Principles of Effective Communication

On this page I will be talking about the principles of effective communication. The principles of effective communication are sub-divided into 3 main areas: 

1.         General

2.         Interpersonal

3.         Written Communication Skills

I will discuss all three sections but begin with General Communication:

General communication

The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently. To have good communication skills you need to make sure that the message or information is sent from a sender to a receiver and make sure it is clear, fit for purpose and timely.

Be interested in the topic

You need to speak clear and also show and that you know what you are talking about, for example a presentation, you need to deliver an interesting speech to engage with your audience and also make your voice sounds interested in the topic and not boring. Also know additional information about the topic therefore the audience will think that you know a lot of what you are talking about. Pick a topic that you enjoy such as a football teams or cars. This will mean that you will know a lot about the topic and will be able to answer questions that the audience ask. It will make it look more formal overall.

Engage with the audience

Engage with your audience by either do activities or asking questions to them. Handouts are away of engaging with the audience as you physical give them information which could be about the presentation that you are giving. You can also change your voice tone to keep your audience interested, for example if your voice was to be dull and boring your audience wouldn’t be interested. If you were trying to get your point across you would change the tone of your voice to suit the message that you are going to read to the audience. Another fun way you can engage with the audience

Cultural differences

When giving a talk to a group of people you need to be aware of your audience incase there is some cultural differences. Improving your level of knowledge of international cultural difference in business can aid in building a better audience as well as enabling you to gain a competitive advantage against any other speech’s. Also you got to learn what to do and what not to do, for example using body language is another key factor in cultural difference. As different countries have different ways to deliver or share their message. For example Arabs would think its offence if you were in mid speech and you leaned or stepped away from them.

Terminology

You may want to use terminology that connects with that particular area you are presenting to make your presentation sound professional and to show that you know your audience and the subject. You must make sure that you know your audience before presenting because you can not use to much advanced terminology as your audience might not understand you and then lose interest in the presentation therefore you may want to keep it simple and easy to understand.

 

Interpersonal communication

Good interpersonal communication skills enable us to work more effectively in groups and teams, which may be either formal, like at work, or informally for example in social situations. The set of abilities enabling a person to interact positively and work effectively with others. Interpersonal is the process that we use to communicate our ideas, thoughts and feelings to one or a group of people

Decision making

Decision Making is the act of choosing between two or more courses of action. But it must always be remembered that there may not always be a correct decision between the multiple choices there is. There may have been a better choice that had not been considered, or the right information may not have been available at the time.  Because of this, it is important to keep a record of all important decisions and the reasons why these decisions were made, so that improvements can be made in the future with more better decisions.

Nonverbal communication (Body Language)

This consists of actions, gestures, and other aspects of physical appearance, combined with facial expressions such as smiling or frowning. At times, a person's body may be talking even if they maintain silence. And when people do speak, their bodies may sometimes say different things than their words. A mixed message occurs when a person's words communicate one message, while there actions are saying something else. 
There are many ways that you can use body language when giving a presentation. Eye contact, hand gestures and facial expressions such as smiling are some of the most important ways of body language could be used. 
Eye contact is one of the most effective ways of body language. By keeping eye contact with your audience it makes your presentation look more formal and shows that you are interested in them. If you dont look at your audience you look less confident in what you are saying and may look less believable, Also if you dont look at your audience the wont look back which means they would lose interest in what you are talking about. Facial expressions are actions such as smiling, frowning and eye rolling by using expression it shows your audience how you feel about the presentation, for example smiling shows that you are happy about what you are talking about. 

Oral communication skills

Oral Communication is the ability to talk with others to give and exchange information and ideas, such as asking questions about something or giving directions to someone it also Is used to explain and persuade people. Oral communication consists of two skills speaking and listening skills. These two skills is what helps you engage in a oral communication. Oral communication is used everyday by just saying hello to someone that is the use of oral communication

Written communication skills

Written communication involves any type of message that makes you write or type words. Correct grammar, punctuation and spelling are key in written communications.  The reader will form an opinion of you, the author of the information, based on both the content and presentation, and errors are likely to lead them to form a negative impression. This written information can be displayed on blogs, hand outs, articles and presentations. This consist of all readable information, there is no presenter, therefore there is no use of body language or using the tone of your voice.

Structure

Your document should be as reader friendly as possible. To make the information easier to read a user should use headings, subheadings, bullet points, and numbering whenever possible to break up the information. A document that's easy to scan will get read more often than a document with long paragraphs of text. You should use headers that should grab the reader's attention. Using questions is often a good idea to interact and keep the audience focused because questions help keep the reader engaged. In emails the user should use short, factual headings and subheadings. Adding graphs and charts is also a smart way to break up your text and makes important information easier to read. Also by creating a chart it makes the information stand out more rather than having it in a paragraph. Charts also catches the readers eye.
For rainbow charity there documents would need to look formal, otherwise if one of the workers at rainbow charity has bad spelling or grammar this would have a bad effect on the charity, this may cause people to ignore the charity then as they have bad structures.
To ensure that the documents are well structured there are many ways you can do this such as spell check to look for any spelling mistakes or proof reading which is reading over your documents to ensure everything makes sense and looks formal

Smileys and emoticons

Smileys and emoticons are used to express how someone is feeling. These are normal used in online chatting such as Facebook. When writing a formal document you shouldn't use smileys as it makes you look unprofessional.