PRINCIPLES OF

EFFECTIVE BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION
(THE 7C’s)
Communication is an important part of our
world today. The ability to communicate
effectively with others is considered a prized
quality of the successful business people. To
compose effective written or oral messages,
you must apply certain communication
principles. These principles provide
guidelines for choice of content and style of
presentation, adapted to the purpose and
receiver of your message. Called the “seven
C’s”
Cont’d
 Completeness
 Conciseness
 Consideration
 Concreteness 7C’s
 Clarity
 Courtesy
 Correctness
1. Completeness
 Message is “complete” when it contains all facts the
reader or listener needs for the reaction you desire.
Completeness is necessary for several reasons:
 Complete message are more likely to bring the desired results
without the expense of additional messages.
 They can do a better job of building goodwill.
 They can help avert costly lawsuits that may result if important
information is missing.
 Papers that seem inconsequential can be surprisingly important
if the information they contain is complete and effective.
 Checking for the five w’s questions.
 Who, What, When, Where, Why
Incomplete messages:
•Result in additional expenses
•Spoil goodwill
•Lead to confusion and debates
2. Conciseness
 A concise message saves time and expense for both the
sender and receiver.
 Conciseness is saying what you have to say in fewest
possible words without sacrificing the other “C” qualities.
 Conciseness contributes to emphasis.
 By eliminating unnecessary words, you help make
important ideas stand out.
 To achieve conciseness, we need to observe the following
suggestions:
 generally it include only relevant facts, avoid
repetition and organize your message well.
Cont’d
 Eliminate wordy expressions: use single
word substitute instead of phrases whenever
possible without changing meanings.
Include only relevant statements: The
effective, concise message should omit not
only unnecessarily wordy expression but
also irrelevant material.
Cont’d
WORDY CONCISE
At this time Now
Due to the fact that Because
In due course Soon
In many cases Often
In most cases Usually
Under the Because
circumstances
Eliminate Excess Words
 Emphasize Verbs
Verbs are more powerful words in the English Language.
Stressing verbs make writing concise, clear and powerful.
Use the Active Voice
The active voice tells who is doing what. The
passive voice tells what was done by or to whom
or what.
Active: Abebe will conduct a cost-benefit analysis.
Passive: A cost-benefit analysis will be conducted
by Abebe.
Active: The members elected Negash.
Passive: Negash was elected by the members.
Active: You have not paid your April Bill.
Passive: Your April bill has not been paid
.
3. Consideration
• Consideration refers to giving thoughtful attention to the
receiver/ sender.
• Consideration means that you prepare every message with
the recipient in mind and try to put yourself in his place.
• Try to visualize your readers or listeners with their desire,
problems, circumstances, emotions, and probable reactions
to your requests.
• Then handle the matter from their point of view.
• In the broad sense, consideration underlies the other six
“C’s” of good business communication.
• You can indicate that you are considerate in the following
ways:
Cont’d
 Focus on “You” instead of “I” or “We”. People are
usually concerned about themselves than about
others.
 Show reader benefit or interest in reader. Your
message should show interest in and concern for the
reader’s needs or viewpoints
 Emphasize the Prostate, Pleasant Facts. For most
people negative words like no, impossible, I cannot
etc. have unpleasant emotions.
 Applying integrity and Ethics refers to high moral
standards as honesty, sincerity, decent character etc.
Adopt the you-attitude
We-attitud
I want to express my sincere thanks for the
good words

You attitude
Thank you for your kind words
• Avoid gender bias
Avoid Use
Chairman Chair person
Policeman Police Sir/Madam
4. Concreteness
• communicating concretely means being specific,
definite and vivid rather than vague and general.
• The following guidelines will help you compose
concrete, convincing messages:
• Use active rather than passive verb: For example:
Test were made by us (passive) We made the test
(active)
• Put action in your verb instead of infinitives: For
example: These figures are checked by the Research
Department. (Passive). The Research Department
checked these figures.
• To help make messages vivid and specific you can
use comparisons and concrete language.
•Use specific facts and figures:
whenever possible, use an exact, precise
statement or a figure in place of a
general word to make your message
more concrete.
To create concrete paragraphs you should be
careful about:
•Unity
Sentences and paragraphs have unity when they
have one main idea and other information in the
sentence supports that main idea.
•Coherence
Unified messages are also coherent. They flow
naturally and the ideas in them relate to each other.
•Transitional Words and Phrases
Writers use transitional words and phrases as
bridges to join ideas.
 •Repetition: Repeating words and using pronouns in
place of nouns are other ways to achieve coherence.
•The pen and pencil sets are packed 12 to a box. Each set comes in
a case that has the look and feel of leather.
•The pen and pencil sets are packed 12 to a box. They are available
in gold, silver, or wood-grain casings.
•Structure: Sentence structure can make a message
more interesting and enhance clarity.
•Simple: One main clause (subject and verb). Sue will take the
package to Ron.
•Compound: Two main clauses. Sue will take the package to Ron,
he is waiting for it.
•Complex: One main clause a done or more sub dependent clause.
Before she sorts the mail, Sue will take the package to Ron.
•Compound-Complex: Two main clauses and at least one sub
dependent clause. Before she sorts the mail, sue will take the
package to Ron, he is waiting for it.
5. Clarity
 Clarity means getting your message across so the
receiver will understand what you are trying to
convey.
 You want that person to interpret your words with the
same meaning you have in mind.
 Accomplishing the goal is difficult because as you
know, individual experiences are never identical and
words may have different meanings to different
persons.
 Here are some specific ways to help make your
messages clear:
Cont’d

• Choose short familiar conversational words:

For example, say home instead of domicile or say
use instead of utilization.
• Construct effective sentences and paragraphs:
Arranging your words in well-constructed
sentences and paragraphs is also an essential task
that requires adaptation to your reader.
 Important characteristics to consider are length,
unity, coherence and emphasis.
Clarity of Expression:
1. Use simple word, easy to understand words:
Avoid them Use them
Compensate Pay
Facilitate Help
Utilize Use
2. Use Single words for long phrases:
Long Phrases single words
At all times Always
For the purpose of For
Previous to Before
On account of Because
3. Use verbs for nouns (its brings about simplicity and
clarity):
Using Nouns Using Verbs
(Difficult) (Simple)
Come to a conclusion Conclude
Make a decision Decide
Submit a proposal Propose
Take into consideration Consider
4. Avoid double entry
Double entry Simple
Actual fact Fact
End result Result
Period of one week One week
Previous experience Experience
5. Avoid ambiguity: If your message can
mean more than one ambiguous. Faulty
punctuation causes the ambiguity.
Go. slow work in progress
Go slow. work in progress
6. Use short sentences: Use one sentence
to express only one idea. If a sentence
runs beyond 30 words, it is better to
break it up into two sentences.
•Abbreviation: Is a shortened version of a
word.
•Co. (Company)
•Dept. (Department)
•Mgr. (Manager)
•Acronym: is a word formed from the initial
letters of major parts of a compound term.
•CEO (Chief Executive Officer)
•CPU (Central Processing Unit)
•LIFO (Last in, first out)
6. Courtesy
 Courteous message helps to strengthen present business
friendship, as well as making new friends.
 Courtesy stems from sincere you-attitude.
 To be courteous the following guidelines are
suggested:
 Be sincerely tactful, thoughtful and appreciative
 Omit expression that irritate, hurt or belittle. E.g. (You
neglected, you irresponsible, you are unaware).
 Grant and apologize good-naturedly. Apologize
sincerely for an omission/thank enormously for a favor.
 Do not ignore answering customers’ or employees’
inquires no matter how busy you are.
7. Correctness
 The term correctness, as applied to a business message,
means the writer should:
 Use the right level of language
 Check accuracy of figures, facts and wordsThe
following words are often confusing: a and an, anxious,
eager, between and among, counsel, and council etc.
 Choose non-discriminatory expression. Equal treatment
of sexes, Use humankind rather than mankind , Use
chairperson rather than chairman
 Give correct facts.
 Send your message at the correct time.
 Send your message in the correct style.
 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.
Oral messages are often misunderstood because the speaker does not
talk distinctly. So, for this purpose clear pronunciation is very much
required.
To minimize this kind of problem a speaker tries to workout on
different, lengthy and unusual words for clear pronunciation.
2. Concise:
Many people enjoy while talking and sometimes oral communication
suffers from the problem of over communication.
But when the speaker keeps on talking for long, his/her message will be
distracted. So it will be advisable to speakers to try to keep the
message as brief as possible without changing the real message.
3. Complete:
Like written communication in oral communication also, completeness
required. While communicating with other makes it sure that you
have paid attention on below questions. Checking for the five w’s
4. Correct: In oral communication correctness means the source of
information or from where you get information is right or trustworthy
source.
Because if your source of information is correct than the others
generate faith on the speakers and listen them carefully.
5. Concrete:
For making oral communication effectively speakers should use
specific fact and ideas and also avoid exaggerating of any information.
They try to choose appropriate words which are not affecting a
particular individual, society, culture or nation.
6. Courtesy:
Courtesy involves you-attitude. Use polite words for oral
communication. Try to avoid irritating expression, sincerely apologies
for any mistake, do not use any discriminatory expressions which are
related to individual people, race, ethics, origin, physical appearance
etc.
7. Candid: When the speaker chooses the candid approaches, its mean
that their message should be straight, open, frank, outspoken. But not
hurting particular individual.
Any Question?