GM12

Business Communication
Assignment No.I

Assignment Code: 2011GM12A1 Last Date of Submission: 31st March 2011

Maximum Marks:100

Attempt all the questions. All the questions are compulsory and carry equal marks.

Section-A
Ques.1 Write a note on the importance of pitch variation.
Ques.2 Discuss the effect that the purpose / goal of communication has on business
communication.
Ques.3 a) Give 3 reasons why business communication is different from social
communication?
b) List the 6 steps in the process of writing?
c) List 4 things you will do before a formal business presentation?
d) List 2 barriers to effective communication and explain how to overcome them

Ques.4 a) List out 2 reasons why you would want to know a persons personality style while
communicating?
b) Give 2 aspects which influence your method of communication?

Section-B

Case Study

Vivek has only four employees at his public relations firm – Media front. But he seems to have done a pretty
good job of alienating them.

According to his employees, Vivek, 47, is a brilliant guy who has a lot to learn in terms of being a better
communicator. His communication style appears to be a regular source of conflict in his firm. Vivek admits he
has a problem. “I am probably not as verbally reinforcing [as I could be] when someone is doing a good job. I
am a very self-confident person. I don’t need to be told I am doing a good job – but there are people who do.”

Vivek’s employees had no problem listing off things that he does that bother them. He doesn’t meet deadlines,
he does a poor job of communicating with clients (which often puts the employees in an uncomfortable
position); he doesn’t listen fully to employee ideas before dismissing them; his voice tone is frequently
condescending; and he’s often quick to criticize employees and is stingy with praise.

Questions
1. Do you think that Vivek needs to involve his employees in meeting with his clients to improve his
communication skills and minimize conflict in his firm?
2. Assuming Vivek wants to improve, how would you suggest he go about learning to be a better
communicator?

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 GM12
Business Communication
Assignment No.II

Assignment Code: 2011GM12A2 Last Date of Submission: 15th May 2011

Maximum Marks:100

Attempt all the questions. All the questions are compulsory and carry equal marks.

Section-A
Ques.1 a) Discuss this comment: “The shorter the sentence, the better.”
b) Is emails phenomenal growth likely to continue. (Comment)
Ques.2 a) Explain how does good diction help in business communication?
b) Give 2 aspects which influence your method of communication?

Ques. 3 Write short notes on:

a. Essential contents of a Resume / CV
b. Difference between purpose of Academic and Business Reports

Ques.4 a) Give 4 important things to be observed while talking on the telephone?

b) Tick 3 basic email etiquettes that depict professionalism.

Section-B

Case Study: On Writing Well

It won’t do to say that the snoozing reader is too dumb or too lazy to keep pace with the train of thought. My
sympathies are with him. If the reader is lost, it is generally because the writer has not been careful enough to
keep him on the path.

This carelessness can take any number of forms. Perhaps a sentence is so excessively cluttered that the reader,
hacking his way through the verbiage, simply doesn’t know what it means. Perhaps a sentence has been so
shoddily constructed that the reader could read it in any of several ways. Perhaps the writer has switched
pronouns in mid-sentence, or has switched tenses, so the reader loses track of who is talking or when the action
took place. Perhaps Sentence B is not a logical sequel to Sentence A – the writer, in whose head the connection
is clear, has not bothered to provide the missing link. Perhaps the writer has used an important word incorrectly
by not taking the trouble to look it up. He may think that “sanguine” and “sanguinary” mean the same thing, but
the difference is a bloody big one. The reader can only infer (speaking of big differences) what the writer is trying
to imply.

Faced with these obstacles, the reader is at first a remarkably tenacious bird. He blames himself – he obviously
missed something, and he goes back over the mystifying sentence, or over the whole paragraph, piecing it out like
an ancient rune, making guesses and moving on. But he won’t do this for long. The writer is making him work too
hard, and the reader will look for one who is better at his craft. The writer must therefore constantly ask himself:
What am I trying to say? Surprisingly often, he doesn’t know. Then he must look at what he has written and ask:
Have I said it? Is it clear to someone encountering the subject for the first time? If it’s not, it is because some fuzz
has worked its way into the machinery. The clear writer is a person clear-headed enough to see this stuff for what
it is: fuzz.

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I don’t mean that some people are born clear-headed and are therefore natural writers, whereas others are
naturally fuzzy and will never write well. Thinking clearly is a conscious act that the writer must force upon
himself, just as if he were embarking on any other project that requires logic: adding up a laundry list or doing an
algebra problem. Good writing doesn’t come naturally, though most people obviously think it does.

Case Question:

(a) What is fuzz?

(b) Rewrite the given case study simply and precisely

(c) Do you believe that some people are born writers. Give reasons for your answer.

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