Refresher: ½ min.

break and food for thought

“Know your audience.”
 To compose effective written or oral
messages, you must apply certain
communication principles.
 These principles, called the seven
C’s, provide guidelines for choice of
content & style of presentation,
adapted to the purpose & receiver of
your message.
The 7 C’s of effective communication
1. Completeness

2. Conciseness

3. Consideration

4. Clarity

5. Concreteness

6. Courtesy

7. Correctness.
 Activity # 2
“I know that you believe you
understand what you think I said,
but I am not sure you realize that
what you heard is not what I
meant!”
– Robert McCloskey, US State Dept

What is the government official saying here?

 Activity
“To be 70 years young is sometimes far
more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40
years old.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes
 
What is Holmes saying here?
 Completeness
• The
` information conveyed in the message should be
complete for the communication to be effective.
• The sender must take into consideration the receiver’s
mindset and convey the message accordingly.
• Complete communication enhances the reputation of the
organization.
• Complete information always gives additional information
wherever required, it leaves no question in the minds of the
receiver.
• Complete information helps in better decision-making as it
serves all the desired and crucial information.
• Complete information persuades the audience.
 Completeness
Message Receiver- either listener or reader, desire
complete information to their question. e.g. a
query by a customer

Provide complete information in a short span of

time.

If possible, provide some extra information which

he/she does not know and which may be useful to
him.

In this way you can maintain a good business

relation with him, otherwise he may switch to an
other company.
 Completeness
Your business message is complete when it contains all
the facts reader needs for the reaction you desire.
Completeness offers numerous benefits.
First: Complete messages are more likely to bring the
desired results without the expense of additional
messages.
Second: They can do the better job of building goodwill.
 Last:
1. Provide all necessary information
2. Answer all questions asked
3. Give something extra when desirable
9
Refresher: ½ min. break and food for thought
“Don’t get distracted from what you are to
achieve.”
 Provide all necessary information
One way to help make your message complete is to answer
the five W questions.
Example: To reserve a hotel banquet room.
1. (Who) Sponsoring organization
2. (What) Specify the accommodation needed
3. (When) Date & Time
4. (Where) Location
5. (Why) Event
6. And other essentials as How?
• The five question method is especially useful when you write
Request, Announcements, other informative messages, etc.
• For instance, to order (request) merchandise, make clear
WHAT you want, WHEN you need it, WHERE it is to be sent.
11
 Customer Point of View
5 W’s
What To Buy ?
How Much To Buy ?
Where To Buy ?
When To Buy ?
How To Buy ?

12
 Answer All Questions Asked
Whenever you reply to an inquiry try to answer all
questions.
A prospective customer’s reaction to an incomplete
reply is likely to be unfavorable.
The customer may think the respondent is careless
and is purposefully trying to conceal weak points
“Omissions cast suspicions”
If you have no information on particular question,
say so clearly
If you have unfavorable information in answer to
certain questions, handle your reply with both tact
and honesty. 13
 Example
Incomplete Question
How come my request for an interview
letter did not receive a response?
• Extra detail
When was letter sent? Who sent it? To
whom was it sent?
You need to inquire all the information to
give proper reply for the inquiry.
 EXAMPLE
A Software distributor, when replying to a
dealer’s letter, answered only four of seven
questions. Because the original questions
were unnumbered and somewhat buried in
five long paragraphs, so the respondent
overlooked or disregarded tree of them. The
reply, unfriendly and incomplete, caused the
distributor to lose the business and goodwill
of a potential customer.
 Solution
List the needed detail from the
inquirer on a reply form that the
inquirer can fill out and return to you.
In this way both your answer and that
of your respondent will be complete.
 GIVE EXTRA DETAIL WHEN
DESIRABLE

Do more than answer the specific

questions pointed out by the
customers, as they may not know what
they need or their question may be
inadequate.
Examples: Effective Business Communication,
Chapter 2, page 33-35
Refresher: ½ min. break and food for thought
“Do what you are asked.”
Exercise-1
Message Receivers, either listener or reader, desire
complete information to their question. e.g.
Suppose you are working with multinational
company who is engaging with engineering goods ,
like A.C. Now let’s say one of your major customers
wants some technical information regarding
“thermostat” (because he wants to convey the same
to the end users ). In this case you have to provide
him complete information in a short span of time.
If possible, provide him some extra information
which he does not know.
In this way you can maintain a good business
relation with him, otherwise he may switch to
another company.
Exercise-2
The owner of a mutual fund stock
wrote to the investment department of
your bank ,that he wanted to sell his
shares. He asked,” Just how does your
bank want me to authorize this sale?”
How would you reply to this query
keeping the five W’s and one H
guideline in mind?
Exercise-3
You are the president of an industry
association and have received the following
inquiry from an out-of-town member, “I
think I would like to attend my first meeting
of the association, even though I am not
acquainted with your city. Will you please
tell me where the next meeting is being
held?
How would you reply to this letter keeping
in mind Completeness of the message?
Refresher: ½ min. break and food for thought
“Handle every situation tactfully.”
 Conciseness
• Conciseness means communicating what you want to
convey in least possible words.

• Conciseness is a necessity for effective

communication.

• Concise communication provides short and essential

message in limited words.

• Concise messages are non-repetitive in nature.

• Concise message is more appealing and

comprehensive to the audience.
 Conciseness
Conciseness is saying what you have to say in fewest possible
words without sacrificing the other C qualities.
A concise message is complete without being wordy.
A concise message saves time & expenses for both sender &
receiver.
Examples: From the book.
Conciseness contributes to emphasise. By eliminating
unnecessary words you let important ideas stand out.
When combined with “you-view”, concise messages are more
interesting to the recipients.
Conciseness includes:
 Eliminate wordy expressions
 Include only relevant material
 Avoid unnecessary repetition
 ELIMINATE WORDY
EXPRESSION
Use single word substitute instead of phrases without
changing the meaning.
 Wordy: In due course
Concise: Soon
 Wordy: Please find attached the list you requested.
Concise: The list you requested is attached.
 Wordy: She bought desks that are of the executive
type.
Concise: She bought executive-type desks.
MORE EXAMPLEs: EBC, Chapter 2, page 36-38
INCLUDE ONLY RELEVANT MATERIAL

Stick to the purpose of the message

Delete irrelevant words and sentences.
Omit information obvious to the receiver.
Avoid long introductions, unnecessary
explanations, excessive prepositions and
adjectives etc.
 Get to the important point concisely.
 EXAMPLEs
 Wordy : We hereby wish to let you know that our
company is pleased with the confidence you have
reposed in us.
Concise: We appreciate your confidence.
Wordy: At this time, I am writing to you to
enclose an interview card, which has been post-
paid, for the purpose of arranging a convenient
time when we might get together for a personal
interview.
Concise: Please return the enclosed interview
card to setup a convenient time for an interview.
MORE EXAMPLEs: EBC, Chapter 2, page 39
 AVOID UNNECESSARY
REPETITION
Use shorter name after you have used long one once.
Instead of using “North Central Company” use “North
Central”.
 Use pronouns or initials rather than repeating long
names. Instead of using “ American Association of
Technical Analysts” again and again, use “it” or “they”
or AATA.
Cut out all needless repetition of phrases and
sentences. Sometimes it is possible to combine two or
even more sentences by using conjunctions, etc.
 EXAMPLEs
Wordy: Will you ship up this time, anytime
during the month of October would be fine, or
even November if you are rushed (November
would suit us just as well, in fact a little bit better)
300 of the regular 3 by 15 inches blue belt
armbands with white sewn letters in the center.
Thank you in advance by sending this along to us
by parcel post and not express, as express is too
expensive.
Concise: Please ship parcel post, before the end of
November, 300 regular 3 by 15 inches blue belt
armbands with white sewn letters in the centers.
CHECKLIST FOR CONCISENESS
Use one word in place of phrases; one
sentence in place of two. Read out loud to
listen wordiness.
Omit wordiness and outdated expressions.
Ask yourself: Is the material relevant?
Look for unnecessary repetition: Does the
same word or idea repeat too often?
Refresher: ½ min. break and food for thought
“Create a positive approach.”