CHAPTER THREE

PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNICATION
There are some specific communication principles that have to be followed to compose
effective messages. These are the seven C’s
 Completeness  Clarity
 Conciseness  Courtesy and
 Consideration  Correctness
 Concreteness

1. COMPLETENESS: A business message whether oral or written is complete when it

contains all facts the reader or listener needs for the reaction we desire. Guidelines for
Completeness include:
 Answer all Questions Asked: when you are replying to an inquiry try to answer all
questions asked. Incomplete reply could be unfavorable to a customer. It could mean
carelessness or may mean intension to cover a weak side. For instance, in a reply to a
customer request, if you fail to answer the entire question, you might loss a customer.
Hence, you should take your time to give reply to the customer.
 Give Something Extra, when desirable: at times when the question is not adequate
or the person does not know what she wants, then you have to give more information.
Example, Customer entering one’s supermarket for the first time; Customer buying
insurance policy; First day of a foreign college student.
 Check for the Five W’s & any other essentials: to help make our message complete
is to answer, whenever desirable, the ‘five Wh’ questions who, where, what, when,
why and other essentials like how. For instance, to organize a concert, we need to
specify the type of concert (what), location (where), date and time (when), performers
(who), and other necessary details (how).
2. CONCISENESS: Conciseness is saying what you have to say in the fewest possible
words. Guidelines to achieve conciseness:
 Eliminate Wordiness: eliminate unnecessary words from your statements.
 Wordy: If and when we can establish and define our goals and objectives, each
and every member will be ready and willing to give aid and assistance.

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  Instead: When we define our goals, each member will be ready to help.
 Include only Relevant Statements: not only unnecessary word, but also unnecessary
facts should also be excluded.
 Avoid Unnecessary Repetition: when the same thing is repeated again and again it
becomes boring.
3. CONSIDERATION: Consideration is to show care for your listener or reader, to see
things from the receiver’s point of view, & to have a ‘you-attitude’ instead of ‘I-attitude’.
It is your letter and its message considerate?
• Do you show your readers you care about their needs in the message you send
and the way in which you send it?
• Have you looked at your letter from your reader’s point of view?
• Have you used a warm, friendly tone that tells your readers you care about
their needs?
Guidelines to achieve consideration
• Focus on ‘you’ instead of ‘I’ or ‘’We’: a receiver is more concerned about
her/him than us or our organization. Hence, we should try to get their attention by
focusing on the ‘you-attitude’.
Poor: we give the best service from around the vicinity.
Better: You can get the best service from around the vicinity.
Poor: We welcome you to our online bookshop. If we can be of additional help, please
call on us.
Better: You are welcome to our on-line bookshop. Please call on us whenever you need
additional help.
In situations like below, it is advisable not to use ‘YOU’.
1. When the reader has made a mistake
Poor: Your contract tells you clearly not to …
Better: I am glad to explain more fully the contract terms.
2. When a reader has an opinion different from us.
Poor: You are entirely wrong in your attitude.
Better: The proposed plan has three aspects which are extremely important and
which we need to explain now.

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 • Show the Reader Benefit or Interest in Reading: show your receiver the benefit
that s/he will get from the message. For instance, “Buy Nyala Insurance” - one
should then state what special benefits Nyala has as compared to EIC, Nile
Insurance, … OR We hope you will be glad to know that we are now open on
Sunday and until mid-night on all weekdays.
• Emphasize the Positive, Pleasant Facts: Stress on what can be done instead of
what cannot and focus on words your recipient will consider favorably.
Negative: There is no way that we give you a discount of that much on the
machinery.
Positive: You will be legible for that much discount if you can also buy these
accessories.
• Apply Integrity and Ethics: integrity is to be honest and reliable. Ethics is
moral and belief. Communication requires honesty and moral, both within and
outside the organization. Integrity with persons outside the organization;
“Doing the harder right instead of the easier wrong.”
E.g. some managers use a different material (low quality) after they make a
contract with a particular client.
Integrity is also important with or about co-workers. Dishonest behavior towards
employer include claiming sick leave when not ill; internal thefts, etc. Unfair
communication about co-workers includes providing false information about someone to
a superior.
4. CONCRETNESS: Concreteness refers to being specific, definite, and vivid rather
than vague and general
 Do you use easy-to-understand words that give your reader specific mental
pictures about your message?
 Do your verbs show actions (such as direct, send, produce) instead of just being
(such as is, are, were, was)?
Guidelines for Concreteness include:
 Use Specific Facts and Figures: facts and figures tend to last long in somebody’s
mind than general statements.
General: Our Company serves the majority of the market.

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 Concrete: Our Company serves 60% of the market.
General: NASA claims that it has the best Physicists from all over the world.
Concrete: 7 out of the 10 physicists who have won the ‘Nobel’ prize in the
field of physics have worked in NASA at one point in their lives.
 Put Action in your verbs: As much as possible use the active voice rather than the
passive voice.
Who did what to whom stands out loud and clear in active sentences than passive
sentences.
E.g. W/t Almaz is generally disliked here. Her work habits are frequently criticized. Prior
to beginning work as supervisor, she was rated poorly as a leader.
Almaz may insist and say:
 Who dislikes (active) me?
 Who criticizes (active) me?
 Who rates (active) me poorly?
She might thus request her evaluation be written in active form, not passive, so that she
confronts her accusers.
 Choose Vivid, Image-Building Words: methods of making words more forceful,
vivid, and specific are comparisons, and figurative language.
Comparisons: Comparing one with its equivalent builds a meaningful picture.
E.g. CBE Vs other banks
Figurative language: figures of speech may express an idea more clearly than
literal language.
E.g. Selam is the one who usually organize social activities; instead of she
is usually the one who organize things.
5. CLARITY: Clarity refers to getting a message across so that the receiver will
understand what you are saying easily.
Guidelines for Clarity consist of:
 Choose short, familiar, conversational words: choose short, familiar,
conventional words whenever possible. You should avoid technical and
business jargons.

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  Construct effective sentences & paragraphs: short sentences are preferred
& you have to make sure that the sentence you construct have a unified
message; i.e. having one main idea in a sentence or paragraph.
 Include examples, illustrations, and other visual aids, when desirable:
you can improve the clarity of you message by giving illustration, examples,
or visual aids such as tabulation, charts, pictures, etc.
6. COURTESY: Courtesy comes from the ‘you-attitude’. It requires:
 Being Sincerely Tactful, Thoughtful, and Appreciative: Tactful instead of
bluntness. Not only, tactful, messages should also be thoughtful & appreciative.
Blunt: Obviously, if you’d read your policy carefully, you’d be able to answer
these questions yourself.
Tactful: Sometimes policy wording is a little hard to understand. I’m glad to clear
up these questions for you.
 Omit Expressions that Irritate, Hurt, or Belittle: do not offend the reader or
listener of your message. Avoid expressions such as: you forgot to; you surely
don’t expect; you failed to; you are probably ignorant of the fact that; you have to
etc.
 Grant and Apologize Good-Naturedly: begin your message with the good
news & continue with a courteous & willing tone.
7. CORRECTNESS: Correctness includes:
 The use of the right level of language: there are 3 level of the English language
 Formal
 Informal, and
 Substandard
Formal level is usually used for scholarly dissertation, legal documents, or government
agreements. The informal level is used for business letter, newspaper, reports, etc. The
substandard has to be avoided at all times.
 Maintain Acceptable writing Mechanics: use words correctly. Watch out for
spelling errors & careless omission.
Spelling errors: nad (and); form (from)
Careless Omission: NO (NO.)

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 Choose Nondiscriminatory Expressions: avoid discrimination between the sexes,
races, ethnic groups, & physical features.
Discriminatory: mankind; manpower; chairman
Nondiscriminatory: human being; human power; chairperson
 Check Accuracy of Figures, Facts, and Words: check for the correctness of figures,
facts, or words. In some cases inaccurate figure or fact can cause a serious problem.
Words can also be confusing, thus chose correct words to communicate your
message.
E.g. Reporting an amount of $300,000 instead of $30,000 as the total revenue in an
important company meeting.
E.g. between and among -Between involves two people or groups while among involves
three or more.
3.2 Seven Cs of Oral Communication
According to Francis J. Bergin, a person engaged in oral communication must remember seven
Cs. and these are as follows;
1. Clear: An oral communication become effective when the message is clear for the audience or
receiver as the sender wants to convey.
2. Concise: Many people enjoy while talking and sometimes oral communication suffers from
the problem of over communication.
3. Complete: Like written communication in oral communication also, completeness required.
Checking for the five Wh questions.
4. Correct: In oral communication correctness means the source of information or from where
you get information is right or trustworthy source.
5. Concrete: For making oral communication effectively speakers should use specific fact and
ideas and also avoid exaggerating of any information.
6. Courtesy: Courtesy involves you-attitude. Use polite words for oral communication.
7. Candid: the message should be straight, open, frank, outspoken. But not hurting particular
individual.

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