Semester S.Y. 2014-2015

Encoding, communication is only successful when it results in both the

source and the receiver understanding the same information . For this to
happen, there can be no errors in processing. The most common among
these would be, for example, a first-grader sitting in on a lecture on
differential equations, i.e. decoding is impossible if the decoder cannot
even understand the message.
6. Receiver the target of the message its ultimate goal. The receiver can be
a single person, a group, an institution, or even an anonymous collection of
people, like TV viewers. Other terms for receiver are listener and decoder.
- Ultimately, the message is delivered to the receiver. A good
communicator takes the receivers preconceptions and frames of
reference into consideration; how they will react, where common ground
is shared, their sense of humor, their moral conduct, etc. All of these
things will affect how the receivers decode messages.
7. Feedback refers t the responses of the receiver that shape and alter
subsequent messages of the source. Feedback represents a reversal of the
flow of communication. The original source becomes the receiver, the original
receiver becomes the sender or source of the message. Feedback can be
positive or negative. Positive feedback encourages the communication
behavior in progress; negative feedback usually attempts to change the
communication or even terminate it.
8. Noise- is something that interferes with the delivery of the message. There
are three kinds of noise: semantic, mechanical and environmental.
- Unplanned static or distortion during the communication process,
resulting in the receiver's receiving a different message than the sender
sent.
a. Semantic Noise occurs when different people have different meaning
for different words or phrases. For example, Filipinos have a penchant
for using just a while in the telephone of they want the caller to wait.
In America or England the term should be just a minute or just a
second.
b. Mechanical Noise - when there is a problem with a machine or tool that
is being used to assist communication. A static radio, a broken space,
printing error can be considered a mechanical noise.
c. Environmental Noise- it is external to the communication process but
nonetheless interfere with it. Like noisy restaurant where you are
holding conversation.
- Likewise noise may either be physical or psychological.
a. Physical barking of dogs, insects biting you during lecture
b. Psychological problems, worries, anxieties or prejudices

Business English and Correspondence

Handout # 1

Professor Rocio Marie M. Tejido

First Semester S.Y. 2014-2015

Models of Communication

Business English and Correspondence

Handout # 1

Professor Rocio Marie M. Tejido

First Semester S.Y. 2014-2015

Concepts
i.

The idea of source was flexible enough to include oral, written, electronic, or
any other kind of symbolic generator-of-messages.

ii.

Message was made the central element, stressing the transmission of ideas.

iii. The model recognized that receivers were important to communication, for they
were the targets.
iv. The notions of encoding and decoding emphasized the problems we all
have (psycho-linguistically) in translating our own thoughts into words or other
symbols and in deciphering the words or symbols of others into terms we
ourselves can understand.

Business English and Correspondence

Handout # 1

Professor Rocio Marie M. Tejido

First Semester S.Y. 2014-2015

Weaknesses:
i.

Tends to stress the manipulation of the messagethe encoding and decoding

processes

ii.

it implies that human communication is like machine communication, like

signal-sending in telephone, television, computer, and radar systems.

iii. It even seems to stress that most problems in human communication can be
solved by technical accuracy-by choosing the right symbols, preventing
interference, and sending efficient messages.
iv. But even with the right symbols, people misunderstand each other. Problems
in meaning or meaningfulness often arent a matter of comprehension, but
of reaction, of agreement, of shared concepts, beliefs, attitudes, values. To put
the com- back into communication, we need a meaning-centered theory of
communication.

Strengths
i.

ii.

Schramm provided the additional notion of a field of experience, or the

psychological frame of reference; this refers to the type of orientation or
attitudes which interactants maintain toward each other.
Included Feedback
1.) Communication is reciprocal, two-way, even though the feedback may be
delayed.
a.) Some of these methods of communication are very direct, as when you
talk in direct response to someone.
b.) Others are only moderately direct; you might squirm when a speaker
drones on and on, wrinkle your nose and scratch your head when a message
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Business English and Correspondence

Handout # 1

Professor Rocio Marie M. Tejido

First Semester S.Y. 2014-2015

is too abstract, or shift your body position when you think its your turn to
talk.

c.) Still other kinds of feedback are completely indirect.

2.) For example,
a.) politicians discover if theyre getting their message across by the
number of votes cast on the first Tuesday in November;
b.) commercial sponsors examine
communicative effectiveness in ads;

sales

figures

to

gauge

their

c.) teachers measure their abilities to get the material across in a particular
course by seeing how many students sign up for it the next term.
iii. Included Context
1.) A message may have different meanings, depending upon the specific
context or setting.
2.) Shouting Fire! on a rifle range produces one set of reactions-reactions
quite different from those produced in a crowded theater.
iv. Included Culture
1.) A message may have different meanings associated with it depending upon
the culture or society. Communication systems, thus, operate within the confines
of cultural rules and expectations to which we all have been educated.
v.

Other model designers abstracted the dualistic aspects of communication as a

series of loops, (Mysak, 1970), speech cycles (Johnson, 1953), coorientation (Newcomb, 1953), and overlapping psychological fields (Fearing,
1953).

Weaknesses
i.

Schramms model, while less linear, still accounts for only bilateral
communication between two parties. The complex, multiple levels of
communication between several sources is beyond this model.

Patterns of Business Communication

(Organizational Communication)
As communicators strive to achieve the four goals of communication, the
organization sends and receives messages both internal and external. Some of
these messages are formal while others are informal; some a rework-oriented; other
are personal.
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION PATTERN
Organizational communication can flow vertically or horizontally in which the
message may flow through a network.
In a vertical communication messages flow upward or downward along a path
referred to as the chain of command. (Examples: reports and proposals- flow
upward; policy statements, plans, directives and instructions- flow downward)
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Business English and Correspondence

Handout # 1

Professor Rocio Marie M. Tejido

First Semester S.Y. 2014-2015

Horizontal message flow occurs between workers or units that need to share data
of coordinate efforts.
1. Information flows freely among those who have a link that goes beyond the
participants role or unit within the organization.
2. It may be a planned part of a business operation or it may arise from informal
interactions. (Example of a planned network is a project team formed to
computerize a process; an example of an informal organization-based
network is a company-sponsored softball team, which can become powerful
on account of networking- In this type of informal communication, members
can discuss work-related issues outside the traditional communication
structure and then combine efforts to influence the direction of the
organization)
EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION PATTERN
External communication flows between a business organization and the entities with
which it interacts. External contacts include customers, suppliers, competitors, the
media, government agencies and general public. The se contacts may be domestic
or international. (Examples: letters, reports, orders, invoices, and web pages
illustrate external communication; telephone calls and radio or television
advertisements are examples of external communication which may be formal or
informal)
1. Formal Communication written (memo, report and policy) or oral (speech,
meeting)
a. Planned by the organization
b. Flowing in all directions, and
c. Essential for the effective operation of the business
2. Informal Communication sometimes referred to as a grapevine, it consists
of both business related messages and personal information. Most informal
communication is oral, and the widespread use of e-mail has made it more
popular.
a. It is not planned by the organization
b. Flows in all directions, and
c. Helps develop and maintain positive human relationships.

Business English and Correspondence

Handout # 1

Lesson
2:
The
Communication

Professor Rocio Marie M. Tejido

First Semester S.Y. 2014-2015

Seven

Cs

of

Business

Conciseness
Conciseness means communicating what you want to convey in least
possible words.
Conciseness is a necessity for effective communication.
Conciseness, in a business message, can be achieved by avoiding wordy
expressions and repetition. Using brief and to the point sentences, including
relevant material makes the message concise. Achieving conciseness does
not mean to loose completeness of message.

Conciseness saves time.

Concise communication has following features:
It is both time-saving as well as cost-saving.
It underlines and highlights the main message.
Concise communication provides short and essential message in limited
words to the audience.
Concise message is more appealing and comprehensible to the audience.

There are seven (7) possible ways to achieve conciseness: 1) Use single-word
substitute instead of phrases whenever possible without changing meanings;
2) Use only essential words to get the message across to the reader. Omit
trite, unnecessary/ unimportant expressions, and obvious ideas; 3)Omit
which and that clauses whenever possible; 4) Eliminate unnecessary
prepositional phrases, determiners and modifiers; 5) Omit repetitive wording,
redundant pairs, and redundant categories; 6) Replace wordy conventional
statements with concise versions and; 7)Change passive verbs into active
verbs.

Business English and Correspondence

Handout # 1

Professor Rocio Marie M. Tejido

First Semester S.Y. 2014-2015

Completeness
By completeness means the message must bear all the necessary
information to bring the response you desire. The sender should answer all
the questions and with facts and figures and when desirable, go for extra
details.

Completeness brings the desired response.

Here are three ways to achieve Completeness: 1) Provide all necessary

information. Check the five Ws and any other essentials; 2) Answer all
questions asked, and; 3) Give something extra when desirable.

Consideration
Consideration means preparing every message with the message that the
receivers have in mind. (try to put yourself in their place)
Consideration demands to put oneself in the place of receiver while
composing a message. It refers to the use of You attitude, emphases
positive pleasant facts, visualizing readers problems, desires, emotions and
his response.

Consideration means understanding of human nature.

Here are three ways to achieve Consideration: 1) Focus on You instead of

I and We; 2) Take an interest in the reader (show how the reader will
benefit), and; 3) Emphasize positive, pleasant facts.

Concreteness
Being definite, vivid and specific rather than vague, obscure and general
leads to concreteness of the message. Facts and figures being presented in
the message should be specif.

Concreteness reinforces confidence.

Here are three ways to achieve Concreteness: 1) Use specific facts and
figures; 2) Put action into your verbs, and; 3) Choose vivid, image-building
words.

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Business English and Correspondence

Handout # 1

Professor Rocio Marie M. Tejido

First Semester S.Y. 2014-2015

Clarity
Clarity demands the use of simple language and easy sentence
structure in composing the message. When there is clarity in presenting
ideas, its easy for the receiver/decoder to grasp the meaning being
conveyed by the sender/encoder.
The purpose of clarity is exactly getting the meaning from your head into the
head of your reader.
It is achieved through the right choice of precise, concrete, and familiar
words.

Clarity makes comprehension easier.

These are four ways to achieve Clarity: 1) Choose precise, concrete, and
familiar words; 2) Construct effective sentences and paragraphs; 3) Use
parallel constructions, and; 4) Avoid using trite or hackneyed expressions.

Courtesy
In business, almost everything starts and ends in courtesy. Courtesy means
not only thinking about receiver but also valuing his feelings. Much
can be achieved by using polite words and gestures, being appreciative,
thoughtful, tactful, and showing respect to the receiver. Courtesy builds
goodwill.

Courtesy strengthen relations.

These are three ways to achieve Courtesy: 1) Be sincerely tactful, thoughtful,

and appreciative; 2) Use expressions that show respect, and; 3) Choose
nondiscriminatory expressions.

Correctness
Being definite, vivid and specific rather than vague, obscure and general
leads to concreteness of the message. Facts and figures being presented in
the message should be specif.

Concreteness reinforces confidence.

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Business English and Correspondence

Handout # 1

Professor Rocio Marie M. Tejido

First Semester S.Y. 2014-2015

These are four characteristics of Correctness: 1) Use the right level of

language; 2) Check accuracy of figures, facts, and words; 3) Use the correct
word, and; 4) Maintain acceptable writing mechanics.

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