THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS

Sender has an idea: you have an idea and you want to share it.
Sender encodes the idea in a message: you put your idea into a message (by images,
words or both) that your receiver will understand.
Sender produces the message in a medium: to express your idea, you need some
ways to present the message to your intended audience. Media for transmitting
messages can be oral, written, visual and various electronic forms of the other three.
Sender transmits the message through a channel: a channel can be anything from a
face-to-face conversation to the Internet to another person or even another company.
Getting the message through the channel can be a challenge because you have to face
some problems such as noise and distractions, competing messages, filters and
channel breakdowns.
Audience receives the message: if all goes well, the message will arrive at your
intended audience.
Audience decodes the message: if audience actually receives your message, he or
she needs to extract the idea from the message.
Audience responds the message: by crafting the messages in ways that show the
benefits of responding, you can increase the chances that your audiences will respond
as you’d like them to.
Audience provides feedback to the sender: aside from responding or not to the
message, audience members may give you feedback that helps you evaluate the
effectiveness of your communication effort.

OVERVIEW OF TEAMS

When working in teams, there are many advantages:

Increased information: by pooling the resources of several individuals, teams have
more information in the decision-making process.
Diversity of views: team members can bring a variety of perspectives to the decision-
making process.
Acceptance of solutions: those who participate in making a decision are more likely
to support the decision enthusiastically and encourage others to accept it.
Levels of performance: teams have more creativity and energy that can solve
complex problems better than top-performing individuals.

Although teamwork has many advantages, it also has a number of disadvantages:

Groupthink: when these peer pressures cause individual team members to withhold
unpopular opinions.
Hidden agendas: private, counterproductive motives (động cơ không tốt) (desire to
take control of the group or to undermine someone else on the team).
Free riders: those who don’t contribute their fare share to the group’s activities.
Perhaps they don’t satisfy with their work or they don’t believe they’ll receive
adequate recognition for their individual efforts.
High costs: arranging schedules, meetings and coordinating individual parts of a
project can eat up a lot of time and money.
THE LISTENING PROCESS

Receiving: you start by physically hearing and acknowledge (báo cho biết đã nhận
được) the message.
Decoding: assign (phân tích) meaning to sounds, according to your own values,
beliefs, ideas, expectations, etc.
Remembering: try to storage into short term memory, then transfer to long term
memory for permanent storage.
Evaluating: think about facts from opinion and evaluate the quality of the evidence.
Responding: if you communicate in a small group, you can give your verbal
feedback. If you are one of many audience members, your initial can be applause,
laughter or silence. Later on, you may act on what you have heard.

RECOGNIZING NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

Facial expressions: they can express both the type and intensity (xúc cảm) of your
feelings, especially your eyes.
Gestures and posture: by moving or not moving your body, you express both
specific and general messages, some voluntary and some involuntary.
Vocal characteristics: your voice can also carry both intentional and unintentional
messages (chủ ý và không chủ ý).
Personal appearance
Touch behavior: touch is an important way to convey warmth, comfort, reassurance
(sự cam đoan) or control. Touch is so powerful but it depends on cultures.
Time and space: some people try to demonstrate their own importance or disregard
for others by making other people wait; others show respect by being on time, etc.

NEGATIVE CULTURAL ATTITUDES

Ethnocentrism (phân biệt chủng tộc): is the tendency to judge all other groups
according to the standards, behaviors, and customs of one’s own group. When people
compare their culture to others, they often conclude that their own group is superior.
Xenophobia (tính bài trừ ngoại quốc): is a fear of strangers and foreigners.
Stereotyping: (hội chứng cảm xúc) is assigning generalized attributes to an individual
on the basic of membership in a particular group.
Cultural pluralism (dễ dung nạp văn hóa khác): is the acceptance of multiple
cultures on their own terms.

ORAL MEDIA (conversations, interviews, meetings)

Advantages: immediate feedback; ease of interaction; rich nonverbal cues and

express emotions easily.
Disadvantages: limited participation; no permanent record; reduce communicator’s
control and no opportunity to revise or edit your spoken words.
WRITTEN MEDIA (memos, letters, reports, proposals)

Advantages: plan and control carefully; audience reach; permanent record; minimize
distortion; reduce complexity.
Disadvantages: delayed feedback; lack of rich nonverbal cues; more time and more
resources to distribute; preparation time.

VISUAL MEDIA (chart, graph, diagram)

Advantages: ease communication; reduce complexity; expedite understand; assist

audience.
Disadvantages: artistic skills; preparation time; technical requirements; more difficult
to transmit and store.

ELECTRONIC MEDIA (oral, written and visual communication)

Advantages: deliver speed; audience reach; multimedia formats; increase

accessibility and openness.
Disadvantages: easy to overuse (lạm dụng); productivity issues; security threats;
privacy concerns.

OUTLINING CONTENT

Alphanumeric outline:
I. First major point
A. First sub point
B. Second sub point
1. Evidence
2. Evidence
a. Detail
b. Detail
3. Evidence
C. Third sub point
II. Second major point
A. First sub point
1. Evidence
2. Evidence
B. Second sub point

Decimal outline
1.0 First major point
1.1 First sub point
1.2 Second sub point
1.2.1 Evidence
1.2.2 Evidence
1.2.2.1 Detail
 1.2.2.2 Detail
1.2.3 Evidence
1.3 Third sub point
2.0 Second major point
2.1 First sub point
2.1.1 Evidence
2.1.2 Evidence
2.2 Second sub point

USE POSITIVE LANGUAGE

Instead of this Use this

Failing Underperforming
Used cars Pre-owned vehicles
Cheap merchandise Bargain prices
Elderly people Senior citizen
Pimples and Zits Complexion problems

BUILD A STRONG AUDIENCE RELATIONSHIP

Establish your credibility: make people trust you by your honesty, objectivity,
awareness of audience need, endorsements, confidence, performance, communication
style and sincerity.
Build the company’s image: the impression you make can enhance or damage the
reputation of the entire company. Building your company’s image well, you must be a
spokesperson, ask for assistance, observe your colleagues and follow company
guidelines.

EDITING FOR CLARITY

Sentence style: not too long or over qualifying (mang tính đánh giá).
Faulty parallelism (lỗi cấu trúc câu song song)
Dangling modifiers: place modifiers close to the wrong nouns and verbs.
Long noun sequences: use too many nouns together.
Camouflaged verbs: change verbs and nouns into adjectives.
Sentence structure: separate subjects, verbs, adverbs or preposition.
Awkward references
Excess enthusiasm: do not use adverb if unnecessary.

PROOFREADING YOUR MESSAGE (rà soát lỗi)

Make multiple passes: go through the document several times; focusing on different
part each time (for example: first part may look for errors, second part may look for
grammar and spelling errors).
Use perceptual tricks: try to read each page backward, from the bottom to the top;
place your finger under each word and read silently; make a slit in a sheet of a paper
that reveals only one line of type at a time; read the document aloud and pronouncing
each word carefully.
Get some distance: do not proofread immediately after finishing document (if
possible).
Stay focused and vigilant: try to block out distraction and do not try to proofread
when you are tired.
Review hardcopy documents: try to print the document to review it on paper.
Double-check high-priority items: double-check spelling of names and the accuracy
of dates, addresses and numbers.
Take time: quick proofreading is not careful proofreading.

EFFECTIVE WORKPLACE IM

If a meeting is not scheduled, make yourself unavailable when you need to focus on
other work.
If you are not in a secure system, do not send confidential information.
If you cannot verify that everyone concerned will be available, do not use IM for
important but impromptu meetings.
Do not use IM for lengthy, complex messages if your system does not set for it.
Try to avoid multiple IM conversations.
Be careful about sending personal messages, they have a tendency to pop up on other
people’s computers at embarrassing times.
If your IM system has filters, make sure they are active and up to date.

EMPLOYMENT APPLICATIONS

Be clear and direct: no matter what bad news is, come right out and say it.
State reasons: provide reasons and additional information.
Suggest alternatives: after you’ve explained the negative news, close the message in
a positive but still honest and respectful manner.

AIDA MODEL

Attention: get the reader’s attention with a benefit that is of real interest or value.
Interest: explain benefits and appeal to reader’s emotions or logic.
Desire: help your audience embrace your idea by explaining how the change will
benefit them.
Action: motivate the reader to take the next step by a call and providing means for
them to respond.
MARKETING AND SALES MESSAGES

The audience: successful marketing and sales messages start with an understanding
of audience needs. Purchasing decisions often involve more than just the basic
product or service.
The competition: most marketing and sales messengers have to compete for the
audience’s attention.
Selling points and benefits: selling points focus on product, benefits focus on user.
You need to prioritize the items you want to discuss after deciding which benefits and
features of your product or service to highlight.

DATA AND INFORMATION

Secondary research (dữ liệu thứ cấp):

Primary research (dữ liệu sơ cấp): if secondary research cannot provide the
information and insights you need, your next choice is gathering information yourself
with primary research. The two most common primary research methods are surveys
and interviews.
*** Conducting surveys: provide clear instructions; keep questions short and
easy to answer; avoid unclear questions (often, refer…to); ask one question each time;
make the survey adaptive.
Before conducting survey, make a representative sample to
make sure that no question can make you confused or receive unexpected answer; and
make sure that all of questions are effective.
Conducting interviews: edit your questions; think about sequence (trình tự);
rate questions and highlight the ones you really need answers; limit number of
questions; ask smart questions

ORGANIZING INFORMATIONAL REPORTS

Analytical reports offer both information and analysis, and they can also include
recommendations.
Informational reports offer data, feedback, facts and other types of information,
without analysis or recommendations.
Comparison: show similarities and differences between two or more entities.
Importance: selecting details depends on important levels.
Sequence: if you study a process, discuss it step by step, in sequence.
Chronology (chuỗi thời gian)
Spatial orientation (chuỗi không gian)
Geography: by country or by state.
Category

THE CLOSING SECTION

Summarizes the key points
Emphasizes the benefits of your solution
Reinforce (nhấn mạnh) structure
BUILDING YOUR CAREER WITH ORAL PRESENTATIONS

Oral presentation can give you a chance to demonstrate (prove) your abilities to
display (show off) your communication skills, think on your feet, solve complex
problems fast and handle challenges.