Module 1:Communication Skills

COMMUNICATION

DEFINITION

Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place,

person or group to another. The Communication is a two-way process wherein the
message in the form of ideas, thoughts, feelings, opinions is transmitted between
two or more persons with the intent of creating a shared understanding.

PROCESS / STAGES

Step 1: Idea Formation – The communication process begins when the sender has an idea to be
communicated. The idea will be influenced by complex factors surrounding the sender. The sender must
begin by clarifying the idea and purpose. What exactly does the sender want to achieve? How is the
message likely to be perceived? Knowing this information provides a higher chance of successful
communication
Step 2: Message Encoding – The idea must be encoded into words, symbols, and gestures that will convey
meaning. Because no two people interpret information in the exact same way, the sender must be careful to
choose words, symbols and gestures that are commonly understood to reduce the chances of
misunderstanding. Therefore, a sender must be aware of the receiver’s communication skills, attitudes,
skills, experiences, and culture to ensure clear communication.

Step 3: Message Transmission: Choosing the medium to transmit the message is the next step in the
communication process. Messages can be transmitted in a verbal, written, or visual manner.

Step 4: Decoding – When the message reaches the receiver, the message must be decoded into its intended
meaning. Therefore, the receiver must translate the words, symbols, and gestures as the sender intended.
Because no two people interpret information in the exact same way, incorrectly decoding a message can
lead to misunderstanding. Successful decoding is more likely when the receiver creates a receptive
environment and ignores distractions. Alert receivers strive to understand both verbal and nonverbal cues,
avoid prejudging the message, and expect to learn from the communication.

Step 5: Feedback – A vital part of the communication process is feedback. Feedback occurs the sender and
receiver check to ensure the message was understood as intended. Feedback is a shared responsibility
between the sender and the receiver and can be verbal or non-verbal. For example, the sender can elicit
feedback by asking, “Do you have any questions?” The sender can also improve the feedback process by
only providing as much information as the receiver can handle. Receivers can encourage clear
communication by providing clear, timely, descriptive, and non-judgmental feedback. For example, the
receiver can shake his/her head up and down to confirm “yes” I have a question.
CONTENT OF THE MESSAGE

Message Content means that information contained within a Message or

accompanying a Message

In rhetorical and communication studies, a message is defined as

information conveyed by words (in speech or writing), and/or other
signs and symbols. A message (verbal or nonverbal, or both) is the
content of the communication process. The originator of the message
in the communication process is the sender. The sender conveys the
message to a receiver.

Clear, consistent message can be the difference between a phenomenally

successful marketing campaign and an utter waste of time and money. If you, as a
marketer, have not defined your message clearly, how likely is it that your target
audiences will get the message you want them to hear? Answer: Not very likely.

The Role of Messaging

In marketing, the term “messaging” refers to how an organization talks about itself
and the value it provides. Related to positioning, messaging is an approved set of
key points or messages an organization uses to communicate about something with
a target audience. Messaging translates a positioning statement into a set of
convincing “key message” statements. Marketers use these statements to develop
materials for marketing communications such as ad slogans, advertising copy,
social media posts, press releases, presentation scripts, and so forth. Messaging
documents are a blueprint for what all the other materials–and people–should
communicate.

Developing Key Messages

The key messages that make up a messaging document should do the
following:

● Express the main idea you want people to understand and

remember about your offering
● Resonate with the audience you are targeting, such that they
pay attention and feel what you are saying matters
● Articulate clearly and concisely what you need to communicate
about: e.g., what you stand for, why you are different, what
value you offer, what problems you solve, etc.
Draft Message Statements

With your audience and objectives in mind, begin drafting key message statements.
If you could make only a few key points to your target audience, what would those
points be? As you write these message statements, keep the following criteria in
mind. Key messages should be:

● Concise: Key message statements should be clear and concise, ideally

just one sentence long–but not a long, run-on sentence.
● Simple: Key messages should use language that is easy for target
audiences to understand. You should avoid acronyms, jargon, and
flowery or bureaucratic-sounding language.
● Strategic: Key messages should differentiate your organization and
what you stand for, while articulating the value proposition or key
benefits you offer.
● Convincing: Messaging should include believable, meaningful
information that creates a sense of urgency and stimulates action.
Message wording should be decisive and active, rather than passive.
● Relevant: Key messages should matter to the audience; they should
communicate useful, relevant information that the audience finds
appealing not only on a logical or rational level but also on an
emotional level.
● Memorable: Key messages should stick in the mind, so the impression
they make is easy to recall.
● Tailored: Messaging must communicate effectively with intended
target audiences. This means the messaging should reflect the target
audience’s unique needs, priorities, issues, terminology, relationship to
the organization, and other distinguishing factors that might help the
messaging better communicate with that audience.
Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication
(Kinesics, Proxemics, Chronemics, Haptics, Paralinguistic
Feature),

Kinesics

The word kinesics comes from the root word kinesis, which means “movement,”
and refers to the study of hand, arm, body, and face movements. Specifically, this
section will outline the use of gestures, head movements and posture, eye
contact, and facial expressions as nonverbal communication.

It is the study of the way in which body movements, gestures & facial expressions
serve as a form of non-verbal communication. A great deal of meaning can be
interpreted by your facial expressions, eye contact the way you move your hands
and legs.
Below are some examples of positive and negative kinesics:

Proxemics
Proxemics refers to the study of how space and distance influence communication. We only need
look at the ways in which space shows up in common metaphors to see that space,
communication, and relationships are closely related. For example, when we are content with
and attracted to someone, we say we are “close” to him or her. When we lose connection with
someone, we may say he or she is “distant.” In general, space influences how people
communicate and behave. Smaller spaces with a higher density of people often lead to breaches
of our personal space bubbles.

Public space: is at a distance of 12 feet and above. Usually the communication that happens in
this space is formal and impersonal. This is the least personal of the four zones and would
typically be used for a formal speech or a public engagement by a celebrity.
Social space: It is at a distance of 4 -12 feet and within this distance the communication that
happens it is usually in the professional or a casual setting. When you say keep someone at arm’s
length this is what you mean, keep them at a social distance. This is the most common setting in
the business world. When making presentations you will usually be in a social space with your
audience which helps build just enough engagement and bonding with them so as to be able to
influence.

Personal space: It is at a distance of 1.5 – 4 feet. This space is where you have your friends,
family, and close acquaintances. Most of our personal communication happens in this zone
Mother & Children

Friends

Chronemics: It is related with time. Time is an important non-verbal cue that factors
heavily into communication, particularly in the world of business. Chronemics in technology
communication provides key insights for management. For example, studies have taken large
amounts of aggregated email data from big companies and analyzed the level and timing of
responses. This research showed that the organizational structure can be accurately predicted by
creating a hierarchy of responsiveness, placing the most responsive entities at the bottom of the
organization, and the least responsive entities at the top. The predictive power of these
chronemic models could be used in designing future communication technology to account for
the expected responsiveness of people who are communicating, based on their positions in an
organization.

ON TIME

GETTING LATE
Haptics:

It is the study of communication through touch. The first form of communication each one of us
experienced at the time of birth was a touch. Visualize an old man lying on a hospital bed in pain.
His son visits him and holds his hand. How comforting that touch is for him! That is the power
of touch.
At the same time touch can be very threatening if used wrongfully to abuse sexually or
physically. Children who have suffered the negative touch suffer from the consequences of it
throughout their adult lives as they usually are less healthy physically and mentally. We are all
told the importance of a firm handshake. A handshake is a very critical method of nonverbal
communication.
A week timid handshake demonstrates lack of confidence and puts you on the defensive right at
the start of the meeting. There are several types of touch, including functional-professional,
social-polite, friendship-warmth, love-intimacy, and sexual-arousal touch. Permissible and non-
permissible touch is also very culture specific.
Paralanguage:
It is the non-lexical component of communication by speech, for example intonation, pitch and
rate of speech, hesitation noises. These components play a critical role in nonverbal
communication. A fast rate of speech indicates anxiety and nervousness. Intonation or
modulation in voice keeps the audience interested and engaged whereas a monotonous delivery
is boring and puts people to sleep. Speakers having a wide range of pitch are more successful
communications that the once who don’t.

A Pitch Graph
 MODULE 5: GRAMMAR

Transformation of Sentences

DIRECT TO INDIRECT SPEECH

What is Direct & Indirect Speech?

Direct speech – reporting the message of the speaker in the exact words as spoken
by him.
Direct speech example: Maya said “I am busy now.”
Indirect speech: reporting the message of the speaker in our own words
Indirect speech example: Maya said that she was busy then.

Rule 1 – Direct To Indirect Speech Conversion – Reporting Verb

 A. When the reporting verb of direct speech is in past tense then all the
present tenses are changed to the corresponding past tense in indirect
speech.

Direct to indirect speech example:

Direct: She said, “I am happy.”
Indirect: She said (that) she was
happy.

Indirect Narration
of Universal
Truth

B. In indirect speech, tenses do not change if the words used within the
quotes (‘’) talk of a habitual action or universal truth.

1. Direct: He said, “We cannot live without

air.” Indirect: He said that we cannot live
without air.

2. Direct: The teacher said, “The sun rises in the

east.” Indirect: The teacher said that the sun rises in
the east.

Here we are going to see that the reported statement of each direct narration is
a universal truth, that is a statement universally accepted as true.

A)Moral Principles and Proverbs:

Direct – Mr. Sen said, “Truth wins always.”

Indirect – Mr. Sen said that truth wins

always.

...Truth won always. (Wrong)

Direct – “Honesty is the best policy.” They said.

Indirect – They said that honesty is the best policy.

Direct – The teacher said to us, “Man is mortal.”

Indirect – The teacher told us that man is mortal.

... man was mortal. (Wrong)

Direct – “An apple a day keeps the doctors away.” My grandfather said with an
apple in his hand.

Indirect – My grandfather said with an apple in his hand that an apple a day keeps
the doctors away.

B) The tenses of direct speech do not change if the reporting verb is

in the future tense or present tense.

Direct to indirect speech example:

1. Direct: She says/will say, “I am going.”
Indirect: She says/will say that she is going.

2. She says, “Alan was a teacher.”

Indirect: She says that Alan was a

teacher.

3. He will say, “I am not culprit.”

Indirect: He will say that he is not culprit.

 Interrogative Sentences
A. Reporting verbs such as ‘said/ said to’ changes to enquired, asked, or
demanded. No conjunction is used, if a sentence in direct speech begins
with a question (what/where/when) as the “question-word” itself acts as a
joining clause.
Direct to indirect speech example
1. Direct: He said to me, ‘What are you
wearing’? Indirect: He asked me what I was
wearing

2. Direct: “Where do you live?” asked the

boy. Indirect: The boy enquired where I
lived.

3. Direct: He said, “What does he want?”

Indirect: He asked what he wanted.

4. Direct: He said to Riya, “Why do you like tea?”

Indirect: He asked Riya why she liked tea.
.

B) If a direct speech sentence begins with an auxiliary verb/helping verb,

the joining clause should be if or whether.

Direct to indirect speech example

Direct: She said, “Will you come for the party?”
Indirect: She asked whether I would come for the party.
 Verbal questions:

1. Direct: She said to Rajesh, “Are you studying Geography?”

Indirect: She asked Rajesh if he was studying Geography.

2. Direct: He said, “Mother have you seen it?”

Indirect: He asked mother if she had seen it.

E) Let me/him/her/them

Rules
1. Let is used in a sentence to express a suggestion or proposal. We
have to understand from the mood of the sentence if something is
suggested or proposed

2. Reporting verbs such as ‘said’, ‘told’, ‘said to’ change to

‘proposed‘ or ‘suggested‘.

3. Sometime ‘to’ is used. In that case reporting verb ‘say to’ changes
to tell.

4. ‘We’/‘us’ pronouns change to ‘they’.

5. If first person ‘I’ is included then ‘we’ or the mentioned

pronoun remains unchanged.

6. Modal auxiliary verb should is used in reported clause.

Examples:

1. Direct: He said, “Let me go, Raj.”

Indirect: He told Raj to let him go.

2. Direct: Mina said to mother, “Let me feed the bird.”

Indirect: Mina told mother to let her feed the bird.

Direct Speech Indirect Speech

I said to my I told my mother to let me

mother, “Let me do the work.
do the work.”

Rita said to Meena, “Let Rita proposed to Meena

us watch a movie.” they should watch a
movie.

Father said to
Father told mother to let
mother, “Let me do
him do the cleaning.
the cleaning.”

He said to me, “Let us He suggested to me

be quiet.” that we should be
quiet.

The employee said to The employee told the

the boss, “Let me boss to let him explain the
explain the matter to matter to him.
you.”
 Direct Speech Indirect Speech

The man said to the The man suggested to the

woman, “Let us eat woman that they should
in peace, without eat in peace, without
talking.” talking.

F) Rule for Please

 In case of negative imperative sentence ‘do not’ in the direct speech

changes to ‘not to’ in indirect speech. We can also use
‘forbade/prohibited’ followed by ‘to’.

 In imperative sentence the reporting verb ‘said’, ‘said to’, ‘told’

changes to advised, command, requested, ordered, etc. depending on
the mood of the sentence.

1.D: He said to me, “Please, give me a pen.”

I: He requested me to give him a pen.

3. D: He said to her, “Please, do not

cry.” I: He requested her not to cry.

4. D: He said to Raju, “Please, bring a glass of

water.” I: He requested Raju to bring a glass of water.

Exclamation:

Rules
 1. In direct speech of exclamatory sentence an exclamation mark is used
after the interjection or at the end of the sentence. This mark is
replaced by a full stop after narration change from direct to indirect
speech.

2. The reporting verb changes to exclaimed with joy/happiness or

exclaimed with sorrow or disgust depending on the mood of the
sentence.

3. After converting the speech, the interjection should be omitted.

4. The reporting clause and reported clause is connected with

conjunction ‘that’.

Examples

Direct Speech Indirect Speech

He exclaimed with sorrow that his cat

He said, “Alas! My cat died.”
had died.

She said, “How beautiful the night She exclaimed with wonder that the night
sky looks!” sky looked very beautiful.

The man said, “What an The man exclaimed with surprise that he had a
intelligent brain he has!” very intelligent brain.

The commander said to The commander applauded them that they had
them, “Bravo! You did well.” done well.

Ritu said, “Hurrah! I have won the Ritu exclaimed with joy that she had won the
lottery.”
lottery.
 Direct Speech Indirect Speech

Rita Said, “Hurrah! I have passed Rita exclaimed joyfully that she had passed
the examination.” the examination.

The boy said, “Alas! I made a The boy exclaimed with regret that he
mistake.” had made a mistake.

The teacher said, “What a The teacher exclaimed with wonder that he
brilliant student he is!” was a very brilliant student.

G – Direct Speech to Indirect Speech Conversion – Change of Time

1. In direct speeches, the words that express nearness in time or place are
changed to words that express distance in indirect speech. Such as:

● Now becomes then

● Here becomes there
● Ago becomes before
● Thus becomes so
● Today becomes that day
● Tomorrow becomes the next day
● This becomes that
● Yesterday becomes the day before
● These become those
● Come becomes go
● Hence becomes thence
● Next week or month becomes following week/month