Department of Applied Sciences

Notes for B.Tech. Students

COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR
PROFESSIONALS

Paper Code : ETHS 301

Fifth Semester

Maharaja Surajmal Institute of Technology

C-4, Janak Puri, New Delhi
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 Syllabus as per GGSIPU

Paper Code: ETHS-301 L/T/P C

Paper: Communication Skills for Professionals 201

Objective: To develop communication competence in prospective engineers so that they are able
to communicate information as well as their thoughts and ideas with clarity and precision. This
course will also equip them with the basic skills required for a variety of practical applications of
communication such as applying for a job,writing reports and proposals. Further, it will make
them aware of the new developments in communication that have become part of business
organizations today.

UNIT I
Organizational Communication: Meaning, importance and function of communication, Process of
communication, Communication Cycle - message, sender, encoding, channel, receiver, decoding, feedback,
Characteristics, Media and Types of communication, Formal and informal channels of communication, 7
C’s of communication, Barriers to communication, Ethics of communication (plagiarism, language
sensitivity)
Soft Skills: Personality Development, Self Analysis through SWOT, Johari Window, Interpersonal skills –
Time management, Team building, Leadership skills. Emotional Intelligence. Self Development and
Assessment- Selfassessment, Awareness, Perception and Attitudes, Values and belief, Personal goal
setting, Career planning, Self esteem.
[T1,T2][No. of Hrs. 08]
UNIT II
Introduction to Phonetics: IPA system (as in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary), Speech Mechanism,
The Description of Speech Sounds, Phoneme, Diphthong, Syllable, Stress, Intonation, Prosodic Features;
Pronunciation; Phonetic Transcription - Conversion of words to phonetic symbols and from phonetic
symbols to words. British & American English (basic difference in vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation,
structure)
Non-Verbal Language: Importance, characteristics, types – Paralanguage (voice, tone, volume, speed,
pitch, effective pause), Body Language (posture, gesture, eye contact, facial expressions), Proxemics,
Chronemics, Appearance, Symbols.
[T1,T2][No. of Hrs. 08]
UNIT III
Letters at the Workplace – letter writing (hard copy and soft copy): request, sales, enquiry, order,
complaint. Job Application -- resume and cover letter
Meeting Documentation-- notice, memo, circular, agenda and minutes of meeting.
Report Writing - Significance, purpose, characteristics, types of reports, planning, organizing and writing a
report, structure of formal report. Writing an abstract, summary, Basics of formatting and style sheet ( IEEE
Editorial Style Manual), development of thesis argument, data collection, inside citations, bibliography;
Preparing a written report for presentation and submission. Writing a paper for conference
presentation/journal submission.
[T1,T2][No. of Hrs. 08]
UNIT IV
Listening and Speaking Skills: Importance, purpose and types of listening, process of listening, difference
between hearing and listening, Barriers to effective listening, Traits of a good listener, Tips for effective
listening. Analytical thinking; Speech, Rhetoric, Polemics; Audience analysis. Telephone Skills - making
and receiving calls, leaving a message, asking and giving information, etiquettes.
Presentations: Mode, mean and purpose of presentation, organizing the contents, nuances of delivery, voice
and body language in effective presentation, time dimension.
Group Discussion: Purpose, types of GDs, strategies for GDs, body language and guidelines for group
discussion.
Interview Skills: Purpose, types of interviews, preparing for the interview, attending the interview,
interview process, employers expectations, general etiquettes.
[T1,T2][No. of Hrs. 07]
INSTRUCTIONS TO PAPER SETTERS: MAXIMUM MARKS: 75
1. Question No. 1 should be compulsory and cover the entire syllabus. This question should have objective
or short answer type questions. It should be of 25 marks.
2. Apart from Question No. 1, rest of the paper shall consist of four units as per the syllabus. Every unit
should have two questions. However, student may be asked to attempt only 1 question from each unit. Each
question should be of 12.5 marks
TEXTBOOKS
T1] Anna Dept. Of English. Mindscapes: English for Technologists & Engineers PB. New Delhi: Orient
Blackswan.
[T2] Farhathullah, T. M. Communication Skills for Technical Students. Orient Blackswan, 2002.
References Books:
[R1] Masters, Ann and Harold R. Wallace. Personal Development for Life and Work, 10th
Edition.Cengage Learning India, 2012.
[R2] Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. IEEE Editorial Style Manual. IEEE, n.d. Web. 9
Sept. 2009.
[R3] Sethi and Dhamija. A Course in Phonetics and Spoken English. PHI Learning, 1999.
[R4] Khera, Shiv. You Can Win. New York: Macmillan, 2003.

Lesson Plan L T/P C

2 0 1
Subject Code Eths 301
Subject Communication Skills For Professionals

Credits 2
Total Teaching Weeek In Semester 16 Weeks
Total Lectures Available 31
Total Tutorial Class Avalable 00

Unit I- Organizational Communication

S.No. Lecture Tutorial

1 Meaning, importance and function of communication 1

2 Process of 1
communication, Communication Cycle - message, sender,
encoding, channel, receiver, decoding, feedback,
Characteristics
3 Media and Types of communication, Formal and informal 1
channels of communication, 7 C’s of
Communication
4 Barriers to communication, Ethics of communication , 1
plagiarism, language sensitivity

5 Personality Development, Self Analysis through SWOT, Johari 1

Window

6 Interpersonal skills -Time 1

management, Team building, Leadership skills

7 Emotional Intelligence.Self Development and Assessment- Self 1

assessment, Awareness, Perception and Attitudes, Values and
belief
8 Personal goal setting, Career planning, Self 1
esteem.

Unit –II Introduction to Phonetics

9 IPA system (as in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary), Speech 1
Mechanism
The Description of Speech Sounds, Phoneme,

10 Diphthong, Syllable 1

11 Stress, Intonation, Prosodic Features; 1

12 Pronunciation; Phonetic Transcription - Conversion of words to phonetic 1

symbols
2nd Sessional 1
13 from phonetic symbols to 1
words.
14 British & American English (basic difference in vocabulary, spelling, 1
pronunciation, structure)

15 Importance, characteristics, types – Paralanguage (voice, tone, volume, 1

speed, pitch,
effective pause),
16 Body Language (posture, gesture, eye contact, facial expressions), 1
Proxemics, Chronemics,
Appearance, Symbols.

Unit III-Letters at the Workplace

17 – letter writing (hard copy and soft copy): request, sales 1

18 enquiry, order, complaint. 1

19 Job Application -- resume and cover letter 1

20 Meeting Documentation-- notice, memo, circular 1

21 , agenda and minutes of meeting. 1

22 Report Writing - Significance, purpose, characteristics, types of 1

reports, planning, organizing and writing a
report, structure of formal report
23 Writing an abstract, summary, Basics of formatting and style 1
sheet (IEEE
Editorial Style Manual), development of thesis argument, data
collection, inside citations, bibliography; Preparing a written
report for presentation and submission
24 Writing a paper for conference presentation/journal submission. 1

Unit IV Listening and Speaking Skills

25 Listening and Speaking Skills: Importance, purpose and types of 1
listening, process of listening, difference
between hearing and listening, Barriers to effective listening,
Traits of a good listener, Tips for effective listening.

26 Analytical thinking; Speech, Rhetoric, Polemics; Audience 1

analysis
27 Telephone Skills - making and receiving 1
calls, leaving a message, asking and giving information,
etiquettes.

28 Presentations: Mode, mean and purpose of presentation, 1

organizing the contents, nuances of delivery, voice and
body language in effective presentation, time dimension.

29 Group Discussion: Purpose, types of GDs, strategies for GDs 1

30 body language and guidelines for group 1
discussion.

31. Interview Skills: Purpose, types of interviews, preparing for the 1

interview, attending the interview, interview
process, employers expectations, general etiquettes.

Unit-1
Organizational Communication

Content
1.1 Communication meaning
1.2 Importance of Communication

1.3 Function of Communication

1.4 Process of Communication

1.5 Media of Communication

1.6 Types of Communication

1.7 Elements of Verbal Communication

1.8 Non-Verbal Communication

1.9 Seven C’s of Effective Communication

1.10 Barriers to Effective Oral Communication

1.11 Measures to Overcome Barriers in Communication

1.12 Plagiarism

1.13 Language Sensitivity

1.14 Review Questions

1.15 Books Recommended

1.1 Communication Meaning:

The best way to understand any concept is to refer to dictionary for its meaning. The English word
‘communication’ is derived from the Latin noun ‘Communis’ and the Latin verb ‘Communicare’ that
means ‘to make common, to transmit, or to impart’.

In simple words, communication is the activity in which we share any idea, feeling, opinion and
information between two or more persons in a way that both parties have common ground of
understanding. Thus in communication three aspects are of utmost importance – transmission of message,
listening/receiving of message and common understanding of message among parties involved. The
transmission can be done in many manners like by words -spoken or written, by body language or signs.
And understanding means that both parties receive same meaning of the desired message in their mind and
that can be confirmed with the help of feedback. When understanding is achieved only then communication
is complete.

Communication has been defined by many theorists:

W.H.Newman defined, “Communication is an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions by two or

more persons.”

Allen Louis defined "Communication is the sum of all the things one person does when he wants to create
an understanding in the mind of another it involves a systematic and continuous process.”
1.2 Importance of Communication :

1. Establishes Effective Leadership

2. Helps in Motivation and Morale Development
3. Helps in Smooth Working
4. Promotes Cooperation and Peace
5. Acts as basis of Coordination and Cooperation
6. Acts as basis for Decision Making
7. Increases Managerial Efficiency

1.3 Function of Communication:

1. Exchange of information
2. Issue of orders and instructions
3. Education
4. Advice and Counselling
5. Persuation and suggestion
6. Motivation and warning

1.4 Process of Communication:

As stated earlier Communication is a systematic and continuous process, it is regarded as a two way
process. To understand the steps to this process we can take help of a model of communication process.
The model is always useful to understand how something happens actually step by step. i.e. the operational
procedure of the process.
The Communication Process Model:

The convenient way to describe the elements of communication model involved in the two way
communication model is to answer the following questions:
Who
(The Sender)
 Says what
(The message)
Through which channel
(via a medium)
To whom
(The receiver)
With What Effect
(Feedback)
Following steps are involved in the two way process:

Sender/ Encoder- The sender of communication is the originator who sets the model into action. It can
be an individual or group that has a specific reason to begin the communication process. That is, there is an
idea, information, feeling etc. that they wish another to receive. For example: Rohan is working as a Travel
Counsellor in XYZ Travel Company. A tourist walks in his office. Now it is his duty to ask tourist his
purpose of visit. It means Rohan has a specific reason to begin the communication process with the tourist.

Encoding of Message- Now when reason to begin communication has been decided, there must be a
specified format in which the ideas in mind of sender can be expressed and take form of a message. This is
the next step in communication process and called Encoding of message. Encoding means converting the
idea into a suitable format using verbal as well as non –verbal methods so that the idea which is in the mind
of sender can be expressed. Encoding is always done keeping your audience i.e. who will receive your
message. In the example Rohan greets the tourist with a smile on his face –“Good Morning Sir! Welcome
to XYZ Travel Company. I am Rohan. How can I assist you?”Rohan has used Verbal (the spoken line) and
non –verbal (a smile on his face) both ways while encoding. Message is the actual outcome from the
encoding.

Communication Channel - The way or the medium of sending the message is called channel. The
communicator has to choose the channel for sending the information. It is a vehicle used to transport the
message from source to the destination.Medium or channel can be oral, written or it can be non-verbal.
Like Rohan used oral and non-verbal channel. While reading this unit you are using written channel of
communication. These channels are the senses of perceiving the message which are of five types:
Visual: Cues pertaining to sight such as wave, smile or clothing.
Tactile: Signals pertaining to touch such as touch, bumping or temperature.
Auditory: Signal pertaining to hearing such as speaking, honking or whistling.
Gustatory: Cues related to taste such as food sources.
Olfactory: Cues associated with the sense of smell such as body odor, perfume.

The medium involved in the interpersonal communication process are face to face exchange between two
people. Some of the important media channels used in recent era are television, theatre shows, journals,
books, video, teleconferencing, newspapers etc.

Receiver/Decoder- For communication to be executed, there must be someone to receive the message
the sender has sent. The person who receives the message is called the receiver. In our example the Tourist
who has entered XYZ Company is receiver of message sent by Rohan.

Decoding - When the message reaches the receiver, the receiver interprets it from its original form into
one that he/she can understand. This is decoding that is the process where the received message is being
understood by the receiver. This is essentially the same interaction as that of sender and encoding only in a
reversed sequence. In the example, the tourist will interpret the line spoken by Rohan and the smile given
by Rohan.

Feedback -
Feedback is the response or reply of the receiver towards sender after receiving the message. The response
will convey whether the message has been understood perfectly as desired or the message has been
misunderstood or misinterpreted. Without feedback, the source would never know if the communication
was successful. Feedback has its own importance as the success or failure of communication is decided by
the feedback only. In the example, the feedback from Tourist can be that he smiles back and says “Good
Morning Rohan, I am Ankur and I want a three day tour package to Goa.” This feedback signifies that the
communication from Rohan towards the Tourist is successful.

Noise- Noise is another important element in the communication process and has direct impact on the
success of communication. Noise is interference or distortion that changes the initial message. It always
comes into play during the communication process. It is also called barriers of communication. It can be
physical, like any other sound that subdues the message when it is being said, or it can be related with
language like if the vocabulary used within the message is beyond the knowledge range of its recipient. To
make communication effective one should try to reduce noise .For instance when Rahul was talking with
the tourist and at the same moment tourist’s phone rang up then that is called a become a physical noise or
barrier.

Thus process of communication is a continuous, creative and two-way process where sender and receiver
keep changing their roles.

1.5 Media of Communication:

We are living in an era of technical-assisted globe. “vashudhaiv Kutumbkam” has significantly expanded
scope of communication. We have different levels of media communication to cater the needs with specific
purpose. They are:
Landline
Cell phone
Face to Face
IM
Text
Email
Internet
Newspaper
Television, Radio
Magazines

1.6 Types of Communication:

Now when we have understood communication and how it takes place, we will study different types of
communication. Communication can be defined on different bases .On the basis of medium of expression
different types of communication are:
1. Verbal Communication
2. Non –Verbal Communication

(1) Verbal communication

In Verbal communication the communicator uses words as the medium of communication. Communicator
uses language that has been designed, developed and propagated by humans. An effective verbal
communication is a two way process that means speaking and listening both are done at the same time.
Further verbal communication can be divided into two groups:

(i) Oral Communication-

Oral communications are the messages that come through words from the mouth of the speaker. It is a very
convenient form of expression and presentation. It is almost instantaneous, quick and least expensive.
Example of oral communication is – face to face communication, speech, meeting, telephonic conversation
etc. In tourism and travel industry face to face and telephonic conversation are frequently used.

(ii) Written Communication-

The communication which we do by means of written symbols or words is called written communication.
This requires preparation and one has to plan it properly before writing for technical, legal and most
diplomatic communications.
In tourism industry communicating in writing is also popular form of communication .It can take various
forms such as letters, circulars, office memorandums, fax messages, newsletter, brochures, bulletins,
reports, manuals, reports, house journals, magazines, etc. Also in this age of technology new types of
written messages like emails, short messaging service (SMS) on mobile phones, instant messaging etc.
have become very common and popular.
1.7 Elements of Verbal Communication:

When we communicate verbally not only the words which we used are listened but also vocal elements of
speech play very important role. These vocal elements are voice inflections, rate of speech, volume, and
tone. These add interest and meaning to our messages. For example the line “See you later” said
respectfully has a different meaning and same line said in anger has totally different meaning. We can use
these vocal elements to make our verbal communication more effective. These are:

1. Change the speed of your voice: A consistent pace of voice can make your speech dull and ineffective.
Thus we should vary our speed of voice depending upon the audience and purpose of our communication.
When you have to gain attention and excite your audience speak quickly and enthusiastically. When you
want that audience pay attention to your words speak slowly.
2. Shift the pitch of your voice: Frequency of speech is called pitch of voice. Again depending upon the
aim of the speech you can use high and low pitches at times .Using extremes can tarnish the success of your
verbal communication.
3. Control the volume of your voice: Volume of voice creates a direct impact on the audience .One should
use an average volume in general .But again depending upon the aim of your communication you can be
loud or soft. When you use a combination of loudness and softness in your communication it adds special
effect to your communication.
4. Punctuate with pauses: It is important in your communication to break the flow of information so that
listeners can comprehend what they have listened .Generally pause in communication is taken when you
have conveyed an important point or you want that now listeners should anticipate.
5. Articulate clearly: It is very important that what you communicate is clear to the audience. For this you
should have expertise in pronunciation and articulate each word clearly .When you speak in such a manner
you gain more confidence and clarity.

1.8 Non-Verbal Communication:

Till now we have studied that we should be very effective in our verbal communication. But you will be
surprised to know that the first four minutes of interaction with others creates our first impression in their
mind .And it may be possible that in these four minutes we do not utter a single word. According to
Professor Albert Mehrabian, body language accounts for 55% of the first impression; 38% comes from tone
of voice; 7% comes from our actual words. Thus it is very important that we should learn about that
communication which is not verbal rather Non –Verbal.

Nonverbal communication is the act of giving or exchanging information without using any spoken words.
If we are not using word than what will we use? You will know this when you study different types of non-
verbal communication. It is also called sign language. For example the nodding of the head from side to
side to say ‘no’ or up and down to convey ‘yes’.
Non-verbal communication is very important because not only it adds meaning to our verbal
communication but also:

1. Non-verbal signals are powerful: non-verbal cues primarily express inner feelings (verbal messages deal
basically with outside world).
2. Words have limitations: there are numerous areas where nonverbal communication is more effective than
verbal.
3. Non-verbal message are likely to be more genuine: because nonverbal behaviors cannot be controlled as
easily as spoken words.
4. When your verbal and non-verbal communications are incongruent, people will believe the non-verbal
more than the verbal.
The non-verbal communication has changed the way we look at the subject of communication. We seem to
be communicating all the time non- verbally through our gestures, expressions, sounds, signs and signals.

Types of Communication based on Purpose and Style:

1. Formal channel of communication
2. Informal channel of communication

Formal channel of communication: This type of communication consists of all types of

communications that flow along with official lines of authority. It aims to facilitate coordination of various
activities in the organization.
Informal Channel of Communication:In an organization enough portion of communication is
done through informal channel. Probably the most common term used for the informal communication is
“grapevine”. Informal communication takes place among different levels of employees bypassing the
formal network.

Types of Communication according to direction:

According to direction of flow communication can be divided into four types:

Downward Communication - Downward communication is from the higher-ups of the organization

to employees lower in the organizational hierarchy, in a downward direction. It might be a message from
the CEO and CFO to all of their subordinates, their subordinates, and so on. It might be a sticky note on
your desk from your manager. Anything that travels from a higher-ranking member or group of the
organization to a lower-ranking individual is considered downward organizational communication.

Upward Communication- Upward communication flows upward from one group to another that is
on a higher level on the organizational hierarchy. Often, this type of communication provides feedback to
organizational leaders about current problems, or even progress on goals. This kind of communication
keeps managers informed about company progress and how employees feel, and it often provides managers
with ideas for improvement.

Horizontal Communication- When communication takes place between people at the same level of
the organization, like between two departments or between two peers, it’s called horizontal (or lateral)
communication. Communication taking place between an organization and its vendors, suppliers, and
clients can also be considered horizontal communication.

Diagonal Communication- Diagonal Communication is the flow of information between the persons
working in different departments and holding different levels of authority. For example: the salesman may
request the production manger to modify the product design according the requirement of the customer.
1.9 Seven C’s of Effective Communication:

For transmitting effective written or oral messages, certain principles must be followed. These principles
advocated by Francis J. Bergin provide guidelines for choice of content and style of presentation adapted to
the purpose for the receiver of the message. They are also called the “Seven C’s of Communication”. They
are:

Clarity: The message should be clear and easily understandable to the recipient. The purpose of the
communication should be clear to sender then only the receiver will be sure about it. The message should
emphasize on a single goal at a time and shall not cover several ideas in a single sentence.
Correct: The message should be correct, i.e. a correct language should be used, and the sender must
ensure that there is no grammatical and spelling mistakes. Also, the message should be exact and well-
timed. The correct messages have a greater impact on the receiver and at the same time, the morale of the
sender increases with the accurate message.
Complete: The message should be complete, i.e. it must include all the relevant information as required
by the intended audience. The complete information gives answers to all the questions of the receivers and
helps in better decision-making by the recipient.
Concrete: The communication should be concrete, which means the message should be clear and
particularly such that no room for misinterpretation is left. All the facts and figures should be clearly
mentioned in a message so as to substantiate to whatever the sender is saying.
Concise: The message should be precise and to the point. The sender should avoid the lengthy sentences
and try to convey the subject matter in the least possible words. The short and brief message is more
comprehensive and helps in retaining the receiver’s attention.
Consideration: The sender must take into consideration the receiver’s opinions, knowledge, mindset,
background, etc. in order to have an effective communication. In order to communicate, the sender must
relate to the target recipient and be involved.
Courteous: It implies that the sender must take into consideration both the feelings and viewpoints of
the receiver such that the message is positive and focused at the audience. The message should not be
biased and must include the terms that show respect for the recipient.

Case Study:
Vaijapee was a dazzling public speaker but in one –on-one or group conversations, his legendary pauses
made it difficult to understand his viewpoint at times. IK Gujral was not a mass politician in any sense and
did not face the democratic imperative of speaking to the nation. HD Deve Gowda was inarticulate and his
lack of grasp over Hindi was a big handicap.
Dilip Cherian, an image Guru, says a successful political communicator changes his message according to
the platform, and Modi had done so on Tuesday again, by conveying he would report to the country
directly. “We are going to see a new kind of PM, who will depend on one-on-one communication with
citizens, in the western presidential mold.”
(Sources from Times of India)

1.10 Barriers to Effective Oral Communication:

Several things can prevent the message from reaching the intended recipient or from having the desired
effect on the recipient. There may be some fault in the communication system which may prevent the
message from reaching. Some of these defects are in the mechanical devices used for transmitting, that is,
the medium; some are in the tools we use for communicating, that is, language or other symbols used for
encoding; Some are related to the sender or the receiver.

The Barriers or negative forces may affect the effectiveness of communication by acting upon any or all of
the basic elements of communication process and sender/receiver/channel.
As the barriers to communication influence the major variables in the communication process, they may be
categorized on various bases. Though the list of barriers is exhaustive and there are many ways in which
the barriers can be categorized, one of the oldest categorization of barriers is stated below:

1. Semantic barriers: Different people assign different meanings to one specific message. This
is due to the problems with meaning, significance, and the sending and reception of the meaning
and content of the message.
2. Organizational barriers: This type of barrier develops due to the problems with physical distance
between members with respect to their functional specialization of tasks, power, authority and status
relationship, values held, and ownership of information.
3. Interpersonal barriers:These barriers also develop in the process of communication. They are
based upon the relationships, values held, and attitudes of the participants in the process of communication.
4. Individual barriers: These are also called psycho-sociological barriers. The problem of this barrier
arises due to differences in individual competencies to think and act, which would include physical
ailments or handicaps. It is also because of individual skills in receiving and transmitting information,
which would include poor listening and improper reading skills and adverse psychological conditions.
5. Cross Cultural (geographic) barriers: Culture is a shared set of values and attributes of a
group. The communication barriers are also seen because of time, geographic locations, and the effects of
time upon reception of the message and other cross cultural factors.
6. Physical Barriers/Channel and media barriers: The effectiveness and accuracy of
communication is also affected by the physical barriers like distance, noise or channel and the media used
in the process. In this category, problems that confront the issue of how best to communicate a message are
included.
7. Technological barriers: They are barriers which arise due to technological advancements in the
field of communication. Technology generates lot of information, which is beyond the capacity of the
recipient. Further, the media advancements on account of technological process increase the barriers.
The ideas and massage have to reach from the transmitter to receive in the same sense. If it does not
happen, it is on account of barriers in communication.

1.11 Measures to Overcome Barriers in Communication:

Following are some of the additional measures to overcome the barriers to communication:

Fostering good relationship:Strong relationships must be fostered between the employer and the
employee in order to avoid misunderstanding and accept each other’s viewpoints in order to remove the
barriers and to facilitate proper communication in the organization.

Purposeful and well focused communication: Communication should be purposeful and

directed to an individual. At the end of the Communication, the receiver should not be left to feel that
communication had been meaningless or useless.

Coordination between superior and subordinates: Existence of healthy interpersonal

relationship between the superiors and the subordinates is also an indicator of a good system of
communication existing on any organization. In case the superior thinks on one side, which is different
from the subordinate and vice versa, it will affect the effectiveness of communication. Therefore, there
should be good and proper coordination and cooperation between the superior and subordinate for effective
communication.

Avoid technical language: The specialized language should be avoided. There should be all efforts
to use the language commonly understood by the receiver and sender of the message. There should be least
use of technical jargons in communication process.

Feedback: The selective perception of receiver should be minimized through proper feedback. The
drawback of the selective perception should be explained to minimize the barriers.

Accuracy: There should be accuracy in the message to be transmitted between parties to the
communication to improve its effectiveness.

Clarity in message: The message to be transferred should be clear, practical accurate and without any
ambiguity.
Communication of organizational philosophy:Efforts have to be made in a planned way to
sensitize people with the organizational philosophy. It should be properly communicated to its employees
so that they give proper attention to their day-to-day communication.
Flat organizational structure: The organization should have clear cut and simple organization
structure. Tall hierarchical structure should be removed, and it should be changed to flat structure to avoid
excessive control of information. Wrong information to be transferred to anyone in the organization will
prove detrimental. Proper redesign of organizational structure will reduce the status gap. Status effect can
occur when one person is considerably higher in the hierarchy than another.

Division of labour: There should be proper division of labour between the persons in order to reduce
information overload and prevent delay in information transfer.

Organization policies: The organization should formulate their policies in such a way that it will give
full advantage to all members of the organization. It should be flexible and easy to implement. While
organization’s goal must be clear, everyone must know about his position, his right in the organizational
communication. The network has to be fully developed so that no such type of barriers exists. Moreover,
there should be consistency when message a passed from sender to receiver. One should not introduce his
own view in the message. It must be clear and understood by everyone easily. Timeline in message should
be there. If it is not passed in time, such message will be of no use.

Minimize semantic problem: People use either the same word in different ways or different words
in the same way.
Proper communication channels: If one wants immediate action from the receiver, there is no
need to send a lengthy discussion report. One would probably pick up the telephone or go to his office to
tell him what to do. Remember also that one picture is worth a thousand words, and in this age of computer
graphics, the information can be produced more quickly in this way too.

Right feedback: Although one-way communication is quicker, two-way communication is more

accurate. In complex situations, it helps both sender and receiver to measure their understanding and
improves their joint commitment to the task. It enables both parties to identify and correct
misunderstanding leading to a higher quality of reception and acceptance.

To communicate effectively, we need to overcome all the barriers and own skills to improve the existing
communication abilities.

1.12 Plagiarism:

Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by
incorporating it into your work without full consent.

Types of Plagiarism:
There are different types of plagiarism and all are serious violations of academic honesty.

Direct Plagiarism- Direct plagiarism is the word-for-word transcription of a section of someone else’s
work, without attribution and without quotation marks. The deliberate plagiarism of someone else's work is
unethical, academically dishonest, and grounds for disciplinary actions, including expulsion.
Self Plagiarism- Self-plagiarism occurs when a student submits his or her own previous work, or mixes
parts of previous works, without permission from all professors involved. For example, it would be
unacceptable to incorporate part of a term paper you wrote in high school into a paper assigned in a college
course. Self-plagiarism also applies to submitting the same piece of work for assignments in different
classes without previous permission from both professors.

Mosaic Plagiarism- Mosaic Plagiarism occurs when a student borrows phrases from a source without
using quotation marks, or finds synonyms for the author’s language while keeping to the same general
structure and meaning of the original. Sometimes called “patch writing,” this kind of
paraphrasing, whether intentional or not, is academically dishonest and punishable – even if you footnote
your source!

Accidental Plagiarism- Accidental plagiarism occurs when a person neglects to cite their sources, or
misquotes their sources, or unintentionally paraphrases a source by using similar words, groups of words,
and/or sentence structure without attribution. Students must learn how to cite their sources and to take
careful and accurate notes when doing research. Lack of intent does not absolve the student of
responsibility for plagiarism. Cases of accidental plagiarism are taken as seriously as any other plagiarism
and are subject to the same range of consequences as other types of plagiarism.

Ways to Avoid Plagiarism in a Research Paper:

• Paraphrase your content. Do not copy–paste the text verbatim from the reference paper. ...
• Use Quotations. ...
• Cite your Sources – Identify what does and does not need to be cited. ...
• Maintain records of the sources you refer to. ...
• Use plagiarism checkers.
 1.13 Language Sensitivity:

Language sensitivity is very important to understand because sometimes it's the choice of words that can be
more fierceful than swords.
We must first understand that the way people write, along with the way people speak, is constantly
evolving. Although at times there may be debate over the degree to which language should be reined in to
consider of the sensitivities of various groups, a consensus has emerged in recent decades that the language
we use in communicating with the public should be inclusive and free of bias.
When submitting a paper for publication, it’s important to be aware of the kinds of expressions that can be
perceived as biased to improve your paper’s chances of publication and suitability for a global audience. In
the same way that we check our papers for grammar, spelling and readability, we should be also ensure that
the language we use is inclusive to all who may read it. As writers, we want to hold readers’ attention so
that they will want to read our paper in its entirety. Using language that may offend some readers may
diminish your credibility and keep people from reading your research.
To do this, you must make sure your writing is free of implied judgments based on race or ethnicity,
gender, disability, sexual orientation, or age. For those of us who live in highly homogenous societies or
those with more traditional gender roles, it may be a little harder to pick up on biased-sounding expressions
in our writing. Try putting yourself in others’ shoes: reading your paper, would you feel offended or
excluded if your group was substituted for the one you are discussing? What if you were a member of the
group being discussed? If so, changes are in order.
Writing without prejudice or bias-
Overtly sexist or racist language is rare in scientific documents. Typically biased expression appears in
subtle ways that the author may not even be aware of.
Writing that excludes some groups in favor of others, or treats ethnic/racial groups as unequal creates the
perception that the writer is prejudiced. Similarly, writing that presents men and women as unequal, or
excludes one or the other without reason will be perceived as sexist.
Avoiding sexist language-
Sexism is more common in scientific writing than one might think, although it is often unintentional and
unconscious.
A few examples of sexist expressions:
Enterprising men and creative women have recently shown interest in home-based businesses.(note that
different terminology is used for the genders, suggesting a bias)
Doctors need more free time to spend with their wives and children.
The fact that English has no gender-neutral singular pronoun makes it hard to avoid sexist language. Here
are some alternatives that may help.
1. Using plural constructions
Writing your sentence in the plural may let you avoid using third-person singular pronouns. However,
English grammar rules should still be followed.
Biased: A scientist should carefully document his experiments.
Grammatically incorrect: Every scientist should document their experiments.
Better: Scientists should document their experiments.
2. Gender-neutral titles
There are often good alternatives to gendered titles.
Not inclusive: policeman; chairman; stewardess
Better: police officer; chairperson, flight attendant
3. When referring to people generically, use gender-neutral terms
Not inclusive: man; mankind; manpower
Better: humanity; humankind; staffing
4. Using articles in place of the third person singular possessive
S/he, his/her, and he/she are awkward and diminish readability. One way to avoid this is to use neutral
expressions in place of the possessive form.
Biased: The housekeeper should return her uniform by Wednesday.
Better: The housekeeper should return the uniform by Wednesday. OR Ask the housekeeper to return the
uniform by Wednesday.
Awkward: Each student must check that s/he brings in his/her permission slip.
Better but still awkward: Each student must bring in his or her permission slip.
Best: Each student must bring in a permission slip.

Application:
The teacher will facilitate these activities by showing you the e-learning module for this lesson via
http://www.psscive.ac.in/ Employability_Skills.html. The module will include videos and e-content for the
above topics as well as detailed instructions for some activities below. Initial thinking activity
After watching the initial video in the e-learning lesson for this topic, write the answer of the following
question—why is it important to communicate clearly?
Activity 1 Group Exercise – Role-play on Communication Process
Material Required None
Procedure 1. Form groups of three students each. 2. The situation is that you need to sell some items to an
old couple who has come to your shop. 3. One person can act as the salesperson and the other two as an old
man and his wife. 4. Act out a conversation between the three people. 5. Discuss what you learned from
this.

1.14 Assignment Questions:

1. Discuss principles of successful oral communication.
2. Is there any need to learn how to communicate? What are the three basic aspects to have a successful
communication?
3. Define Communication. Why is it important to have good communication skills for better employment?
4. Draw and describe communication cycle.
5. Explain the barriers to communication. Also discuss the measures to overcome those barriers.
6. Explain the two sides of effective communication.
7. Discuss the different types of non-verbal communication.
8. What is the role of ‘Grapevine’ in organizational communication?
9. What do you mean by ‘Noise’ in communication?
10. How one can avoid plagiarism in his work of writing to make it original?
11.What are the principals of language sensitivity?

State whether the statement is True or False

(i) Oral communication is a form of non-verbal communication –_______

(ii) Written communication is a form of verbal communication –________
(iii) Body language is a form of non-verbal communication ––________
(v) Pointing fingers while talking is a good gesture of communication- _______
(vi) Maintaining eye contact while talking or giving speech is a means of effective communication –
1.15 Books Recommended:
Lesikar, Flatley, Basic Business Communication, 10th Edition, Tata Mcgraw Hill, p.433.

M.J. Mathew, Business Communication, 2008, RBSA Publishers, Jaipur, India.

Meenakshi Raman, Prakash Singh, Business Communication, Oxford University Press, 7th Impression
2008.

PD Chaturvedi, Mukesh Chaturvedi, Business Communication—Concepts, Cases and Applications, 2007,

Pearson Education.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Soft Skills

Personality Development

Individuals think, behave, and feel differently. They demonstrate a set of unique thought and behaviors
pattern. This characteristic thinking and behavior patterns typical to each person form his/her personality.

What is personality?

Personality is a characteristic way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. The concept embraces moods,
attitudes, and opinions and is most clearly expressed in interactions with other people. It includes
behavioral characteristics, both inherent and acquired, that distinguish one person from another and that can
be observed in people’s relations to the environment and to the social group.

There are many definitions of the term personality, but none is universal.

Personality study focuses on two major areas:

1. Consistent differences between people; classifying, explaining relatively stable human /psychological
characteristics

2. Qualities that make people alike (and diff. from other species)

(https://www.apa.org/topics/personality)

Duality; qualities in people, organized in totality of psychological functions

It is assumed that Personality evolves as various external and internal Factors that mold and shape
personality:

The given bestselling books deal with various mysteries and workings of personality:

 Jonathan Livingston Seagull. By Richard Bach.

 Think and Grow Rich. By Napoleon Hill.
 The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. By–well, Marcus Aurelius.
 Steve Jobs. By Walter Isaacson.
 Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
 Stop Acting Rich. By Thomas Stanley.
 As You Think. By James Allen.
 The Magic of Thinking Big. By David Schwartz.
 Talent is overrated Geoff Colvin

Personality Theories

Hippocrates’ humours: explain personality in terms of Physical humour and its association with
temperament:
Blood: sanguine/optimistic, enthusiastic

Black bile: Melancholic

Yellow bile: Choleric, angry, irritable

Phlegm: Phlegmatic; stolid, apathetic, undemonstrative

Morphological (Body Type) Theory: Ernst Kretschmer’ in his book Physique and Character (1921)
explains certain personality related conditions in terms of body type.

 Fail/weak/muscular/athletic bodies: Schizophrenia

 Short /rotund body: maniac/depressive
However, his observations could not be supported by empirical evidence.

Margaret Mead, an American Anthropologist (1930) Studied personality in light of “Social Context” a
person lived in. She examined personality on the basis of aspects such as “Cooperation” “Competition”.

Sigmund Freud’s “Psychoanalysis” is another widely acclaimed concept that defines personality. Freud
was an Austrian neurologist, his studies of psychopathology, psychoanalysis became a more general
perspective on normal personality development and functioning. The field of investigation began with case
studies of so-called neurotic conditions; hysteria, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and phobic conditions.

 Neurotic conditions- psychologically motivated-unconscious psychological processes

 ideas continue to be active, to change, and to influence behaviour even when they are outside of
awareness.

 Desire repressed to match moral considerations

 Neurosis and personality in general came to be viewed as outcomes of conflict between sexual
motivations and defenses against them, the conflict being rooted in early child development.
 Defense mechanism; repression, reaction formation, projection
 Freudian slips

Adler’ views add another dimension to our understanding of personality. He proposed that people
compensated for a behavioral deficiency by exaggerating some other behaviour: a process analogous to
organic processes called hypertrophy, in which, for example, if one eye is injured, the other eye may
compensate by becoming more acute.

 In view, a person with a feeling of inferiority related to a physical or mental inadequacy would
also develop compensating behaviours or symptoms.
 Shortness of stature, for example, could lead to the development of domineering, controlling
behaviours.
 Adler underlined that family dynamics played vital role in personality development. Children’s
position in their family, birth order etc could be defining character traits.

Erik H. Erikson, an American Psychoanalyst, integrated, psychological, social and biological factors and
proposed eight stages of development drives where he adds three more stages to Freud’s five stages model
(Oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital).

The stages proceed in leaps according to what is called an epigenetic process. The term epigenesis,
borrowed from embryology, refers to the predetermined developmental sequence of parts of an organism.
Each part has a special time for its emergence and for its progressive integration within the functioning
whole. Each phase of emergence depends upon the successful completion of the preceding phase.
According to Erikson, environmental forces exercise their greatest effect on development at the earliest
stages of growth, because anything that disturbs one stage affects all of the following stages.

The stages that make up his theory are as follows:

• Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust

• Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
• Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt
• Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority
• Stage 5: Identity vs. Confusion
• Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation
• Stage 7: Generativity vs. Stagnation
• Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair
Source: https://www.verywellmind.com/erik-eriksons-stages-of-psychosocial-development-2795740

Carl Jung: “Collective Consciousness”, “Extroversion” Introversion:

Jung was a Swiss Psychiatrist and an early adherent of Freud’s theories. However, he
questioned Freud’s excessive emphasis on sexual motivations in personality development. Jung
accepted the significant effect of the unconscious processes, but unlike Freud he preferred to
emphasize that behaviour is motivated more by abstract, even spiritual, processes than by
sexual drives. Jung also focused more on individual differences; in particular he developed a
typology of reaction styles, distinguishing between two basic means of modulating basic drives,
introversion and extroversion.

Jung explained introversion as a preoccupation with one’s inner world at the expense of social
interactions while extraversion as a preference for social interplay for living out inner drives
(collectively termed libido). The existence of these two types receives empirical support from
most studies of traits.

“Each person seems to be energized more by either the external world (extraversion) or the
internal world (introversion).” The introvert is more comfortable with the inner world of
thoughts and feelings, so they will see the world in terms of how it affects them.
Jung also questioned absoluteness of extroversion or introversion:

“There is no such thing as a pure introvert or extrovert. Such a person would be in the lunatic asylum.”

Works Cited

 https://www.robinsharma.com/article/the-10-best-personal-development-books
 https://www.apa.org/topics/personality
 https://www.britannica.com/topic/personality

The concept and process of personality development has gained traction in the contemporary professional
work culture where professional growth of young graduates, who have newly joined the work force, is
often seen in terms of their personality traits.

Managers and bosses are noted to complain of lack of their professionalism; self-awareness, responsibility
and accountability, and question their attitude, work habits, communication and critical thought processes.

It is imperative upon the prospective professionals to evaluate and analyse themselves for these qualities.
A good starting point to assess the work place expectations from their personality and their own aspirations
is an objective evaluation of the strength and weaknesses of one’s personality. Such an approach orients an
individual to progress and acquisition of knowledge and suitable skills for a fulfilling profession and work
life equilibrium.

Given the importance of Self Analysis there have been a rise of various self-evaluation tools such as
SWOT, Johari Window, Myers briggs, enneagram and others.

SWOT Analysis
Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-swot-analysis-how-to/395830/

SWOT is shortened form of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. SWOT Analysis is a
strategic planning technique used to evaluate an individual’s (or an organization’s) competitive position by
identifying the characteristics that can be classified as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
respectively.

The SWOT is represented visually as a graphic of four quadrants each of which represents the aspects
evaluated. Strengths and weaknesses are considered internal to the subject while opportunities and threats
are considered external to the subject.
Source: https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/managing-company-culture/0/steps/216763

SWOT Analysis is an invaluable technique for evaluating an entrepreneur who wishes to start a business.
This model is used along with the Business Model Canvas when engaging small business owners in
the Interactive Ideation Session. It is a simple model but can yield profound results when used properly.
More value can be gained from this model when the subject is guided to the level of mapping one quadrant
to others so as to derive bespoke action points.

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

1. 1. 1. 1.

2. 2. 2. 2.

3. 3.

The Johary window Model was designed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham as a tool for discovering self.
Each pane in the model examines aspects of the subject that are apparent to the subject and to external
parties (Open Self), apparent to external parties but not to the subject (Blind Self), apparent to the subject
but not to external parties (Hidden Self) and apparent to no one (Unknown Self).

Interpersonal skills

Interpersonal skills involve the ability to communicate and build relationships with others. Often called
‘people skills’, they tend to incorporate both your innate personality traits and how you’ve learned to
handle certain social situations. Effective interpersonal skills can help you during the job interview process
and can have a positive impact on your career advancement. Interpersonal skills are traits you rely on when
you interact and communicate with others. They cover a variety of scenarios where communication and
cooperation are essential.

Some examples of interpersonal skills include:

• Active listening
• Teamwork
• Responsibility
• Dependability
• Leadership
• Motivation
• Flexibility
• Patience
• Empathy

In a work environment, strong interpersonal skills are an asset that can help you navigate complexity,
change and day-to-day tasks.

Why are interpersonal skills important?

Strong interpersonal skills can help you during the job interview process as interviewers look for applicants
who can work well with others. They will also help you succeed in almost any job by helping you
understand other people and adjusting your approach to work together effectively. For example, while a
software engineer may spend the majority of her time working on code independently, she may need to
collaborate with other programmers to effectively bring a product to market.

This is especially true as more companies implement collaborative agile frameworks to get work done.
Employers will be looking for workers who can both perform technical tasks with excellence and
communicate well with colleagues.

Examples of interpersonal skills

Unlike technical or ‘hard’ skills, interpersonal skills are ‘soft’ skills that are easily transferable across
industries and positions. Employers value interpersonal skills because they contribute to positive work
environments and help maintain an efficient workflow.
Here is a list of interpersonal skills for you to identify the ones you may possess that are valuable to
employers.

Active listening

Active listening means listening to others with the purpose of gathering information and engaging with the
speaker. Active listeners avoid distracting behaviours while in conversation with others. This can mean
putting away or closing laptops or mobile devices while listening and asking and answering questions when
prompted.

Dependability

Dependable people can be relied on in any given situation. This can include anything from being punctual
to keeping promises. Employers highly value dependable workers and trust them with important tasks and
duties.

Empathy

A worker’s ‘emotional intelligence’ is how well they understand the needs and feelings of others.
Employers may hire empathetic or compassionate employees to create a positive, high-functioning
workplace.

Leadership

Leadership is an important interpersonal skill that involves effective decision making. Effective leaders
incorporate many other interpersonal skills like empathy and patience to make decisions. Leadership skills
can be used by both managers and individual contributors. In any role, employers value people who take
ownership to reach common goals.

Teamwork

The ability to work together as a team is extremely valuable in every workplace. Teamwork involves many
other interpersonal skills like communication, active listening, flexibility and responsibility. Those who are
good ‘team players’ are often given important tasks in the workplace and may be seen as good candidates
for promotions.

Jobs that require interpersonal skills

Any job you apply for will require interpersonal skills of some kind. Here are some jobs that rely on strong
interpersonal skills more than others.

Teachers

Teachers need strong interpersonal skills in order to work collaboratively with each other, administrators,
students and parents. An empathic and patient teacher can help students learn and grow effectively in their
education.
Administrative Assistants

Administrative assistants need to be highly dependable among other interpersonal skills. Administrative
assistants also come in contact with customers or clients on a regular basis, making interpersonal skills a
necessary function of the job.

Nurses

Comfort and care for patients is a key skill for nurses. Interpersonal skills of all kinds are integral in this
industry, especially empathy and patience.

Marketing Managers

Marketing requires several technical and soft skills. Interpersonal communication skills are an important
part of marketing and marketing management as marketing professionals not only work collaboratively in
developing marketing campaigns but also with clients and sales teams.

Customer Service Agents

Customer service requires a high level of people skills. Those employed in customer service spend most of
their work hours engaged with customers who may be frustrated, confused or angry. Communication
skills are necessary, especially patience, empathy and active listening.

How to improve interpersonal skills?

While interpersonal skills can seem easy to practice as you interact with others on a daily basis, making a
deliberate plan can help you quickly improve. Consider the following ways to improve your interpersonal
skills.

1. Attend workshops or online classes. There are several workshops, online classes and videos on
ways you can practice building interpersonal skills. While many are free, some are available at a
cost.
2. Seek opportunities to build relationships. If you work from home or do not otherwise have many
opportunities to build interpersonal skills, you might consider joining a group. This could be related
to your work—networking or industry-specific groups—or simply a group that shares a similar
interest or hobby.
3. Be thoughtful about ways your interactions could improve. Take time to review the interactions
you have had and consider ways you could have interacted more effectively. This might be certain
words you said, ways you reacted or body language you used.
4. Ask trusted friends or colleagues for constructive criticism. It is helpful to get a third-party
perspective about your skill level and specific ways you can improve. Ask friends or trusted
colleagues to provide constructive criticism regarding your interpersonal skills.
5. Observe other positive interpersonal interactions. It can also be helpful to learn by observing
others use their interpersonal skills. Observe positive interactions of those around you and apply the
qualities you admire to your own relationships.
6. Seek mentorship. Asking someone you trust, admire and respect to counsel you on improving
interpersonal skills and advancing in your career can be an extremely effective way to learn.

Setting goals for yourself can also provide structure, making your learning more efficient by understanding
when and how you have made adequate improvements.
How to highlight interpersonal skills when applying for jobs?

During the job application and interview phase, you can highlight your interpersonal skills on your resume
and your cover letter. After you are hired, you should continue to maintain your skills and develop new
ones.

Including interpersonal skills on a resume

On your resume, include a few key interpersonal skills under the ‘skills’ section. Generally, the best skills
to put on a resume are those that you are confident will be verified by any of the references you list on your
job application. Review the job posting to understand which of your skills are most relevant to the job
you’re applying for and which you should prioritise on your resume.

Your resume skills section may look like this.

Technical skills: POS Systems, Excel, HTML, Digital Phone Systems

Additional skills: Effective Team Player, Highly Communicative and Cooperative, Active Listener,
Innovative Researcher

You can also provide examples of your interpersonal skills in the ‘experience’ section of your resume. Do
this by including concrete examples of how you worked with others and the results you achieved. For
example, collaborated with designers, copywriters and strategists on a rebranding initiative that resulted in
a 30 percent increase in website visits.

Including interpersonal skills on a cover letter

For your cover letter, you may want to focus on one strong, relevant interpersonal skill. This can help the
employer get a good idea about an area you see as one of your strengths. You may also want to briefly
explain how that skill can benefit the employer and create a good work relationship.

An example section highlighting your skills in a cover letter could look like the following.

With my previous employer, I was often called upon to help form collaborative teams. My managers
pointed to my ability to listen and understand my colleagues’ strengths to best determine how to assign
effective roles._

Interpersonal skills in a job interview and on the job

Your interpersonal skills will be necessary both during the job interview and on the job.

During your job interview, the hiring manager may be looking to see how actively you listen, whether you
maintain eye contact and if you are courteous and respectful. The job interview is also a good opportunity
to show dependability. Arriving early for your interview, for example, shows you are serious about the
interview and respect the interviewer’s time.

Once you successfully get a job, you will continue to rely on interpersonal skills. By demonstrating that
you are dependable, taking the initiative to lead and having a positive impact on your colleagues, you can
develop a strong reputation as a collaborative teammate.
Interpersonal communication skills are increasingly valued by employers in every industry. Regardless of
what type of career you are looking to enter, your ability to work well with your colleagues and employer
may make a good impression and result in positive career growth.

Easily apply to jobs with an Indeed Resume

https://in.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/interpersonal-skills

Time management,

Time Management Skills: Definition and Examples

12 February 2021

Share

Time management is the method of planning and balancing your time between different activities. Good
time management helps you to complete a given task in a specific time frame amidst challenges and tight
schedules. When you manage your schedule and deadlines, strong time management skills help you better
your reputation and move ahead in the workplace.

In this article, we discuss the meaning of time management, its importance and how you can both improve
upon and showcase your skills during the job search.

Time Management

Time management skills are those that help you use your time effectively and achieve desired results. Time
management skills can help you allocate your time properly and accomplish tasks efficiently. Some of the
most important skills related to successful time management skills include:

• Organisation
• Prioritsation
• Goal setting
• Communication
• Planning
• Delegation
• Stress management
• Flexibility

Organisation

Staying organised helps you to keep track of your responsibilities and priorities, like what you need to do
first and when to do the rest of it. An organised list of tasks acts as a map to guide you from morning to
evening and helps increase your productivity. A well-organised plan helps you break down large goals into
smaller, easily achievable tasks and enables you to complete those tasks on time.

Prioritisation
Prioritisation is the key to successful time management. When you prioritise your daily tasks, you ensure
that you will complete the important tasks first. Write down every single task starting with the top priority.
For instance, you can break down your tasks as the following:

• A-level tasks: Things that will lead to major consequences if not done today
• B-level tasks: Activities that may have a negative effect if not completed today
• C-level tasks: Activities that have no consequence if not completed today

Goal setting

Goal setting is the process of defining your aims and objectives with a certain plan to help you achieve the
set goals. Setting goals is a key step in excelling as a professional. Without goals, you may find it
challenging to complete your tasks in a well-organised manner. Setting both short- and long-term goals can
lead to success in your career. An example of a short-term goal may be to increase sales in your department
by 40%. A long-term goal could be something like completing law school or starting your own business.

Communication

Communication skills are a major component of success in life. Effective communication promotes trust
and makes your plans and goals clear to people you work with. It plays a crucial role in resolving conflicts
and preventing potential conflict situations. Strong communication helps you delegate more work, which
lets you focus on important task that support your goals.

Planning

Planning is the core of time management. With a proper plan, you can prioritise your tasks accordingly,
which can help avoid confusion and unnecessary stress. A planned work schedule helps you complete the
tasks in the given time frame. For example, a plan for a project manager might include ordering supplies,
scheduling labour, acquiring the proper permits and so on.

Delegation

It is an important process to manage multiple tasks satisfactorily. While managing a project, you can
delegate some of the tasks to your subordinates. This will help in reducing your workload so that you can
focus more on important tasks, such as planning, business analysis and others.

Stress management

Positively handling stress keeps you motivated and helps you complete tasks at the scheduled time against
all adversities. Exercise, yoga or having snacks during breaks can help you reduce stress. In fact, including
stress-relieving activities or self-care rituals into your daily schedule can positively impact your
productivity on work-related tasks throughout the day.

Flexibility

It's vital that you maintain some flexibility in your schedule. Often, a task will take longer than you expect
or your supervisor will give you a priority task you weren't expecting. Clearly note in your daily schedule
where you have space to adjust in preparation for last-minute changes.
Why are time management skills important?

If you want to excel in life, you have to respect the importance of time and find a way to manage it
efficiently. Time management skills help you systematically organise your tasks and accomplish them by
their deadline.

For example, if you are looking for a job, you need to devote time to updating your resume, searching for
job openings, researching good companies for openings, applying and preparing for interviews. Setting
aside some specific time daily for the job-related tasks can help you in getting the right job. For example,
managing your time properly can give you more time to read job postings thoroughly and finding the ones
that best suit your needs.

Proper time management allows you to be creative and proactive with your goals. With a well-defined time
frame for each workplace task, you can ensure you're contributing to the company in a reliable way.

How to improve your time management skills

With limited time at your disposal and numerous tasks to accomplish in your professional and personal life,
time management is a challenging task. Whether you're an executive or a job aspirant, better time
management skills can not only help you become a better employee but also a strong candidate while
applying for new opportunities. Some ways to improve your time management skills are given below:

1. Prepare a schedule and follow it strictly

2. Set some boundaries for yourself
3. Fix deadlines
4. Set long- and short-term goals
5. Manage your calendar effectively
6. Prioritise your assignments

1. Prepare a schedule and follow it strictly

Organise your days and weeks well in advance. There might be unforeseen circumstances, so take into
account the kinds of challenges that may arise in your work and budget time around your tasks and
responsibilities. Spend some days tracking everything you do. This will help you identify recurring tasks,
which you can include in your schedule.

2. Set some boundaries for yourself

If you want to accomplish tasks on time without any distraction, you need to inform your team and family
members about your limitations and when you aren't available. Be sure to communicate your limits in a
polite, direct manner. Make it clear to everybody which hours of the day you prefer not to be disturbed at
all, except in case of an emergency. During these times, set your phone to do-not-disturb and close any
chatting applications on your computer to help you focus exclusively on the task at hand.

3. Fix deadlines

When you have a task, set a realistic deadline and strictly follow it. The deadline should be a few days
before the delivery date whenever possible so that you can review the tasks and implement corrective
measures. Keep an eye on the progress of the work and provide timely feedback to ensure that the project is
not deviating from its course.

4. Set long- and short-term goals

Set at least one long-term goal that you wish to achieve. These goals give an idea of what direction you
want your life to go in. However, every long-term goal needs related short-term goals as well, as they keep
you on track and motivate you to realise your long-term goals. For example, if your objective is to get a
promotion within six months, you need to set the short-term goal of improving certain skill sets related to
the new position. Your goals should follow the SMART goal strategy to be Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Relevant and Time-based.

5. Manage your calendar effectively

A calendar is one of the most important tools to manage your time, productivity and effectiveness. A
calendar allows you to stay caught up on your appointments while giving you a physical space to plan what
you need to do first and when, why your involvement is required and what you can complete at a later date.
You might consider reserving certain brackets of time regularly for meetings or important tasks.

6. Prioritise your assignments

Prioritisation is one of the cornerstones of productivity as it can help with everything from time
management to work-life balance. You can practise prioritisation by including tasks in one master list then
breaking it down by daily goals, weekly goals and monthly goals. One way to help you prioritise your
schedule is to separate time-bound and important tasks:

• Important, but not time-bound tasks: Decide when you'll do these and schedule them in your
calendar.
• Time-bound tasks: Add these to your immediate to-do list. If necessary, find colleagues to assist
you to ensure these tasks meet their deadlines.

Team Building
Definition: Team building is a management technique used for improving the efficiency and performance
of the workgroups through various activities. It involves a lot of skills, analysis and observation for forming
a strong and capable team. The whole sole motive here is to achieve the organization vision and objectives.

Now, you must be wondering; How to Build a Great Team?

Forming a great team requires a lot of skills and presence of mind. Usually, some managers specialize in
team-building skills and are hired by the companies on this parameter.

The manager responsible for team building must be able to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the
team members and create the right mix of people with different skill sets. He must focus on developing
strong interpersonal relations and trust among the team members. The manager must
encourage communication and interaction among the team members and also reduce stress with the help of
various team-building activities.

He must clearly define the goals and objectives of the organization to the team members. He must also
specify the role of each member in the team to direct them towards the achievement of the organizational
goals.
Team Building Process

Team building is not a one-time act. It is a step by step process which aims at bringing a desirable change
in the organization. Teams are usually formed for a particular task or project and are mostly for the short
term. The various steps involved in team building are as
follows:

Identify the Need for Team Building

The manager has first to analyze the requirement of a team for completing a particular task. It should find
out the purpose of the work to be performed, required skills for the job and its complexity before forming a
team.

Define Objectives and Required Set of Skills

Next comes the chalking down of the organizational objectives and the skills needed to fulfil it.

Consider Team Roles

The manager considers the various aspects, i.e. the interactions among the individuals, their roles and
responsibilities, strengths and weaknesses, composition and suitability of the possible team members.
 Determine a Team Building Strategy

Now, the manager has to understand the operational framework well to ensure an effective team building.
He must himself be assured of the objectives, roles, responsibilities, duration, availability of resources,
training, the flow of information, feedback and building trust in the team.

Develop a Team of Individuals

At this stage, the individuals are collected to form a team together. Each member is made familiar with his
roles and responsibilities within the team.

Establish and Communicate the Rules

The rules regarding the reporting of team members, meeting schedules, and decision making within the
team are discussed. The individuals are encouraged to ask questions and give their views to develop open
and healthy communication in the team.

Identify Individual’s Strengths

Various team-building exercises are conducted to bring out the strengths of the individuals. It also helps in
familiarizing the team members with each other’s strengths and weakness.

Be a Part of the Team

At this point, the manager needs to get involved with the team as a member and not as a boss. Making the
individuals realize their importance in the team and treating each member equally is necessary. The team
members should see their manager as their team leader, mentor and role model.

Monitor Performance

Next step is checking the productivity and performance of the team as a whole. It involves finding out
loopholes and the reasons for it. This step is necessary to improve the team’s performance and productivity
in the long run.

Schedule Meetings

One of the most crucial steps is to hold purposeful meetings from time to time to discuss team performance,
task-related problems and discuss the future course of action.

Dissolve the Team

Lastly, the manager needs to evaluate the results and reward the individuals on their contribution and
achievement. Finally, the team is dispersed on the fulfilment of the objective for which it was formed.

Advantages of Team Building: Team building has radically evolved as a technique to develop and
manage effective teams in the workplace. The aim to achieve long-term organizational objectives
developed the need for carrying out team building activities frequently.
Personal Goal Setting : Planning to Live Your Life Your Way

Many people feel as if they're adrift in the world. They work hard, but they don't seem to get anywhere
worthwhile. A key reason that they feel this way is that they haven't spent enough time thinking about what
they want from life, and haven't set themselves formal goals. After all, would you set out on a major
journey with no real idea of your destination? Probably not!

How to Set a Goal

First consider what you want to achieve, and then commit to it. Set SMART (specific, measureable,
attainable, relevant and time-bound) goals that motivate you and write them down to make them feel
tangible. Then plan the steps you must take to realize your goal, and cross off each one as you work
through them.

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn
your vision of this future into reality.

The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you
want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You'll also quickly spot the
distractions that can, so easily, lead you astray.

Why Set Goals?

Top-level athletes, successful businesspeople and achievers in all fields all set goals. Setting goals gives
you long-term vision and short-term motivation . It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you
to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the most of your life.
By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals,
and you'll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. You will also
raise your self-confidence , as you recognize your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that
you've set.

Starting to Set Personal Goals

You set your goals on a number of levels:

• First you create your "big picture" of what you want to do with your life (or over, say, the next
10 years), and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.

• Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach
your lifetime goals.

• Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve these goals.
This is why we start the process of setting goals by looking at your lifetime goals. Then, we work down to
the things that you can do in, say, the next five years, then next year, next month, next week, and today, to
start moving towards them.

Step 1: Setting Lifetime Goals

The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or at least,
by a significant and distant age in the future). Setting lifetime goals gives you the overall perspective that
shapes all other aspects of your decision making.

To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of the
following categories (or in other categories of your own, where these are important to you):

• Career – What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve?
• Financial – How much do you want to earn, by what stage? How is this related to your career
goals?
• Education – Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and
skills will you need to have in order to achieve other goals?
• Family – Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do
you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?
• Artistic – Do you want to achieve any artistic goals?
• Attitude – Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you
behave that upsets you? (If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the
problem.)
• Physical – Are there any athletic goals that you want to achieve, or do you want good health
deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
• Pleasure – How do you want to enjoy yourself? (You should ensure that some of your life is
for you!)
• Public Service – Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?
Spend some time brainstorming these things, and then select one or more goals in each category that best
reflect what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a small number of really
significant goals that you can focus on.
As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not
ones that your parents, family, or employers might want. (If you have a partner, you probably want to
consider what he or she wants – however, make sure that you also remain true to yourself!)

Step 2: Setting Smaller Goals

Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you
are to reach your lifetime plan.

Then create a one-year plan, six-month plan, and a one-month plan of progressively smaller goals that you
should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.
Then create a daily To-Do List of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals.
At an early stage, your smaller goals might be to read books and gather information on the achievement of
your higher level goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.

Finally, review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life.

Staying on Course

Once you've decided on your first set of goals, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your To-
Do List on a daily basis.

Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and
experience. (A good way of doing this is to schedule regular, repeating reviews using a computer-based
diary.)

SMART Goals

A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of
variants (some of which we've included in parenthesis), SMART usually stands for:
• S – Specific (or Significant).
• M – Measurable (or Meaningful).
• A – Attainable (or Action-Oriented).
• R – Relevant (or Rewarding).
• T – Time-bound (or Trackable).
For example, instead of having "to sail around the world" as a goal, it's more powerful to use the SMART
goal "To have completed my trip around the world by December 31, 2027." Obviously, this will only be
attainable if a lot of preparation has been completed beforehand!

Further Tips for Setting Your Goals

The following broad guidelines will help you to set effective, achievable goals:

• State each goal as a positive statement – Express your goals positively – "Execute this
technique well" is a much better goal than "Don't make this stupid mistake."
• Be precise – Set precise goals, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure
achievement. If you do this, you'll know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can
take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.
• Set priorities – When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid
feeling overwhelmed by having too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most
important ones.
• Write goals down – This crystallizes them and gives them more force.
 • Keep operational goals small – Keep the low-level goals that you're working towards small
and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress
towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward.
• Set performance goals, not outcome goals – You should take care to set goals over which
you have as much control as possible. It can be quite dispiriting to fail to achieve a personal
goal for reasons beyond your control!
In business, these reasons could be bad business environments or unexpected effects of
government policy. In sport, they could include poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain
bad luck.

If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep control over the
achievement of your goals, and draw satisfaction from them.

• Set realistic goals – It's important to set goals that you can achieve. All sorts of people (for
example, employers, parents, media, or society) can set unrealistic goals for you. They will
often do this in ignorance of your own desires and ambitions.
It's also possible to set goals that are too difficult because you might not appreciate either the
obstacles in the way, or understand quite how much skill you need to develop to achieve a
particular level of performance.

Achieving Goals

When you've achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so. Absorb the
implications of the goal achievement, and observe the progress that you've made towards other goals.

If the goal was a significant one, reward yourself appropriately. All of this helps you build the self-
confidence you deserve.

With the experience of having achieved this goal, review the rest of your goal plans:

• If you achieved the goal too easily, make your next goal harder.

• If the goal took a dispiriting length of time to achieve, make the next goal a little easier.

• If you learned something that would lead you to change other goals, do so.

• If you noticed a deficit in your skills despite achieving the goal, decide whether to set goals to
fix this. Feed lessons you have learned back into the process of setting your next goals.
Remember too that your goals will change as time goes on. Adjust them regularly to reflect
growth in your knowledge and experience, and if goals do not hold any attraction any longer,
consider letting them go.
Example Personal Goals

For her New Year's Resolution, Susan has decided to think about what she really wants to do with her life.

Her lifetime goals are as follows:

• Career – "To be managing editor of the magazine that I work for."

• Artistic – "To keep working on my illustration skills. Ultimately I want to have my own show
in our downtown gallery."
• Physical – "To run a marathon."
Now that Susan has listed her lifetime goals, she then breaks down each one into smaller, more manageable
goals.

Let's take a closer look at how she might break down her lifetime career goal – becoming managing editor
of her magazine:

• Five-year goal: "Become deputy editor."

• One-year goal: "Volunteer for projects that the current Managing Editor is heading up."
• Six-month goal: "Go back to school and finish my journalism degree."
• One-month goal: "Talk to the current managing editor to determine what skills are needed to
do the job."
• One-week goal: "Book the meeting with the Managing Editor."
As you can see from this example, breaking big goals down into smaller, more manageable goals makes it
far easier to see how the goal will get accomplished.

Key Points

Goal setting is an important method for:

• Deciding what you want to achieve in your life.

• Separating what's important from what's irrelevant, or a distraction.

• Motivating yourself.

• Building your self-confidence, based on successful achievement of goals.

Set your lifetime goals first. Then, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you are
to reach your lifetime plan. Keep the process going by regularly reviewing and updating your goals. And
remember to take time to enjoy the satisfaction of achieving your goals when you do so.

If you don't already set goals, do so, starting now. As you make this technique part of your life, you'll find
your career accelerating, and you'll wonder how you did without it!
This site teaches you the skills you need for a happy and successful career; and this is just one of many
tools and resources that you'll find here at Mind Tools. Subscribe to our free newsletter, or join the Mind
Tools Club and really supercharge your career!

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Personal Goal Setting

Many people feel as if they're adrift in the world. They work hard, but they don't seem to get anywhere
worthwhile.

A key reason that they feel this way is that they haven't spent enough time thinking about what they want
from life, and haven't set themselves formal goals. After all, would you set out on a major journey with no
real idea of your destination? Probably not!

How to?

First consider what you want to achieve, and then commit to it. Set SMART (specific, measureable,
attainable, relevant and time-bound) goals that motivate you and write them down to make them feel
tangible. Then plan the steps you must take to realize your goal, and cross off each one as you work
through them.

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn
your vision of this future into reality.

The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you
want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You'll also quickly spot the
distractions that can, so easily, lead you astray.

Why fix goals?

Top-level athletes, successful businesspeople and achievers in all fields all set goals. Setting goals gives
you long-term vision and short-term motivation . It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you
to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the most of your life.
By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals,
and you'll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. You will also
raise your self-confidence , as you recognize your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that
you've set.

First steps to setting personal goal

You set your goals on a number of levels:

• First you create your "big picture" of what you want to do with your life (or over, say, the next
10 years), and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.

• Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach
your lifetime goals.

• Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve these goals.

This is why we start the process of setting goals by looking at your lifetime goals. Then, we work down to
the things that you can do in, say, the next five years, then next year, next month, next week, and today, to
start moving towards them.

Step 1: Setting Lifetime Goals

The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or at least,
by a significant and distant age in the future). Setting lifetime goals gives you the overall perspective that
shapes all other aspects of your decision making.

To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of the
following categories (or in other categories of your own, where these are important to you):

• Career – What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve?
• Financial – How much do you want to earn, by what stage? How is this related to your career
goals?
• Education – Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and
skills will you need to have in order to achieve other goals?
• Family – Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do
you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?
• Artistic – Do you want to achieve any artistic goals?
• Attitude – Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you
behave that upsets you? (If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the
problem.)
• Physical – Are there any athletic goals that you want to achieve, or do you want good health
deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
 • Pleasure – How do you want to enjoy yourself? (You should ensure that some of your life is
for you!)
• Public Service – Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?
Spend some time brainstorming these things, and then select one or more goals in each category that best
reflect what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a small number of really
significant goals that you can focus on.
As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not
ones that your parents, family, or employers might want. (If you have a partner, you probably want to
consider what he or she wants – however, make sure that you also remain true to yourself!)

Step 2: Setting Smaller Goals

Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you
are to reach your lifetime plan.

Then create a one-year plan, six-month plan, and a one-month plan of progressively smaller goals that you
should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.

Then create a daily to do list of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals.
At an early stage, your smaller goals might be to read books and gather information on the achievement of
your higher level goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.

Finally, review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life.

Staying on Course

Once you've decided on your first set of goals, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your To-
Do List on a daily basis.

Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and
experience. (A good way of doing this is to schedule regular, repeating reviews using a computer-based
diary.)

SMART Goals

A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of
variants (some of which we've included in parenthesis), SMART usually stands for:
• S – Specific (or Significant).
• M – Measurable (or Meaningful).
• A – Attainable (or Action-Oriented).
• R – Relevant (or Rewarding).
• T – Time-bound (or Trackable).
For example, instead of having "to sail around the world" as a goal, it's more powerful to use the SMART
goal "To have completed my trip around the world by December 31, 2027." Obviously, this will only be
attainable if a lot of preparation has been completed beforehand!

Further Tips for Setting Your Goals

The following broad guidelines will help you to set effective, achievable goals:

• State each goal as a positive statement – Express your goals positively – "Execute this
technique well" is a much better goal than "Don't make this stupid mistake."
• Be precise – Set precise goals, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure
achievement. If you do this, you'll know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can
take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.
• Set priorities – When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid
feeling overwhelmed by having too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most
important ones.
• Write goals down – This crystallizes them and gives them more force.
• Keep operational goals small – Keep the low-level goals that you're working towards small
and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress
towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward.
• Set performance goals, not outcome goals – You should take care to set goals over which
you have as much control as possible. It can be quite dispiriting to fail to achieve a personal
goal for reasons beyond your control!
In business, these reasons could be bad business environments or unexpected effects of
government policy. In sport, they could include poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain
bad luck.

If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep control over the
achievement of your goals, and draw satisfaction from them.

• Set realistic goals – It's important to set goals that you can achieve. All sorts of people (for
example, employers, parents, media, or society) can set unrealistic goals for you. They will
often do this in ignorance of your own desires and ambitions.
It's also possible to set goals that are too difficult because you might not appreciate either the
obstacles in the way, or understand quite how much skill you need to develop to achieve a
particular level of performance.

Achieving Goals

When you've achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so. Absorb the
implications of the goal achievement, and observe the progress that you've made towards other goals.
If the goal was a significant one, reward yourself appropriately. All of this helps you build the self-
confidence you deserve.

With the experience of having achieved this goal, review the rest of your goal plans:

• If you achieved the goal too easily, make your next goal harder.

• If the goal took a dispiriting length of time to achieve, make the next goal a little easier.

• If you learned something that would lead you to change other goals, do so.

• If you noticed a deficit in your skills despite achieving the goal, decide whether to set goals to
fix this.

Example Personal Goals

For her New Year's Resolution, Susan has decided to think about what she really wants to do with her life.

Her lifetime goals are as follows:

• Career – "To be managing editor of the magazine that I work for."

• Artistic – "To keep working on my illustration skills. Ultimately I want to have my own show
in our downtown gallery."
• Physical – "To run a marathon."
Now that Susan has listed her lifetime goals, she then breaks down each one into smaller, more manageable
goals.

Let's take a closer look at how she might break down her lifetime career goal – becoming managing editor
of her magazine:

• Five-year goal: "Become deputy editor."

• One-year goal: "Volunteer for projects that the current Managing Editor is heading up."
• Six-month goal: "Go back to school and finish my journalism degree."
• One-month goal: "Talk to the current managing editor to determine what skills are needed to
do the job."
• One-week goal: "Book the meeting with the Managing Editor."
As you can see from this example, breaking big goals down into smaller, more manageable goals makes it
far easier to see how the goal will get accomplished.

Key Points

Goal setting is an important method for:

• Deciding what you want to achieve in your life.

 • Separating what's important from what's irrelevant, or a distraction.

• Motivating yourself.

Career Planning

Career planning is the self-evaluation & planning done by a person to have a strong career path. Career
planning process in the continuous reiterative process of understanding oneself, setting career goals,
revising skills and searching for the right career options.

Importance of Career Planning

Career planning is a step-wise process which enables an individual to focus on where to want to be in life
professionally. With the short-term goal and the long-term goals in place, It can help to plan their journey
in their professional life. Self-assessment is necessary to understand one’s capabilities and drawbacks. The
various career options should be explored in detail to find a fit between one’s abilities and the opportunities
provided by a career option. It involves continuous learning and improvement to build and growth in the
chosen career path. A good career planning helps a person grow in life in their professional career, which
also help them grow personally.

Steps in the Career Planning Process

Career planning process is an important aspect for an individual’s career development. Some of the basic
steps in a career planning process are:
1. Self-Assessment: The first step in the process is self-assessment to be done by the individual to
understand his or her skills, areas of interest etc.
2. Research on Careers: The second step in the process is to understand the career options, companies
available, growth options in career etc.
3. Set Career Objectives: The next step in the career planning is to set short-term as well as long-term
career goals for oneself, and to have a clear career path.
4. Learn & Improve Skills: The fourth step in the process is to keep acquiring new skills and knowledge to
be in line with career objectives and with industry requirements.
5. Preparation of CV: The next step in the planning process is to be fully prepared in terms of CV, cover
letter, recommendations etc.
6. Job Search: The sixth step is to short-list the companies where an individual is seeking a job & start
applying.
7. Revise Career Goals: The last step in the career planning process is to continuously evaluate the career
goals and again do a self-assessment to build a strong career path.

Career Planning Example

Let us take an example of an engineer AJ who has recently graduated and is interested in robotics. to start
the planning, AJ has to first assess what kind of robotics he is interested in and what is his skill level. After
that, he needs to set the objectives with time box approach on how he wants to grow in his robotics career.
If there are gaps, he needs to take trainings and courses to reduce the gaps and search for jobs may be in
manufacturing and automotive sector where robotics are natural fit. If successful in securing suitable job,
career planning can be more precise based on the hands on experience in the field and then the goals and
objective can be defined for new career trajectory.
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Leadership Skills

Leadership skills can help you in all aspects of your career, from applying for jobs to seeking career
advancement. It is one of many soft skills that employers value. Leadership skills often incorporate several
different personality traits and communication abilities that are useful for anyone to learn and practice over
time.

What are leadership skills?

Leadership skills are skills you use when organising other people to reach a shared goal. Whether you’re in
a management position or leading a project, leadership skills require you to motivate others to complete a
series of tasks often according to a schedule. Leadership is not just one skill but rather a combination of
several different skills working together.

Some examples of skills that make a strong leader include:

• Patience
• Empathy
• Active listening
• Reliability
• Dependability
• Creativity
• Positivity
• Effective feedback
• Timely communication
• Team building
• Flexibility
• Risk-taking
• Ability to teach and mentor

Why are leadership skills important?

Effective leaders are essential to any organisation. They can help build strong teams within a business and
ensure projects, initiatives or other work functions are performed successfully. Because the skills of a
leader involve multiple interpersonal and communication skills, anyone can exercise and hone their
leadership abilities.

Most people have seen the results of both effective and ineffective leaders on the job. Good leaders
increase employee engagement, support a positive environment and help remove obstacles for their team.
Good leadership is also contagious, inspiring colleagues to apply positive leadership traits in their own
work.

Top 6 leadership skills

Almost any positive soft skill might be considered a leadership skill. For example, active listening helps
leaders bring projects to completion by hearing the ideas and concerns of the team. Empathy, for example,
helps leaders understand how their team feels about their workload, environment and workplace
relationships.

Here is a list of must-have leadership skills that may prove valuable to anyone applying for work or looking
to advance in a career.

1. Decisiveness

Effective leaders are those who can make decisions quickly with the information they have. Effective
decision-making comes with time and experience. As you become more familiar with your specific
industry, you’ll be able to make decisions faster, even when you don’t have all of the necessary
information. Decisiveness is seen as a valuable leadership skill because it can help move projects along
faster and improve efficiency.

2. Integrity

Integrity is often seen as just truthfulness or honesty but in many cases, it also means having and standing
by a set of strong values. Integrity in the workplace often means being able to make ethical choices and
helping the company maintain a positive image. All businesses seek to hire workers who have a strong
sense of integrity.

3. Relationship building (or team building)

Leadership requires the ability to build and maintain a strong and collaborative team of individuals working
towards the same goal. Team building requires other leadership strengths like effective communication
skills and conflict resolution.

4. Problem-solving

Good leaders are skilled at solving issues that arise on the job. Effective problem-solving often requires
staying calm and identifying a step-by-step solution. Problem-solving skills can help leaders make quick
decisions, resolve obstacles with their team and external teams alike and ensure projects are completed on
time according to specifications.

5. Dependability

Being a dependable leader means that people can trust and rely on you. A dependable person follows
through on plans and keeps promises. The strong relationships built by a dependable leader create a
resilient team that is able to work through difficulties that may arise.

6. Ability to teach and mentor

One of the skills that differentiates leadership from many other competencies is the ability to teach and
mentor. Effectively teaching colleagues or subordinates how to grow in their careers helps organisations
scale. Often, this skill requires that leaders think less about themselves and more about how to make their
team, as a whole, successful.

How to improve your leadership skills

You can practice good leadership skills in any role, at any level. For example, showing up on time to
meetings and meeting deadlines show dependability. Offering support and coaching to less experienced
colleagues is also an example of leadership. If it seems like a good fit for you, you might consider seeking
out leadership roles to develop and practice your leadership skills.

Here are some examples of additional ways you can develop your leadership skills.

Identify your leadership style

While you will use different styles of leadership for different occasions, identifying your leadership
style can help you refine specific skills that will be effective for your team or project. You might use your
team or project’s goals to help identify what leadership styles will be most effective for you.

Find resources like books or podcasts about leadership

A self-study on leadership may help you get a better understanding of how to develop your leadership
skills. Many books on the subject exist including the 1937 Dale Carnegie book, How to Win Friends and
Influence People, which has been a favourite among many business leaders for decades. There are also
many podcasts and video workshops you can find offered at no cost online.

Participate in leadership training courses or workshops

You can find both in-person and online courses that help teach leadership skills. In-person courses, in
particular, often include practice sessions and role play.

Find leadership activities outside of work

If you have trouble finding leadership opportunities on the job, you may be able to find them outside of
your workplace. This can include taking the lead in organising activities or work outings with your
colleagues.

Study leadership styles you admire

When you see leaders you admire whether they are at your job or in your community, take note of the
specific qualities they have that make them a great leader. Focus on ways you can develop those qualities
and apply them in your work. It might also be helpful to set specific goals towards developing one practice
at a time.

Find a mentor

The best way to learn is by studying under those you admire most. If possible, ask a leader you respect to
mentor you on a weekly or monthly basis. They can help you set goals towards becoming a better leader by
developing skills and using them.

How to highlight leadership skills when applying for jobs

If being a leader is one of your career goals, you should include leadership skills on your resume. Try
incorporating key traits you possess that may be valuable to future employers. You may be able to present
those skills in different areas of your resume such as the skills and achievements sections as well as in the
experience section. Your cover letter is also a good place to showcase leadership ability.

Leadership skills for resume

The two sections where you can include your leadership skills on your resume or Indeed Resume are your
skills section and the achievements section. The skills section can include leadership skills that you believe
any of your professional references can verify on your behalf.

Meanwhile, your achievements list can include awards or honours that reflect leadership.

Leadership skills for cover letter

Your cover letter provides an opportunity to help a potential employer understand you better. To share
leadership skills in a cover letter, pick one or two accomplishments and describe which skill you used and
what the outcome was. For example, if you were the project manager for an important initiative, you might
explain how you brought the team together around a shared goal and include a metric that demonstrates the
success of the project.

Leadership skills can be the foundation of career advancement for both managers and individual
contributors. Employers of all sizes value people with leadership traits, meaning this is a worthwhile skill
set to develop in any industry.

Emotional Intelligence

The concept of emotional intelligence has relevance in the context of personality trait of adaptability. In
this fast changing world rigidity and unwillingness to change can be an obstacle in the path of progress and
peace. A snake, if it does not cast its skin, would die. Many a times, people find it difficult to change. These
people are said to lack emotional intelligence and have low self-esteem therefore are unable to adapt to a
newer situations and face challenges.

Intelligence Quotient Vs Emotional Quotient

Intelligence quotient or IQ is a common term often valorised as a mark of a person’s strength while the
term Emotional Quotient (EQ) is rarely encountered in such context, in common parlance. Intellect had
been central to evaluation of human strength. While emotions have been perceived as signs of weakness.

Given this backdrop the term emotional intelligence may amuse many of us as somewhat paradoxical.

To understand emotional intelligence we must look at some questions regarding emotions. Where do
emotions live?, for example.
New research in the 1990s confirmed that there is an emotional brain a place called limbic system where
our emotions originate. It is separated from the neocortex or rational brain but both are connected and grow
together. This means that our power to reason and our feelings are intended to be used together.

Because of the brain’s design, all information goes into our emotional centre first and then to our thinking
centre. emotions come before thought and behaviour. our feeling are crucial for energy and creativity if we
block or ignore emotions we stifle motivation.

Emotional intelligence is a term used to describe complex ability to “regulate our impulses, empathise with
others and be resilient in the face of difficulty.” It is about realising that being emotional is being human
but emotions can be both friend or enemy, and therefore, they require careful handling. Certain negative
emotions such as anger, fear, and grief, are harmful and have the power to even destroy our lives. Buddha
said, “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else: you are
the one who gets burned.”

However, at times even positive emotion such as joy too needs to have a moderate display.

Emotions hijack rational thinking and leads to random decisions and actions.

Unchecked show of anger is not only cause stress but can cost us relationship and friendship. On the other
hand our ability to regulate and manage anger leads to self-excellence.

Benjamin franklin said, “Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.”

The origin of anger is related to “psycho- neurological phenomenon” besides it roots have also been traced
to “value system,” and “sense of values” (Wentz, 93) Anger as a problem solving strategy can cascade into
more problems.

Charles Darvin credited emotions as a booster to the behaviour needed to survive. In 1920 E I Thorndike
identified “Social intelligence” as the ability to act wisely in human relation. The term was coined by
Reuven Bar on in 1988. In 1990 John Mayer and Peter Salovey pointed to the importance of self-awareness
and understanding others. Daniel Goleman in 1995 introduced the significance of EQ in workplace and as a
marker of leadership in his eponymous book Emotional Intelligence.

Components of EI

1. Self-awareness; Implies emotional awareness, accurate self-assessment, strengths, weaknesses,

self-confidence
 2. Self-management: self-control destructive emotions be dependable trustworthiness,
Conscientiousness, adaptability: respond positively.

3. Social awareness: implies empathy, attitude to serve, listening, tuning into the feeling of those
around us. It also incorporates respect for diversity and political awareness.

4. Social skills: Skills to persuade, communicate, leadership, harbinger of change; introduce and
manage, conflict management, collaboration and teamwork

Self-esteem: Self-esteem is shaped by your thoughts, relationships and experiences. Understand the range
of self-esteem and the benefits of having a healthy opinion of yourself.

Self-esteem is your overall opinion of yourself — how you feel about your abilities and limitations. When
you have healthy self-esteem, you feel good about yourself and see yourself as deserving the respect of
others. When you have low self-esteem, you put little value on your opinions and ideas. You might
constantly worry that you aren't good enough.

Here's how to tell if your self-esteem needs a boost and why it's important to develop a healthy sense of
your own worth.

Factors that shape and influence self-esteem

Self-esteem begins to form in early childhood. Factors that can influence self-esteem include:

• Your thoughts and perceptions

• How other people react to you
• Experiences at home, school, work and in the community
• Illness, disability or injury
• Age
• Role and status in society
• Media messages
Relationships with those close to you — parents, siblings, peers, teachers and other important contacts —
are important to your self-esteem. Many beliefs you hold about yourself today reflect messages you've
received from these people over time.

If your relationships are strong and you receive generally positive feedback, you're more likely to see
yourself as worthwhile and have healthier self-esteem. If you receive mostly negative feedback and are
often criticized, teased or devalued by others, you're more likely to struggle with poor self-esteem.

But past experiences and relationships don't have to be your destiny. Your own thoughts have perhaps the
biggest impact on self-esteem — and these thoughts are within your control. If you tend to focus on your
weaknesses or flaws, working on changing that can help you develop a more balanced, accurate view of
yourself.
Range of self-esteem

Self-esteem tends to fluctuate over time, depending on your circumstances. It's normal to go through times
when you feel down about yourself and times when you feel good about yourself. Generally, however, self-
esteem stays in a range that reflects how you feel about yourself overall, and increases slightly with age.

Consider how to recognize the extremes of your self-esteem:

• Low self-esteem. When you have low or negative self-esteem, you put little value on your
opinions and ideas. You focus on your perceived weaknesses and faults and give scant credit
to your skills and assets. You believe that others are more capable or successful.

You might have difficulty accepting positive feedback. You might fear failure, which can
hold you back from succeeding at work or school.

• Healthy self-esteem. When you have healthy self-esteem it means you have a balanced,
accurate view of yourself. For instance, you have a good opinion of your abilities but
recognize your flaws.
When self-esteem is healthy and grounded in reality, it's hard to have too much of it. Boasting and feeling
superior to others around you isn't a sign of too much self-esteem. It's more likely evidence of insecurity
and low self-esteem.

Benefits of healthy self-esteem

When you value yourself and have good self-esteem, you feel secure and worthwhile. You have generally
positive relationships with others and feel confident about your abilities. You're also open to learning and
feedback, which can help you acquire and master new skills.

With healthy self-esteem you're:

• Assertive in expressing your needs and opinions

• Confident in your ability to make decisions
• Able to form secure and honest relationships — and less likely to stay in unhealthy ones
• Realistic in your expectations and less likely to be overcritical of yourself and others
• More resilient and better able to weather stress and setbacks
Self-esteem affects virtually every facet of your life. Maintaining a healthy, realistic view of yourself isn't
about blowing your own horn. It's about learning to like and respect yourself — faults and all.

o https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/self-esteem/art-20047976

Exercise

1. What is Johary Window, how does it work?

2. Define personality. What practices can be used for personality development?
3. Choose one of the following leaders (business leaders) , study their lives and analyse
their decision making , negotiation abilities , team work and communication abilities with reference to
specific episodes/examples from their life experience.
JRD Tata, Ratan Tata, Varghese Kurien, Anand Mahindra

Self Development and Assessment

Self-assessment:
self-assessment is the ability to examine yourself to find out how much progress you have made. It is a skill
that helps individuals monitor their own work or abilities, find out what their weaknesses and strengths are,
and self-diagnose relevant solutions.

The purpose of self-assessment is to help the individual know the extent of his abilities and to improve
upon them without the need of a performance appraiser. It involves the use of questions such as; what are
my strengths; what are the obstacles, etc.

Self-assessment is part of the formal employee appraisal in some organizations, where the employee is
permitted to provide his own version of his development over the past year. Although some organizations
don’t regard it so much, others value it in high esteem.

Some benefits of self-assessment are:

• Self-assessment makes you sure and confident about your capabilities. It eliminates or reduces
work related fear and uncertainty.
• It enables the employee to assess himself, make corrections quickly and improve on his abilities.
In other words, it enhances capacity building.

• It helps people in selecting occupations or educational programs that are best suited for them. For
instance; if you find out that you are an unfriendly or antisocial person, you can tell that a career in
marketing wouldn’t be the best option for you.

• It helps the individual to write resumes and cover letters that are specific about his abilities and
highlight his special qualities.

Self-assessment is a simple skill that can be acquired by anyone. A systematic approach can be adopted for
developing and improving this skill.

Self-awareness:
Anyone who is dedicated to self-development , self-improvement or the higher goal of spiritual growth
needs to actively seek to understand oneself. This is because only when one understands where one lacks,
he or she can focus their efforts on what to improve.

“Self awareness is the first step to personality development.”

Many psychologists have divided self awareness into two types:

1. Public Self-Awareness: This type of awareness emerges when people are aware of how they appear to
others. Public self-awareness often emerges in situations when people are at the centre of attention, such as
when giving a presentation or talking to a group of friends. This type of self-awareness often compels
people to adhere to social norms. When we are aware that we are being watched and evaluated, we often try
to behave in ways that are socially acceptable and desirable. In short we display our best behaviour, which
may not be reflective of our true personality. Public self-awareness can also lead to ‘evaluation anxiety’ in
which people become distressed, anxious, or worried about how they are perceived by others.
2. Private Self-Awareness: This type of awareness happens when people become aware of some aspects of
themselves, but only in a private way. For example, seeing your face in the mirror is a type of private self-
awareness. Feeling your stomach lurch when you realize you forgot to study for an important test or feeling
your heart flutter when you see someone you are attracted to be also good examples of private self-
awareness. Hence, they become invaluable aides in helping us assess ourselves.
Hence we are in a better position to overcome our personality defects and understand where our strengths
lie.

How to increase self-awareness –

• Becoming self-aware is the first step in overcoming personality defects.

• Self-awareness can be achieved through observing one’s own mistakes, asking others for feedback,
observing others mistakes objectively and through some dreams.
• Whenever one becomes emotionally unstable, restless or upset one should become alert as on deeper
introspection, it usually provides insight into some personality defect that has been triggered.
• We should be open to learning about ourselves and have the courage to take feedback from others. By this
we can objectively analyze our mistakes and find practical solutions to change for the better.

Perception:
The Concept of perception is very closely related to the personality of a person. It is essentially a
psychological process whereby people select, organize and interpret sensory stimulations into meaningful
information about their work environment. In fact, perception lies at the base of every individual’s
behavior. Systematic understanding of the process of perception is important for anyone who wants to
avoid errors in dealing with other.

Concept of Perception

Perception includes all those processes by which individual receives information about his environment –
seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.
All the processes are important, but the first three, i.e. seeing, hearing and feeling – are the dominant
senses. Thus, perception basically refers to the manner in which a person experiences the world. It is the
process by which people organize, interpret and experience ideas and use stimulus materials in the
environment so that they satisfy their needs.

What is perception?:
According to Joseph Reitz “Perception is the process by which people organize, interpret and
experience ideas and use stimulus materials in the environment so that they satisfy their needs”.

According to Udai Pareek “ Perception can be defined as the process of receiving, selecting,
organizing, interpreting, checking and reacting to sensory stimuli or data”.

People working in an organization differ in terms of physical, characteristics (such as age, sex, etc.);
background characteristics (such as training and education); and personality traits such as extroversion or
aggressiveness). One of the consequences of such differences is that they do not view the same things in the
same way. There is often difference of opinion and evaluation. People differ in their reaction due to
differences in perception they have about things. Perception may thus be described as a person’s view of
reality. For example a factory worker may discount most of what management says about declining sales,
decreased profit margin, etc. Most of such talk is regarded by unions as an attempt by management to
exploit the workers for its own gain. But a shareholder may attribute declining sales and profit margin to
inefficient utilization of resources.

From the above discussion, we identify the features of perception as follows:

(i) Perception is the intellectual process through which a person selects data from the environment,
organizes it and obtains meaning from it.

(ii) Perception is a basic cognitive or psychological process. The manner in which a person perceives the
environment affects his behavior. Thus, people’s actions, emotions, thoughts. Or feelings are triggered by
the perception of their surroundings.

(iii) Perception is a subjective process and different people may perceive the same environmental different
based on what particular aspects of the situation they choose to absorb, how they organise this information,
and the manner in which they interpret it to obtain the understanding of the situation.

Perception Vs. Sensation

There are five well-known physical senses, namely, vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste. There are many
other so-called “sixth senses”. However, none of these sixth senses is fully accepted. The five senses are
constantly bombarded by numerous stimuli that are both outside and inside the body. Examples of outside
stimuli include light waves, sound waves, mechanical energy of pressure, and chemical energy from objects
that one can smell and taste. Inside stimuli include energy generated by muscles, food passing through the
digestive system, and glands secreting behaviour -influencing hormones. Thus, it is obvious that sensation
deals chiefly with very elementary behaviour that is determined largely by physiological functioning. In
this way, a person uses the senses to experience colour, brightness, shape, loudness, pitch, heat, odour, and
taste.

Factors influencing Perception

The factors that influence perceptual mechanism are of two kinds, namely internal and external. These are
discussed below:

Internal Factors: The internal factors are the needs and desires of individuals, individual personality and
experience of people.

(i) Needs and Desires: Depending on the needs and desires of an individual, the perception varies.

(ii) Personality: Individual personality has a profound influence on perceived behavior as for example:
 ➢ Secure individuals tend to perceive others as warm, not cold.
➢ Individuals do not expose by expressing extreme judgment of others.
➢ Persons who accept themselves and have faith in their individuality perceive things favourable.
➢ Self – accepting individuals perceive themselves as liked , wanted and accepted by others.

(iii) Experience: Experience and knowledge has great influence on perception. Successful experiences
enhance and boost the perceptive ability and lead to accuracy in perception of a person whereas failure
erodes self – confidence.

External Factors: The external factors which influence the perception are size, intensity, frequency, status,
etc.

(iv) Size: the bigger the size of the perceived stimulus, the higher is the probability that it is perceived. Size
attracts the attention of an individual. It establishes dominance and enhances perceptual selection.

(v) Intensity: Intensity attracts to increase the selective perception.

(vi) Frequency: Repeated external stimulus is more attention – attracting than a single time.

(vii) Status: Perception is also influenced by the status of the perceiver. High status can exert greater
influence on perception of an employee than low status people.

(viii) Contrast: Stimuli that contrast with the surrounding environment are more likely to be attention
catching than the stimuli that blend in.

Significance of Perception

People working in an organization differ in terms of physical characteristics (such as age, sex, etc.);
background characteristic, such as training and education; and personality traits, such as extroversion or
aggressiveness. One of the consequences of such differences is that they do not view the world the same
way. There is difference of opinion and evaluation. People differ in their reaction due to differences in
perception they have about things. Perception refers a factors that shape and produce what we actually
experience. It is described as a person’s views of reality. For example, if a person is a member of a union,
he or she may discount most of what management says about declining sales, decreased profit margin, etc.
most of such talk is regarded by unions as an attempt by management to exploit the workers for its own
gain.

The world as we see is not necessarily the same as it really is. It is because what we hear is not what is
really said. We buy what we like best and not what is best. It is because of perception that same job may
appear a good job to one and stagey job to another.

People act as they perceive. Different people perceive things differently. People’s perception is determined
to their needs. Like the mirrors at an amusement part, they distort the world in relation to their tensions. If
people are asked to describe the people they work with, they talk more about their boss than their
colleagues because of their continuous worry to please the boss.

Clearly, perception is important dynamite for the manager who wants to avoid making errors when dealing
with other people and events in the work setting. This problem is made even more complicated by the fact
that different people may perceive the same situation quite differently. A manager’s response to a situation,
for example, may be misinterpreted by a subordinate who perceives the situation quite differently.
ATTITUDES:
An attitude may be defined as the way a person feels about something – a person, a place, a commodity, a
situation or an idea. It expresses an individual’s positive or negative feeling about some object. It describes
an individual’s feeling, thoughts and predisposition to act towards some object in the environment.

Concept of Attitude

An attitude is a predisposition to respond in a positive or negative way to someone or something in one’s

environment. For example, when a person says, that he “likes” or “dislike” someone, an attitude is being
expressed. To take another example, the statement “I love hockey and football” conveys one’s general
attitude towards sports. A person may develop love for hockey/football while playing the game in the
childhood or by watching the game on television.

Attitudes may be regarded as varying in several ways:

(a)Direction - for or against something.

(b)Degree – favorableness. To be neutral in attitude is to be indifferent to the object.

(c)Intensity – degree of confidence.

What is Attitude?

According to Katz and Scotland “An attitude is a tendency or predisposition to evaluate an object or
symbol of that object in a certain way.”

According to Samuel C. Certo “An attitude is a predisposition to react to a situation, person, or concept
with a particular response. This response can be either positive or negative. It is a learned reaction – one
that from an individual’s past observations, direct experiences, or exposure to others’ attitudes.”

Attitudes, Beliefs and Values

Attitudes are different from beliefs and values. Attitudes can be defined as providing a state of ‘readiness’
or tendency to respond in a particular way. Beliefs are concerned with what is known about the world; they
centre on what ‘is, in reality. Values are concerned with what ‘should’ be and what is desirable.

Sources of Attitudes

How are attitudes formed? Attitudes are acquired and not inherited. A person can acquire attitudes from
several sources as discussed below:

(i) Direct Personal Experience

(ii) Association
(iii) Social Learning or Modeling
(iv) Institutional Factors
(v) Mass Media
(vi) Economic Status and Occupations
3. VALUES

Values are encompassing concepts. They are at the core of personality, and are powerful, though silent,
force affecting behavior. Values are so embedded that they can be inferred from people’s behavior and
their expressed attitudes. They are a strong force in people. What may ‘appear’ to be strange behavior
in an employee can make sense if managers understand the value underlying that behaviour.

Terminal and Instrumental Values

Milton Rokeach in his study identified two types of values, namely

(i)terminal Values, and (ii) instrumental values

(i) Terminal Values: A terminal value is an ultimate goal or end of a person. It might include
comfortable life, family security, sense of accomplishment, self respect, freedom (autonomy), social
recognition, etc.

(ii) Instrumental Values: An instrumental value relates to means for achieving the desired outcome or
end. In other words, it is a tool to acquire a terminal value.

The combination of terminal and instrumental values an individual has, create an enduring cluster
of values called the ‘value system’.

TERMINAL VALUES

1. Comfortable life 10. True friendship

2. Sense of accomplishment 11. A world of peace
3. Family security 12. A world of beauty
4. Mature love 13. Equality
5. Self respect 14. Happiness
6. Wisdom 15. Inner Harmony
7. Exciting life 16. National Security
8. Freedom 17. Pleasure
9. Social recognition 18. Salvation
INSTRUMENTAL VALUES

1. Ambitious 10. Imaginative

2. Broad minded 11. Independent
3. Capable 12. Intellectual
4. Cheerful 13. Logical
5. Clean 14. Loving
6. Courageous 15. Obedient
7. Forgiving 16. Polite
8. Helpful 17. Responsible
9. Honest 18. Self controlled

Determinants of Values

The following types of factors influence the values of people:

1. Family Factor: The most important factor which influences the value system of an individual is his
immediate family. The child rearing practices the parents adopt shape the personality of the human
beings. Some values are inculcated in the individual from the childhood and remain in his mind
throughout his life. Family is the most influential factor in the individual’s learning of social behavior,
values and norms.

2. Social Factors: Of all the social factors, school plays the most important role in developing the
value system of an individual. The child learns the basic discipline from the school. Moreover, the
interactions with teachers, classmates and other people in the school make the child inculcate values
important to the teaching-learning process. Other social factors which may affect values are religious,
economic and political institutions in the society.

3. Cultural Factor: Cultural factors include everything that is learned and passed on from generation.
Culture includes certain beliefs and other patterns of behavior. An individual is a participant in social
and organizational culture. Whether a person is co-operative, friendly or hostile depends upon the
culture he belongs to. Individual relationships are different cultures and within certain group of society
also. Whether, the individual values money making or doing service to the man-kind, again depends
upon his cultural background.

4. Personal Factors: Personal attributes such as intelligence, ability, constitution, appearance and
educational level of the person determines his development of values. For example, one’s higher
intelligence may result in faster understanding of values.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Unit 2

Introduction to Phonetics

1. Introduction to Phonetics: I
1.1 PA system (as in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary),
1.2 Speech Mechanism,
 1.3 The Description of Speech Sounds, Phoneme, Diphthong, Syllable, Stress, Intonation,
Prosodic Features;
1.4 Pronunciation; Phonetic Transcription - Conversion of words to phonetic symbols and
from phonetic symbols to words. British & American English (basic difference in
vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, structure)
2. Non-Verbal Language:
2.1 Importance,
2.2 characteristics, types – Paralanguage (voice, tone, volume, speed, pitch, effective pause),
2.3 Body Language (posture, gesture, eye contact, facial expressions), Proxemics,
Chronemics, Appearance, Symbols.

IPA System: IPA stands for International Phonetic Alphabet that means a set of alphabets representing
the sounds of words. With the help of these symbols words are politically transcribed clarifying the sounds
distinctly and thus help learn correct pronunciation of the words.

However, before one learns these symbols and starts using them for phonetic transcription .One needs to
have a sense of the speech mechanism or how Speech sounds are uttered

Speech mechanism on which the sounds of English are based are pulmonary and egressive. In other words
the expulsion of lung air is basic to the creation and articulation of speech sounds in English.

Egressive mean going out or expelling. Some languages some speech sounds are ingressive that is they are
produced as a result of sucking in the air inside.

Speech mechanism comprises the process of production of sound. Understanding speech mechanism
involves understanding the function and behavior of speech organs that participate in the process of
articulation and production of sounds.

Speech organs: All organs located in throat, oral and nasal cavity participate in the process of sound
production.

1. Lips: (Upper lips and Lower Lips)

2. Teeth( Upper and Lower)
3. Teeth ridge or Alveolar ridge: the small raised area at the back of the upper teeth
4. Tongue: rooted behind the throat it fill the oral cavity
5. Palate: divided into hard and soft palate it spreads across the roof of the mouth starting from the
alveolar ridge to velum
6. Nose
7. Velum/uvula
8. Glottis
9. Pharynx
10. Vocal cords
11. Epiglottis
12. Lungs
Vocal cords:

Open when we breathe. Vocal cords allow air into our lungs.

Phonemes: Phonemes are distinctive units of sounds categorized as Consonants, vowels and diphthongs

There are 44 sounds in English Language. Each of these sounds is different from the other and these are
called phonemes. To understand speech sounds or Phonemes we need to understand speech mechanism.

The speech mechanism is referred to as pulmonary as it is based on air pushed out of our lungs becomes
fundamental to our ability to produce sounds. The division of speech sounds into category such as
consonant , vowel and diphthongs is also based on the way these sounds are produces.

Consonants: Consonants are those phonemes or speech sounds which are produces when one or the other
speech organ obstructs the pulmonary air flow.

Examples: /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/,/tʃ/, /dʒ /, /k/, /g/, /f/, /v/, /θ, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /h/, /l/, /r/, /w/, /j/

Vowels: /ɪː/, /ɪ/, /ʊ/, /ə/, /ɜː/ ,/ɔː/, /ɪ/ː, /ɪ/, /ʊ/, /ʊ̈ /, /e/ ,/ə/, /ɜː/,/ɔː/,/ʌ/, /ɑː/ ,/ɒ/

Diphthongs : /ɪə/, /eɪ/, /ɪ/ /eɪ/, /ʊ̈ e/, /eə/, /ɑɪ/, /ɑʊ/, /ʊə/, /ɔɪ/, /əʊ/, /æ/,
The description of Speech Sounds. It closes when we speak so air from our lung gets compressed
between the cords causing vibration.

Syllables: In spoken English syllable is next in hierarchy after the individual speech sound . A group of
speech sounds; must have a vowel: /kaet/ /k/, /ae/,/t/ . Syllabic structure: (cvc) Vowel(v), consonants (c
) where Vowel is called nuclease. Words may have one or more syllable:

Monosyllabic words: hill, sky, horse

Disyllabic words: hilltop, skylark, horseshoe

Trisyllabic: three syllables: cig-a-rette, re-la-tion, con-junc-tion, ma-nage-ment,

Multisyllabic: po-pu-la-tion,( four syllables)

e-xa-mi-na-tion (five syllables)

Stress:

Stress is a unique and significant characteristic of English Language. It can be understood by the extent of
emphasis or force with which a part of a word or a word in a sentence is spoken. Stress should not however
be identified as loudness as many listener tend believe. It is created as some part of words receive a more
distinct pronunciation than the rest. Many also refere to it as “prominence” The feature of stress makes
English different from languages such as Hindi where every part of word and every word in a sentence
receive equal emphasis when articulated.

a stresses syllable combines five features(it is longer, louder, shoews change in pitch, said more clearly and
casused greater facial movement.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/word-stress 18 September 18

Stress works both at the level of words and at the level of sentences. In words, one syllable seems more
distinctly that the other is the stresses syllable. In sentences, the words sounds more prominent and distinct
than the others , sentence stress.

Examples of Word stress:

'Read, rea'der, reader'ship

lead leader, leadership

Stand, Standards, standardize

Part, partake, partaker

Mark, remark, remarkable

Rules of word stress: Shift of stress(functional)

Noun Verb

• 'Absent Ab'sent

• 'Object ob'ject

• 'Permit Per'mit

• 'Progress Pro'gress

• 'present Pre'sent

In words with affixes:

1. Words with weak prefixes are accented on root:

Arise, alone, below, compose, amount, behold, about, beside etc.

2. Prefix with negative connotation get stressed

'Dis-loyal, 'in-sincere

'Il-logical etc.

• Two syllable words beginning with “dis” stressed on second syllable:

Disarm, disclose, dissolve, disgrace, distress

• Verbs of two syllables: (last syllable)

Narr'ate, cap'size, lo'cate, pul'sate, in'fect, in'ject

• Words ending ion, ic, ical, ically, ially, ious, eous (second last syllable)

Phonetic Features of Continued Speech

Example of sentence stress: When we say the following sentences out loud, we notice certain features in
our utterances such as we do not emphasise each word equally, some words and parts of words received
greater breath force and emphasis than some other. We also notice a kind of rhythmic pattern. Let’s try
saying these sentences loudly and observe.
 Do you think you can handle it on your own?

Of course, I can.\

Is that you house?

No, that’s my friends.

They have waited for one hour; I don’t think Meera is coming

But she said she is coming.

Do you want a notebook of a drawing book?

I want a notebook and a drawing book.

Intonation

We notice the feature of Intonation in the above sentences. Intonation is about how we say things, rather
than what we say. Without intonation, it's impossible to understand the expressions and thoughts that go
with words; the 'melody' we hear is the intonation. Intonation has has the following features:

• It's divided into phrases, also known as 'tone-units'.

• The pitch moves up and down, within a 'pitch range'. Everybody has their own pitch range. Languages,
too, differ in pitch range. English has particularly wide pitch range.

• In each tone unit, the pitch movement (a rise or fall in tone, or a combination of the two) takes place on the
most important syllable known as the 'tonic-syllable'. The tonic-syllable is usually a high-content word,
near the end of the unit.

• These patterns of pitch variation are essential to a phrase's meaning. Changing the intonation can
completely change the meaning.

Example:
o Say: 'It's raining'.
o Now say it again using the same words, but giving it different meaning. You could say it to mean 'What a
surprise!', or 'How annoying!',or 'That's great!'. There are many possibilities.
In English intonation, the tonic syllable is the most important part of any sentence (or unit of speech).

The intonation pattern for the unit begins on the tonic syllable, and it is the place with the strongest stress.

In the following examples, the tonic syllable is underlined:

Have you ever been to Cuba?

It’s wonderful!

Why are you so happy about it?

They told me!

As the examples show, the most likely place for the tonic syllable is in the last content word (verb, noun,

adverb etc.) in a unit.

This will always be dictated by the meaning of the sentence, however, so a more general rule is to place the

tonic syllable in the last important word in a unit, and this is dictated by the meaning in context, compare:

Why are you going?

Why are you going?

The tonic syllable is unlikely to appear on a function word (auxiliary verb, preposition, conjunction etc)

except to produce a specific meaning like in the example above (I know where he is going, now I need to

know where you are going) with a focus on the pronoun you.

A unit of speech has one tonic syllable and one intonation pattern.

Prosodic Features

Prosodic feature, in phonetics, a speech feature such as stress, tone, or word juncture that accompanies or
is added over consonants and vowels; these features are not limited to single sounds but often extend over
syllables, words, or phrases. In Spanish the stress accent is often used to distinguish between otherwise
identical words: término means “term,” termíno means “I terminate,” and terminó means “he terminated.”
In Mandarin Chinese, tone is a distinctive suprasegmental: shih pronounced on a high, level note means “to
lose”; on a slight rising note means “ten”; on a falling note means “city, market”; and on a falling–rising
note means “history.” English “beer dripped” and “beard ripped” are distinguished by word juncture.

The above examples demonstrate functional suprasegmentals. Nonfunctional suprasegmentals that do not
change the meaning of words or phrases also exist; stress in French is an example. Suprasegmentals are so
called in contrast to consonants and vowels, which are treated as serially ordered segments of the spoken
utterance.

Stress, pitch, and intonation

Vowels and consonants can be considered to be the segments of which speech is composed. Together they
form syllables, which in turn make up utterances. Superimposed on the syllables there are other features
that are known as suprasegmentals. These include variations in stress (accent) and pitch (tone and
intonation). Variations in length are also usually considered to be suprasegmental features, although they
can affect single segments as well as whole syllables. All of the suprasegmental features are characterized
by the fact that they must be described in relation to other items in the same utterance. It is the relative
values of the pitch, length, or degree of stress of an item that are significant. The absolute values are never
linguistically important, although they may be of importance paralinguistically, in that they convey
information about the age and sex of the speaker, his emotional state, and his attitude.

Many languages—e.g., Finnish and Estonian—use length distinctions, so that they have long and short
vowels; a slightly smaller number of languages, among them Luganda (the language spoken by the largest
tribe in Uganda) and Japanese, also have long and short consonants. In most languages segments followed
by voiced consonants are longer than those followed by voiceless consonants. Thus the vowel in cad before
the voiced d is much longer than that in cat before the voiceless t. Variations in stress are caused by an
increase in the activity of the respiratory muscles, so that a greater amount of air is pushed out of the lungs,
and in the activity of the laryngealmuscles, resulting in significant changes in pitch. In English, stress has a
grammatical function, distinguishing between nouns and verbs, such as an insult versus to insult. It can also
be used for contrastive emphasis, as in I want a RED pen, not a black one.

Stress in sentences:

• Do you 'think you can 'handle it on your 'own?

• Of 'course I 'can.
• ‘Is that your ‘house?
• No 'that’s my 'friends.
• 'They have 'waited for one 'hour; 'I don’t 'think 'Meera is 'coming.
• 'But she 'said she is 'coming.
• 'Do you 'want a 'notebook or a ‘drawing book.
• I want a 'notebook and a 'drawing book.

Rhythm and weak form:

• He: /hi:/, /i:/, /I/ He is not well : /hiz not wel/

• Him: /him/, /im/: let him do it. / let im du: it/

Pronunciation

British and American English Phonetic Variety

• Climatology: /ˌklaɪməˈtɒləʤi/

• Cauliflower: /ˈkɒlɪflaʊə/ , /ˈkɑləˌflaʊər/

• Continent: /ˈkɒntɪnənt/, /ˈkɑntənənt/

• Social : /ˈsəʊʃəl/ , /ˈsoʊʃəl /

• Photo: /ˈfəʊtəʊ/, /ˈfoʊˌtoʊ/

• Box: /bɒks/, /bɑks/

 • Honest: /ˈɒnɪst/ /ˈɑnəst/

• Cant: /kɑːnt/, /kænt/

• Dance: /dɑːns/, /dæns/

• Pentagon: /ˈpɛntəgən/, /ˈpɛnɪˌgɑn/

• Near: /nɪə/, /nɪr/

• Weird: /wɪəd/, /wɪrd/

Phonetic Transcription
It is essential to use a special alphabet to show the pronunciation of English words, because the ordinary
English alphabet does not have enough letters to represent all the sounds of the language. The following list
contains all the letters of the phonetic alphabet used in Practical English Usage, with examples of the
words in which the sounds they refer to are found.
Vowels and diphthongs (double vowels)
iː seat /siːt/, feel /fiːl/
ɪ sit /sɪt/, in /ɪn/
e set /set/, any /ˈeni/
æ sat /sæt/, match /mætʃ/
ɑː march /mɑːtʃ/, after /ˈɑftə(r)/
ɒ pot /pɒt/, gone /ɡɒn/
ɔː port /pɔːt/, law /lɔː/
ʊ good /gʊd/, could /kʊd/
uː food /fuːd/, group /gruːp/
ʌ much /mʌtʃ/, front /frʌnt/
ɜː turn /tɜːn/, word /wɜːd/
ə away /əˈweɪ/, collect /kəˈlekt/, until /ənˈtɪl/
eɪ take /teɪk/, wait /weɪt/
aɪ mine /maɪn/, light /laɪt/
ɔɪ oil /ɔɪl/, boy /bɔɪ/
əʊ no /nəʊ/, open /ˈəʊpən/
aʊ house /haʊs/, now /naʊ/
ɪə hear /hɪə(r)/, deer /dɪə(r)/
eə air /eə(r)/, where /weə(r)/
ʊə tour /tʊə(r)/, endure /ɪnˈdjʊə(r)/

Consonants
p pull /pʊl/, cup /kʌp/
b bull /bʊl/, rob /rɒb/
f ferry /ˈferi/, life /laɪf/
v very /ˈveri/, live /lɪv/
θ think /θɪnk/, bath /bɑːθ/
ð then /ðen/, with /wɪð/
t take /teɪk/, set /set/
d day /deɪ/, red /red/
s sing /sɪŋ/, rice /raɪs/
z zoo /zuː/, days /deɪz/
ʃ show /ʃəʊ/, wish /wɪʃ/
ʒ pleasure /ˈpleʒə(r)/, occasion /əˈkeɪʒn/
tʃ cheap /tʃiːp/, catch /kætʃ/
dʒ jail /dʒeɪl/, bridge /brɪdʒ/
k case /keɪs/, take /teɪk/
ɡ go /ɡəʊ/, rug /rʌɡ/
m my /maɪ/, come /kʌm/
n no /nəʊ/, on /ɒn/
ŋ sing /sɪŋ/, finger /ˈfɪŋɡə(r)/
l love /lʌv/, hole /həʊl/
r round /raʊnd/, carry /ˈkæri/
w well /wel/
j young /jʌŋ/
h house /haʊs/

Exercise

1. Draw a picture of a house, write a few sentences inside . Read it out aloud with stress on
appropriate words

2. Here are a few words. Put the stress mark on the appropriate syllable in each word:

Agree, accurate behave, Endeavour, inside, another, avalanche, appropriate assemble, buoyant, beggar,
ballot, bookshelf, busy, capsule, computer, discuss, accept, success, charcoal, delete, offer, friend,
colleague, centimeter, consider, consume, comment, demand, develop, disagree, degree, effort, effect,
excuse, decide, disease, discolor, decorate, forearm, Fever, forest, bottle, desert, emolument,
 examination, enjoy, expect, garage, glitter, happen felicitate, fiction, perform, instrument,
measurement, history, injure, jewel, moustache, machinery, satisfaction, settle, vitamin, amazing,
supplement

3. Identify the words

1) /'kærəktə/
2) /rɪ'zʌlt/
3) /'frend/
4) /kən'trəʊl/
5) /ɪn'klu:d/
6) /bɪ'li:v/,
7) /'ɪŋglɪʃ/
8) /'læŋgwɪdʒ/
9) /pə'hæps/
10) /ˌendʒɪ'nɪərɪŋ/
11) /'prɒbəblɪ/
12) /ˌedʒʊ'keɪʃən/
13) /ə'laʊ/
14) /'kɒlɪdʒ/
15) /'gəʊst/
16) /ˌju:nɪ'vɜ:sətɪ/
17) 'mɒdɪst/

4. Define phonemes, consonants, and vowels with examples.

5. Write phonetic Transcription of the following words:
Right, cinema, computer, technology, academic
6. . Mark stress on the suitable syllables in the given words:
Reception, comparison, potato, bedroom, fourteen, forty, Delicious, playful

Useful Links and References:

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/intonation

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teaching-speaking-unit-4-stress-intonation

https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-english-learners-can-improve-intonation

http://busyteacher.org/classroom_activities-pronunciation/intonation_rhythm_and_stress-worksheets/

http://busyteacher.org/15088-how-to-improve-esl-intonation-stress-7-exercises.html

https://thesoundofenglish.org/tonic-syllable/

Exercises in Spoken English, Part I: Accent Rhythm and Intonation. Department of Phonetics and Spoken
English, CIEFL, Hyderabad: Oxford University Press. 2013

https://www.britannica.com/science/phonetics/Suprasegmentals#ref583978
 Non-Verbal Language

Content-
Non-Verbal language
4.1 Characteristics of Non-verbal Communication
4.2 Classification of Non-verbal Communication
4.3 Kinesics
4.4 Proxemics
4.5 Chronemics
4.6 Paralanguage
4.7 Symbols/Sign language
4.8 Haptics
4.9 Self-assessment
4.10 key points
4.11 Assignment Questions
4.12 Books recommended

“Non-verbal Communication” refers to the type of communication which involves speech or words. By
non-verbal communication, we mean all communication that involves neither written nor spoken words but
occurs without the use of words. Thus, this is the wordless message received through the medium of
gestures, signs, body movements, facial expressions, tone of voice, colour, time, space, style of writing and
choice of words.
Animals communicate their deepest feelings through gestures, cries, whistling, cooing and many other
signals known to each other. It is we human beings, who have evolved the language of words to convey our
thoughts in a structured manner. Still, many a times, we tend to convey many of our feelings by smiling,
patting, frowning, shouting or other such wordless clues. At other times, we also lace our words with
different tones, gestures and facial expressions, to give a deeper meaning to our words.

The verbal and non-verbal messages together form the total meaning of the message communicated. There
is something said and something implied with every message communicated. For a full understanding of
the message, we should know what has been communicated through words and without them.
 4.1 Characteristics of Non-verbal Communication
The following are the key characteristics of non-verbal communication:
1. It is instinctive in nature: Non-verbal communication is quite instinctive in nature, that is, it indicates the
attitude, instincts and feelings of the speaker.
2. It is less conscious: Words are spoken after due thinking and with conscious effort. Depending on the situation
we have to make a more or less conscious effort in these/choice of words. The non-verbal part of
communication, on the other hand, is less deliberate and conscious as most of the expressions, gestures, etc
included in non-verbal communication are mostly unconsciously expressed, as the speaker may not even be
aware of these signs.
3. It is subtle in nature: Spoken and written words are quite obvious and easy to see, listen and understand,
whereas, non-verbal communication is very subtle, and needs skill to be understood and expressed.
4. It is complimentary to verbal communication: Non-verbal communication does not stand alone on its own
and neither does it completely substitute Communication with words; it complements Verbal
Communication and makes it more effective. As an example, when we watch a movie, the dialogues are
made more impressive by the way they are delivered with the modulations in the voice, other gestures and
signals.
5. It forms the larger part of the overall communication activity: On scientific analysis it has been found that
the different aspects of communication account for percentages stated below:
“Non-verbal Communication speaks much louder than words”.
“A cry of agony is powerful than a tale of woe”.

4.2 Classification of Non-verbal Communication

Exchange of messages without words, which take place between two parties, fall within the category of
non-verbal communication. It includes all wordless signs, symbols, gestures, facial expressions, colours,
setting of the surroundings, time, and so on. The non-verbal communication can be classified into the
following categories:
1. Kinesics: Body Language
2. Proxemics: Space Language
3. Time Language
4. Para Language
5. Sign Language
6. Haptics

4.3 Kinesics or Body Language

‘Kinesics’ literally means ‘body movements’. Bodily movements, gestures and body language is an
important factor, especially in face to face communication, as here the message is communicated by a
number of factors like facial expressions, eye movements, gestures. Body language is the reflection of
thought, feelings and position.
All bodily movements, postures, gestures etc., are guided by our thought processes, emotions etc. By
nodding our head, blinking our eyes, waving our hands, shrugging our shoulders and various other ways we
send out signals and messages that often speak louder than words. That is why this area of enquiry has been
called ‘body language’. Just as language uses sets of symbols to convey meaning, our body, consciously as
well as unconsciously or instinctively, carries messages, attitudes, status relationships, moods,
warmth/indifference, positive/negative feelings and so on. We have, however, to infer these meanings from
body symbols. We look for these symbols in the face and eyes, gestures, posture, and physical appearance
each of which has its own functions.
4.3.1 Importance of Body Language

Regarding the importance of body language, management consultant Nancy Austin says. “When people
don’t know whether to believe that they are hearing or what they are seeing, they go with the body
language- it tells the truth. You can play fast and loose with words, but it’s much more difficult to do that
with gestures.” Psychologist Paul Ekman says, “We talk with our vocal cords, but we communicate with
our facial expressions, our tone of voice, our whole body”.
Kinesics or Body Language includes:
1. Facial Expressions
2. Eye Contact

3. Posture

4. Gesture

5. Appearance
4.3.2 Facial Expressions: A popular saying goes like this “The face is the index of the heart”. Whatever
we feel deep within ourselves is at once reflected in the face. It is very important in any face-to-face
communication event. We convey so much without speaking a word.
Example: Let us consider the facial expressions generally associated with happiness, surprise, fear, anger,
sadness, bewilderment, astonishment and contentment. Let us also consider a smile, different kinds of
smile, a frown, corners of lips the position of the eye brows, the cheeks-whether drawn up or back or
dropping, the jaw, nose/nostrils and the chin.
We can easily mark all the signals sent through these parts of the face by others and observe our own
expressions by looking at ourselves in a mirror. Every facial muscle is an instrument of communication.
The face and eyes are the most expressive means of body communication. Dale Leather has found that 10
basic classes of meaning can be communicated by facial expression. They are:

Happiness

Surprise

Fear

Anger

Sadness

Disgust

Contempt

Interest

Bewilderment

Determination
 4.3.2 Eye Contact: The eyes play an important role in face-to-face communication. Eye contact is one of
the most powerful forms of non-verbal communication. When we look at somebody’s face we focus
primarily on his eyes and try to understand what he means. The eyes, along with the eyebrows, eyelids and
the size of pupils convey our innermost feelings. Authority relationships as well as intimate relationships
are frequently initiated and maintained with eye contact. Eye contact builds emotional relationship between
the listeners and speaker.
1. Eyebrows and eyelids raised and combined with dilated pupils tell us that the person is excited, surprised or
frightened.
2. Eyebrows with upper and lower eyelids closed Eyebrows with upper and lower eyelids closed and combined
with constricted pupils tell us that the person is angry or in pain.
3. Looking at somebody for a long time shows the intensity of our interest in him. If the eye contact is brief, or
we take our eyes off the person very soon, it indicates nervousness of embarrassment on our part.
Prolonged eye contact can signal admiration.
4. Direct eye contact of more than 10 seconds can create discomfort and anxiety.
5. Generally people’s eyes approach what they like and avoid what they do not like. Eye contact between a
speaker and audience increases the audience’s assessment of the speaker as a credible source.
6. People generally maintain more eye gaze and mutual eye gaze with those whose approval they want, those to
whom they bring good news, and those to whom they like. They also do so with people towards whom they
feel positive and whom they know and trust.
Averted eyes show anger, hurt feelings, and a hesitancy to reveal the inner self. They also zzreveal negativism
and the need to increase psychological distance as in an elevator, waiting room, or other small space.
 Eye behavior communicates in many ways. It shows emotions. It establishes conversational regulators. It
also monitors feedback. It serves as a reminder. The eyes not only supply information, they receive it as
well. Major aspects of communication are covered through eyes. Of course, eye contact and eye
movements convey-their meaning in combination with other facial expressions.
4.3.3 Gestures: In addition to facial expressions and eye contact, another import element of kinesics is the
use of gestures. Gestures are the physical movements of arms, legs, hands, torso and head, made to express
or help to express thought or to emphasize speech. They play a very important role in conveying meaning
without using words.

Ekman and Friesen have identified five types of body gestures:

1. Emblems: A large number of body movements have come to be identified as a substitute for verbal
translations. They often replace verbal message entirely. Such symbols become emblems. The list is long
and comprehensive and it includes about seventy of such emblems.
Example: A few examples in this regard are as follows:
Patting the stomach – “I’m full of food”.
Nodding the head up and down – “Yes” or “I agree”.
Patting the adjacent seat – “Sit besides me”
Shaking fist – “I’m angry”
Yawning – “I’m bored” or “I’m angry”
Cupping hand behind ear – “I can’t hear you”
Clapping hands – “I approve”

Placing first finger on lips – “Be silent”

Circling the first finger parallel with the side of the head – “that person’s crazy” or “that person’s stupid”
Forming the first and second finger in the shape of a “V” – “Peace” or “Victory”
Shrugging shoulders and raising palms of hand upward – “I don’t know”
Scratching the head – “frustration”.
Tapping finger against skull – “I’m thinking”
Taping finger on own chest – “Me”
Standing at side of road and pointing thumb in direction of traffic – “I’d like a ride” (hitchhiking)
Waving –“Hello,” “Good bye,” Come here,” “Here I am.”
2. Illustrators: They are directly tied to verbal language. These gestures illustrate the words, which a speaker is
saying. When a speaker says, “My third and final point is…” and holds up three fingers, this gesture is an
illustrator.
3. Regulators: Regulators control oral communication by alerting the sender to the need to hurry up, slow down,
or repeat something.
Example: Frequent glances at the watch or drumming finger on the table when someone is talking with
other.
When someone is delivering a long speech and the other person wants to restrict him, the other person may show
his watch to regulate the other person.
4. Displays: These indicate emotional states, such as anger or embarrassment, and usually occur in facial
expressions. Display differs from the three previous types in that people have for less control over them.
Many people, for example, have felt their faces turning red because they were angry or embarrassed.
However, there is little, which they can do to control this effect display.
5. Adaptors: They are the gestures over which people have little control. Frequently people are not conscious of
performing such gestures. Stifling a yawn or clasping the hands to the face in fear are adaptor gestures.
They are automatic and are not planned.
It is important to note that gestures are not used individually but in relation to another person, and acquire
meaning at particular times. Speech and gestures go together, and, therefore, have to be properly
coordinated. In the absence of speech-gesture-co-ordination, we experience confusion and discomfort.
Although Gestures are spontaneous, we can learn to monitor and use the positive gestures and minimize the
negative ones.
Positive gestures: Positive gestures are body signals which make us look relaxed, confident and polite.
Positive listening gestures include:

• Leaning a little towards the speaker

• Tilting the head

• Eye contact with the speaker

• Gently nodding the head in agreement.

• Good speaking Gestures include:

• Keeping the hands open

• Avoiding clutching them or folding them across the chest.

• Walking with the head upright, hands swinging freely by the sides.

Negative gestures: Negative gestures include body movements which give a negative impression about us.
These are categorized as below:

• Signs of Nervousness:
• Hands in the pocket
• Covering the mouth with the hand while speaking
• Scratching
• Biting nails
• Glancing sideways

• Drumming fingers

• Tapping the feet

• Wringing hands

• Crossed arms or legs

 • Setting the hair with hands

• Sitting on the edge of the chair

• Speaking too fast, or too slow

• Straightening the tie

• Clearing the throat too often

• Blinking the eyes a lot

• Clicking the pen

• Playing with the paper weight

• Adjusting the glasses up the nose

Head, Body Shape and Posture:

Head: In any face-to-face communication or meeting or interview the way we hold our head is very
important. Everybody is aware of the age-old saying. “Hold your head high”. It is a sign of honor and self-
respect, confidence, integrity and interest in the person/persons before us. A head bent low, depending upon
the situation, would show modesty, politeness or quietness. On the other extreme a head drawn too far
backwards or stiffly held straight up indicates pride or haughtiness. Head jerks indicate insolence, rejection
or agreement, depending upon the context and personality of the person concerned. Nodding the head side
way or back and forth conveys the intended meaning more eloquently than words.

Body Shape: Behavioural scientists have studied the shapes of our bodies and have broadly put them in the
following types:
Ectomorph: Thin, youthful and tall, Mesomorph: strong, athletic, muscular, and bony.
Endomorph: Fat, round and soft.
We cannot do much about the shape of our body, but we can no doubt put it to effective use. Both our body
shape and posture affect what we think about ourselves, how we relate to others and how others relate to us
or respond to our moves.
Mostly we act spontaneously, whether we meet a friend or participate in a meeting. But we do become self-
conscious while appearing for an interview or making a presentation. On such an occasion we try to make
the best possible impression.
4.3.4 Posture: A person’s general posture, even without specific gestures, communicates meaning. The
body position of an individual conveys variety of messages. It is the position of the body or of body parts.
For example, superiors usually take a more relaxed posture than their subordinates. Posture is also a way to
demonstrate interest in another person.
Several writers have concluded what when you lean forward to the persons to whom one is speaking with,
you demonstrate interest in that person. Sitting back, on the other hand may communicate lack of interest.
It is difficult to assess exactly the meaning of postures. Warren Lamb says that a person’s posture and
gesture can tell much about how effectively the person will perform in an organization.
 4.3.5 Appearance: Appearance, for our purpose, includes clothing, hair, jewellery, cosmetics etc. All these
may seem unrelated to body language, but on having a closer look we find that they are very meaningfully
related to our face, eyes, gesture etc. It may be formal or informal. It is normally a part of an organization’s
work rules to have a formal suit for the working hours. Certain organizations have a uniform for all levels
of workers. If one changes from the formal dress to informal or casual he is easily noticed, and his dress
speaks volumes about his attitude to life, to work, to his colleagues and his own feelings. It is not just the
dress or clothes that are important for any occasion but also shoes, hair style, perfume etc., that convey
‘meaning’ in nonverbal form.

4.4 Proxemics or Space Language and Surroundings:

Just as ‘Kinesics’ is the study of body language, ‘Proxemics’ is the study of how we communicate with the
space around us. Proxemics is made from “Proximity”, which means nearness, and includes the space
around us and our physical environment or surroundings. It is a complicated matter indeed, but in order to
make our communication effective we must take all these factors into account and put them to the best
possible use. Scientific studies have been made in respect of all these factors separately as well as how they
influence each other. Any organization or individual, critically influenced due to communication can draw
great benefit from the findings of these studies:

Space Language
The space around its contents convey a definite meaning. Of course, it requires some effort on our part to
arrange them meaningfully, and on the part of others to understand or interpret the meaning. In other
words, it tells that how people communicate with space. How close or far they stand in relation to another
person, where they sit in a room, or how they arrange the office furniture which has a real impact on
communication.
One of the major writers on this type of communication is anthropologist Edward T. Hall. He has identified
three major types of space: feature-fixed space, semi-fixed feature space, and personal space.
1. Feature-fixed space: Feature-fixed space refers to buildings and other fairly permanent structure, such as
walls. The manner in which buildings are laid out and the sequence of rooms and offices have a
considerable influence on communication. The person will probably communicate more with those
individuals whose offices are closer to his own rather than with those further from him. There are evidences
which reveal that bigger the fixed place, the higher will be the status of the individual in an organization.
2. Semi-fixed feature space: The placement and arrangement of moveable objects, such as desk and chairs, is
referred to as semi-fixed feature space. Currently, a great deal of emphasis is placed on how business
offices are arranged. In addition, the quality of furniture has considerable influence on the status of the
individuals and this is clearly communicated non-verbally. Frequently, the superior person will come from
behind the desk and his face-to-face with the subordinate to make it easier to communicate.
3. Personal space: Our interaction with the people around us has rather a well-defined or well-understood spatial
dimension. Conversely we can say that the spatial dimension or distance between us and other people tells
us something important about our relations and the nature of our communication with them. This branch of
proxemics has come to be regarded as “personal space language”. Edward T. Hall has done very useful and
interesting work in this area. Placing ourselves in the centre we can present the space around us in the form
of the following concentric circles:
(a) Intimate zone – physical contact/touch to 18 inches.
(b) Personal zone – 18 inches to 4 feet.
(c) Social zone – 4 to 12 feet.
(d) Public zone – 12 feet to as far as we can see and hear.
(a) Intimate distance/zone: This ranges from actual physical contact to about 18 inches from another person.
Communication and interaction within this distance are intimate activities. Mostly, only our family
members, closest friends and selected people enter this area. Those selected people are indeed ‘special’
people, whatever the reasons for their special status. It has special significance for our communication with
these people.
In the language used within this small, intimate, perhaps private circle, not many words are used. In
organizations, confidential information is often communicated within the intimate distance. When two
friends meet each other after a long gap, they hug each other. Eye contact, handshake, pat on the back or
shoulders is quite noticeable. The major form of intimate contact in business organization is of course, the
handshake. Most people respond positively to men who give a firm handshake.
(b) Personal distance/zone: This range from 18 inches to four feet. Interaction in this zone includes causes and
friendly conversation including conversation with close friends, colleagues, associates and visitors. Here
we rise above the closed circle of intimacy around us. Although communication in this circle is also mostly
personal in nature, it is relaxed and casual for most of the time. It permits spontaneous unprogrammed
talking or discussion. However, certain important decisions may be taken in this circle.
(c) Social distance/zone: It ranges from four feet to about twelve feet and has very aptly been called the social
space. We use this space mostly for formal purposes, and the relationships within this circle are more
official. We do most of our business within this area. While feelings, emotions, shared likes and dislike
may come up in the intimate and ‘personal’ space, more reason and planning are used in the ‘social’ space.
It is therefore, of paramount importance in business. Much of the communication in organizations is done
in the social zone.
(d) Public distance/zone: It ranges from 12 feet to the limits of visibility and hearing. Communication at
public distance is considered in public speaking. A good deal of communication within and outside an
organization takes place at this range. We can very well imagine the nature of communications/speaking in
this space becomes even more formal. The attachment of the ‘intimate’ and ‘personal’ space is substituted
by the detachment of perception, objectivity of approach and formality of communication/speaking. We
have to raise our voice so as to be heard by others whose group is almost always larger in this space. That is
why it has been called ‘public’ space.
4.5 Chronemics/Time Language

Time language is another type of nonverbal communication. In it we communicate with others in terms of
time by showing them, in our own cultural way, what time means to us. We do this mostly by symbolizing
time, and by sending out signals regarding the importance of time and so on. In this connection, it is
important to note that ‘time management’ is now one of the most important parts of the overall
management. TMI (Time Managers International) is one of the most important American consultancy
companies. It renders valuable advice to business organizations in respect of optimal use of time.
Business community all over the world knows the worth of time. It has been pointed out that “scientific
managers of the late 1800’s equated the worth of time with money.” And then we are reminded repeatedly
that “time is money”. It is this consciousness of the worth or importance of time and its crucial role in
productivity that has led to the invention of many time saving devices. In fact time pervades our thinking
and dominates our communication. All communication is meant to be suitably timed. We get/send
out/covert signals about whether anybody/anything is early or late. While people in the West are very much
time conscious and attach highest importance to punctuality, people in the East have a more relaxed attitude
to it.
The way we use and structure time can send intentional and unintentional message about what we value
and whom we considered important. This is called chromatics.

4.6 Para Language

Closer to actual verbal (oral) communication, and always accompanying body language, is paralanguage. It
is non-verbal because it does not involve words. But without it words do not convey their intended
meaning, ‘Para’ means ‘like’. Hence, ‘para language’ literally means ‘like language’ and ‘paralinguistic’ is
the systematic study of how a speaker verbalizes his words/speech. It is defined as “a type of non-verbal
communication that includes articulation, pronunciation, rate, pitch, volume, pauses and other vocal
qualities. While verbal communication consists of the ‘what’ or the content of words, paralanguage
involves the ‘how’ of a speaker’s voice or the way in which the speaker speaks. On careful observation and
 analysis we find that a speaker intentionally as well as unintentionally uses a vast range of hints and
signals”.
If someone asks his friend to go to movie or to a particular restaurant for dinner – one may respond, ‘Yes, I
would love to go’ but let his tone of voice betrays his words and convey that he has little or no interest in
going. The reaction of his friend to the response will communicate the message is right direction. At times
people mean to communicate a particular message through the use of paralanguage.
Example: The phrase “I would like to help you” can convey several meanings, depending upon the para
language employed. By changing emphasis on each of the words of this sentence, different meaning may
be drawn.

Voice
The first signal we receive or use is our voice. Everybody knows how important voice is. It tells us so much
about the speaker’s sex, background, education, training and temperament. There are all kinds of voices –
clear, musical, raucous, cultivated, pleasant, unpleasant and so on. Unless damaged by some injury to the
vocal cords or some neurological problem, the human voice normally does a satisfactory job. In other
words it conveys the meaning of the message. In certain jobs it is absolutely necessary for the applicant or
employee to have a clear and pleasant voice. For example, jobs involving the use of telephone, announcing,
tape-recording etc. require very clear voice.
The message, however, may not be effectively conveyed if we do not take care of the following points in
the use of our voice:
1. Pitch Variation: Most of us introduce wide variations in pitch while speaking. It is necessary to catch the
listener’s attention and to keep him interested in us. Those who speak in monotones (single tone, without
variation) fail to keep the listener’s attention. That is why the word ‘monotonous’ has come to be used as a
synonym for ‘boring’. Many speakers are not aware of this weakness on their part. Once they become
aware of it, the problem can be solved.
A high pitch may indicate nervousness, anxiety, tension, fear, surprise, dynamism, anger, joy, cheerfulness, or
impatience. A low pitch may show affection, sadness, boredom, pleasantness, intimacy or empathy.
2. Speaking speed: Fluency in a language is not the same thing as the speed of speaking. We do, however, speak
at different speeds on different occasions and while conveying different parts of message. As a general rule
we should present the easy parts of a message at a brisk pace because it is likely to be understood easily and
soon. On the other hand, the difficult, complicated, highly technical part of information should be conveyed
at a slower pace.
3. Pause: The pace or speed of speaking is also accompanied by pause. We cannot, and should not, go on
speaking without pausing voluntarily or involuntarily. But the pauses have to be at the right moments.
Incorrect use of pauses can create problems. A pause can be highly effective in emphasizing the upcoming
subject and in gaining the listener’s attention. But it must also be noted that frequent, arbitrary pauses spoil
the speech and distract the listener’s attention. It is, therefore, very important for a speaker to carefully
monitor his pauses.
4. Non-fluencies: Speech is not always a continuous string of meaningful words. There are, as we have noted
above, pauses scattered at intervals. These pauses are very often inserted with sounds or utterances like
‘ah’, ‘oh’, ‘uh’, ‘um’, ‘you know’, ‘ok’ etc. They are also sometimes inserted with laughing, yawning or
chuckling. Sometimes they may be effective by inviting the listener’s attention or by giving a nonverbal
edge to the verbal communication. They are called ‘non-fluencies’. It is rather interesting to see that
carefully and sparingly used they add to the fluency of the speaker, give him time to breathe or relax, make
the listener more alert and get the message conveyed overtly or covertly. But too frequent insertion of these
non-fluencies irritates the listener.
5. Volume variation: Volume is another voice quality that frequently conveys meanings, especially in
conjunction with rate. We must speak loud enough for all of our audience to hear, but not too loud. The
loudness of our voice should be adjusted according to the size of our audience. Softness and loudness in
volume determines the meaning specifically. Voice volume tends to vary with emotional and personality
characteristics. Loudness of voice seems to occur in conjunction with anger, cheerfulness, joy, strength,
fearlessness, activity, and high status. Softness in volume appears with affection, boredom, sadness,
intimacy, empathy, fear, passivity, weakness, and low status.

6. Pronunciation: People pronounce words differently. There variations in pronunciation convey different
meanings to different people.

Word Stress
Word stress is of crucial importance in communication or transmission of the intended meaning. By putting
stress or emphasis on a word here or a word there in the same sentence or utterance we can change the
whole meaning.
Example: Let us read the following series of statements, emphasizing the underlined word in each:
Vaishnavi sings like a nightingale.
Vaishnavi sings like a nightingale.
Vaishnavi sings like a nightingale.
Vaishnavi sings like a nightingale.
Even though the same words are used in these sentences/statements, we give different meaning to them by
concentrating on the underlined words.

It is not always whole words that are emphasized in this way. Stressing or emphasizing syllables or parts of
spoken words also changes the meaning as, for example, in the following words:
Conduct (Noun) Conduct (Verb)
Accent (Noun) Accent (Verb)
This way of looking at language takes us into the area of phonetics that is the science of speech sounds.
Every educated speaker knows how important it is to put stress or force or emphasis on the word or part of
word concerned.

4.7 Symbols/Sign Language

Communication is a process involving the use of mutually understood signs/symbols between the sender
and the receiver of a message or piece of information. Language is the most sophisticated or systematic set
of symbols. The evolution of any language takes a long time, normally running in centuries. But
communication has always been taking place.
From time immemorial man has been using signs and symbols mutually understood between at least two
persons, and more usually among people belonging to a group or tribe, or trade. These signs, symbols,
signals and indicators have generally been of two types-visual and audio or sound signals. Smell, touch and
taste also communicate because sensory perception and impressions are a necessary part of human
existence.

Visual Signs
 Regarding the importance of visual element in communication, Lesikar and Pettit say, “As we know from
our study of communication theory, words are imprecise conveyors of meaning. Thus, it is little wonder
that we frequently have difficulty in communicating through words…You will need to use pictures of some
kind to help communicate your information.”

• How effectively pictures communicate becomes clear from the paintings, murals and engravings found on
the walls of ancient caves, temples and such other buildings. They tell us a lot about the tribes or races or
rulers or traders, their religion, their hunting or other adventurous deeds, their art and so on. Their symbolic
and communicative value has been a subject of serious study.

• The tradition of drawing pictures for communicative purpose continues. Posters and pictures-big and small,
real-life drawings as well as cartoons/caricatures, statues and effigies are freely used for general
information as also for business purposes. Everybody is familiar with the picture of ghastly, skeletal paws
symbolizing the deadly, grip of drugs and so on.

• Maps and diagrams are an essential part of a book of geography, science, economics and history in the
same way as no pamphlet of tourism and hotel industry, oil refinery or motor company is complete without
nice-looking colorful photographs.

• In the same way lights-green or red at traffic points, railway stations and airports, a red bulb outside the
operation theatre of a hospital, a neon hoarding, a revolving light an top of a VIP vehicle or an ambulance
serve their purpose very effectively without using words. Lights are also used to indicate whether
somebody is in or out, and to mark the celebration of a special occasion. Colours of flags, white or black
and the colours of flowers in a vase or bouquet speak volumes about the feelings of the communicator.
Many of these drawings and photographs have a local or somewhat limited appeal in the sense that, at a
time, only a particular section of people will be interested in them. But a very much larger number of signs,
and symbols speak a ‘universal language’ understood by anybody anywhere.

Audio/Sound Signals
Side by side with visual, signals, audio or sound signals have always been in use since the very beginning
or civilization, and have very conveniently been adopted by the world of business. Different kinds of
drumbeat were used by people living in jungles in olden times, as we are told in our history and geography
books. But drumbeating is very much in use in modern times also to convey or share different kinds of
feelings on different occasions or celebrations. In one way or another drumbeating is essential part of many
communities’ culture. Its immediate impact is to arouse and gather the hearers.
Closely allied to drumbeats, so for as volume is concerned, are the alarm signals. There are various kinds of
alarm signals, fire alarms, accident, casualty alarms, air raid or assault alarms, VIP motorcade alarms,
machine breakdown alarm and so on. Various kinds of sirens, hooters, whistlers etc., are used for these
purposes. The main idea is to caution the listener and take the right step. Blowing a horn serves a similar
purpose. A clock or watch alarms makes us aware of time and programme our schedule.
No office is complete without a buzzer, press button bell, electrically operated bell and other such sound
signaling systems. They put the concerned people on alert, send out signals whether a visitor is welcome or
whether it is time to leave.
 4.8 Haptics/Touch
This mode of communication is our earliest means of making contact with others. It has actually become
essential to human development. Babies and children need to be touched in order to grow, flourish, and
avoid numerous health problems. Touch even seems to improve a child’s mental functioning as well as
physical health. In our life touch plays an important role in how we respond to others and to our
environment, and it can communicate many messages. When we appreciate someone, we pat on his back.
Parents and elders bless their younger ones by touching their head. Younger people express respect by
touching the feet of elderly people. By shaking hands, we show our warmth and affection to each other.
When two friends after a long gap hug each other, it shows their warmth and affection.

Touching can show tenderness, affection, encouragement and the full range of emotions.
Example: The infant begins its communicative life largely through the sense of touch. As the baby is a
hugged, kissed, cradled, cuddled and stroked, human exchange being to unfold.
Psychologists contend that the denial of extensive touching can have untold negative impact upon the
infant’s development.
Touching actions serve as regulators. They act as both conveyors and elicitors of positive as well as
negative feelings. Touching conveys the total range from highly impersonal to highly personal meanings.
The touch will be of four types:

Intimate touch: A child and mother usually touch to each other to shower affection. Two friends/brothers meet
each other after a long gap is also an intimate touch.
Friendly touch: When two people meet, they touch their shoulders and back to show their warmth and it is a
friendly touch.
Professional touch: Doctor examines their patients by touching. Surgeons operate their patients.
Social touch: Handshake is one of the commonest forms of this kind of touch. When a teacher touches his
student to encourage him, it is social touch. By touching the head of younger ones, blessings are bestowed
by the elder ones.

4.9 Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
8. Non-verbal communication is ………………… to verbal communication.
9. Kinesics means ………………… .
10. ………………… expressions are a part of body language.
11. ………………… are the physical movements of arms, legs and limbs.
12. ………………… is the study of how we communicate with the space around us.
13. ………………… means ‘like language’.
14. The word ………………… expresses its meaning.
15. Use of mutually understood symbols is done in ………………… .

4.10 Key Points:

Nonverbal communication, or body language, is a vital form of communication. When we zzinteract with others,
we continuously give and receive countless wordless signals.
All of our nonverbal behaviors—the gestures we make, the way we sit, how fast or how loud zzwe talk,
how close we stand, how much eye contact we make—send strong messages.

Gestures: Gestures are the physical movements of arms, legs, hands, torso and head, made to express or
help to express thought or to emphasize speech. They play a very important role in conveying meaning
without using words.
Kinesics: ‘Kinesics’ is the systematic study of body language works through facial expression, eye contact,
gestures, head position, body shape, posture and appearance. Body language accounts for more than half of
all communication.
Non-verbal Communication: Communication without the use of spoken or written words.
Oral Communication: Communication that involves words emanating from the mouth.
Para Language: ‘Para’ means ‘like’. Hence, ‘paralanguage ’literally means‘ like language’ and
‘paralinguistic’ is the systematic study of how a speaker verbalizes his words/speech. It is defined as “a
type of non-verbal communication that includes articulation, pronunciation, rate, pitch, volume, pauses and
other vocal qualities.
Proxemics: Proxemics’ is the study of space language. Any successful communicator makes effective use
of it. Distance wise the space around us can be divided into four kinds-intimate, personal, social and public.
Only very social or important people enter our intimate space.
Space Language: The space around its contents and us convey a definite meaning. Of course, it requires
quite some effort on our part to arrange them meaningfully, and on the part of others to understand or
interpret the meaning. In other words, it tells that how people communicate with space.
Time Language: Time language is another type of nonverbal communication. In it we communicate with
others in terms of time by showing them, in our own cultural way, what time means to us.

4.11 Assignment Questions

1. Discuss the difference between verbal and non-verbal communication.

2. Define non-verbal communication and its essential feature.

3. Explain features of Kinesics in non-verbal communication.
4.Write a short note on Proxemics and chronemics.
. 5. Explain the importance of proper usage of space in oral communication.
6. Discuss the different types of non-verbal communication.
7. “Non-verbal communication, when used along with verbal communication completes the
communication.” Discuss.
8. “Action speak louder than words” Justify this statement in your class conversation among class mates.
9. Assign a student a role of interviewee who is the general manger of a Multinational Company. Assign
another student a role of interviewer reporting for the post of a sales manager. Interviewer, when offered a
seat, sits across legged and is constantly scratching her nose. What will be the first impression about
him/her? Will he/she be considered for the job?
10. What is the relevance of eye contact in the process of communication?
11. Write a short note on the following types:
i. Head, body, posture and appearance
ii Voice modulation
iii. Haptics
iv. Gestures

4.12 Books recommended

Kaul, Asha. Business communication. Second Edition. New Delhi:PHI Learning, 2010.
Mohan, Krishna and Meera banerji. Developing Communication Skills. New Delhi: Macmillan India
Limited, 1990.
Prasad, P. Communication Skills for Engineers and Professionals. Delhi: S. K. Kataria & Sons,1998.

UNIT III

Topics

1. Letters at the Workplace –

1.2 Letter writing (hard copy and soft copy):
1.3 request, sales,
1.4 enquiry,
1.5 order,
1.6 complaint.

2. Job Application –
2.1resume and
2.2 cover letter
3. Meeting Documentation—
3.1notice,
3.2memo,
 3.3circular,
3.4agenda and
3.5minutes of meeting.
4. Report Writing –
3. Significance, purpose, characteristics,
4. types of reports,
5. planning, organizing and
6. writing a report, structure of formal report.
7. Writing an abstract, summary,
8. Basics of formatting and style sheet (IEEEEditorial Style Manual), inside citations,
9. development of thesis argument,
10. data collection,
11. bibliography;
12. Preparing a written report for presentation and submission. Writing a paper for
conference presentation/journal submission.

Letters are a vital means of communication in the current workplaces. They are formal and written
mode of communication which are used to persuade, to place order, to make amendments, to seek and
give explanations, to make an offer or raise a complaint, to suggest a recommendation or change.

Letters function like fuel in the networking machinery of an organization. To learn how to write a
formal or business letter we must familiarize ourselves with the various types and formats of letters.
Following are some popular formats of formal letters:

1. Full-block letter format

2. Modified block letter format
3. Indented/ half-block letter format
4. Simplified letter format

1.Full Block Letter Format: All parts of a letter are placed along the left margin of the page. Its is highly
popular and convenient format.

Letterhead (sender’s address)

Date

Inside address (recipient’s address)

Salutation

Body of the letter (introduction, second

paragraphs, conclusion)

Complimentary close

Signature

Name and title

2. Modified block letter format: Slightly modified version of Block format, Modified Block format of a
letter has three of its parts; Dateline, Complimentary close and signation aligned to the right margin, while
thes parts are started from the centre of the page.

Letterhead

Date

Inside address

Salutation

Body of the letter (introduction, second

paragraphs, conclusion)
Complimentary close

Signature

3. Indented or semi-block letter format: Similar to Modified except that the paragraphs in the body of the
letter are indented; tab button is pressed to leave some space before starting each paragraph.

Letterhead

Date

Inside address

Salutation

Introduction

Second paragraph

Conclusion

Complimentary close
 Signature

Name and title

5. Simplified letter format: It is simplified format which excludes a certain part for quick
communication.

• Letterhead
• Date
• Inside address
• Subject title
• Body of the letter
• Signature
• name and title

In an organisation communication takes multiple forms. Depending upon the nature of work and
organisational hierarchy and work responsibilities one may be required to write one or many of the
following types of letters.

Types of Letters

 Sales Letter
 Complaint letters
 Order Letter
 Acknowledgment letters
 Inquiry letters
 Recommendation letter
 Resignation letters
 Cover Letter

Sales letter is a document designed to generate sales by persuading the reader to place an order. In sales
letters readers are influenced to take a specific action by making an offer. The sales letter must be specific,
go to the right audience, appeal to the reader’s needs, and it must be informative.

Sample
Complaint letter:

When customers are not satisfied with goods and services that are offered by businesses, they write
complaint letters asking for fixing these situations. In order to be more effective, the tone of the letter
should not be angry. In order to obtain a positive response, you should not vent your anger in the letter.
You should state your claim supported by factual evidence and ask for adjustment.

Sample:

Technical and Professional University of Pune

Shaniwar Wada Majed Imran

PO Box 108, Kane bada, Lucknow

Pune 28, June, 2020

ECE Department Head,

On June 16, I filed for an incomplete grade in the Power Systems course. All the

supporting items were attached which included a medical doctor report, medical

prescription, and the hospital check out papers.

On June 23 I received a denial for my incomplete application without any explanation.

I immediately contacted the department with a note explaining my situation. Not only

I received no explanation but also I was advised to just forget about it.

Please either send me a explanation for the denial or else advise me with the steps

and procedures that I need to take to fix this problem.

 Sincerely,

Majed Imran

5th year Electrical Engineering student

Order letter: Order letters are crucial to purchase of article for maintenance and upgradation of
infrastructure in all organisations. An order letter should be precise and furnish complete and specific
details of the consignment such as design/model, quantity, price, mode of payment and date /mode of
delivery. Following is a sample of an order letter:

AVS Trading Corporation

court street, civil lines, delhi

May 20, 2021

Mr. Chhavi Malhotra

Sales Manager

Reva Computers

Ajmer Road

Jaipur 302006

Dear Mr. Malhotra,

Please send the following items on the business terms agreed upon:

Catalogue no Item prescription Quantity

128 HP Pavillion T 250 Desktop 05

236 HP Scanjet 3200c 05

We would be glad if you could send the items duly fulfilled. The insurance charges may be included in the
bill.

We would appreciate receiving the items by June 15, 2012. As desired we would make the payment by
crossed demand draft.

Sincerely,

Signature

Ramesh Mathur

Purchase manager

Cover Letter
Cover letter is a letter that accompanies resume.

• In the first paragraph, you should state what job you are applying for and how you learned about
it.
• State your general qualifications for the job.
• Pick out the most relevant qualifications listed in your resume and discuss them in detail
• Be as specific as possible
• State where and when you can be reached, and express your willingness to come to an interview or
supply further information.

Sample of a Cover letter

3/7, Bharat Nagar

New Friends’s colony

New Delhi-110065

April 23, 2004

The Manager

Human Resource Department

Qatar Airways, P O Box 22550

Doha, State of Qatar

Dear Sir/Madam

Your advertisement for a senior Flight Operations in IT Officer in Times Ascent East OF THE
April 21 issue of The times of India caught my attention because my four years as IT Officer in Air
Deccan has provided me with the experience in System Analysis, implementation, and management
within the flight operations Department that this challenging position requires Supporting Software
applications, analyzing new systems requirements, and managing projects within the Flight operation
department are some of the functions associated with my present position.
Working in a multi-cultural team environment at Air Deccan has sharpened my cross-cultural and
professional interaction skills. With excellent communication skills and the ability to discuss IT related
issues and make recommendations to the management; I have been able to prove myself as a success
ful Flight Operation IT professional. As working in a fast growing airline with an expanding route
network has been one of my main career objectives , I would like to put my professional and
academic experience to work for you.

The details of education, training, and experience are outlines in the enclosed resume. I look forward
to having an opportunity to talk with you , at your convenience about the senior flight operation IT
Officer Position. You can reach me at 889076543 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Sincerely

RAKES NARAYANA

Resume Writing

Resume writing is an important element of employment communication.

A French word meaning summarize, resume is a well-considered, targeted document detailing a

person’s contact information, education, work experience, skills, relevant hobbies, voluntary and
community service vocational training, professional and academic membership, and overall
achievements. There are many predictable and unpredictable factors in the process of getting a job.
Success in finding a job depends a great deal on successful employment communication.

Employers receive hundreds of resumes from the applicants where most applicant have similar
qualification and work experience. In this situation, resume writing is an opportunity to the prospective
 candidates to prove their uniqueness to the employer and consolidate their chances of selection by
making a favourable first impression.

Writing an effective resume depends upon the candidate’s realization that resume is their own
representation on paper and to get a real and effective picture of yourself homework along the
following points is necessary:

 Identify Yourself
 Education
 Work Experience
 Activities
 Computer Skills
 Professional Associations

Optional Sections

 Objective
 Special Skills and Abilities
 Reference Statement
Objective Statement:

❑ Purpose
❑ Communicate the type of position you are interested in
❑ Examples
❑ Management trainee position with a specialty retailer.
❑ Technical sales with an energy related industry in the Southwest. Long range goals of
regional sales management.
❑ To obtain a position as field service representative with XYZ Software Corporation.
Education:

❑ Name of Institution
❑ Include city and state if not part of the title
❑ Name of your degree and major
❑ Bachelor of _________ in ___________
❑ Bachelor of Science in Business Administration: Accounting
❑ List degrees in reverse chronological order
❑ Most recent degree is listed first

Types and formats

Chronological: Chronological resume is a conventional format of resume that emphasise education and
work experience and offers details in reverse chronological order of starts from the latest to the previous.

Source: https://www.template.net/business/resume/chronological-resume-templates/
Functional Resume Sample: Functional resume highlights and emphasises the job related skills and
responsibilities that the candidate possesses.
Combination/hybrid resume sample:
https://www.jobscan.co/blog/hybrid-resumes-best-resume-format/

Meeting Documentation-- notice, memo, circular, agenda and minutes of meeting.

Notice: A notice is like a circular but there is a slight difference between them. While the former is put up
on the notice board or on the company’s website for viewing by employees, the latter is usually distributed
by hand or mail.

A notice for a meeting, also called a notification, is sent well is advance so that all members attending it
can come well prepared and contribute to the deliberations. It contains information about the following:

• Participants of the meeting

• Nature of the meeting (whether it is routine, emergency, special, extraordinary etc.)
• Day, date and time of the meeting
• Venue of the meeting
• Purpose or agenda of the meeting
• Signature of the Secretary
• Date on which the notice was issued
• How long will the meeting take (optional)
• Whether tea/lunch will be served (optional)
Circulars

Source: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-circulars-and-notices

The word ‘circular’ has its root in the Latin word ‘circularis’ which means to disseminate information in a
circle in order to reach a wider audience. Circulars are written when employees of a company have to be
informed of changes in policy procedures, events taking place within the company, posts for internal
appointment or about new schemes/ventures undertaken by the company. It is a well-known fact that ‘’all
business messages have a general purpose: to inform, to persuade, or to collaborate with your audience”
(Bovee et al 2006: 81). It is important to remember this as the “purpose determines both the amount of
audience participation you need and the amount of control you have over your message”. That is why
circulars have to be carefully planned, composed and completed so that the relevant information is clearly
communicated to the intended receivers. They can be physically distributed or mailed. The format of a
circular is as follows:

• The Letterhead of the company

• The descriptive label of the message (in this case ‘CIRCULAR’ and its reference
number)
• The date
• The subject line
• The text of the message
• Name and designation of the sender

Memo: Memo is an informal mode of communication similar to a letter but used only for internal
communication within an organisation. It is less formal than a letter and skips certain components of letter
for speedy communication. Unlike a letter when writing a memo the writer can choose to be a little
informal so far as formatting, language, page design/type is concerned.

Circular:

Agenda: List of topics to be discussed in a meeting are referred as Agenda. Agenda could be circulated as
part of meeting notice or could be shared separately before or during the meeting. Use of agenda facilitates
in a more focused and result-oriented meeting as the delegates come prepared and know the matters
concerned in advance. It saves time as the participants do not have to conjecture and plan the topic of the
meeting on the spot.

Elements of the Agenda

1. To : Involved personnel

2. From : Chairperson

3. Date : Date of the meeting

4. Subject: Brief description of the meeting

5. Issues to be discussed
6. Person responsible for any designated issues

7. Designated time line

Sample of Agenda

TO: All Members of Staff

FROM: Joe Chan (Chairperson)

DATE: 23 February 200-

SUBJECT: Monthly Staff Meeting

A meeting of all members of staff will be held on Monday 3 March 2000 at 10 am in the
conference room. It will last about one hour.

1. Apologies for absence (JC)

2. Minutes of the last meeting (JC)

3. Matters arising (WW)

4. Measures to be taken to cut running costs (SY)

5. How the measures are to be implemented

6. Any other business

7. Date of the next meeting

Ms T Tam

Secretary to the chairperson

Distribution: Willie Wong Sanny Yeung

Charlie Wu Billy Bunter

Susie Wong Venus Pong

Peter Perks Joesph Tse

Source: Adapted from NLM

Minutes of meeting
Minute is a permanent written record or brief summary of the proceedings of a committee meeting
or assembly.

Official record of the deliberations of any formal meeting of persons e.g. parliament, a legislative body, a
municipal council, a committee of board of directors. It can be defined as a written record of the business
transacted at a meeting that may well have some legal and authoritative force. A minute must summarize
the major contributions to the discussion in such a way that each speaker’s interactions are recorded. It
must be clear about what the speaker “meant”, not just what person said. The process of minutes writing is
a process of interpretation, not just repetition

Check that the minutes

1. Provide a true, impartial and balance account of the proceedings;

2. Are written in clear, concise and unambiguous language;
3. Are concise and accurate;
4. Follow a method of presentation which helps the reader assimilated the
content.

❖ Elements to be included in a minutes:

1. Heading (including where and when the meeting was held)
2. Present (who was there)
3. Apologies of Absence
4. Minutes of the previous meeting (note any corrections and state the minutes were
accepted as a true record of the meeting [with the above corrections, where applicable])
5. Statements of what actually occurred at the meeting
6. Any Other Business (AOB)
7. Who was the chairperson and who the secretary?
8. The time the meeting adjourned and when the next meeting is to take place

Report Writing

What is a report?

Report is a formal document written for specific audience to meet a specific need. It is a common mode of
communication used during work. It may reinforce, prompt, motivate and persuade the readers to act.

It may contain 1. facts of a situation, project and processes, 2. analysis and interpretation of data events and
records, 3. Inferences and conclusions drawn from objective data, 4. Suggestions and recommendations. It
may include a variety of topic and objective and help in the process of decision making by answering
questions and determining ways to improve certain situations. They may also vary in form content
approach and purpose. It is thus difficult to provide a specific but comprehensive definition of the term
report. The literal meaning of the term “report” is formal or official “statement” as of result of an
investigation or matter referred or just a statement of fact, “factual and systematic account of business or
professional activity.

Significance: Reports are highly significant in a professional set up as a number of business decisions and
result conclusions are made on the basis of information presented or recommendations made in a report. by
helping in disseminating of ideas , views and suggestion, reports develop information and understanding
essential for effective decision making.

How does a report differ from writing an essay? Reports are concise and have a formal structure. They are

often used to communicate the results or findings of a project. Essays by contrast are often used to show a

tutor what you think about a topic. They are discursive and the structure can be left to the discretion of the

writer.

Who and what is the report for?

Before you write a report, you need to be clear about who you are writing the report for and why the report

has been commissioned. Keep the audience in mind as you write your report, think about what they need to

know. For example, the report could be for:

• the general public

• academic staff

• senior management

• a customer/client.

Types of reports: Reports may vary from one page informal trip report summarising the events of a
business trip to a 250 page formal annual report of an organisation. They may be presented orally,
electronically or in written form.

Informational and analytical (based on function)

Informational: Presents facts of a case , problem, condition, or situation without any analysis ,
interpretation or recommendation. Function of the writer is to collect , compile and organise facts for the
reader.

Examples: conference paper, seminar reports, trip reports

Analytical Report: presents data with interpretation and analysis. The report writer analyses the facts of a
case, problem, condition or situation objectively , and puts forward his her conclusions, inferences and
recommendations.

Examples: project reports, feasibility reports, market research reports

Routine and special: reports produced on periodic basis , daily, weekly, monthly quarterly, annually.

Contents : simple production information

Information -complex marketing or research data (may be informational or analytical)

Special reports are prepared and presented to convey special information related to a single condition,
situation, problem, or occasion. No repetitive information. Crucial for important decisions.

Example: a company may launch a new product based on a report analysis of the market demand and
presence of completing products in the market. Special reports can be either analytical or informational.

Oral and written: (communicative form)

Oral: informal face to face presentations of information. Examples may include oral reporting of accidents,
sales, production, joining etc.

• Useful for presenting brief info:

• Expedites work
• Fast action and decision
• Often followed by its written version
Written:

• More conventional
• Maintain proper record for future reference
• Permanent value
• Example: research report

Formal and non-formal

Formal : result of a thorough investigation of a problem , condition, or situation. It is relatively longer and
contains elaborate description and discussion. Formal reports stick to a fixed format and may extend up to
a hundred pages. Such reports could be informational, analytical, routine or special.

Non-formal: these reports are brief accounts of specific business or a professional activity. They provide
introductory information about routine affaire. They are short and usually routine in nature. Non forma
reports too can be informational or analytical.

Characteristics

Reports are usually assessed on content, structure, layout, language, and referencing. You should consider
the focus /purpose, of your report, for example:

• Are you reporting on an experiment?

• Is the purpose to provide background information?
• Should you be making recommendations for action?

Language of report writing

• Reports use clear and concise language, which can differ considerably from essay writing.

• They are often broken down in to sections, which each have their own headings and sub-headings.

These sections may include bullet points or numbering as well as more structured sentences.

Paragraphs are usually shorter in a report than in an essay.

• Both essays and reports are examples of academic writing. You are expected to use grammatically

correct sentence structure, vocabulary, and punctuation.

Academic writing is formal so you should avoid using apostrophes and contractions such as “it’s” and

"couldn't". Instead, use “it is” and “could not”.

Structure and organisation

Reports are much more structured than essays. They are divided into sections and sub-sections that are

formatted using bullet points or numbering. Report structures do vary among disciplines, but the most

common structures include the following:

Title page

The title page needs to be informative and descriptive, concisely stating the topic of the report.

Abstract (or Executive Summary in business reports)

The abstract is a brief summary of the context, methods, findings and conclusions of the report. It is

intended to give the reader an overview of the report before they continue reading, so it is a good idea to

write this section last.

An executive summary should outline the key problem and objectives, and then cover the main findings

and key recommendations.

Table of contents

Readers will use this table of contents to identify which sections are most relevant to them. You must make

sure your contents page correctly represents the structure of your report.

Introduction

In your introduction you should include information about the background to your research, and what its

aims and objectives are. You can also refer to the literature in this section; reporting what is already known

about your question/topic, and if there are any gaps. Some reports are also expected to include a section

called ‘Terms of references’, where you identify who asked for the report, what is covers, and what its

limitations are.
Methodology

If your report involved research activity, you should state what that was, for example you may have

interviewed clients, organised some focus groups, or done a literature review. The methodology section

should provide an accurate description of the material and procedures used so that others could replicate the

experiment you conducted.

Results/findings

The results/findings section should be an objective summary of your findings, which can use tables, graphs,

or figures to describe the most important results and trends. You do not need to attempt to provide reasons

for your results (this will happen in the discussion section).

Discussion

In the discussion you are expected to critically evaluate your findings. You may need to re-state what your

report was aiming to prove and whether this has been achieved. You should also assess the accuracy and

significance of your findings, and show how it fits in the context of previous research.

Conclusion/recommendations

Your conclusion should summarise the outcomes of your report and make suggestions for further research

or action to be taken. You may also need to include a list of specific recommendations as a result of your

study.

References

The references are a list of any sources you have used in your report. Your report should use the standard

referencing style preferred by your school or department eg Harvard, Numeric, OSCOLA etc.
Appendices

You should use appendices to expand on points referred to in the main body of the report. If you only have

one item it is an appendix, if you have more than one they are called appendices. You can use appendices

to provide backup information, usually data or statistics, but it is important that the information contained is

directly relevant to the content of the report.

Appendices can be given alphabetical or numerical headings, for example Appendix A, or Appendix 1. The

order they appear at the back of your report is determined by the order that they are mentioned in the body

of your report. You should refer to your appendices within the text of your report, for example ‘see

Appendix B for a breakdown of the questionnaire results’. Don’t forget to list the appendices in your

contents page.

Presentation and layout

Reports are written in several sections and may also include visual data such as figures and tables. The

layout and presentation is therefore very important.

Your tutor or your module handbook will state how the report should be presented in terms of font sizes,

margins, text alignment etc.

You will need good IT skills to manipulate graphical data and work with columns and tables. If you need to

improve these skills, try the following online resources:

Basics of formatting and style sheet (IEEEEditorial Style Manual),

development of thesis argument,

data collection,

inside citations,

bibliography;

Preparing

Formats: There are four common formats of a report:

1. Printed format: these are forms prepared to record for repetitive and routine data
2. Letter format: short informal reports to be communicated to someone outside an
organisation
3. Memo format: short informal reports to be communicated to someone outside an
organisation
4. 4. Manuscript format: formal report printed on plain paper
Printed format Sample:
 Source: https://templatearchive.com/progress-report/

Letter format
a written report for presentation and submission. Writing a paper for conference presentation/journal
submission.
source: https://www.smartsheet.com/content/workplace-accident-forms 23 Jul. 21
Source: https://www.sampletemplates.com/business-templates/memos/memo-sample.html
List of References:

https://library.leeds.ac.uk/info/14011/writing/114/report_writing

(IEEE

Editorial Style Manual): IEEE Referencing Style Sheet

This referencing style sheet is to be used in conjunction with the Library’s general Guide to Citing and
Referencing.
IEEE style is used mainly in Electronic and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. This style sheet
gives general guidelines based on the IEEE’s citation and referencing guide:
https://www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecitationref.pdf

EndNote and EndNote Online currently include several variants of IEEE style such as IEEE-Pervasive
Comp, IEEE Micro and IEEE ACM Trans Network. Check with your department to establish their
preferred style. Remember to check records imported using EndNote for errors or omissions, and that each
reference is correctly formatted.

Citations

When writing a piece of academic work, you must acknowledge any sources which you have used. You do
this by including a brief in-text ‘citation’ within the main body of your writing, next to the material you
have used.

The IEEE style is a numeric style, where citations are numbered [1] in the order of appearance. This
citation leads your reader to a full reference to the source in the list of references at the end of your work.
Each citation number should be enclosed in square brackets on the same line as the text, before any
punctuation, with a space before the bracket [2]. Once a source has been cited, the same number is re-used
for all subsequent citations to the same source.

Here are some examples of IEEE style citation: “... as shown by Brown [4], as previously stated.” "The
theory was first put forward in 1987 [1]." “For example, see [7].”

"Several recent studies [3, 4, 15, 16] have suggested that..." The example above may also be formatted as:

“Several recent studies [3], [4], [15], [16] have suggested that...”
Page numbers are required within citations where material is directly quoted or you refer to a specific part
of the source, such as a detail difficult to find. Give page numbers within the square brackets, for example
[1, p. 3].

References

At the end of your work, list full details of all of the sources which you have cited in your text in a section
headed References, in numeric order. References listed must follow IEEE formatting guidelines (see
reference examples overleaf). Your reference list should allow anyone reading your work to identify and
find the material to which you have referred.

In IEEE style your reference list should be formatted in the following way:

• • Align references left

• • Single-space each entry, double-space between every new entry
• • Place number of entry at left margin, enclose in square brackets
• • Indent text of entries

Citations/references with multiple authors

If you choose to mention the author(s) of a source whilst citing it in the text of your work, if there are
three or more you can abbreviate them using ‘et al.’ e.g. During their research, Fan, et al. [4] discuss
lasers in detail. However, in general you do not need to mention the authors by name, just use the
numeric citation in square brackets. In your full reference list at the end however, you always give the
authors’ names. In the reference list you can only abbreviate these using ‘et al.’ if there are six or more
authors.

Reference examples

There are standard reference formats for most types of document. Below are examples of the most
common types of document you might want to reference. Each of the following gives a suggested
standard format for the reference followed by examples for the different document types.

Book

[Ref number] Author’s initials. Author’s Surname, Book Title, edition (if not first). Place of
publication: Publisher, Year. [1] I.A. Glover and P.M. Grant, Digital Communications, 3rd ed. Harlow:
Prentice Hall, 2009.

Book chapter

[Ref number] Author’s initials. Author’s Surname, “Title of chapter in book,” in Book Title, edition (if
not first), Editor’s initials. Editor’s Surname, Ed. Place of publication: Publisher, Year, page numbers.

[2] C. W. Li and G. J. Wang, "MEMS manufacturing techniques for tissue scaffolding devices," in
Mems for Biomedical Applications, S. Bhansali and A. Vasudev, Eds. Cambridge: Woodhead, 2012,
pp. 192-217.

Electronic Book
[Ref number] Author’s initials. Author’s Surname. (Year, Month Day). Book Title (edition) [Type of
medium]. Available: URL [3] W. Zeng, H. Yu, C. Lin. (2013, Dec 19). Multimedia Security
Technologies for Digital Rights Management [Online].

Available: http://goo.gl/xQ6doi
Note: If the e-book is a direct equivalent of a print book e.g. in PDF format, you can reference it as a
normal print book.

Journal article

[Ref number] Author’s initials. Author’s Surname, “Title of article,” Title of journal abbreviated in
Italics, vol. number, issue number, page numbers, Abbreviated Month Year.

[4] F. Yan, Y. Gu, Y. Wang, C. M. Wang, X. Y. Hu, H. X. Peng, et al., "Study on the interaction
mechanism between laser and rock during perforation," Optics and Laser Technology, vol. 54, pp. 303-
308, Dec 2013.

Note: the above example article is from a journal which does not use issue numbers, so they are not
included in the reference.

E-Journal article

PDF versions of journal articles are direct copies of the print edition, so you can cite them as print
journals.

[Ref number] Author’s initials. Author’s Surname. (Year, Month). “Title of article.” Journal Title
[type of medium]. volume number, issue number, page numbers if given. Available: URL

[5] M. Semilof. (1996, July). “Driving commerce to the web-corporate intranets and the internet: lines
blur”. Communication Week [Online]. vol. 6, issue 19. Available:
http://www.techweb.com/se/directlinkcgi?CWK19960715S0005

When you are compiling your reference list you may abbreviate journal titles:

For a list of IEEE abbreviations go to:

https://www.ieee.org/documents/trans_journal_names.pdf

For non IEEE journal abbreviations go to:

http://www.bath.ac.uk/library/help/infoguides/abbreviations.html

For further information on the common abbreviations of words used in references for the IEEE style go
to:

http://www.ieee.org/documents/style_manual.pdf

Conference papers
[Ref number] Author’s initials. Author’s Surname, “Title of paper,” in Name of Conference, Location,
Year, pp. xxx.
[6] S. Adachi, T. Horio, T. Suzuki. "Intense vacuum-ultraviolet single-order harmonic pulse by a deep-
ultraviolet driving laser,"

in Conf. Lasers and Electro-Optics, San Jose, CA, 2012, pp.2118-2120.

Standard abbreviations may be applied to the title of the conference. For a table of abbreviations go to:

http://www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecitationref.pdf

Reports

The general form for citing technical reports is to place the name and location of the company or
institution after the author and title and to give the report number and date at the end of the reference.
If the report has a volume number add it after the year.

[Ref number] Author’s initials. Author’s Surname, “Title of report,” Abbreviated Name of Company.,
City of Company., State, Report number, year.

[7] P. Diament and W. L. Luptakin, “V-line surface-wave radiation and scanning,” Dept. Elect. Eng.,
Colombia Univ., New York, Sci Rep. 85, 1991.

Patents

[Ref number] Author’s initials. Author’s Surname, “Title of patent,” Country where patent is
registered. Patent number, Abbrev of Month Day Year.

[8] J. P. Wilkinson, “Nonlinear resonant circuit devices,” U.S. Patent 3 624 125, July 16 1990. Note:
Use “issued date” if several dates are given.

Standards

[Reference number] Title of Standard, Standard number, date. [9] Shunt power capacitors, IEEE
standard 18-2012, 2013.

Theses/Dissertations

[Ref number] Author’s initials. Author’s Surname, “Title of thesis,” Designation type, Abbrev. Dept.,
Abbrev. Univ., City of Univ., State, Year.

[10] J. O. Williams, “Narrow-band analyser,” Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. Elect. Eng., Harvard Univ.,
Cambridge, MA, 1993.

Source: https://www.bath.ac.uk/publications/library-guides-to-citing-
referencing/attachments/ieee-style-guide.pdf
Thesis Development: Development of the argument of the thesis

The thesis sentence is the main assertion of an essay. Your thesis should tell your reader the main point or
idea of your paper. A good thesis will be clearly identifiable within the paper and will be narrow,
purposeful, and specific. A thesis statement must ALWAYS be a complete sentence. In some cases, the
thesis may stretch to two sentences, but it should be identified in a concise statement, not generally
discussed within a paragraph.

Thesis statements may vary depending on the type of paper. In an argumentative essay, the thesis statement
should clearly state your opinion or view on the issue. In a compare and contrast essay, the thesis statement
should reveal how the two objects in question are alike and different. The organization or type of essay will
impact how the thesis sentence is constructed. This helps to reflect the purpose of the paper. In some cases,
your thesis will serve as a roadmap and can even guide both you and your reader through the rest of the
essay by introducing the main points and how they tie together to make the main idea.

A good thesis should be interesting and maybe even controversial. It should draw readers into the paper and
leave them eager to learn more.

Bad - Insignificant and Non-Debatable:

Trees make the park prettier.

This is not a good thesis statement. It is too general. Most people would agree, leaving no reason for
debate. It is not interesting or thought provoking. Why should anyone read this paper?

Good - Interesting and Controversial:

The city power company should pursue other options instead of cutting down the two hundred year old
trees in Sunnyside Park.

This sentence is much better. It is thought provoking and implies that the paper will provide relevant
information about both sides of the argument.

Try to make your thesis statement spark your readers’ interest, but always remember that it should match
the overall content of your paper. Each part of your paper should tie back to your thesis in some way. If
your thesis does not make a statement of purpose or reveal your point, then it is too general. Try to make
your thesis statement as specific as possible, but remember that you will have to support it with main points
and details as the essay progresses.

A thesis sentence is not a research question. Your thesis statement should be a basic answer to your
research question. It should make an assertive statement about your views or opinions.

Bad - Tentative:

Should teenagers be allowed to join the military?

It is not a good practice to use questions as thesis statements. Your readers want to know what you think.
Your thesis should state a point. If you do not have a point, then you are not ready to write a paper.

Good - Assertive:

Teenagers lack the maturity to go to war and should not be allowed to enroll in active service.

This statement is better. It tells the reader exactly what the paper will argue and gives a specific reason.

Amber Huett July 2011 UNA Center for Writing Excellence 1

Be as specific as you can with your thesis statement. Readers will often base their opinion of the paper on
the thesis statement. It should convey a point specific enough to allow the reader to make a guess about
what the rest of the paper will say.

Bad - General:

Many religions throughout history have had several gods.

This thesis statement is too vague. Make your thesis as specific as possible in order to give your reader a
better idea of what your paper will discuss.

Good - Specific:

Advanced cultures throughout history, such as the Greek, Roman, and Aztec societies, have centered
around polytheistic religions.

This sentence provides more specific information and can serve as a basic outline for your paper. Based on
the thesis statement, the body paragraphs for this paper will probably develop into three main points that
explore the Roman, Greek, and Aztec religions.

Thesis Placement

Generally, the thesis sentence comes at the end of the introduction. In fact, most readers (and professors)
will look for it there. However, the thesis sentence may come at a different place, particularly when writing
narratives.

In narrative writing, the thesis is usually at the end of the paper. The point in a narrative naturally comes at
the end because the rest of the story sets up your point, the moral or lesson.

If you are having trouble coming up with a thesis, try this writing exercise:

1. Write your first draft. Keep writing until you feel that you absolutely have nothing else to say
about the subject.
2. Look at the last thing you wrote. Your thesis is likely to be either the first sentence or last sentence
of the conclusion.

The thesis can usually be found in the following places:

• At the last sentence of the opening paragraph

 • At the end of the introduction if the introduction has multiple paragraphs

• At the start of the conclusion if the topic requires a large amount of debate or if a narrative

organization is applied to the whole document

Remember to change your thesis as necessary. It should always match the rest of your paper to
convey your main point. As you write, your ideas may change, especially when you do research.
Writing is a form of learning, and it makes sense that your main point will change as you write
more about what others think and delve into your own thoughts on your subject matter. It is okay
to change your thesis to suit your new ideas and beliefs.

Sources Consulted

th
Ruszkiewicz, John, Daniel E. Seward, and Maxine Hairston, eds. SF Writer. 4 ed. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008.

Amber Huett July 2011 UNA Center for Writing Excellence 2

Source: https://www.una.edu/writingcenter/docs/Writing-
Resources/Thesis%20Development.pdf

Data collection: Data collection is defined as the procedure of collecting, measuring and analyzing
accurate insights for research using standard validated techniques. A researcher can evaluate their
hypothesis on the basis of collected data. In most cases, data collection is the primary and most important
step for research, irrespective of the field of research. The approach of data collection is different for
different fields of study, depending on the required information.

The most critical objective of data collection is ensuring that information-rich and reliable data is collected
for statistical analysis so that data-driven decisions can be made for research.

Bibliography: It is a list of work; books, websites, articles, refereed to while writing a scholarly
work. It is usually presented at the end of the work and had alphabetical order.

Writing a paper for conference presentation/journal submission.

Conference papers can be an effective way to try out new ideas, introduce your work to colleagues, and
chisel your research questions. Presenting at a conference is a great opportunity for gaining valuable
feedback from a community of scholars and for increasing your professional stature in your field.

A conference paper is often both a written document and an oral presentation. You may be asked to submit
a copy of your paper to a commentator before you present at the conference. Thus, your paper should
follow the conventions for academic papers and oral presentations.

Prep work: Consider the factors as you get started on your conference paper.

Choose the structure and style

How will you structure your presentation? This is an important question, because your presentation format
will shape your written document. Some possibilities for your session include:

• A visual presentation, including software such as PowerPoint or Prezi

• A paper that you read aloud
• A roundtable discussion

Presentations can be a combination of these styles. For example, you might read a paper aloud while
displaying images. Following your paper, you might participate in an informal conversation with your
fellow presenters.

You will also need to know how long your paper should be. Presentations are usually 15-20 minutes. A
general rule of thumb is that one double-spaced page takes 2-2.5 minutes to read out loud. Thus an 8-10
page, double-spaced paper is often a good fit for a 15-20 minute presentation. Adhere to the time
limit. Make sure that your written paper conforms to the presentation constraints.

Consider the conventions of the conference and the structure of your session

It is important to meet the expectations of your conference audience. Have you been to an academic
conference previously? How were presentations structured? What kinds of presentations did you find most
effective? What do you know about the particular conference you are planning to attend? Some
professional organizations have their own rules and suggestions for writing and presenting for their
conferences. Make sure to find out what they are and stick to them.

If you proposed a panel with other scholars, then you should already have a good idea of your panel’s
expectations. However, if you submitted your paper individually and the conference organizers placed it on
a panel with other papers, you will need additional information.

Will there be a commentator? Commentators, also called respondents or discussants, can be great additions
to panels, since their job is to pull the papers together and pose questions. If there will be a commentator,
be sure to know when he or she would like to have a copy of your paper. Observe this deadline.
You may also want to find out what your fellow presenters will be talking about. Will you circulate your
papers among the other panelists prior to the conference? Will your papers address common themes? Will
you discuss intersections with each other’s work after your individual presentations? How collaborative do
you want your panel to be?

Analyze your audience

Knowing your audience is critical for any writing assignment, but conference papers are special because
you will be physically interacting with them. Take a look at our handout on audience. Anticipating the
needs of your listeners will help you write a conference paper that connects your specific research to their
broader concerns in a compelling way.

What are the concerns of the conference?

You can identify these by revisiting the call for proposals and reviewing the mission statement or theme of
the conference. What key words or concepts are repeated? How does your work relate to these larger
research questions? If you choose to orient your paper toward one of these themes, make sure there is a
genuine relationship. Superficial use of key terms can weaken your paper.

What are the primary concerns of the field?

How do you bridge the gap between your research and your field’s broader concerns? Finding these
linkages is part of the brainstorming process. See our handout on brainstorming. If you are presenting at a
conference that is within your primary field, you should be familiar with leading concerns and questions. If
you will be attending an interdisciplinary conference or a conference outside of your field, or if you
simply need to refresh your knowledge of what’s current in your discipline, you can:

• Read recently published journals and books, including recent publications by the
conference’s featured speakers
• Talk to people who have been to the conference
• Pay attention to questions about theory and method. What questions come up in the
literature? What foundational texts should you be familiar with?
• Review the initial research questions that inspired your project. Think about the big
questions in the secondary literature of your field.
• Try a free-writing exercise. Imagine that you are explaining your project to someone
who is in your department, but is unfamiliar with your specific topic. What can you
assume he or she already knows? Where will you need to start in your explanation?
How will you establish common ground?

Contextualizing your narrow research question within larger trends in the field will help you connect with
your audience. You might be really excited about a previously unknown nineteenth-century poet. But will
your topic engage others? You don’t want people to leave your presentation, thinking, “What was the point
of that?” By carefully analyzing your audience and considering the concerns of the conference and the
field, you can present a paper that will have your listeners thinking, “Wow! Why haven’t I heard about that
obscure poet before? She is really important for understanding developments in Romantic poetry in the
1800s!”

Writing

I have a really great research paper/manuscript/dissertation chapter on this same topic. Should I cut and
paste?

Be careful here. Time constraints and the needs of your audience may require a tightly focused and limited
message. To create a paper tailored to the conference, you might want to set everything aside and create a
brand new document. Don’t worry—you will still have that paper, manuscript, or chapter if you need it.
But you will also benefit from taking a fresh look at your research.

Citing sources

Since your conference paper will be part of an oral presentation, there are special considerations for
citations. You should observe the conventions of your discipline with regard to including citations in your
written paper. However, you will also need to incorporate verbal cues to set your evidence and quotations
off from your text when presenting. For example, you can say: “As Nietzsche said, quote, ‘And if you gaze
for long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you,’ end quote.” If you use multiple quotations in your
paper, think about omitting the terms “quote” and “end quote,” as these can become repetitive. Instead,
signal quotations through the inflection of your voice or with strategic pauses.

Organizing the paper

There are numerous ways to effectively organize your conference paper, but remember to have a focused
message that fits the time constraints and meets the needs of your audience. You can begin by connecting
your research to the audience’s concerns, then share a few examples/case studies from your research, and
then, in conclusion, broaden the discussion back out to general issues in the field.

Don’t overwhelm or confuse your audience

You should limit the information that you present. Don’t attempt to summarize your entire dissertation in
10 pages. Instead, try selecting main points and provide examples to support those points. Alternatively,
you might focus on one main idea or case study and use 2-4 examples to explain it.

Check for clarity in the text

One way to anticipate how your ideas will sound is to read your paper out loud. Reading out loud is an
excellent proofreading technique and is a great way to check the clarity of your ideas; you are likely to hear
problems that you didn’t notice in just scanning your draft. Help listeners understand your ideas by making
sure that subjects and verbs are clear and by avoiding unnecessarily complex sentences.

Include verbal cues in the text

Make liberal use of transitional phrases like however, therefore, and thus, as well as signpost words like
first, next, etc.

If you have 5 main points, say so at the beginning and list those 5 ideas. Refer back to this structure
frequently as you transition between sections (“Now, I will discuss my fourth point, the importance of
plasma”).

Use a phrase like “I argue” to announce your thesis statement. Be sure that there is only one of these
phrases—otherwise your audience will be confused about your central message.

Refer back to the structure, and signal moments where you are transitioning to a new topic: “I just talked
about x, now I’m going to talk about y.”

After Writing ?

delivering it before an audience of scholars in your field! Writing is only one half of what a conference
paper entails. It is both a written text and a presentation.

hints that help in delivering your presentation

Include hints in your personal copy of the paper. You can remind yourself to pause, look up and make eye
contact with your audience, or employ body language to enhance your message. If you are using a
slideshow, you can indicate when to change slides. Increasing the font size to 14-16 pt. can make your
paper easier to read.

Practice. A LOT!

When you practice, time yourself. Are you reading too fast? Are you enunciating clearly? Do you know
how to pronounce all of the words in your paper? Record your talk and critically listen to yourself. Practice
in front of friends and colleagues.

If you are using technology, familiarize yourself with it. Check and double-check your images. Remember,
they are part of your presentation and should be proofread just like your paper. Print a backup copy of your
images and paper, and bring copies of your materials in multiple formats, just in case. Be sure to check
with the conference organizers about available technology.

Professionalism
The written text is only one aspect of the overall conference paper. The other is your presentation. This
means that your audience will evaluate both your work and you! So remember to convey the appropriate
level of professionalism.

source: https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/conference-papers/

Unit-4

Content
8.1 Listening: Definition
8.2 Difference between listening and hearing
8.3 Process of Listening
8.4 Importance of listening
8.5Types of Listening
8.6 Barriers to Effective Listening
8.7 Measures to overcome barriers to effective listening
8.8 How To Listen Effectively?
8.9 Tips of effective speech
8.10 Audience analysis
8.11 Rhetoric
8.12 Polemics
8.13 Telephone skills & etiquettes
8.14 Making Effective Presentation

Listening Skills

We have been given two ears and but a single mouth in order that we may hear more and talk less.
- -Zeno of Citium

8.1 Listening: Definition:

Listening is all about the capability to receive and then interpret the message in the process of
communication accurately. It will be right to say that listening is the key to all kinds of effective
communication. Without this ability of listening to the messages effectively, they are usually
misunderstood. The communication breaks down and the person sending the message can be irritated or
frustrated easily.

8.2 Difference between Listening and Hearing:

Listening is just not the same as hearing. Hearing simply refers to the sounds that we usually hear while
when it is about listening, it requires more than just hearing. It requires us to focus, paying attention not
only to the story but how the story has been told, language usage and voice, and also that how the other
person makes use of his or her body. It will be very right to say that effective listening largely depends on
the degree to which one perceives and understands the messages.
Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process.
• Listening is key to all effective communication, without the ability to listen effectively messages are
easily misunderstood.
• Listening is one of the most important skills you can have.
• An active process of getting information, ideas.

8.3 Process of Listening:

“Listening is the process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken”.

1-Receiving - Receiving is the intentional focus on hearing a speaker’s message. This stage is represented
by the ear because it is the primary tool involved with this stage of the listening process.

2- Understanding - In the understanding stage, we attempt to learn the meaning of the message, which is
not always easy. • It decides what the message means to you.

3- Remembering - Remembering begins with listening; if you can’t remember something that was said,
you might not have been listening effectively. However, even when you are listening attentively, some
messages are more difficult than others to understand and remember. Highly complex messages that are
filled with detail call for highly developed listening skills.

4- Evaluating - The fourth stage in the listening process is evaluating. Evaluations of the same message
can vary widely from one listener to another. The stages two, three, and four are represented by the brain
because it is the primary tool involved with these stages of the listening process.

5- Responding - Responding—sometimes referred to as feedback—is the fifth and final stage of the
listening process. Your reaction to the message can be emotional and intellectual. For example, you are
giving positive feedback to your instructor if at the end of class you stay behind to finish a sentence in your
notes or approach the instructor to ask for clarification. The opposite kind of feedback is given by students
who gather their belongings and rush out the door as soon as class is over. This stage is represented by the
lips because we often give feedback in the form of verbal feedback; however, you can just as easily respond
non-verbally.

.8.4 Importance of Listening:

• We show that we are serious

• •We display respect to other’s view point
• •Helps us to learn
• •Helps us to adapt and understand
• Empathize

8.5 Types of Listening:

There are four different types of listening that are essential to know when deciding what your goal as the
listener is. The four types of listening are appreciative, empathic, comprehensive, and
critical. Familiarize yourself with these different types of listening so you can strengthen and improve your
ability to critically think and evaluate what you have heard.
Appreciative Listening
When you listen for appreciation you are listening for enjoyment. Think about the music you listen to. You
usually listen to music because you enjoy it. The same can be said for appreciative listening when someone
is speaking. Some common types of appreciative listening can be found in sermons from places of worship,
from a motivational speech by people we respect or hold in high regard, or even from a standup comedian
who makes us laugh.
Empathic Listening
When you listen empathically you are doing so to show mutual concern. During this type of listening you
are trying to identify with the speaker by understanding the situation in which he/she is discussing. You are
stepping into the other’s shoes to get a better understanding of what it is he/she is talking about. Usually
during this type of listening you want to be fully present in the moment or mindfully listening to what the
speaker is saying. Your goal during this time is to focus on the speaker, not on yourself. You are trying to
understand from the speaker’s perspective.
Comprehensive Listening
If you are watching the news, listening to a lecture, or getting directions from someone, you are listening to
understand or listening to comprehend the message that is being sent. This process is active. In class, you
should be focused, possibly taking notes of the speaker’s main ideas. Identifying the structure of the speech
and evaluating the supports he/she offers as evidence. This is one of the more difficult types of listening
because it requires you to not only concentrate but to actively participate in the process. The more you
practice listening to comprehend, the stronger listener you become.
Critical Listening
Have you ever had to buy an expensive item, such as a new appliance, a car, a cell phone, or an iPad? You
probably did some research beforehand and listened closely to the salesperson when you went to compare
brands. Or perhaps your best friend is telling you about some medical tests he/she recently had done. You
listen closely so you can help your friend understand her results and the possible ramifications of the
findings. Both of these scenarios are examples of critical listening. Critical listening is listening to evaluate
the content of the message. As a critical listener you are listening to all parts of the message, analyzing it,
and evaluating what you heard. When engaging in critical listening, you are also critically thinking. You
are making mental judgments based on what you see, hear, and read. Your goal as a critical listener is to
evaluate the message that is being sent and decide for yourself if the information is valid.

8.6 Barriers to Effective Listening:

A barrier to listening is anything that is physically or philologically hindering you from recognizing,
understanding, and accurately interpreting the message that you are receiving. We’ll discuss five different
barriers to effective listening: Information overload, personal concerns or issues, outside distractions,
prejudice, and rate of speech and thought. When you have a better understanding of the potential
barriers to effective listening you can pinpoint where your weaknesses are and work on building them up to
make you a better listener.
Information Overload
Seventy percent of our waking time is spent in some sort of communication situation. Of that seventy
percent, forty-five percent of that time is spent listening. With all we have to listen to, there are going to be
times where we experience information overload . Information overload is when you have so much
information coming at you; it’s easy to become overwhelmed. In a public speaking class you can
experience this when listening to your fellow classmates give speeches– especially if you’re hearing 20
speeches one after the other. You become overwhelmed and you’ll probably find yourself tuning out at
some point. Or what if a speaker condenses so many statistics into the presentation that you cannot keep
track of all the numbers? That’s information overload.
Personal Concerns
Let’s face it, you have a lot going on in your life. You attend school, you probably work, you might be
raising a family, and you have your own personal issues to work through every day. Sometimes when we
are absorbed in our own thoughts and concerns, we can’t focus on what someone else is saying. Your role
as an audience member is to listen to what the speaker is saying. If you find yourself focusing on your own
 upcoming speech rather than listening to your classmates, you’re allowing your personal concerns to
distract you. Or perhaps you are worried about something happening at work or home. When you allow
those worries to take your focus, you will often find that you become a less effective listener.
Outside Distraction
Classroom doors slamming, cell phones ringing, students having conversations outside in the hall are all
examples of outside distractions. It is your job to check out the speaking situations before you present. That
way you expect some of the above mentioned outside distractions. If you have a good idea of what to
expect, you can adjust your volume, pace, pitch, and tone of your speech. If you are an audience member
you can move to another seat, close the door, and do whatever is necessary to minimize the distractions.
Prejudice
Sometimes you might have a hard time listening because you do not agree with the speaker. We, as
humans, have a tendency to be closed- minded at times. If you have an emotional reaction to a speaker or
you disagree with his/her ideas on a personal level, you might allow personal prejudices to distract you.
Keep an open mind. While you may not agree with the speaker, his or her message may be valid. You’ll
never know unless you hear them out.
Rate of Speech and Thought
Most people speak at a rate of 125 words per minute. As a listener you are able to filter 700 words a
minute. If we can process so many more words than we actually hear, a mental lag can occur. Eventually
you’ll stop listening or you’ll find yourself drifting in and out. It might be to your benefit to mentally
summarize the speaker’s ideas from time to time to keep yourself engaged.
Thus, listening well is just as important as speaking well. The two go hand in hand.

8.7 Measures to overcome barriers to effective listening:

1. Being Non-evaluative
The verbal and non-verbal behaviour of an active listener will suggest to the speaker that he/she is being
properly heard and understood. The purpose is to communicate, overlooking the qualities of ideas, attitudes
and values of the speaker.
Your behaviour conveys the impression that you accept the person without making any judgement of the
right, wrong or bad suitable or unsuitable.
2. Paraphrasing
If one wishes to clarify, you can simply paraphrase what the speaker has said and enquire from the speaker
whether you have heard it accurately. Use phrase like following ones to ensure that you have correctly
paraphrased the information correctly:
• As I gather, you want to tell…
• So you mean to say that…
• Oh! Your feeling towards…
 • Do you mean that…
3. Reflecting implications
To reflect this you have to go a bit beyond the content of the speaker indicating him your appreciation for
the ideas and where they are leading. It may take the speaker to further extension of ideas.
The listeners aim here is to reflect eagerness and zest by nodding or through verbal means thereby giving
positive feedback. If you use the technique with the genuine intention of understanding more,
you can certainly help the speaker by boosting the confidence making him believe that the listener has his
content well
4. Reflecting hidden feelings
Sometimes, one has to go beyond the explicit feelings and contents of what is being said to unravel the
underlying feelings, intensions, beliefs, or values that may be influencing the speaker’s words.
You have to try to empathize or identify yourself with the speaker, to experience what he/she feels. Also,
avoid suggesting to the speaker that the feelings you reflect are what ought to be felt by him in such a
situation. This would make the speaker feel evaluated.
5. Inviting further contributions
In a situation where you haven’t heard or understood enough yet to respond with empathy and
understanding, prompt the speaker to give you more information. While it is useful to ask questions, be
cautious about asking too many. Open minded questions create a more supportive, trusting, climate that
will help the communications to move smoothly.
6. Responding non-verbally
You can show that you are an active listener by adopting certain postures and sending non-verbal signals
which communicate your interest in what the speaker is saying. These include regular eye contact (without
staring), body leaning slightly towards the speaker, head nods and a slightly tilted head. By giving these
signals you will make the speaker feel more confident and will by reflecting interest and understanding.
You will also be able to generate more trust between yourself and speaker.

8.8 How to Listen Effectively? :

1. Stop Talking – Be Silent

2. Show Interest
3. Empathize
4. Ask Questions
5. Maintain Eye Contact
6. Take notes
7. Listen Creatively
8. Put Your Entirety
9. Send feedback
10. Avoid or eliminate distraction
11. Try to gather information about the topic to develop interest and familiarity

8.9 Tips of Effective Speech:

Conversational Style- Conversational style is a speaker’s ability to sound expressive and to be perceived
by the audience as natural. It’s a style that approaches the way you normally express yourself in a much
smaller group than your classroom audience.

Eye Contact - Eye contact is a speaker’s ability to have visual contact with everyone in the audience.
Your audience should feel that you’re speaking to them, not simply uttering main and supporting points.
Whether a speaker is speaking before a group of five or five hundred, the appearance of eye contact is an
important way to bring an audience into your speech. Eye contact can be a powerful tool. It is not simply a
sign of sincerity, a sign of being well prepared and knowledgeable, or a sign of confidence; it also has the
power to convey meanings.

Volume- Volume refers to the loudness or softness of a speaker’s voice. As mentioned, public speakers
need to speak loudly enough to be heard by everyone in the audience. . In addition, you can use volume
strategically to emphasize the most important points in your speech. Select these points carefully; if you
emphasize everything, nothing will seem important.

Rate - Rate1is the speed at which a person speaks. To keep your speech delivery interesting, your rate
should vary. Rate is an important tool in enhancing the meanings in your speech. Your rate should be
appropriate for your topic and your points. A rapid, lively rate can communicate such meanings as
enthusiasm, urgency, or humor. A slower, moderated rate can convey respect, seriousness, or careful
reasoning. By varying rapid and slower rates within a single speech, you can emphasize your main points
and keep your audience interested.

Pauses - Pauses are brief breaks in a speaker’s delivery that can show emphasis and enhance the clarity of a
message.

Pronunciation - Word pronunciation is important for two reasons: first, mispronouncing a word your
audience is familiar with will harm your credibility as a speaker; and second, mispronouncing a word they
 are unfamiliar with can confuse and even misinform them. If there is any possibility at all that you don’t
know the correct pronunciation of a word, find out.

Good delivery of speech is a habit that is built through effective practice.

8.10 What is audience analysis?

Audience analysis is the process of identifying your audience and collecting information about them.
Before delivering the speech, you should know the age group, expertise level, needs, expectations, value
system, attitudes, and beliefs of your audience.
Adapting your speech according to the types of audiences is likely to generate a better response.
Some audience analysis factors are as follows:
▪ Audience expectations about the occasion of the speech, its topic, and the
▪ personality of the speaker
▪ Audience’s knowledge or familiarity with the topic
▪ Audience’s attitude or approach towards the topic
▪ Audience size and its ability to listen
Audience analysis prevents you from delivering an incorrect or offensive message. It will also warn you
against delivering a message that can be easily misinterpreted. It will help you speak to your audience in
the language they understand and appreciate
Types of audience analysis

1. Demographic Analysis
Demographic audience analysis includes taking in factors such as age, gender, race, culture, ethnicity,
marital status, socio-economic conditions, education, occupation, etc. For example, if the subject is
healthcare and the audience is in their late fifties, your speech should be geared towards age-appropriate
recommendations for a healthy lifestyle.

2. Psychographic Analysis
Psychographic is one of the types of audience analysis that covers understanding the attitudes, beliefs,
values and thinking patterns of your audience.
Values such as freedom, honesty, justice, patriotism, equality are universal and cherished by most
audiences. The audience is likely to respect you and want to hear from you if your speech reflects any of
these values.

3. Situational Analysis
 Situational audience analysis includes factors such as audience size, the occasion, the room layout, the
stage layout, motivation, or interest level of the audience.
If your audience is smaller, there is a possibility of developing a rapport with each member. Tailor your
data and delivery to the occasion—what you will say at a corporate conference will differ widely from your
talk at a momentous family function.
4. Multicultural Analysis
The content of your speech should acknowledge the diversity of your audience.
Different cultures have different value systems and behavior patterns. Being judgemental in your speech
creates a negative impact. Cultural sensitivity and inclusivity should be part of your audience analysis.

8.11 Rhetoric:

Rhetoric—which people sometimes call “the art of language” uses figures of speech and persuasive
strategies to elevate language and make it more engaging, memorable, and entertaining.
The Rhetorical Square consists of four elements that matter when analyzing a text. The four
elements are: 1) Purpose, 2) Message, 3) Audience, and 4) Voice.

Rhetorical Examples:
Steve Jobs’ speeches were so powerful because of the way he used rhetorical devices to deliver his
message. Rhetoric—which people sometimes call ‘the art of language’ uses figures of speech and
persuasive strategies to elevate language and make it more engaging, memorable, and entertaining.
Rhetoric can be a powerful tool for crafting speeches. By couching his messages using rhetorical
techniques, Jobs was able to deliver ideas that would go on to shape the world.

Anaphora (means carrying up or back): The repetition of a word of phrase at the beginning of every
clause.
Epiphora: The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of every clause.
Germinatio: The repetition of a word or word group within one sentence.
“That’s 58 songs every second of every minute of every hour of every day.”
Asyndeton: Sequence or words or similar expression without the use of conjunctions.
“We’ve got movies, TV shows, music, podcasts, photos.”
Polysyndeton: Repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinated words, phrases, or clauses.
“It’s got everything from Cocoa and the graphics and it’s got core animation built in and it’s got the
audio and video that OSX is famous for.”
Interrogatio: A rhetorical question in which the answer is self-evident.
“Isn’t that incredible?”
Exclamatio: An exclamation that expresses the emotional affection of the speaker.
 Aporia: A feigned statement of doubt by the speaker and a question to the audience about how he should
act. What are we gonna do?”
Hyperbole: An exaggeration of the characteristics of an object or circumstance.
“Best version of Google Maps on the planet, widgets, and all with Edge and Wi-Fi networking.”
Simile: An explicit comparison between two things, usually using “as” or “like”.
“It works like magic.”
Antitheton: The opposition of two facts of contrasting content.
“The kind of things you would find on a typical phone, but in a very untypical way now.”
Metaphor: A comparison made by referring to one thing as another.
Climax: The increase from a waker to a stronger expression. Thus, a word sequence is arranged in
ascending order.
“First was the mouse. The second was the click wheel. And now, we’re gonna bring multi-touch to the
market.”
Personification: The attribution of human properties toward things or animals.
“It already knows how to power manage….and if there’s a new message it will tell me.”

Slogans:“ Today Apple is reinventing the phone. ”

8.12 Polemics:
Polemics is the skill or practice of arguing very strongly for or against a belief or opinion. Polemics are
usually meant for important issues in religion, philosophy, politics, or science.
Polemic in a Sentence
1. The political candidate posted a polemic on his blog that mocked his rival's lack of community service.
Because I do not like to become involved in the conflicts of others, I refuse to listen to my office
mate's polemic about another employee.

8.13 Telephone Skills & Etiquettes:

While making or receiving calls, you should keep the following things in mind:
Keep a pen and pad near your phone: A call can come any time. Quite often, people do not have a pen
and paper when answering a call. It is discourtesy to ask the caller to hold the line till you find pen and
paper. Therefore, always keep a pen and pad handy right next to your phone.

Greet and identify: Greet the caller and identify yourself as well as your organisation. Greeting and
identifying are essential in telephone conversation. In case you are busy in a meeting, tell the caller and
return the call as soon as you are free. If someone else can better handle the call, transfer the call to the
concerned person.
Concentrate on the call: While on telephone, concentrate on the conversation and all keep distractions
out. Closing eyes while speaking on the phone, standing up and gesturing just as in face-to-face
conversation are some techniques used to keep out distractions.
Listen carefully: Patient and empathetic listening is essential for effective telephone conversation.
Wherever necessary, seek clarifications from the caller. In case of unavoidable interruptions, apologies,
request the caller to hold on and get back as soon as possible.

Take notes: If the caller makes several points, it is not safe to depend solely on memory. Take notes on
any follow-up action which you have promised to the caller. It is also necessary to write down the message
you are taking for someone else. The details should indicate the caller, the time of the call, caller’s contact
number, your name and the message received.
Cultivate a friendly tone: A telephone conversation is a unique form of oral communication because only
sound is involved. It is, therefore, very important to use a cheerful and friendly voice. The tone of voice
should be lively and should reflect interest in the person you are speaking to. One way to improve
telephone voice is to smile as you talk because it helps in creating a warm tone. Speak slowly and clearly.
Do not eat, drink, smoke or read while talking on the phone.
Avoid rambling: You should be considerate to your listener by coming to the point quickly.
Use the caller’s name during the conversation.
In case of any problem, project a tone that is concerned, emphatic and apologetic.

Making Phone Calls:

Following things should be kept in mind while making phone calls:

• Have a personal telephone directory listing the telephone numbers which you have often to use.
• If you are making a call for somebody else, follow his instructions.
• Have all the material ready before you dial the number. It is bad manners to keep somebody on the
line while you rummage through your files.
• If you have to say a number of things, alert the listener by saying something like this: ‘I want your
opinion on two points. One,two.
• If you wish to leave a message, say so and give a few seconds to the receiver to get ready. Let
your message be clear and accurate. If it is important, you may repeat it.

Receiving Incoming Calls:

While receiving calls, you should keep the following things in mind:
• Lift the receiver promptly.
 • Reveal your identity.
• Hold the mouthpiece properly.
• If you do not know who the caller is, obtain his name and designation.
• Even if the caller is annoyed, keep yourself cool.
• Give the required information accurately. If it is not readily available promise to ring back and, of
course, keep your promise.
• If a wrong number call comes to you, do not abuse the caller or slam down the receiver.
• Keep a jot pad and a pencil handy to note messages, if any.
• Keep your telephone on your left hand side so that the right hand is free to write.
• Take the message fully and correctly.

8.14. Making Effective Presentations

The formal presentation of information is divided into two broad categories: Presentation Skills and
Personal Presentation.
These two aspects are interwoven and can be described as the preparation, presentation and practice of
verbal and non-verbal communication.
This article describes what a presentation is and defines some of the key terms associated with presentation
skills.
A Presentation Is...
• A presentation is a means of communication that can be adapted to various speaking situations,
such as talking to a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team.
• A presentation can also be used as a broad term that encompasses other ‘speaking engagements’
such as making a speech at a wedding, or getting a point across in a video conference.
• To be effective, step-by-step preparation and the method and means of presenting the information
should be carefully considered.
• A presentation requires you to get a message across to the listeners and will often contain a
'persuasive' element. It may, for example, be a talk about the positive work of your organisation,
what you could offer an employer, or why you should receive additional funding for a project.
The Key Elements of a Presentation
Making a presentation is a way of communicating your thoughts and ideas to an audience.
Context
Ask yourself the following questions to develop a full understanding of the context of the presentation.
• When and where will you deliver your presentation?
There is a world of difference between a small room with natural light and an informal setting, and a huge
lecture room, lit with stage lights. The two require quite different presentations, and different techniques.
• Will it be in a setting you are familiar with, or somewhere new?
If somewhere new, it would be worth trying to visit it in advance, or at least arriving early, to familiarise
yourself with the room.
• Will the presentation be within a formal or less formal setting?
A work setting will, more or less by definition, be more formal, but there are also various degrees of
formality within that.
• Will the presentation be to a small group or a large crowd?
• Are you already familiar with the audience?
 With a new audience, you will have to build rapport quickly and effectively, to get them on your side.
• What equipment and technology will be available to you, and what will you be expected to use?
In particular, you will need to ask about microphones and whether you will be expected to stand in one
place, or move around.
• What is the audience expecting to learn from you and your presentation?
Check how you will be ‘billed’ to give you clues as to what information needs to be included in your
presentation.
Presenter
The role of the presenter is to communicate with the audience and control the presentation.
Remember, though, that this may also include handing over the control to your audience, especially if you
want some kind of interaction.
You may wish to have a look at our page on Facilitation Skills for more.
Audience
The audience receives the presenter’s message(s).
However, this reception will be filtered through and affected by such things as the listener’s own
experience, knowledge and personal sense of values.
Message
The message or messages are delivered by the presenter to the audience.
The message is delivered not just by the spoken word (verbal communication) but can be augmented by
techniques such as voice projection, body language, gestures, eye contact (non-verbal communication), and
visual aids.
The message will also be affected by the audience’s expectations. For example, if you have been billed as
speaking on one particular topic, and you choose to speak on another, the audience is unlikely to take your
message on board even if you present very well. They will judge your presentation a failure, because you
have not met their expectations.
Reaction
The audience’s reaction and therefore the success of the presentation will largely depend upon whether
you, as presenter, effectively communicated your message, and whether it met their expectations.
As a presenter, you don’t control the audience’s expectations. What you can do is find out what they have
been told about you by the conference organisers, and what they are expecting to hear. Only if you know
that can you be confident of delivering something that will meet expectations.
Method
How will the presentation be delivered?
Presentations are usually delivered direct to an audience. However, there may be occasions where they are
delivered from a distance over the Internet using video conferencing systems, such as Skype.
It is also important to remember that if your talk is recorded and posted on the internet, then people may be
able to access it for several years. This will mean that your contemporaneous references should be kept to a
minimum.
Impediments
Many factors can influence the effectiveness of how your message is communicated to the audience.
For example background noise or other distractions, an overly warm or cool room, or the time of day and
state of audience alertness can all influence your audience’s level of concentration.
As presenter, you have to be prepared to cope with any such problems and try to keep your audience
focused on your message.

Feature of a good presentation:

 1) Content matching the audience: arguments, discourse presented should match the intelligibility
level of the audience. It should match their interest and satisfy their curiosity. For an instance a
presentation on “theory of relativity” will have to be approached very differently in case its
audience are school kids rather than a panel of scientist.

2) Language matching the audience: language of a presentation should not be overwhelmingly easy
or too complex. In both situation audience will lose interest in the presentation.

3) Brevity: Brevity is the jewel of communication, but most presenters are confounded with the
question, how brief is brief. It is suggested that one should continue beyond 12-15 minutes if topic
is interactive and audience seems interested. Less than 7-8 minutes too short.

4) Smooth sequence: Ideas in a presentation should have smooth sequence based on logic that
enhances easy understanding and acceptance by the audience.

5) Show your preparation: Use of relevant statistical information, illustrative cases, visual aids and
woven into a smooth delivery demonstrates you are prepared and render your audience more
receptive.

6) Deliver aliveness: As a presenter try to be relaxed, maintain eye contact with the whole audience,
this way you will make yourself likable to the audience. Use voice modulation, hand gesture , an
enthusiastic and passionate voice this shows you conviction to your message and work and you
appear convincing.

7) Appropriate humour: Apt, short, and relevant humour makes presentation effective.

8) Planning your presentation: not sequential display of data it is a battle to win their wallet or to win
their hearts. Presentations are part of selling product and services. battles need strategies.

STAR strategy
 Group Discussion
Content
10.1 What is a Group Discussion?
10.2 How does Group Discussion differ from a Debate?
10.3 Purpose of Group Discussion
10.4 Topic Based GD
10.5 Do’s and Don’ts of group discussion
10.6 Tips to prepare for group discussion
10.7 Some topics for Group Discussion
10.1 What is a Group Discussion?:
Group discussion is an important activity in academic, business and administrative spheres. It is a
systematic and purposeful interactive oral process. Here the exchange of ideas, thoughts and feelings take
place through oral communication. The exchange of ideas takes place in a systematic and structured way.
The participants sit facing each other almost in a semi-circle and express their views on the given
topic/issue/problem.

10.2 How does Group Discussion differ from a Debate?:

Debate is competitive in nature while group discussion is a co-operative group process. In a debate, a
speaker can speak either ‘for’ the topic or ‘against’ the topic whereas in a GD, the speaker can express
both. The final decision or result in a debate depends on voting while in a GD, the group reaches group
consensus.

10.3 Purpose of Group Discussion:

It is an effective tool in problem solving, decision making and personality assessment. GD skills may
ensure academic success, popularity and good admission or job offer. Thus it is important to be able to take
part in a GD effectively and confidently. Participants should know how to speak with confidence, how to
exhibit leadership skills and how to make the group achieve the goals.

10.4 Topic Based GD:

Topic based GDs can be classified into four groups:

1. Current affairs topics
2. Factual topics
3. Controversial topics
4. Abstract topics
1. Current Affairs Topics
These topics include discussions which have been in the news recently. These topics are given to judge
analytical skills and general awareness.
2. Factual Topics
Factual topics are about practical things, which an ordinary person is aware of in his day-to-day life.
Typically these are about socio-economic and general topics. A factual topic for discussion gives a
candidate a chance to prove that he is aware and has good knowledge. In factual topics, complete group
 agrees or disagrees with the topic and there is less debate. Given a problem, the group is to find some
solutions.
3. Controversial Topics
Controversial topics are the ones that are argumentative in nature. In GDs where these topics are given for
discussion, the noise level is usually high, there may be tempers flying. The idea behind giving a topic like
this is to see how much maturity the candidate is displaying by keeping his temper in check, by rationally
and logically arguing his point of view without getting personal and emotional.
4. Abstract Topics
Abstract topics are about intangible things. These topics are not given often for discussion, but their
possibility cannot be ruled out. These topics test your lateral thinking and creativity.
Case Based GD
A case study is given instead of any topic. A candidate is required to study the case and then discuss among
the group. The case study tries to simulate a real-life situation. The situation is generally problematic and
there are no incorrect answers or perfect solutions. The objective in the case study is to get you to think
about the situation from various angles.

10.5 Do’s and Don’ts of group discussion:

Do’s
1. Rich Content with good subject knowledge
Having good subject knowledge and rich content is the first and foremost GD tip to enter the Group
Discussion Round. Following are the key steps to improve your Group discussion skills in regard to GD
content preparation:
• You should prepare on variety of topics as rich and right subject knowledge will be required during GD
round.
• You should have subject knowledge and be well aware of the latest happenings around you, not just in
India but around the world as well.
• Subject knowledge is a pre-requisite while you are preparing for a group discussion because you will then
have the power to steer the conversation to whichever direction you want to. If you can memorize some
relevant data, it will be an added advantage.
• If you are a good reader and read on variety of topics, it will help you in group discussion round. There is
no need for last minute preparation. You should read over a period of time. Reading not only adds to your
knowledge database, but enhances your vocabulary skills as well.
• Always choose the magazines that are content rich and not just full of advertisements. Often magazines
have columns which are promoting a particular institute etc. Avoid such magazines, do some research and
buy the best that will be beneficial for you.
 2. Be a Leader
There is no doubt that to emerge a winner in GD round you should speak after getting a grasp on the given
topic. But it also gives you opportunity to take lead. So be a leader to begin the Group Discussion. Key tips
are:
• Usually when the moderator announces the GD topic, for a minute there is silence all round.
• If possible, gather your thoughts in a few seconds and start the Group discussion with positive impact and
be a leader.
• If you find that it is taking time to gather ideas, let others begin, and then enter the GD round by
agreeing/disagreeing with previous speakers
• Beginning the Group Discussion gives the opportunity to make an impact but if you are not able to make
your point well, it will create negative effect
• Therefore, it is not necessary to speak first but it is necessary that when you speak you are heard and are
able to make your point well
• If you are able to speak out the name of your previous speaker and then present your views, it will mark a
good impact.
3. Be relevant
• When you speak you should speak to the point without any ambiguity of thought
• Express your ideas at length. If you simply follow the other speaker or his ideas, remember your
elimination is imminent
• Wherever possible, emphasize your point with facts and figures
4. Be a good Listener
• Learn to be a good listener. Listening Skills are Essential for GD round, so carefully listen to what others
have to say.
• Just speaking throughout the discussion doesn’t make you better. You should learn to give others a chance
to speak. Try and listen to others.
• If the speaker is making an eye-contact with you remember to acknowledge him by nodding your head, so
that the speaker is aware that his listeners are listening to him and paying full attention. This will also show
that you are vigilant and are an active participant in the discussion.
• Unless you listen well, it will not be possible for you to add value to your content and communication
• Listening offers you the opportunity to summarise the Group Discussion on each and every aspect.

5. Improve your Communication Skills

You may have good and rich content with lot of ideas but if you are not able to communicate well your
thoughts and opinions, all is useless. The need is now to improve your communication skills with following
GD tips:
• Be well versed in your communication skills.
• You should have a good vocabulary and a decent command over English.
• Much before your actual group discussion, rehearse well.
• You can sit with a group of friends and choose a topic and indulge in a friendly GD.
• Not only will this increase your knowledge, you will be a better speaker by the time it is time for your GD.
• In case you are not sure about something, you can use phrases such as: “I think” or
“Probably/Approximately” or “If I remember correctly”
6. Body gestures: Very important tool for Group Discussion
The panelists observe the way you sit and react in the course of the discussion. Body gestures are very
important, because your body language says a lot about you. In a GD, sit straight, avoid leaning back on to
the chair or knocking the table with pen or your fingers. Also, do not get distracted easily. Nervous body
movements, folding your hands across your chest, having skeptical expression, constantly moving, evading
eye movements are the indicators of a negative personality and should be avoided at all costs.

Don’ts

1. No Aggressive Move
It is expected during the Group Discussion that you are firm on your ideas and are audible enough to make
an impact on the group. But being aggressive, shouting and not allowing others in the group to speak, is not
appreciated. So be careful and don’t be a bully.

2. Don’t Crisscross on your Ideas

Don’t crisscross your ideas. The topics given in Group Discussion are debatable, you might like to speak
for or against the topic and while speaking don’t forget that you may be crossing your own lines. It gives a
bad impact and you are judged a person who has no stand for his own thought.

3. Don’t be a part of fish market

As a team player, your ability to lead and play in team is measured in the GD. During the Group Discussion
there are many instances where you will find every one is saying something and no one is heard. It is better
to be quiet for a while and then after gathering your thoughts, raise your voice initially and make your
point.

4. Don’t give up: Make multiple entries

Don’t be content with one round of one minute or half a minute speaking in the group. Focus on key
points, form the ideas and opinions to enter again based on the views presented by others to further
strengthen your view point.
 The Group Discussion round passes through highs and lows. So it is a good opportunity to re-enter the
Group Discussion after gathering more ideas coming out of others’ view and make an entry when the noise
level is low in Group Discussion.

10.6 Tips to prepare for group discussion:

Following are the key expert tips to prepare for Group Discussion:

1. To prepare for a group discussion, keep track of happenings around the world.
2. Being aware of current affairs and issues and happenings, which affect our lives, however remotely, shows
a well-rounded personality.
3. Make a habit of reading English newspapers and magazines, watch interesting documentaries and profiles
on television to get a wider perspective on issues.
4. Group Discussion topics can be from a wide range of issues. It could be a topic on current events, business
news, sports or anything very general. The wider your reading interests, the better prepared you will be to
face the group discussion.
5. Prepare the topics that are Repeated. There are topics which re-appear with minute changes and minor
variations. Be aware of such topics well in advance so that you have ample time to prepare for the same.
For example the issues of terrorism, gender inequality, poverty, liberalization and privatization,
reservations in educational institutions etc often appear as GD topics. Make sure you know these topics
well and can come up with some unique, insightful points along with some data.
6. Controversial and political topics do not figure in Group Discussions. So there is no need to waste your
time on them.

10.7 Some topics for Group Discussion:

• Terrorism in India
• Religion should not be mixed with politics
• Morals & Values among Indians is Degenerating
• With Media Publishing and Telecasting Trivia, Censorship is the Need of the Hour
• We are not serious about saving Wildlife/Environment
• The education system needs serious reforms
• The Internet is an exercise in hype
• Is our Political System Reason for our Backwardness?
• Politics is run by the Barrel of Gun
• Corruption is the Price we pay for Democracy
• What India needs is a Dictatorship?
• Nuclear War cannot be won and should not be foughtShould Research on Human Cloning be banned? •
Brain-Drain has to be stopped
• Should Animals be used for Testing New Drugs & Medical Procedures?
• Do NGOs in India Really Work for Others OR Work for their Own Vested Interests?
• Security Cameras & Privacy
• Advertisements Cheat People, Hence Should Be Banned
• What is the Difference between People who do Things Rightly and People who do Right Things?
• Are Peace and Non-Violence Outdated Concepts?
• Capital Punishment should be Banned or Allowed?
• Is Dependence on Computers a Good Thing?
• Every Cloud has a Silver Lining
• Privatization of Higher Education
• E-Learning: A Substitute for Classroom Learning?
• Cricket as a National Obsession is a Detriment to Other Sports.

Interview Skills
Contents
11.1 Definition of Interview
11.2 Objectives of interview
 11.3 Types of Interview
11.4 Why are interviews important?
11.5 Process Of Interview
11.6 What to Prepare for an Interview
11.7 Assignment questions
11.8 Books recommended

• Interviewer - One who takes the interview (asks questions)

• Interviewee - One who gives the interview (gives answers)

11.1 Definition of Interview:

Interviews, when broken down into two separate terms, are ‘inter’ and ‘view’ which means seeing
each other. An interview is a formal and in-depth conversation between interviewer and interviewee;
they exchange the desired information, which checks the interviewee’s capability.
An interview is a source of accurate information of the interviewee only when it is handled carefully.
It is a significant element of the entire selection procedure of a candidate. It serves as the basis of
examining interviewee’s job-related proficiency, abilities, and technicalities. An interview is a
structured conversation where employers ask questions, and the interviewee provides answers.
Interviews can be unstructured, open-ended, and free-wheeling conversations without predetermined
questions.
Interviews usually have a limited duration, with a beginning and an ending. The traditional two-
person interview format is commonly known as a one-on-one interview that permits direct questions
and follow-ups.
11.2 Objectives of Interview
So why are interviews carried out? In what manner it helps an interviewer to assess the knowledge
and skills of the interviewee? Let’s look at some objectives of the interview.
• It helps to verify the exactness of the provided facts and data by the candidate.
• The interview helps to obtain the additional set of abilities or information of the interviewee.
• The interview checks the candidate’s suitability for the job.
• It provides general and necessary facts and information about the job and the company.
• An interview gives an insight into the candidate’s analytical knowledge and creativity they
possess.
• Explanation about the job role is given at the time of the interview. The interviewer tells the
company’s expectations from him or her.
 • Through the interview process, the recruiter gets to know about the candidate’s skills and
lacks the potential abilities so that they could be trained.
• Information flows from both directions, and the interviewee gets to know about the company
and the employer.

11.3 Types of Interview:

There are several types of interviews conducted and they are listed below.
Structured Interview
It is the traditional form of an interview. Preset standardized questions are asked from the
interviewee and are the same for all the candidates. It is the kind of interview that gives th e chance to
examine the skills and abilities of all the candidates impartially.
Unstructured Interview
It is just the opposite of structured interviews. It is a free-flowing conversation. Here the interviewer
already has a definite idea in mind about the questions to be asked. Generally, questions are made
and asked during the interview. An unstructured interview does not follow any formal rules and
procedures.
Stress Interview
These kinds of interviews are very rare. In this, the interviewer gives a stressful situation to the
interviewee to test how they react and manage the crisis at a given time. The interviewer inclines to
make the interviewee nervous by asking tons of harsh questions at the same time, by completely
ignoring him/her, by interrupting them in the middle of an answer and creating a whole new
situation.
One to One Interview
It is the general interview. There are just two persons, i.e., the interviewer and the interviewee, and a
formal discussion takes place about the candidate's skills and abilities. The interviewer asks general
and technical questions to check the suitability.
Panel Interview
A panel interview is also known as a board interview. A panel of company members, usually more
than two, who are in senior positions, take the candidate's interview. Each one gives different scores
to the candidates and combines up to see if the candidate is qualified or not. In a panel interview,
candidates are often victims of personal biases, and it is not feasible for organizations that take many
interviews daily.
Telephonic Interview
Telephonic interview is conducted over the phone and is economical and less time-consuming.
Through these interviews, the company can select promising persons for the job. Its main objective is
to limit the list of candidates and appoint the best ones. These are actually more accurate than one to
one interviews for judging interviewees' intelligence and interpersonal skills. The candidates are
usually surprised by the unexpected call from the recruiter.
Video Interview
These interviews are conducted through various video conferences or online chats or messaging due
to its rapidity and inexpensiveness. It's just like a personal interview where the recruiter informs
about the interview a few hours before the scheduled time. It is done if the interviewee lives far-off
and cannot make it to the interviewer's place due to valid reasons.
Depth Interview
As the term itself says, it characterizes the interviewee in-depth. It covers the candidate's life history,
academic qualifications, interests, hobbies, and professional work experience. The interviewer here is
a listener and wants to know in detail about the candidates, so they allow a free flow of conversation
and make a friendly approach.

11.4 Why are Interviews Important?

Interviews are considered necessary as it is an excellent way to whittle down a large number of
applicants and give a chance to the best ones. Here are the following points which highlight the
importance of interviews.
• Interviews are necessary for the selection procedure as they help the interviewer choose who
is efficient and who is not.
• Resumes do not present a clear picture or inabilities of a candidate; through the interview
procedure, recruiters get to know where a candidate lacks and needs training.
• Interviews are a necessary procedure to know a candidate's potential.
• Through the interviewing employer and the interviewee gets to know each other, and the
flow of necessary information takes place, and all doubts are cleared.
• The employer gets to know about the interviewee's actual skills and checks his/her general
skills of writing and speaking through the quality of the answers.
• Employers also get to know about the individuality and personality of the candidate. Also,
analyze his/her social behavior and confidence in their body language.

11.5 Process of Interview:

Regardless of which type of interview you will have, all should follow the same process. We suggest
keeping the following GOA2L Process in mind during an interview:
1. Greet the interviewer with a firm handshake, introduce yourself, and thank the interviewer for
taking the time to meet with you.

2. Offer additional copies of your resume. Have several copies with you in case you'll meet with
multiple interviewers. If you have previous work samples, a list of references, or other materials to
share, you can bring them out now or hold onto them until you are asked about them.

3. Answer the questions that are asked of you, making sure to be honest, clear, professional, and
concise. If you don't understand a particular question, it is always acceptable to ask for clarification.

4. Ask whatever questions you may have about the job or the company. Remember, this is your
chance to find out if you really want this job for this company.
5. Leave on a good note. When the interview is over, shake the interviewer's hand again. Thank the
interviewer for taking time to talk with you, communicate your interest in being hired, and ask when
you can expect to hear an answer about the job.
Finally, don't forget to send a thank-you note! Less than half of job candidates send them, but all
hiring managers are impressed by candidates who send thank-you notes. Either by phone, email, or
letter, follow up. This is just one more way to put yourself ahead of other candidates.

11.6 What to Prepare for an Interview:

1. Research the Company

2. Decide what to wear in an interview
3. Review your check list
4. Practice your answer questions
5. Prepare your own questions to ask

Application:
1. Activity- Conversation on the usage of word ‘Charge’ in different connotation to make sure
that conversation leaves no ambiguity at the end.
Members - five students
2. Activity- Listen to various chat shows and speeches given by CEOs and spokespersons to
enhance your listening as well as public speaking skills and then share with your class-
mates.
3. Activity- Prepare a sample telephonic conversation that is likely to take place while ordering
a pizza.
11.7 Assignment Questions:

1. Explain the nature and process of listening. What is the significance of effective listening?
2. Difference between listening and hearing.
3. What is effective listening? Discuss the various types of Listening.
4. How can you say that appreciative listening is different from critical listening?
5. Briefly state the barriers to effective listening and state measures to overcome.
6. What is the role of eye contact in active listening?
7. What is the significance of effective speaking in public?
8. How far does pronunciation and fluency make speaking effective?
9. Write a note on skills in telephonic conversation.
10. What are the salient features of group discussion?
11. Define the purpose of Discussion.
12. Explain the various guidelines to be followed for attending a group discussion.
13. Group discussion requires honing the right combination of speaking and listening skills.” How
far do you are with the statement?
14. What are the expectations of interviewers from the interviewee?
15. What are the things that you must keep in mind while planning for a job interview?
16. What is stress interview?
17. Write a note on effective listening and how it can add value to your speaking skills.
18. Why is listening, the most crucial out of all the communication skills?
19. Discuss the tips for good public speaking and importance of public speaking.

20. How will you combat your nervousness before and during an interview?

11.8 Books Recommended:

Bonet, Diana. The Business of Listening: Third Edition. New Delhi: Viva Books, 2004.
Hargie, Owen. Ed. The Handbook of Communication Skills: Third Edition. London: Routledge, 1986.
Kratz, Abby Robinson. Effective Listening Skills. Toronto: ON: Irwin Professional Publishing, 1995.
Nelson, Paul E. & Judy C. Pearson, Confidence in Public Speaking. London: Oxford University Press,
2004.
Steil, Lyman K., et al. Effective Listening: Key to Your Success. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-
Wesley Publishing Company, 1983.
Andrews Sudhir. How to Succeed at Interviews. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company,
1988.
David A. Teaching English for Creative activity. New Delhi: Commonwealth Publications, 2005.

Questions

Unit 1: Organizational communication

1. Explain communication as a cyclic process.
2. What do you understand by body language? Explain.
3. Discuss semantic barriers to communication.

END TERM EXAMINATION

Questions 2018

Paper Code: ETHS: 301 Subject: Communication skills for Professionals

Maximum Marks : 75

Note: attempt all questions as directed . Internal choice is indicated

Q.1. Write short notes on any five of the following:

a. Interpersonal skills

b. Interview Preparation

c. Resume

d. Presentation Skills

e. Formal Reports

f. Memoranda
 UNIT-I

Q2 What are the factors and their functions in the process of communication? (12.5)

OR

Discuss how soft skills can make or break an employee’s career.

UNIT -II

Q3 Give phonemic transcription of the following: conclude, precise; shape; mark; earth; piquant;
speech; tour. (12.5)

OR

How is body language important in a multicultural context?

UNIT-III

Q4 What are the principal of effective business correspondences? (12.5)

OR

Prepare an agenda and write minutes of the meeting of the Sports Committee held on the eve of of
Annual Sports Meet of your college/University.

UNIT-IV
Q5 Discuss barriers to effective listening.

OR

“GD is an essential tool of assessment”. Elaborate. (12.5)

Second Term Examination

November 2016

Paper Code: ETHS: 301

Subject: Communication skills for Professionals Time: 1:30hrs.

Maximum Marks : 30

Attempt any three questions including question no.1, which is compulsory.

Q.1. a. Explain the term “bibliography and glossary.” (10)

b. State 5 barriers in listening.

c. Describe three major purposes of Group Discussion.

d. what is a chronological resume.

e. Define presentation. Also give 5 tips for effective presentation.

Q2. a. A memo differs from a notice not only in purpose but also in format-Explain.

b. What is Exit interview? How does it help the employer? (5+5)

Q3. (a) What do you mean by a report? State the characteristics of a good report. ? (5+5)

(b) Comment on body language as a presentation strategy.

Q. 4. A s a purchase Manager of Today’s Computers New Delhi, you had ordered 25 personal
computers from Neo Computers Bengaluru. 5 PCs were received in damaged condition. Write a
complaints letter in full block format to the sales manager of the company asking for replacement and
compensation. (10)

Or

Draft a resume along with a cover letter for the post of Project Head in XYZ Company.

Model Question papers

Sessional Examination

B.Tech: Vth Semester September 2019

Paper Code: ETHS 301 Subject: Communication Skills for
Professionals
Time: 1.5 Hrs Max Marks: 30

(Note: Q.No. 1 is compulsory. Attempt any two more from the rest)

Q. 1. Explain any two of the following: (5x2 = 10)

(a) Language Sensitivity
(b) Proxemics
(c) Emotional Intelligence
Q. 2. (a) Explain Speech mechanism in detail (10)
OR
(b) Transcribe the following:
Customer, Wonderful, Exhaust, Diligent, Careful, Distasteful, Permanent, Choice, Better,
Life

Q. 3. (a) List the barriers to communications and also discuss some effective ways to overcome
them
OR
(b) Explain the following: (5x2=10)
1. Time Management
2. Kinesics

Q. 4. (a) Define plagiarism and explain its importance vis-à-vis organizational communication.
OR
(b) Define grapevine and list its advantages and disadvantages (10)
 END TERM EXAMINATION
FIFTH SEMESTER [B.TECH.] NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2019
Paper Code: ETHS-301 Subject: Communication Skills for
Professionals
Time: 3 Hours Maximum Marks: 75

Note: Attempt all question as directed. Internal choice is indicated

Q.1. Attempt any five of the following:- (5x5=25)
(a) What determines a person’s personality?
(b) What do you mean by hard skills?
(c) Differentiate between listening and hearing.
(d) What is stress interview?
(e) What are the 7Cs of Communication?
(f) What are the various types of interviews?
(g) What is proxemics?
UNIT – I
Q.2. (a) How are the following important in personality development?
(a) Personal Grooming (3)
(b) Self Esteem and Confidence (3.5)
(c) Emotional Stability (3)
(d) Diverse Experiences (3)
OR
(b) State an example of any organization that has moved on to focusing more on
development of soft skills than hard skills. How do you believe this has affected the
organization’s receptivity, demand, productivity and profits? (12.5)
UNIT-II
Q.3 (a) Distinguish between the following:
(i) Phoneme and Syllable (3)
(ii) Monophthongs and Diphthongs (3.5)
(iii) Vowel Sounds and Consonants (3)
(iv) Primary accent and Secondary accent (3)
OR
(b) What do you mean by Paralanguage? Explain its advantages and limitations. (12.5)
UNIT-III
Q.4 (a) What is the difference between Resume and Curriculum Vitae (CV)? Draft a Resume to
apply for the job of an Assistant Engineer in a Software Company. (12.5)
OR
(b) What is the difference between a Notice and a Circular? Write a circular to inform the
Employees about the Board’s decision to introduce a productivity – linked bonus scheme
In the company. (12.5)
UNIT-IV
Q.5. (a) Discuss in detail how one can prepare for an effective and successful interview. (12.5)
OR
(b) Write short notes on following:
(i) Handling difficult questions in presentations (3)
(ii) Audio – Visual aids in presentation (3)
(iii) Organizing script for an effective presentation (2)
(iv) Audience Interaction (2)
(v) Stage Fright (2.5)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….