MODULE 1

Use of Language in
Communication
Thoughts, feelings, knowledge and
learning are expressed through the
language which are the first source of
communication.
FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE
 TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION
• Technical communication is a means to convey scientific,
engineering, or other technical information. Individuals in a
variety of contexts and with varied professional credentials
engage in technical communication. Some individuals are
designated as technical communicators or technical writers.
•  Technical Writing is a genre of non-fiction writing that
encompasses not only technical materials such as manuals,
instructions, specifications, and software documentation, but
it also includes writing produced in day-to-day business
operations such as correspondence, proposals, media
releases, and many kinds of reports. It includes the
communication of specialized technical information.
 SIGNIFICANCE OF TECHNICAL
COMMUNICATION
•Technical communication is “transactional” – it entails a purposeful transaction
between sender and receiver that provides specific information for practical and
specific purposes (informing, instructing, persuading) and is usually geared towards the
needs of a specific audience. Technical communicators produce a wide variety of
documents and other products, such as
•Proposals and requests for proposals (RFPs)
•Technical or research reports
•Documentation records and product specifications
•User guides (step-by-step instructions, procedures, manuals)
•Online help, technical support
•Reference information
•Consumer literature (information for the public about regulations, safety issues, etc.)
•Marketing literature (product specifications, brochures, promotional literature)
•Technical journalism (found in trade magazines, media releases, etc.)
 SEQUENCE WORDS
• Sequence words are words that help us
understand the order of events that are
happening in the story. They tell us things like
what happened first, what happened next,
and what happened that was unexpected.
Think of them as signal words that help us
identify the next event in a story and the end
of a story.
 MISSPELLED WORDS
• Misspelled English words are words that are
often unintentionally misspelled in general
writing.
 COMPOUND WORD
• A compound word is a word that is made up of two
or more other words.
• Compound words can be written in three ways: as
open compounds (spelled as two words, e.g., ice
cream), closed compounds (joined to form a
single word, e.g., doorknob), or
hyphenated compounds (two words joined by a
hyphen, e.g., long-term). Sometimes, more than
two words can form a compound (e.g., mother-in-
law).
 SYNONYMS
• Synonyms are words that are similar to
another word or have a related meaning. They
can be useful when you want to avoid
repeating the same word over and over.
 VERBAL ANALOGIES
• What are Verbal Analogies? In general, an
analogy is a similarity that is drawn between
two different, but sufficiently similar events,
situations, or circumstances. A verbal analogy
draws a similarity between one pair of words
and another pair of words.
 VERBAL ANALOGIES
• WRIST: ARM:: ANKLE:___
“WRIST IS TO ARM AS, ANKLE IS TO ___?”
JOINT TOES FINGERS LEG
• ABSENT: PRESENT:: LOST:___
GIFT FOUND FORGOT MISSING
SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT
SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT
 SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT
• There are some occasions when we should use
singular verbs. Expressions such as each of, one
of, anybody, each, every and nobody must be
followed by a singular verb.
• E.g.
• Each of the ladies---(have/has) a designer
handbag.
• Anybody ___(are/is) allowed to enter this hall.
• Nobody___ (are/is) disappointed with the results.
• 1. Annie and her brothers (is, are) at school.
• 2. Either my mother or my father (is, are) coming to the
meeting.
• 3. The dog or the cats (is, are) outside.
• 4. Either my shoes or your coat (is, are) always on the floor.
• 5. George and Tamara (doesn't, don't) want to see that movie.
• 6. Benito (doesn't, don't) know the answer.
• 7. One of my sisters (is, are) going on a trip to France.
• 8. The man with all the birds (live, lives) on my street.
• 9. The movie, including all the previews, (take, takes) about two
hours to watch.
PERSONAL PASSIVE VOICE
• Personal Passive simply means that the object
of the active sentence becomes the subject of
the passive sentence.
• Active: He reads a novel.
• Passive: A novel is read by him.
• Active: They grow plants.
• Passive: Plants are grown by them. 
• Active: She teaches me.
• Passive: I am taught by her.
• Active: Esha is singing a song.
• Passive: A song is being sung by Esha.
• Active: They are serving poor people.
• Passive: Poor people are being served by
them. 
• Active: She is disturbing Dinesh.
• Passive: Dinesh is being disturbed by her.
 Active and Passive Voice Exercises of Past Simple Tense

 
• Active:  Reema cleaned the floor.
• Passive: The floor was cleaned by Reema.
•  
• Active: Aisha bought a bicycle.
• Passive: A bicycle was bought by Aisha.
•  
• Active: Naman called my friends.
• Passive: My friends were called by Naman.
•  
• Active: I saved him.
• Passive: He was saved by me.
•  
• Active: Miraya paid the bills.
• Passive: The bills were paid by Miraya.
• Active: Nitesh has challenged her.
• Passive: She has been challenged by Nitesh.
• Active: She has created this masterpiece.
• Passive: This masterpiece has been created by
her.
• Active: I have read the newspaper.
• Passive: The newspaper has been read by me.
 NUMERICAL ADJECTIVES

• Numeral Adjectives are those adjectives which are

used to denote the number of nouns or the order in
which they stand. They are also commonly called
Adjectives of Number. In simpler terms we can say that
Adjective of numbers tell us the number of people or
things and maintain clarity by giving exact information.
• Numeral adjectives can be numbers or numerical
orders, describing the number of nouns or the order of
the noun being described.
• For example: He bought three eggs at the
supermarket.
 PHRASE
• Words can be grouped together, but without a
subject or a verb. This is called a phrase.
• “After dinner”
• “Waiting for the rain to stop”.
 SENTENCES
• A complete sentence has a subject and predicate, and can often be
composed of more than one clause. As long as it has a subject and
a predicate, a group of words can form a sentence, no matter how
short.
• E.g. “You ate fish.”
• More complex sentences can combine multiple clauses or phrases
to add additional information about what is described. Clauses may
be combined using conjunctions – such as “and”, “but” and “or”.
• E.g. “He went out to dinner but didn’t enjoy the meal.”
• This example is composed of two independent clauses, “he went
out to dinner” and “he didn’t enjoy the meal”, combined with a
conjunction- “but”.
 CLAUSES
• Clauses are groups of words that have both subjects and predicates.
Unlike phrases, a clause can sometimes act as a sentence – this type of
clause is called an independent clause. This isn’t always the case, and
some clauses can’t be used on their own – these are called
subordinate clauses, and need to be used with an independent clause
to complete their meaning.
• An example of a subordinate clause is “When the man broke into the
house”
• An example of an independent clause is “the dog barked at him”
• While the independent clause could be used by itself as a complete
sentence, the subordinate clause could not. For it to be correct, it
would need to be paired with another clause: “When the man broke
into the house, the dog barked at him.”
 EMBEDDED CLAUSE
• An embedded clause is another way of using
a subordinate clause, but in the middle of
a sentence. It becomes embedded in
the sentence. Usually, this clause will be
separated by two commas, one before and
one after.
 CONDITIONAL SENTENCES
• Conditional sentences are statements discussing
known factors or hypothetical situations and their
consequences. Complete conditional sentences
contain a conditional clause (often referred to as the if-
clause) and the consequence. Consider the following
sentences:
• If a certain condition is true, then a particular result
happens.
• I would travel around the world, if I won the lottery.
• When water reaches 100 degrees, it boils.
 REPORTED SPEECH
• Reported speech is when you tell somebody
else what you or a person said before.
• Direct speech vs Reported speech:
• Direct speech
• 1. You can use direct speech with quotation
marks.
Example: He said: “I work in a bank.”
• Reported speech
• 2. You can use reported speech.
Example: He said he worked in a bank.
• He said, "I like this song."
→ He said that he liked that song.
• “I don't speak Italian," she said.
→ She said 
SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT
• 1. Subjects and verbs must agree in number. This is the cornerstone rule that
forms the background of the concept.
• The dog growls when he is angry.
The dogs growl when they are angry.
• 2. Subordinate clauses that come between the subject and verb don't affect their
agreement.
• The dog, who is chewing on my jeans, is usually very good.
• 3. Prepositional phrases  between the subject and verb usually do not affect
agreement.
• The colors of the rainbow are beautiful.
• 4. When sentences start with "there" or "here," the subject will always be placed
after the verb. Some care needs to be taken to identify each part correctly.
• There is a problem with the balance sheet.
Here are the papers you requested.
• 5. Subjects don't always come before verbs in questions. Make sure you
accurately identify the subject before deciding on the proper verb form to use.
• Where are the pieces of this puzzle?
• 6. If two subjects are joined by "and," they typically require a plural verb form.
• The cow and the pig are jumping over the moon.
• 7. The verb is singular if the two subjects separated by "and" refer to the same
person or thing as a whole.
• Red beans and rice is my mom's favorite dish.
• 8. If one of the words "each," "every," or "no" comes before the subject, the verb
is singular.
• No smoking or drinking is allowed.
Every man and woman is required to check in.
• 9. If the subjects are both singular and are connected by the words "or," "nor,"
"neither/nor," "either/or," or "not only/but also," the verb is singular.
• Either Jessica or Christian is to blame for the accident.
• 10. The only time the object of the preposition decides plural or singular verb
forms is when noun and pronoun subjects like "some," "half," "none," "more," or
"all" are followed by a prepositional phrase. Then the object of the preposition
determines the form of the verb.
• All of the chicken is gone.
All of the chickens are gone.
• 11. The singular verb form is usually reserved for units of measurement or
time.
• Four quarts of oil was required to get the car running.
• 12. If the subjects are both plural and are connected by the words "or,"
"nor," "neither/nor," "either/or," or "not only/but also," the verb is plural.
• Not only dogs but also cats are available at the animal shelter.
• 13. If one subject is singular and the other is plural, and the words are
connected by the words "or," "nor," "neither/nor," "either/or," or "not
only/but also," use the verb form of the subject that is nearest the verb.
• Either the bears or the lion has escaped from the zoo.
Neither the lion nor the bears have escaped from the zoo.
• 14. Indefinite pronouns typically take singular verbs (with some
exceptions).
• Everybody wants to be loved.
• 15. The exceptions to the above rule include the pronouns "few," "many,"
"several," "both," "all," and "some." These always take the plural form.
• Few were left alive after the flood.
• 16. If two infinitives are separated by "and," they take the plural form of the
verb.
• To walk and to chew gum require great skill.
• 17. When gerunds are used as the subject of a sentence, they take the singular
form of the verb. However, when they are linked by "and," they take the plural
form.
• Standing in the water was a bad idea.
Swimming in the ocean and playing drums are my hobbies.
• 18. A collective noun, such as "team" or "staff," can be either singular or plural
depending upon the rest of the sentence. Typically, they take the singular form,
as the collective noun is treated as a cohesive single unit.
• The herd is stampeding.
• 19. Titles of books, movies, novels, and other similar works are treated as
singular and take a singular verb.
• The Burbs is a movie starring Tom Hanks.
• 20. Final rule: Remember, only the subject affects the verb! Nothing else matters.
• Jacob, who owns sixteen houses, is on his way to becoming a billionaire.