 As-Salam-Alaikum. Welcome to virtual university's course on business and technical communication. In today's lecture, we will be looking at the seven C's of effective communication. We will be looking at clarities, the five W's, who, what, where, when and why. And also, we look at if you can answer all the questions stated by a questioner, all the questions implied by a questioner, and if you can give extra information when desirable. This means that in this lecture, you will basically learn how to use one word in place of phrases. If there is something that you can say in a whole sentence, you can explain it in a single word. We will also look at how you can use one sentence in place of two. If there is something that you can say in two sentences, you can say it in a single sentence in a complete way. And also, read out allowed to listen for wordiness. If there is something that is very difficult to use, or is used in a lot of words, how can we say it in less words? We will also look at how to omit outdated trite expressions. There are many such words in our language that are not used in today's world. We speak in ancient English, and in today's new English, they are not used. So, we will also look at how to omit those expressions in our language and use them with new methods for technical communication. We will also be asking ourselves what material is really relevant. We give a lot of information to people in which we are telling them but it is not necessary that they want to listen to us. So, we will also look at whether the information we are giving is important or not. We will also look for unnecessary repetition. Does the same word or idea appear too often? A lot of the times we are giving information and in order to try to make ourselves more comprehensible, we tend to repeat ourselves too often. We will also look at how to compose a written or oral message and what communication principles we need to apply for those. And these communication principles are called the seven C's of effective communication. These seven C's are completeness, conciseness, consideration, concreteness, clarity, courtesy, correctness. Completeness, as it is known, completeness means that one thing is completely complete. Completeness means that whatever message we are giving, we can reach our audience completely. Conciseness means that whatever message we are giving is complete but we have used a lot of false words or false words and we can explain them in a short way. When we talk about consideration, it means that we should also think whether our listeners will understand this or not, what we are telling them. It means that we should also realize their feelings and their understanding. Concreteness means that whatever message we are giving is complete. Clarity, which is our message, is clear. It is a lie. The seven C's apply to both written and oral communication. Although here we deal with these principles on a sentence level, they are applicable to all forms of communication. In this course, we are currently dealing with them on a sentence level and on a small sentence level. But when we use all these C's in communication, to some extent the principles overlap because they are based on a common concern for the audience, whether the audience consists of listeners or readers. There are a lot of things like completeness, correctness, conciseness, etc. which are very similar to each other. But whatever principles we use, we have to think that those who are listening to us or those who are going to listen to us will be able to reach our message. When we talk about completeness, when we talk about a message being complete, then we have to think that our message is complete when all the things we want to say are within it. So basically, the message is only complete when it contains all the facts that the readers or listeners need for the reaction that you as a communicator desire. Communication senders, that is the people who are communicating or who are giving out the message, need to assess their message from the eyes of the receiver to be sure they have included all the relevant information. There are a lot of times when we are talking, in fact, there are a lot of times, when we are talking, the person we are talking to is in front of us. Unless you are talking on TV the way I am talking to you. So when our audience is in front of us, we can see their eyes and we get to know from their eyes if our message has reached them or not. If we are surprised in their eyes, then it means that our message has not reached them or they have not understood. So it is very important that we see our audience and our listeners' facial expressions. The benefits of completeness that complete messages are more likely to bring the desired results. Obviously, when our message is complete, what we want from that message to get our reaction, it will also be more complete. Complete messages also do a better job at building goodwill. When our message is complete, what will be better with our listeners or with our listeners, what will be established on our relationship. Communication that seems inconsequential or useless, can become very important if information that the messages contain is complete and effective. In order to make sure that the message is complete, we need to keep the following guidelines in mind. We need to provide all the necessary information. We also need to answer all the questions that have been asked and also give something extra when desired. And now we will also talk about all these things in detail. As far as providing all the necessary information is concerned, we have to answer the five W's that make the message complete. If you remember, we also talked about the five W's in the beginning of this lesson. Who, what, when, where and why. We have to make sure that we have answered these five W's if they are making the message clear. When requesting a merchandise for example, we need to make sure what you want, when you need it, to whom and where it is to be sent and how the payment would be made. We also need to answer all the questions that have been asked. We also need to provide the necessary information and also the questions that have been asked to us. We need to now, in order to do that, we need to look for the questions. It is not necessary that the questions are given clearly with the question mark in our message. The information that has been asked to us has been asked as a question. That is why we need to look for hidden questions. Some of the questions may appear buried within a paragraph. So we need to locate them and answer them precisely. Whatever we get, wherever we feel that we need to answer these questions we need to deal with them and we need to answer them in a more specific way. Now, coming to answering all the questions, a colleague or a prospective customer's reaction to an incomplete answer is likely to be unfavorable. If we have a colleague or if we have a prospective customer who wants to maybe buy something for us or who has a query, then if we are giving an incomplete answer they might not be very happy with it. Obviously, if you are a customer and you, for example, go to a shop and ask a question and if you do not get an incomplete answer then you will not be very happy with it. That is why when you give an incomplete answer then you will also give an incomplete answer. And you will have to answer all the questions that have been asked to you. The customer may think that the respondent is careless or purposely trying to conceal a weak spot. Obviously, if you do not say anything then the listener will understand that you may not be telling the truth. In general, omissions cast suspicions whether you are answering an inquiry about your product or recommending a former employee to a new job. You will also hide the truth. The next one will also think that you are hiding it deliberately and you have something to tell you. So it is better to tell what you have. If you have no information on a particular question clearly, say so clearly. It is not necessary that you are hiding it. It is also possible that you do not have that information. Then it is better to tell the listener that we do not have the answer to this. If you have unfavorable information in answer to certain questions handle your reply with both tact and honesty. Obviously, if you have something that the listener may not like then it is better that you spread the word openly and openly. For example, in one instance a software distributor when replying to a customer's letter answered only four of seven questions asked. Because the original questions were somewhat hidden and buried in five long paragraphs. The respondent apparently overlooked them. The questions were hidden out of the seven questions. There were five paragraphs and the questions were asked inside them. The one who was going to read did not understand the question. The reply therefore was incomplete and unfriendly and caused the distributor to lose business. Obviously, when the question did not understand or when all the seven questions were not answered then the answer was not complete. The more questions they got, the more questions they answered. The result was that the distributor who asked the question took his business elsewhere. So sometimes in trying to answer all the questions that have been asked, before you answer a question you need certain specific information from your inquirer. If the information given is not clear, then you need to make it clear so that you can answer all the questions in a more accurate manner. If so, if you need to do this, it is a good idea to list the needed details on a reply form that the inquirer can fill out and return to you. There are many times that the questions asked are not clearly asked or as we saw in the last example in the paragraph form and that is why the reader does not understand all the questions or does not know. So it is better that if you are in a business situation then whatever you want or whatever information you want you can fill out on an inquiry form so that the inquirer or the inquirer can fill out the same questions and you can answer them in a more accurate manner. This is to ensure that the questions are complete and that your answer in turn is complete. Also, you need to give something extra when desired. You need to use your good judgment in offering additional material if the sender's message was incomplete. There are many times that you will feel that the person who sent the letter or the inquiry does not have all the questions and this is some information that they should get. So it is better that you think which information is important but maybe they did not ask for it. You also need to give that information. But keep in mind that when desirable which we have used you should take care of it because it is not necessary that every information should be given every time. For this you need to be careful and you need to think which information you need to give. Because you also have to make sure that you do not waste the reader's time when you are giving additional information. The information that you give should not be superfluous. It should not be unnecessary. In probing what kind of communication is used we have been analysing over years people have been analysing the credibility of the communicator as related to the speaker. What they are saying what they are listening what kind of relationship they are having with each other what kind of credibility they are giving what kind of authority they believe in that subject about which they are talking. Several classes but still relevant studies suggest that five decisions are made regarding a communication source. These decisions are listed in the next slide. Competence does the audience perceive the message sender as communicating honestly what he is talking about he is doing it right he is not doing it and this is in the mind of the audience whether or not he is talking about it what he is listening to what he is listening to also the character does the sender of the message know his or her message does he know what he is talking about or is he talking about it and it is very important that what he is listening to is confident that what he is speaking is good in terms of credibility we also need to look at exposure does the sender give the message or the impression of being calm and collected what he is talking about is very tense he is not very confused because if there is such a situation what he is listening to he is not confident also sociability does the sender come across as a likable individual people who like to talk or we feel he is a sincere person or he is a good person he is talking about it we also need to believe the factor of sociability is also very important and extra version does the source the person who is speaking exhibit outgoing tendencies rather than timidity he feels that he is outgoing he is a person who is speaking openly he is more confident on what he is saying for example if you are the president of a community welfare center and receive the following message in letter form I am new to the city and would like to consider joining a welfare center as I will be visiting the center within the next month will you please tell me where the next meeting will be this message has come to you if you answered only this question your letter would be incomplete obviously this was one question but the answer is you cannot answer this question you should add information about a welcome message information about parking space date, day and time of meeting your message will then have something extra that the reader really needs and appreciates obviously if you have just want to visit and tell us then you will not answer only this you will start your letter your communication or if you want to answer it on the phone obviously you will have a greeting then you will tell us when to come where to come, how to come maybe you will have to explain the way and all these things are when desirable you will tell another example which has an incomplete question like, please fax me in return the departures from Lahore to Karachi on 8th May this question which has been asked in fax is obviously not perfect but in reply to the fax you would have to give something extra as to times of the day, airline flying that route, cost and departures and arrival times if you are going from Lahore to Karachi if you are more than one then you will have to give information another example for example if you get a fax saying how come my request for an interview letter didn't receive a response now this fax is obviously an incomplete question it doesn't say that the letter that they are referring to where it was sent who sent it and to whom it was sent we don't know so to answer fax 2 you would have to ask some more questions so that you can answer it similarly if you send an incomplete letter to a depositor if you work in a bank then the depositor is your client then the incomplete letter will be like this thank you for the confidence you have shown us by the account you have recently opened Suhail Munir Muslim Commercial Bank obviously if your name is Suhail Munir then this letter is incomplete the message you have to give is incomplete there is no greeting there is no closure as such the complete and complete letter will be like this thank you for the confidence you have shown by the saving account and the services to you both pleasurable and helpful you are most welcome to come in whenever we can assist you Suhail Munir Muslim Commercial Bank this message is incomplete there is a mention of saving account it has been said that the account has just been opened and there is also a closure where they are welcoming that you can come and meet us later other examples are like this Suhail we need to get this out pretty soon what is the meaning of pretty soon what is the meaning of pretty soon till the end of today what is the meaning of pretty soon till the end of this week so this message will be complete when you will clarify that pretty soon and that will be in a way for example if you say Suhail we need to get this out by the end of today also and Sarah as soon as convenient would you bring me the expense file for example again as soon as convenient is not giving a complete message because it is too ambiguous you need to say when is as soon as convenient or you need to give a deadline you can say Sarah please bring this file to me by the end of today if that is convenient we also have some other examples for you which we will now complete for example like Suhail we need to get this out pretty soon then we need to clarify how soon is pretty soon is pretty soon by the end of today is pretty soon by the end of this week by the end of this month so a more complete and proper message would be Suhail we need to get this out by the end of today by saying this you are clarifying and defining when is pretty soon also as in this example and Sarah as soon as convenient would you for example bring me this file again as soon as convenient is too vague you need to complete it give it more concreteness by saying Sarah please bring me this file by the next hour by lunch break if it is convenient obviously you will also see the next convenience while requesting but you will definitely give a time limit so that your request is complete another example the quote you had in your window last Thursday is exactly the style I would like to have now you need to clarify which quote which window maybe you have called in the shop or you have written a letter for the request of this quote if you know the color, style then you will have to define that further in this request please send it to me on my charge account now the first thing is the charge account is for example if you have kept your account in a shop that you buy things from them and you complete the account in the end of the month we do not have this in many shops but in many places if you are saying this then you will give details of your charge account what is your name what are your customers without this this message will be incomplete other examples I am interested in the portable TV you advertised yesterday in your newspaper now in this you need to specify which portable TV maybe the one which is available they have advertised more than one TV so if it has a model number make number etc. then you have to tell that too also it says will you please tell me more about it now anything more can be a lot so if you clarify exactly what information do you need you need to know where is this made you need to know what is the size how many features are there is there remote control or not what information do you want you need to write the exact information otherwise just say please tell me more about it so whatever you are telling you are making it very difficult another example would be please reserve three seats for the opera turn about Saturday night now again if you are reserving seats for an opera, for a cinema, for a theatre do you want do you want to give any preferences for where the seats should be you need the front seats back seats center seats many theatres have smoking non-smoking area dress circle etc. you need to tell this to a complete home another example would be my daughter and I wish to repaint two bedrooms each of which is 10 by 12 feet please send us the right amount of paint in pink to do this job and charge my account now also with this the right amount of paint in pink is too vague you might want to do one coat, two coats, three coats and the right amount will then vary accordingly so it's better to specify the amount also pink in the paint might have many many shades so you need to give a specific shade number it's better if you have a shade card you can tell the exact number or exact name of the shade so that it is more complete now whenever you have completed a message you need to check with the checklist if your message is complete and for that you need to remember the 5Ws also to know that if you have answered all the questions 5Ws as we have talked what, when, where, why and who you have completed all these things in your message or not and if you have asked this question then you have given an answer to it the questions that have been asked clearly even those questions were not so clearly asked but they were implied they were hidden and the information was given or not given which we talked about earlier when desirable that if you needed that extra information then did you give it or not these things you have to check before sending your message now the next C remember we were talking about 7 C's and one of them was completeness that we just talked about the next is conciseness conciseness is saying words without sacrificing the other C qualities conciseness does not mean that if you speak in less words then completeness will end you have to keep your conciseness and complete the other C qualities clarity, completeness etc. you don't have to reduce them but you have to keep your conciseness a conciseness message saves time and expense both the recender and the receiver the conciseness message the shorter the message the less your time the less your expense the less expense and the less time for the listener also a conciseness message increases emphasis in the message when a message is conciseness is more complete is more clear the emphasis in the message will increase the weight also a conciseness message shows respect for the recipient by not cluttering them with unnecessary information when you give a conciseness message obviously it means the listener is also giving a respect that you are not giving them false information and you are giving them information by taking care of their needs to achieve conciseness you need to observe the following suggestions eliminate wordy expressions wordy expressions means expressions which are difficult which are very difficult to use only to impress someone there is no need for that remove those words use the words so that your message reaches the listener or the listener you also need to include only relevant material and avoid unnecessary repetition relevant material which is also related to the completeness that you have to remove unnecessary information you have to put a lot of material which is desirable which is related to that wordy expressions come back you can use single word substitutes instead of phrases whenever possible without changing meaning instead of using long phrases instead of using single words but keep in mind not to change the meaning for example a wordy expression would be at this time a concise expression would be now a wordy expression would be a concise expression to the fact that and a concise expression would be because also you need to use single word substitutes instead of phrases whenever possible again without changing their meaning keep in mind that when you substitute for conciseness your meaning does not change the meaning of the wordy expression is the same meaning coming back to the examples a wordy expression would be have need for and a more concise substitute would be need wordy would be in due course concise would be soon also you need to omit trite and unnecessary expressions for example please be advised that your admission statement has been received we do not need to be advised to write we can just say the admission statement has been received and that serves the same purpose as saying please be advised your admission statement has been received also allow me to say how helpful your response was you just need to say your last response was helpful allow me to say it may be it may be another wordy phrase that is frequently used is please find attach the list you requested you just need to say the list you requested is attached another example such refreshing comments are few and far between this is a conventional statement we will change it we will add a concise statement you just need to say such refreshing comments are scarce few and far between you need to avoid using empty phrases there are four rules that should be observed you just need to say four rules must be observed similarly empty phrases let me give you another example it was known by Mr. Usman that we must reduce in size our inventory it will be more simple Mr. Usman knew we must reduce our inventory we also need to omit which and that clause it is too long she bought desks that are of the executive type we just need to say she bought executive type desks another example the receipt that is enclosed documents your purchase again we just omit that and we say the enclosed receipt documents your purchase we also need to eliminate unnecessary prepositional phrases that are starting with a preposition the wordy phrase would be the issue of most relevance is teamwork and the concise replacement would be the most relevant issue is teamwork another example would be in most cases the date of the inquiry is indicated in the upper right corner you just replace it by saying the policy date is in the upper right corner you also need to limit your passive voice active and passive voice we have always done in school when a sentence is direct or we invert it and say it in passive voice it is better to keep your sentence in active voice the wordy example would be the total balance due will be found on page 2 of this report the concise replacement would be the balance due is on page 2 of this report also the reports are to be submitted by employees prior to 5pm at which time they will be received by Ali this sentence becomes very complicated it would be better please submit your reports to Ali by 5pm the message is the same another thing to keep in mind for conciseness is that we should include only relevant material which means we should stick to the purpose of the message and aim that is why we should think about the aim of this message why we are writing this message and until we take care of it our message will not be concise we also need to delete irrelevant words and rambling sentences which means the long sentences which are irrelevant which are unnecessary another aspect is that we need to omit information which is obvious to the reader there is a lot of information which we do not need to say our reader or our listener knows about it so we do not need to say those things we also need to avoid long introductions unnecessary explanations pompous words long introductions whatever we do of our topic should be concise because we need to talk about it unnecessary words unnecessary explanations should be removed there are many things which are obvious we do not need to explain them pompous words means such words which we use for example, to know the word we do not need to use such words because our message is very complicated and the word which means we want to be polite to someone or to be polite to someone we want to be more polite that is not right in every communication you have a stature and the reader has a stature so you have to keep an eye on both but it does not mean that you become so polite that the listener or the reader becomes impatient with your politeness you also need to get to the point tactfully and concisely we keep talking about conciseness but you also need to have tact conciseness does not mean abruptness whatever you speak do not be so short that the listener feels that you are getting rude for example a wordy expression would be we hereby wish to let you know that our company is pleased with the confidence you have reposed in us now in this example there is over-politeness there is a lot of politeness and there are a lot of harsh expressions and difficult expressions in a simple way you have to initiate your confidence that is the same in 4 words unnecessary repetition we have to avoid for example you need to use short names when you have mentioned the long ones once for shaukat khanam memorial memorial cancer hospital you should just use shaukat khanam or simply the hospital because unnecessary expressions long expressions lead to dullness now in a single word if you say shaukat khanam memorial hospital then the listener will get bored you also need to then use initials instead of repeating long names instead of using pakistan international airlines use pia maybe in your own words when you mention pia then you say pakistan international airlines and after that when you say pia then you say pakistan international airlines we need to cut out needless repetition or sentences that are being repeated unless they have a purpose sometimes it is also possible to combine 2 or even 3 sentences using subordinate clauses or phrases which means that instead of using 2 or 3 long sentences we use one sentence within another or we combine them the example clarifies this is a letter from a business executive in a company for 5 years it says will you ship us some time any time during the month of october would be fine or even november if you are rushed in brackets november would suit us just as well in fact a little bit better 300 of the regular del computers thank you in advance for sending these along in parcel post and not in express as express is too expensive this is a very long example in this there is only one thing they have requested a few computers but they have done it in such a long way and they have not clarified the deadline they have not clarified anything they have not clarified anything and they have been repeating this is the only way to do it better simply just say please ship by parcel post before the end of november 300 del computers this was the last example but this is the best way you can say please ship by parcel post before the end of november 300 del computers this was the same thing they had requested for 300 computers but the earlier it was it was a very long way and in the other example this was a very good and concise way I am going to show you some examples that basically have the meanings of some famous proverbs but just to show you how non-concise messages can be complicated we have made them extra long and we have put in some unnecessary words and made the meaning slightly more complicated let's have a look at them and let's see if you can guess what the original proverb would be as well that is finalized effectively basically a proverb which we have heard many times all is well that ends well we have written this in a difficult way and there is no need to talk about it if we say all is well that ends well then it is very effective similarly be it a minimum dwelling in the depressed socio-economic area there is no place like home you just need to say it is not necessary to make it so long all programmed activity and non-utilization of recreational outlets make Jack less than a fully realized personality in simple words all work and no play make Jack a dull boy do not attempt statistical estimates of your chickens before it is feasible to correlate volume variance with project estimation now this is a very difficult way to say do not count your chickens before they are hatched the utilization of a super-fluity of culinary personnel maximizes disorganization and has a deleterious effect on the broth it basically means too many cooks spoiled the broth now you can see how long when we talk about it that means it gets complicated and it is more easy to say assume that you are writing for an average citizen what synonyms would the following words be better understood by there are words we have words where if we replace them by other words it becomes more effective so if you are writing for an average citizen for a normal person, regular person not an academic, not an expert in English you would need to replace certain words in your writing so that it is easily understood default refill, rescind cancel aggregation, totality contingent easier word would be group and discrepancy difference or inconsistency so all these words can be replaced by simpler words easier words they might be replaced by instead of one word by two words but they are then simpler and easier to understand so basically for conciseness what you need is the following checklist you need to use one word in place of phrases if you have a phrase replace that by one word, one sentence in place of two sentences and you need to read out or listen for wordness you should omit outdated trite expressions ask yourself what material is very relevant and obviously delete irrelevant material also look for unnecessary repetition check if the same word or idea appears too often then you need to delete that so in this lesson we have looked at briefly the seven C's but in more detail we have looked at completeness and conciseness the rest of the seven C's which are consideration concreteness, clarity, courtesy and correctness we will look at in the following sessions in this lesson we have looked at two out of the seven C's we have looked at completeness and conciseness and in the following lessons we will look at consideration concreteness, clarity, courtesy and correctness till then, Allah Hafiz