C’s of communication
When I was referring Dandi march by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930 A.D. my lecture was interrupted by a seventh class student, “Sir, what do we mean by A.D?” she asked. After my clarification, she came out with another doubt, “A person was born when Jesus Christ was thirteen year old. Does he belong to A.D or B.C?”
I was taken back, confessed my ignorance and on return verified to
know my mistake. A.D. does not mean “after death,” as many people
(including me) suppose. It stands for a Latin phrase: anno domini
(the year Jesus was born). I sent her the correct answer through
mail.
Correct and concise:
There are five C’s of communication, foremost being Correctness of
‘fact’ and its ‘presentation’. Never speak unless you are sure of
its truth. Present it without grammatical mistakes and wrong usage
of words like “I like to administrate (administer) disinterested
(uninterested) people and invaluable (valueless) products…”
Same way, never confuse with identical words with different meaning
like “affect and effect”, “substitute and replace”. Suppose a person
asks you, “Why don't you replace the sugar for honey?” how do you
understand it, if he actually means ‘substituting honey for the
sugar’?
“Conciseness” is the second key to effective communication. You
said, “I turned around 360 degrees to see who was standing behind
me.” When you turn 360 degrees you would complete a circle and are
back to the original. This is first mistake. The usage of word
‘turn-around’ itself denotes what you want to say. The word ‘180
degrees’ is redundant. Don’t use long phases when they can be
replaced by shorter ones. Practice brevity. Rewrite the following
letter in two sentences avoiding irrelevant details. “Dad..! I don’t
want to give more details of my expenditure. I am in need of money.
Send me some amount before this weekend. Send me at least five
hundred rupees. Don’t send cheque. It takes more than three days for
collection. Hence I will be happy to receive the draft.” We will
discuss other elements of communication next week.
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We were discussing six C’s of communication, first two being
Correctness and Conciseness. Next two elements are “Clarity” and
“Completeness’. Give full information including your
intentions, purpose of writing (or talking).
Keep in mind the I.Q. of the opposite person. A sentence from an
eighth class science book: “The
epidermis, the dermis, and subcutaneous layer are three layers of
which, a layer of dead skin cells makes up the epidermis that forms
the body's shield against the world” could have been written with
more
clarity as: “The
skin consists of three layers: the epidermis, the dermis and the
subcutaneous. The epidermis layer is formed by dead skin cells and
acts as a protective shield between body and the outer world”.
Your communication need to be articulate, effective and above all,
“clear”. While narrating Ramayana, if you say, “Rama, Lakshmana and
his wife Sita went to forest” the listener confuses as to whose wife
is Sita. The purpose of communication is to let others know your
intent and not your authenticity over knowledge. But some times you
should add passion to your talk. Instead of speaking with a
submissive voice, “Is it wrong to kill a terrorist?” if you
expressively yell, “Is it wrong to kill people who kill people to
show that killing people is wrong?” audience would emotionally
applause.
Conversational style:
Flow from one sentence to the next through smooth transition is
“coherence”. Developing own way of writing that has a
“conversational tone is the best. Read loud what you wrote and
correct those words and sentences which sound stiff and tongue-tied.
Thinking in colloquial language and translating it to English is a
problem for many students. “I saw a person yesterday wearing red
shirt” would be “yesterday I red shirt had man saw” in Telugu. Using
adjectives at wrong places also sounds funny. Don’t you find
something odd when your friend says, “The girl smiled at me with
beautiful hair”?
