Macmillan Professional Masters Communication Macmillan Professional Masters Titles in the series Basic English Law W. T. Major Communication Nicki Stanton Company Accounts Roger Oldcorn Conveyancing Priscilla Sarton Constitutional and Administrative Law John Alder Contract Law Ewan McKendrick Company Law Janet Dine Cost and Management Accounting Roger Hussey Criminal Law Marise Cremona Data Processing John Bingham Employee Relations Chris Brewster Financial Management Geoffrey Knott Land Law Kate Green Landlord and Tenant Law Margaret Wilkie and Godfrey Cole Management Roger Oldcorn Marketing Robert G. I. Maxwell Office Administration E. C. Eyre Personnel Management Margaret Attwood Study Skills Kate Williams Supervision Mike Savedra and John Hawthorn Communication Nicki Stanton Consultant in Management Development and Communication M MACMILLAN © Nicki Stanton 1982, 1986, 1990 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place, London WCIE 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published by Pan Books Ltd as The Business of Communicating in the Breakthrough series. Fully revised and updated second edition first published in by MACMILLAN EDUCATION LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset by TecSet Ltd, Wallington, Surrey. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Stanton, Nicki Communication.-2nd ed, f!.lly rev. and updated. l. Business practices. Communication I. Title II. The business of communicating 651.7 ISBN 978-0-333-51963-9 ISBN 978-1-349-20925-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-20925-5 ISBN 978-0-333-51964-6 Pbk export v Contents Preface x Acknowledgements xiii 1 The process of communication 1 1.1 The objectives of communication 1 1.2 The meaning of words 2 1.3 Non-verbal communication 2 1.4 The context or situation 3 1.5 Barriers to communication 4 1.6 Why? Who? Where? When? What? How? 6 1.7 Planning the message 7 2 Speaking effectively 11 2.1 Basic speaking skills 12 2.2 Qualities to aim for when speaking 20 3 Listening 22 3.1 The neglected skill 22 3.2 Reasons for improving listening 24 3.3 Are you a good listener? 25 3.4 Ten aids to good listening 27 4 Non-verbal communication 32 4.1 Metacommunication and para language 32 4.2 The language of silence 33 4.3 The language of time 34 4.4 Body language or kinesics 36 4.5 Conflict between verbal and non-verbal communication 48 5 Talking on the telephone 50 5.1 Telephone problems 50 5.2 Basic telephone rules 52 VI Contents 5.3 Switchboard operators 53 5.4 Making a call 54 5.5 Gathering information by telephone 55 5.6 Answering the telephone 56 6 Interviewing 61 6.1 Interviewing weaknesses 62 6.2 What is an interview? 63 6.3 The purposes of the interview 64 6.4 Types of interview information 64 6.5 Types of business interview 65 6.6 How to plan an interview 66 6.7 Structuring the interview 67 6.8 How to question and probe 70 6.9 Checklist for fact-finding interviews 76 6.10 Interview assessment form 79 7 Being interviewed for a job 80 7.1 Preparing - the organisation 81 7.2 Preparing - know yourself 85 7.3 At the interview 88 7.4 Tips to remember 91 8 Communicating in groups 93 8.1 Advantages of groups 94 8.2 Disadvantages of groups 97 8.3 Factors affecting group effectiveness 99 9 Chairing and taking part in meetings 115 9.1 Chairing meetings 115 9.2 Decision-making methods 117 9.3 Responsibilities of participants 118 9.4 Duties of officers and members 121 9.5 The agenda 122 9.6 The minutes 124 9.7 Formal procedure 128 10 Giving a talk 133 10.1 Preparation 136 10.2 Developing the material 139 10.3 Opening the talk 140 10.4 Closing the talk 143 10.5 Use of notes 146 Contents vii 10.6 Practising the talk 146 10.7 Room and platform lay-out 147 10.8 Delivery of the talk 147 11 Using visual aids 149 11.1 General principles 150 11.2 Static boards 151 11.3 Flip charts 152 11.4 Build-up visuals 153 11.5 Physical objects 155 11.6 Models and experiments 156 11.7 Overhead projector 157 11.8 Slide projector 160 11.9 16mm film projector, films and videos 161 11.10 Closed circuit television and video 163 11.11 Points to remember about visual aids 163 11.12 Addresses for advice, film and video hire 166 12 Faster reading 168 12.1 How do you read? 170 12.2 The physical process of reading 172 12.3 Ways of increasing your vocabulary 176 13 Better reading 179 13.1 Determining reading priorities 179 13.2 Scanning 180 13.3 Skimming - topic sentences, signposts, method of skimming 182 13.4 SQ3R method of reading 186 14 Writing business letters 192 14.1 Why good letter-writing matters 192 14.2 Planning a letter 194 14.3 Lay-out and style 202 14.4 The structure of a letter 206 14.5 Dictating 215 15 Applying for a job 218 15.1 What sort of a job do you want? 219 15.2 What is available and what are they looking for? 222 15.3 The application itself 227 viii Contents 16 Writing reports 242 16.1 What is a report? 243 16.2 Types of report 244 16.3 Essentials of a good report 245 16.4 Terms of reference 245 16.5 Fundamental structure 246 16.6 Format, lay-out, headings and numbering 247 16.7 Long formal reports 253 16.8 How to get started 257 16.9 Assembling the material (period of synthesis) 257 16.10 Planning the report (period of analysis and classification) 258 16.11 Drafting the report 258 16.12 Editing the report 259 16.13 Producing the report 260 17 Other writing tasks 265 17.1 Notes 265 17.2 Memos 266 17.3 Postcards and reply cards 269 17.4 Telex messages 271 17.5 Designing forms and questionnaires 272 18 Visual communication 277 18.1 When to use charts and graphs 277 18.2 Presentation of statistical data 281 18.3 Presenting continuous information 285 18.4 Presenting discrete or non-continuous information 291 18.5 Presenting non-statistical information effectively 306 19 Getting to grips with grammar 318 19.1 How good is your English? 319 19.2 The parts of speech in brief 323 19.3 Joining the parts together - the sentence 326 20 Common problems with English 331 20.1 Subject-verb agreement 331 20.2 Problems with verbs 335 20.3 Problems with adjectives 348 20.4 Problems with adverbs 352 20.5 Problems with pronouns 355 20.6 Problems with prepositions and conjunctions 363 20.7 Problems with ellipsis 370 Contents ix 20.8 Problems with negatives 371 20.9 Revision 372 Appendices 374 A Punctuation made easy 374 B Using capitals 380 C Using numbers 381 o Line-end division of words 382 E Commonly misused and confused words 383 F Ten (simple?) rules of spelling 386 G Commonly misspelled words 389 A final word 390 Answers to Exercises 392 Index 408