Communication skills Handouts- B.

Ndlovu

(These notes are not polished)

The course is more skill- than information-oriented, and it is one of the classes where students
perform as active learners instead of passive receivers and digesters of information.

The course offers a content based approach where all four skills of speaking, listening, reading
and writing are integrated to foster various speaking opportunities. Since the main focus of the
course is on speaking, the listening, reading and writing tasks serve as springboard to either
generate or to complement speaking.

structure of an essay

Introduction ~5%

Body 80-90%

Conclusion ~5%

paragraphing. 5-15 lines

A paragraph is a group of sentences expressing a central idea or theme. It is a sub-

division of a larger frame such as an essay or a chapter of a book.it should be
characterized by the following;

1. Unity
2. Coherence i.e. one sentence leading to the next in a logical sentence
3. Adequate content ie. appropriate selection and a good number of details to
support the of main idea
4. Indentation: this indicates where the paragraph starts
A paragraph should neither be too short nor too long (oscillate between 5-
15lines)

There is no great mystique about an "academic writing style". The most important
thing is to keep your writing clear and concise and make sure that you get your ideas
over in a comprehensible form and avoid Plagiarism.

Plagiarism- it is an act of using someone’s ideas or work without acknowledging them.

it may be one’s diagrams, phrases, interpretations etc. Plagiarism is also defined as
forgetting to acknowledge the source of information. It is a serious academic offence
which is punishable. It is a sign of disrespect. Disrespect for the owner of the work
and disrespect for the lecturer.it is also disrespect to your family/chn. It is a sin in
academic circles. Sinning is missing the mark. When you sin you go to hell. Hell in this
context is going below 50 %. Avoid it.

General rules for in-text referencing

Own idea ..justify by example

If an idea stems from your experience. State it. Eg. During our boyhood in 1941…

If idea stems from material you have read. State as a direct quotation or indirect.

Work together with your colleagues but do not submit the same essay. Each person for
himself when it comes to writing.

Citation Styles. APA, MLA, Harvard.

 All these are called Author-Date styles of referencing.

 Referencing can be done both within the text and at the end of the text(APA&
Harvard), However with MLA system, referencing is done at the end of pages
where parenthetical citations and footnotes are made at the end of a text.
 The student is not allowed to mix the systems of referencing in one essay.
Choose one and stick to it.
 All material/information sourced from other scholars must be acknowledged.
This includes key words , phrases and sentences.

In-text referencing

Ellipsis points (…),

Indenting: indent material that is more that 40 words or 4 lines. Anything less
than that should come inside quotation marks

There are three (3) options to placing citations within the text:

Idea focused. The idea is placed before the author eg. “Researchers pointed out that
psychological noise is chief barrier in communication. (Ndlovu, 2004).

Researcher focused. Here, the focus is on the researcher first.Date is placed in

parenthesis eg. Chomsky (1965) contends that psychological communication barriers
should be considered before engaging in any serious communication

Chronology focused. Here, THE STUDENT IS focusing on the time in which the idea
was generated. It integrates both author and date into the sentence eg. In 2007
Mkhwananzi proposed the adoption of linear model of communication in explaining
communication in church services.

Note that, it is clear expression of these ideas that will impress your lecturer or
marker.

References and Bibliography

Students are encouraged to make use of reference list instead of Bibliography in

listing their sources at the end of their assignment.

Harvard style>>> Ndlovu, B. (ed.) 2010. Psycholonguistics perspectives. Harare:

University of Zimbabwe

Journal Article/ newspaper>>>as above ,year of publication, title of contribution,

title of journal, vol. no. part no. if applicable page numbers of contribution.

Eg. Nsingo, V. B. 2015. Man rapes his wife. The Sunday Newspaper. July 23, 3-4

FURTHER READING refers to sources that are believed to be beneficial in the reading
of the subject in question but may not have been used.

A wide range of vocabulary is of course important, but you must use the right word,
and shorter ones are often better than longer ones.
The most important thing to remember is generally to try to avoid everyday, informal
language, especially colloquial expressions and slang (Fst & fmst,last but not least; ).
Also, spoken language is naturally full of hesitations, repetitions, grammatical errors
and unfinished ideas. It is generally acceptable when spoken.

Structure is much more important in your writing: sentences should be complete and
ideas arranged into paragraphs or sections, and you should aim for perfection in your
grammar and spelling.

What’s important is that you clearly show your understanding of the subject and your
ability to manipulate information to answer a specific question or complete a specific
task, and as long as any grammar errors you make don’t impede this, then it shouldn’t
be much of a problem.

STRUCTURING YOUR WRITTING

##make sure you write in complete sentences.

##divide your writing up into paragraphs.
##use connecting words and phrases to make your writing explicit and easy to follow.
Use words such as: and;however;furthermore;moreso etc
##check your grammar and spelling carefully.

Paragraphs

A paragraph is a group of sentences expressing a central idea or theme. It is a sub-

division of a larger frame such as an essay or a chapter of a book.it should be
characterized by the following;

 Unity
 Coherence i.e. one sentence leading to the next in a logical sentence
 Adequate content ie. appropriate selection and a good number of details to
support the of main idea
 Indentation: this indicates where the paragraph starts
A paragraph should neither be too short nor too long ( oscillate between 5-
15lines)

Unity
The paragraph should be one component that serves a fundamental purpose.
Unity implies that a paragraph should be complete in itself. Some paragraphs
particularly introductory and concluding ones give a complete picture of the
larger subject. all sentences of a paragraph must stick to one subject under
discussion. Unity of parts means intro, body and conclusion must hang
together.
The intro of a paragraph is its topic sentence, a sentence that puts the agenda
of a paragraph. It deals with what the paragraph purports to cover. The
discussion or middle elaborates on or develops the topic.this is usually a
sentence or a combination of sentences that expands an idea raised in the
topic sentence. the conclusion sums up the discussion by referring to the main
point of the paragraph.a paragraph must have proper proportions of the
three(3) parts with the body usually being longer.
Coherence means parts of paragraph are logically arranged and connected. The
flow of information has to be smooth. Use of transition devices/cohesive
devices will permit easy passage from one sentence to another. Eg. Meanwhile,
moreover, consequently, undoubtedly…

 use appropriate language and aim for accuracy in your grammar and
vocabulary.
 remember that you're writing for someone else, and hence the importance of
punctuation, sentences, paragraphs and overall structure, all of which help the
reader.

What to avoid.

do not (don’t) use contractions (eg it's, he'll, it'd etc): always use the full form (it
is/has, he will, it would/had).
do not use colloquial language or slang (eg kid, a lot of/lots of, cool)
#always write as concisely as you can, with no irrelevant material or “waffle”.
Miniskirt, attractive but long enough to cover essentials, no long dresses please! Don’t
summarise to the extent that there is nothing to read, some essays are too bare- no
G-strings in public!
##generally avoid "phrasal verbs" (e.g. get off, get away with, put in etc): instead,
use one word equivalents.
###avoid common but vague words and phrases such as get, nice, thing. Your writing
needs to be more precise.
###avoid overuse of brackets; don’t use exclamation marks or dashes; avoid direct
questions; don’t use “etc”.
###always use capital letters appropriately and never use the type of language used in
texting!

HEDGING/AVOIDING COMMITMENT

It is dodging, circumventing or being cautious or an act of evading.

You hedge in order to put some distance between what you’re writing and yourself
as writer, It is to be cautious (watchful, careful, alert) rather than assertive(self-
confident, self assured, forceful):

##avoid use/ overuse of first person pronouns (I, we, my, our)
##use impersonal subjects instead (It is believed that ..., it can be argued that ...
one can handle…)
##use passive verbs to avoid stating the ‘doer’ (Tests have been conducted instead of
Ndlovu conducted…)
##use verbs (often with it as subject) such as imagine, suggest, claim, suppose. Do not
say its known.
##use ‘attitudinal signals’ such as apparently, arguably, ideally, strangely,
unexpectedly.
These words allow you to hint at your attitude to something without using
personal language.

##use modal verbs such as would, could, may, might which ‘soften’ what you’re
saying.
##use qualifying adverbs such as some, several, a minority of, a few, many to avoid
making overgeneralisations. Don’t say industries have closed in Bulawayo, but qualify
your statement

## avoid trite expressions such as, First and Fore most, last but not least, in a
nutshell, in short

Terry eagleton states that

Academic WRITING should be FORMAL and IMPERSONAL

How do we do that?

 Do not use emotive (emotional, sensitive, controversial) language; be

objective(impartial/detached/ neutral/fair) rather than subjective( biased,
skewed/twisted, one sided, slanted, personal).

 avoid being too dogmatic (rigid/narrow/assertive) and making sweeping

generalisations. It is usually best to use
some sort of “hedging” language (see below) and to qualify statements that
you make.

 you should consistently use evidence from your source reading to back up what
you are saying and reference this correctly.

 avoid sexist language, such as chairman, mankind, sister in charge. Don’t refer
to “the doctor” as he; instead, make the subject plural and refer to them as
they. Avoid he/she, herself/himself , this is clumsy apart from being sexist etc.

 use nominalization; this is a process of changing verb based phrases to noun-

based phrases.
For example, instead of.
Plagiarism was increasing rapidly and the lecturers were becoming
concerned.
Write:
The rapid increase (expansion,multiplication,escalation,intensification) in
plagiarism was causing concern among the lecturers.

Academic writing tends to be fairly dense, (compact/thick-have everything)

with relatively long sentences and
wide use of subordinate clauses. Remember, however, that your main aim is
clarity, so don’t be too ambitious.

 Academic writing is impersonal, argumentative i.e. analytical (means topics are

discussed at different levels of abstraction) and interpretive. And highly
intertextual due to citation of scholarly views.

 Academic writing is argumentative (arguments are at the centre of academic writing and
anything short of that is dismissed as waffling and sweeping.). This means that ideas are
supported by established facts, examples, logical deduction and references. Logicality
implies an explicit relationship between statements. It equally entails use of logical
connectives such as, therefore, as, however, for example, for instance…
  assertion

Exercises

Exercise 1
Replace the undesirable phrasal verbs in the sentences with a more appropriate verb
from the list below. Make sure you keep the same tense.

1 Researchers have been looking into the problem for 12 years.

2 This issue was brought up during the seminar.

3 It is assumed that the management knows what is happening and will therefore step
in if there is a problem.

4 Schools cannot altogether get rid of the problem of truancy.

5 The number of staff has been cut down recently.

6 It was very difficult to find out exactly what happened.

7 House prices in Bulawayo have a tendency to go up and down.

8 A potential solution was put forward seven years ago.

Exercise 2
Replace the following phrasal verbs with a more formal single word.

1 The San community in Tsholotsho could not put up with the visitors from the city.
Tolerate/bear

2 The economic decline in Zimbabwe was brought about by cheap imports.

3 lsu is thinking about installing CCTV in Byo Campus

4 Mr. Ndlovu went on speaking for over 3 hours.

5. The meeting was put off until March 2016.

6 Nkayi GMB was pulled down seven years ago.

7 Mahatshula residents have cut down on their consumption of GMO chickens from
Brazil.
Exercise 3
Which of the two alternatives in bold do you think is more appropriate in academic
writing?

1 The government has made considerable/great progress in solving the problem.

2 We got/obtained excellent results in the experiment.

3 The results of lots of/numerous tests have been pretty

good/encouraging/pleasing/impressive.

4 A loss of jobs is one of the consequences/things that will happen if the process is
automated.

5 The relationship between the management and workers is extremely/really

important.

6 Some suggestions springing up from/arising from the study will be presented.

Exercise 4
Use a more formal word or phrase to replace undesirable terms.

1 The reaction of the Emhlangeni residents in Bulawayo was sort of negative

2 The economic outlook is nice.

3 ZIMTA is planning a get together to discuss its strategy.

4 The resulting competition between countries is good.

5 The Zimbabwean economy is affected by things that happen outside the country.

6 She was given the sack because of her poor record.

7. My communication skills examination results were super.

Exercise 5
Replace the contractions in the following sentences with full forms where necessary.

1 The results weren't very encouraging.

2 We'll have to conduct another experiment.

3 She's been all around the world.

4 It's the best solution to the problem.

5 Our questionnaire shows that teachers aren't paid what they're worth

6 His response was, "A job's a job; if it doesn't pay enough, it's a lousy job'.

7 He'd rather beat her coz he’s afraid to announce the findings at the conference.

8 The department's approach didn't succeed.

What is the difference between until and till?

Exercise 6
Suggest improvements to the following sentences to avoid use of “you” and “we”.
People like using third person pronoun “you”. This is not academic

1. You can apply the same theory of learning to small children.

2. You can only do this after the initial preparation has been conducted.

3. The figures are accurate to within 1%, but you should note that local
variations may apply.

4. In the second section of the report, we will consider the environmental

consequences.( the environmental cons…)

Exercise 7
Suggest alternatives to the following to avoid use of personal language.

1 In this essay I will discuss the main differences between social work and Sociology.

2 I have divided this report into five sections.

3 I will conclude by proposing that all drugs should be legalized.

4 The opinion of the present author in this essay is that the importance of
the politicians should be reduced.

5 In the third part of my essay, we will look at the reasons for quick spread of HIV

6 Although I am not an expert in the field, I have tried very hard to show the
difference between a theory and a model.