LESSO

COMMUNICATION FOR
7 WORK PURPOSES
6
HOURS

Communication plays a crucial role in whatever work situation. From job

hunting to actual job performance it is essential for a worker to know the
acceptable form and manner of communication.

At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:

1. identify the steps involved in the job application process;

2. apply the conventions and some tips in writing application letter and
resumè;
3. demonstrate communication skills in a mock job interview;
4. analyze different communication and related materials in the workplace
like minutes of the meeting and memos;
5. answer exercise on communication materials for the workplace;
6. present samples of business letters;
7. critique classmates response in a Mock Job Interview; and
8. reflect on the importance of familiarization of communications for work
purposes.
 How do you imagine yourself writing an application letter, resumè and CV?
Perhaps, sitting in a panel interview? In the scale of ten, how do you think will you
cope?

An effective business letter elicits the expected response from the reader.
This can be achieved through concise, tactful and accurate writing style. A
business letter serves several purposes: for sales efforts, for complaints, for
information dissemination, for relationship building, and for problem-solving.

PARTS OF BUSINESS LETTER

Business letters are a common form of writing in any organization. The

traditional parts of a business letter are:

Letterhead – It identifies the writer, his/her address, and contact numbers.

Date – It is placed between the letterhead and the inside address. It should never
use plain numerals for dates as it may create confusion. Instead of using 02-02-
16, February 2,2016 or 2 February 2016 can be used.

Inside Address- it identifies the reader’s name, position, and company, and
address. It should be placed immediately below the date.

Attention Line – it is used when the writer wishes to address the whole company
but wants to bring it to the attention of a particular person in the company. It can
be written in two formats:
Attention Peter Burkin
Attention: Peter Burkin

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 Salutuation – it refers to the writer’s greeting to the reader. It can appear in
different formats:
Dear Sir:
Sir:
Dear Mr. Burkin:

Body – It contains the message of the letter. Paragraphs are single-spaced

internally but double-spaced to separate paragraphs. If the letter is too short, the
body can be double-spaced or triple-spaced to separate the paragraphs.

Complimentary Close- It is an expression used to end a letter. Below is the level

of formality of the complimentary close.

Highly formal:
Respectfully yours,
Respectfully,

Polite and formal:

Very truly yours,
Yours very truly,
Yours truly,

Less formal:
Sincerely yours,
Yours,
Cordially yours,

Informal and friendly

As ever, Best regards, Kindest regards, Regards

Signature Block- includes the signature and the typed of the sender the typed
name can be in all caps. The space for the signature should be three to five lines.
Identification Initials – it indicates the typist’s initials if the sender is not the one
who personally typed the document.

Enclosure Notation- it indicates the attachments to the letter. It can be written in

the following formats:
Enclosures (2)
Enclosure
Enc. /encl.

Copy notation – it indicates the name of the secondary recipients of the letter. It
is indicated by the cc: which means carbon copy or courtesy copies.

Three formats of a Business Letter

- Full block
- Modified Block
- Semiblock

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 Writing a Memorandum
Memorandum is a business correspondence which aims to inform and persuade
target readers within the organization. It follows an inverted pyramid structure.
This means that the most important information comes first.

 Most Important
Information
 Supporting data and
examples

 Least important
information

In the workplace in particular, Dapat, et. al. (2018) pointed out that
written communication has the following characteristics:

 The purpose is getting something done within an organization

 The writer’s knowledge of topic is usually more than the reader’s knowledge
 The audience often composed of several people with differing professional
backgrounds
 The communication should have clear-content organization, appropriate to the
needs of busy readers
 Graphic elements are frequently used to help readers find information and
understand ideas

Another common form of written communication in the workplace is the

memorandum.

Five types of a Memorandum

1. Instruction memo – provides information that the readers need to perform

accurately. A notice directing the employers to undergo physical check-up is an
example of this kind of memo.
2. Request memo – readers provide certain information or take certain actions. An
example of this memo is when requesting a fund or seminar.
3. Announcement memo – provides information about an event, person, or thing.
An example of this memo is when announcing a meeting.
4. Transmittal memo- serves as a cover note for a formal or lengthy document. An
example of this memo is when transmitting an annual report to the members of
the board of directors.
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 5. Authorization memo – gives permission. An example of this memo is when
allowing an employee to study on Saturdays.

Advantages of a memorandum

1. It reaches a large number of readers at the same time.

2. It provides a written record that can be accessed any time.
3. It allows a detailed and accurate delivery of message.

Disadvantages of a memorandum

1. It is not ideal to convey complex topics since memos are generally used for
short texts.
2. It takes time to reach distant branches and offices.
3. It is more expensive than e-mail.

Parts of memorandum

Letterhead – It identifies the writer, his/her address, and contact numbers.

Date – It is placed between the letterhead and the inside address. It should never
use plain numerals for dates as it may create confusion. Instead of using 02-02-
16, February 2,2016 or 2 February 2016 can be used

“To” line- indicates the title of the receiver.

Attention Line – it is used when the writer wishes to address the whole company
but wants to bring it to the attention of a particular person in the company. It can
be written in two formats:
Attention Peter Burkin
Attention: Peter Burkin

“From” line – indicates the name of the sender.

Subject line- it announces the main content or topic of the memo. Subject is
more preferred than the old term, Re.

Body – It contains the message of the memo. Paragraphs are single-spaced

internally but double-spaced to separate paragraphs. If the letter is too short, the
body can be double-spaced or triple-spaced to separate the paragraphs.
Paragraph in the memo is not intended.

Identification Initials – it indicates the typist’s initials if the sender is not the one
who personally typed the document.

Enclosure Notation- it indicates the attachments to the letter. It can be written in

the following formats:
Enclosures (2)
Enclosure
Enc. /encl.

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 Copy notation – it indicates the name of the secondary recipients of the letter. It
is indicated by the cc: which means carbon copy or courtesy copies.

Learning Activity 7.1

Name:__________________________________________Score:____________
_
Name of
Professor:_______________________________________Date:_____________
Course/Year/Section____________________________

Follow the steps or the process on how to do an Argumentative Essay. It

will only be a minimum of3- 5 paragraphs and a maximum of 10. Write your
answers on a separate sheet of short-sized paper or submit an MS word
document, whichever is applicable.

Topic: Importance of Information Technology Experts in all industries nowadays.

Do What You’ve Learned!

Learning Check 7.1

A. Assume that you already a graduate of your chosen course/degree. Write your
own application letter (full-blocked style), Resume, and Curriculum Vitae
addressed to your dreamed company.

B. Watching a downloaded videos of panel job interview, write five (5) usually
asked questions and five (5) ideas on how interviewees successfully answered
the questions.

RESEARCH CONNECTION
Compile at least 5 samples of application letter. Send to your teacher as
hardcopy or attached docs in messenger account or as instructed by your
professor in the GC.

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 LESSO
N
COMMUNICATION FOR
8 ACADEMIC AND WORK
PURPOSES
12
HOURS

In your college education journey, there are various academic discourses that you
ought to master. We will tackle communication for academic and various
purposes in this lesson.

At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:

1. prepare note-cards for information accessed from various sources;

2. use appropriate in-text citation for information in a written discourse/research
paper;
3. organize a seminar-workshop on the parts of a research paper and the
rudiments of research; and
4. produce a research Literature Review on the topic related to Purposive
Communication.

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 Do you agree that the usual dilemma in communication is what to say and
say it right? Why do you think?

How do you like to know how to organize your thoughts and put them on paper
properly and intelligently?

Research-Based Argumentative Essay

From Research to Argument: Producing a Research-based Argumentative Essay

Study the table below

Explanation Blog/Vlog Research-Based
Essay Argumentative
Essay
What is An essay that A personal An essay that
it? answers the journal/diary/video presents a writer’s
question “Why” entry that is posted position with support
online. from research studies.

ING What To inform Any of the following: To persuade readers

is the readers about To entertain to accept the writer’s
purpose why something To instruct position
of writing happens To inform
the To persuade
project?
Does it Research may Research may be Research must be
require be used but is used but is not used to support the
research? not required required writer’s claim or
position

As shown in the table above, research is one element that distinguishes the
argumentative essay from the explanation essay and blog/vlog. The research-
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 based argumentative essay is the end product of a research process that you
must undertake. The process includes the pre-writing tasks.

Formulating the Research-based Question

The essay you are wring is argumentative. This means you are expected you are
expected to present a clear stand on an issue that has at least two different or
opposing sides. Some of contentious issues include legalizing divorce and
legalizing same-sex marriage in the Philippines. For these issues, one position
favors the passing of the law allowing divorce or same sex marriage; another
position rejects the passing of such laws.

Many good examples of contentious issues for your paper include those do not
deal with legalizing practices in the Philippines. You may choose topics that
concern your school, province, city, town, barangay or even those that relate to
the environment in general, and other nations and regions.

Finding the answers to the research question

After formulating the research question, plan the next steps for finding answers to
your questions. This requires the preparation of an annotated research
bibliography, which is a list of sources with a brief description of the content of
each source. Your sources must be acceptable. Is the source relevant? Does it
provide the latest facts and figures? Is it reliable? Given these criteria on deciding
on the acceptability of sources, the following are usually not considered:
 Any holy book(e.g., Bible) or Inspirational Writing (e.g., self-help books)
 Any work of literature (e.g., novels, short stories, plays, poems)
 The dictionary
 Personal logs/vlogs or journal/diary entries
 Wikipedia

This activity can help you in preparing the annotated research bibliography.

RESEARCH QUESTION

(STATE YOUR RESEACH QUESTION)

ANNOTATED RESEARCH BIBLIOGRAPHY

(LIST THE SOURCES YOU WILL USE TO ANSWER YOUR RESEARCH

QUESTION. INCLUDE A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTENT OF EACH SO
URCE.)

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 RESEARCH QUESTION DESCRIPTI
ON
(THIS IS
(STATE YOUR RESEACH QUESTION) ALSO KNOWN
AS
ANNOTATION)

SOURCES

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Note: You can’t give a brief description if you haven’t read the content of the source.

DOING RESEARCH
It is now time to do research. This means that you will read each of the sources you
identified above and take research-notes. If you do not find the answers you need from the
sources you identified, you may have to look for other sources.

There are three types of notes, namely paraphrase, summaries, and direct
quotations. Paraphrasing is done when you use your own words in taking down notes. If the
information provided in the source is long, it is best to summarize. You may also copy the note
verbatim or exactly as it is presented in the source. For whatever type of note you make, it is
expected that you cite the source. This means that you must jot down the complete
bibliographical information of your source.

NOTES TYPE (indicate if

the note is summary,
paraphrase or direct
quotation)

SOURCES

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

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 Preparing to Write the Paper

The Thesis Statement

At this point in the pre-writing stage, you should be ready to formulate the
thesis statement for your essay. The thesis statement is the main point or central
argument of your paper. It expresses your stand on the issue you chose to do
research on. In order to formulate a good thesis statement, make sure that it does
the following: presents a strong position that is supported by convincing evidence
and suggests a frame work for organizing the essay.

Consider the thesis statement below

: Despite the growing member of broken families in the country, divorce should
not be legalized in the Philippines.

What are the characteristics of the thesis statement above? First, it clearly argues
that the divorce law in the Philippines is not desirable. Second, with the use of the
word ‘despite’, it can be predicted that the writer of the essay will present
contrasting scenarios for a country with divorce law on the one hand, and a
country without divorce law on the other hand.

Here is another example of a thesis statement.

Because of the economic and environmental benefits it brings, eco-tourism should
be promoted in my community.

What are the characteristics of the second thesis statement? First, it clearly
argues that eco-tourism is more desirable than traditional tourism because of the
benefits the former brings. Second, with the use of the word ‘because’, it can be
predicted that the writer will introduce a cause-and-effect dimension to the essay.

The Outline

After having done research about your topic, choose one side that you agree with.
This side is your argument for your position. Then, list all the factual support for
your argument. Do the same for the other side, which is the opposing position.
List all the factual support you have gathered for that position. When all these are
complete, you are ready to write an outline for your essay. This outline gives your
paper a general shape. It is some sort of a written plan for your essay. If the
outline is well-done, then half the work of writing the paper is also done.

Your outline must be complete. It must contain all the main points of you
researched-based argumentative paper. This means that the outline should have
the following parts:

 Your thesis statement

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  Your argument and specific support for this argument
 The opposing argument and specific support for this argument
 A list of source for all the support that will be used in the paper.

The Essay

- After you have completed all the pre-writing tasks, you are ready to write your
essay. in writing the paper, observe citations and make sure that you practice
intellectual honesty y acknowledging all your sources. Any fact, idea or concept
that is not yours must be acknowledged. Otherwise, you will be accused of
plagiarism.

Note: I will not call the attention for those who will be caught in plagiarism check.
Know your consequences.

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 Learning Activity 8.1
Name:_____________________________________Score:_____________
Name of Professor:_____________________________Date:_____________
Course/Year/Section____________________________

Follow the steps or the process on how to do an Argumentative Essay. It

will only be a minimum of 3- 5 paragraphs and a maximum of 10. Write your
answers on a separate sheet of short-sized paper or submit an MS word
document, whichever is applicable.

Topic: Importance of Information Technology Experts in all industries nowadays.

Learning Check 8.1

Name:______________________________________Score:_____________
Name of Professor:______________________________Date:___________
Course/Year/Section____________________________

Issues:
Why should the practice of proper waste segregation be instituted in my
barangay?
Why should eco-tourism be promoted in my community?
Why computer literacy be mastered by all college students nowadays?

Pick from the given issue listed above that you want to work on. Then, read about
this issue (both the positive and negative side) by preparing note-cards for
information accessed from various sources. Use research question similar to the
examples that you learned as your guide in the development of your research-
based argumentative essay. Be sure to use appropriate in-text citation of your
sources for information that you put in your essay.

Write your essay (about 500-700 words) in short-sized paper or submit it as MS

word document, whichever is applicable. (This is your final paper in this course).

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 This Rubric will be strictly observed in rating your argumentative essay.
RUBRIC FOR ESSAY TYPE ACTIVITY
Indicators 1= Fail 2 = Pass with 4 = High
Condition 3= Pass/Good Pass/Very Good

Clarity of thought Essay exhibits Essay exhibits adequate but Essay uses appropriate Essay uses very
and Organization inadequate and inconsistent facility in the language/vocabulary. precise, skillful
inconsistent facility in use of the language. Moderate to strong language.
the use of the Demonstrate adequate connections are made. Strong connections
language. connections. Insights are noted and are made.
Demonstrates Insights are noted but moderately clear. Insights are noted
connections that are sometimes weak. Most key points are and clear.
few to none. Some key points are made. Several key points
Insights are weak. demonstrated but some Critical ideas are are made.
Key points are few, lapses in coherence or included. Outstanding
and unfocused. progression of ideas are All parts of the question demonstration of
Critical ideas are noted. are fully answered. critical thinking.
poorly developed. Critical ideas are vague or Strong
Questions not limited. thesis
answered or Not all parts of the question present.
incorrectly answered. are answered. All parts of the
question are fully
answered.
Professional Essay contains an Essay contains an Essay is free of most Essay is free of most
Presentation and abundance of errors accumulation of errors in errors in grammar, errors in grammar,
Functional Skills in grammar, usage grammar, usage, and usage and mechanics. usage and mechanics.
and mechanics and it mechanics. Essay is well organized Clear organization is
causes meaning to Essay is limited in and. obvious.
be obscured. organization or focus. Focused. A scholarly thoughtful
Essay demonstrate A lapse in using a scholarly A scholarly voice is used voice is used throughout
little to no voice is evident. throughout the entire the entire essay.
organization. essay. At least two citations are
No scholarly voice is used.
evident.
Evidence of Essay provides none Essay provides some evidence. Essay provides evidence. Essay provides a
background to very few links to Integration of theory and Integration of theory and variety evidence
information, theory and practice. practice is present, yet practice is present. Integration of theory and
Integration of Essay does not sometimes weak. Best practices are practice is strong.
theory and Practice provide citations. Best practices are sometimes connected to theory. Best practices are
connected to theory. Impact Impact and relationship of demonstrated and
and relationship of theory is theory is clear connected to theory.
evident, but also sometimes Impact and relationship
weak. of theory is detailed and
clear.
Extent to which the Essay demonstrates Essay demonstrates Essay clearly demonstrates Essay strongly and
discussion is irrelevant ideas and moderately appropriate ideas appropriate, relevant and clearly demonstrates
directed to concepts, unrelated and concepts. timely ideas. appropriate, relevant and
knowledge of most of the time. No Student demonstrates us of Concepts and dispositions timely ideas, concepts,
essential; points in connections are only one perspective. are evident, student uses and dispositions from a
the subject area clear. more than one perspective. variety of perspectives.
Student
demonstrates one
limited perspective.

FINAL EXAMINATION TO FOLLOW

Congratulations for completing the Purposive Communication Course modules!

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