COMMUNICATION- IMPORTANCE

Communication is important in all walks of life because we live and work with people.
Communicating the intended message clearly and effectively is an important skill. Improving
your communication skills is an art that comes with regular practice
Effective communication is-
more than just exchanging information.
about understanding the emotion behind the information, the reason for transmitting the
information, ensuring that the receiver will not be confused and will receive the correct
information.
Effective communication can improve personal and professional relationships by:
(a) Increasing your capacity to recognize and understand your own emotions and those of
the person you are communicating with.
(b) Combining a set of skills including nonverbal communication, attentive listening, and
the ability to manage stress at the moment of communication.
(c) Enabling you to communicate even negative or difficult messages without creating
conflict or destroying trust.
COMMUNICATION- IMPORTANCE

d) Deepening your connections with the person or people you are communicating with.
(e) Improving interaction, decision-making, and problem solving.
Effective communication is really both an art and a science. You as, a sender need to focus on
two things while communicating:
• Ensure that the intended meaning is totally retained and nothing is lost, so that the
communicated message is received clearly and precisely by the receiver.
• Be sensitive in the way you phrase and package the message. This is to ensure that the
relationships are kept affable.
The 7 C’s of Communication
A study conducted by 
McKinsey Global Institute and International Data
 Corporation reveals that employees spend close to
30% of their time on emails. Beyond that, meetings,
conference calls, presentations, report writing and
several other activities at the workplace involve
communicating with peers, superiors and other
colleagues.
The 7 C’s of Communication is a checklist that helps
to improve the professional communication skills
and increases the chance that the message will be
understood in exactly the same way as it was
intended.
To have effective communication, one should keep
the following 7 C’s of communication in mind:
7 C’s of Communication
1. Clear
Any message needs to come out clearly from your communication rather than the recipient
having to assume things and coming back to you for more information. This will only lead
to more time being wasted on emails.
Do not try to communicate too many things in one message

2. Correct
When too many emails are being written in a day, people tend to type fast and therefore
might make spelling mistakes. Spell check will not be able to catch it if the wrongly spelt
word is in fact another word in the English language. You also need to ensure that you
address people the right way and spell their names correctly. Additionally, you need to
ensure that the reader has sufficient knowledge and education to understand the technical
terms that you use in your communication.
7 C’s of Communication

3. Complete
A complete message will have all the information the reader needs to know and will be
able to respond or take an action. If you require the reader to take some kind of action,
ensure that you have a ‘call-to-action’ in your email and also communicate the urgency of
the task in question. Incomplete messages lead to iterations, a lot of back-and-forth, and
waste of time and effort on both ends.

4. Concise
People more often than not tend to write 4 sentences in a place where they could have
finished the message in 2 sentences. This wastes the time of the sender and the receiver
and in turn limits their productivity too. Furthermore, try not to add fillers such as ‘I mean’,
‘sort of’, ‘for instance’, ‘basically’, etc. Your message needs to be accurate, to the point and
crisp.
7 C’s of Communication
5. Concrete
You need to believe in you what you want to convey to the audience. Concreteness is a quality
which needs to come to the fore especially during marketing or advertising campaigns. There
need to be details that capture the attention of the audience, not bore them.

6. Coherent
Your message needs to have a logical flow. All sentences in your email or report should be
connected to the previous one and stick to the main topic. Without coherence, the reader will
easily lose track of what you have conveyed.

7. Courteous
Being courteous is of profound importance in a corporate setting. Individuals who work
together are not necessarily friends and therefore, to maintain a healthy working relationship,
being courteous is a necessity. Hidden insults and aggressive tones will only cause trouble
among individuals and result in reduced morale and productivity
COMMUNICATION PROCESS
Sender: The sender or the communicator is the person who initiates the conversation
and has conceptualized the idea that he intends to convey it to others.
Encoding: The sender begins with the encoding process wherein he uses certain words
or non-verbal methods such as symbols, signs, body gestures, etc. to translate the
information into a message. The sender’s knowledge, skills, perception, background,
competencies, etc. has a great impact on the success of the message.
Message: Once the encoding is finished, the sender gets the message that he intends
to convey. The message can be written, oral, symbolic or non-verbal such as body
gestures, silence, sighs, sounds, etc. or any other signal that triggers the response of a
receiver.
Communication Channel: The Sender chooses the medium through which he wants to
convey his message to the recipient. It must be selected carefully in order to make the
message effective and correctly interpreted by the recipient. The choice of medium
depends on the interpersonal relationships between the sender and the receiver and
also on the urgency of the message being sent. Oral, virtual, written, sound, gesture,
etc. are some of the commonly used communication mediums.
Receiver: The receiver is the person for whom the message is intended or targeted.
He tries to comprehend it in the best possible manner such that the communication
objective is attained. The degree to which the receiver decodes the message depends
on his knowledge of the subject matter, experience, trust and relationship with the
sender.
Decoding: Here, the receiver interprets the sender’s message and tries to understand
it in the best possible manner. An effective communication occurs only if the receiver
understands the message in exactly the same way as it was intended by the sender.
Feedback: The Feedback is the final step of the process that ensures the receiver has
received the message and interpreted it correctly as it was intended by the sender. It
increases the effectiveness of the communication as it permits the sender to know
the efficacy of his message. The response of the receiver can be verbal or non-verbal.
Noise: The Noise shows the barriers in communications. There are chances when the
message sent by the sender is not received by the recipient.
Technical Communication
Technical communication is a field that includes any following form of communication that
can help users to accomplish a defined goal or task. The main purpose of technical
communication is to assist users who need specific information on completing tasks, using
products, operating equipment, and so on. It also helps business in different ways:
• To be more productive and consumer-oriented.
• Employers set goals properly, understand and complete the tasks successfully.
• Technical communication provides background, so employers can get new ideas.
Technical communication is not only about manuals and instructions, as you could think, it
includes any form of communication, for example:
• Communicating by using technology, such as help files, web pages, and even social
media.
• Communicating about technical topics.
• Providing instructions on how to use a product in the form of documentation.
Technical Communication
Technical communicators work in different spheres and make information accessible to
people who need it:
• Product manuals help users to achieve the desired goal easily.
• Training programs provide people with new skills.
• Medical instructions help health staff provide the treatment properly, reducing risks
associated with incorrect care.
• Usability studies help to find issues with a product and make it more user-friendly.
Technical communication is not expressive writing, journalistic writing, or creative
literature. It does not use vague literary references. The language of technical
communication is dry, clear and concise to help people get the main idea quickly.
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
 Communication

In technical communication, specific information is to be conveyed in a written or an oral or

a visual form, to the specific readers or audience or viewers. Technical communication
should lead to some conclusion for decision making or some action to be taken for a plant,
process, person or a procedure. It should impart some concrete factual information. Just like
medical prescription, it should be specific. Technical communication is necessary for an
engineering student, engineering college teacher, researcher, guide, writer, editor of a
technical bulletin, a journal or a book, a website designer, and a training officer. It requires
concrete output.
In general, day to day communication, we have a lot of freedom. Many general illustrations
or stories can be added as carrier of communication. We can afford to be extravagant of
vocabulary in general communication but, technical communication does not give that
freedom. The general communication may be more colorful and entertaining. The technical
communication is in black and white, without any ambiguity.
 Communication
Starting from news paper and TV news or radio, for our daily activities we are associated
with many people at home, in the street, during transportation to the office and back and at
the office. It requires a lot of communication.

When we talk about technical communication, it is the application which differentiates it

from general communication. In an engineering college, it may be for teaching, completing
assignments, preparing technical reports, a seminar, a technical paper, B.Tech project report,
or preparing an examination paper and answer sheet; or facing or conducting interview.

The basic rules of communication remain the same. In general communication, we can afford
to use ornamental language or we may be extravagant about use of our vocabulary but,
technical communication aims at factual representation. It focuses more on the content
rather than language. It is more application specific
 Conventions of Technical Communication

The technical field has many established writing conventions. These conventions affect how you
organize your thoughts and how you phrase your research and ideas.
Most of the conventions you'll read about here represent what's generally expected when you
communicate as an engineer
Scientific or technical writing is different from literary writing in a number of ways. Primarily, the
aim of technical writing is to inform rather than to entertain. Hence, the style of writing adopted
is generally simple and concise.

Headings & Subheadings

Headings and subheadings are good organizational techniques, and they also help readers locate
information. They provide readers with visual stopping points. These stopping points help keep
your reader's attention focused on your content rather than on where they are in the text.

.
 Conventions of Technical Communication

Group Writing
Engineers often compose documents as a group. This occurs in both industry and academia when
engineers have to present large projects. Writing as a group means that you have to work
well together in order to assign tasks and complete the work.

Lists
Lists are effective ways to present information. Not only do they break down large amounts of text, but
they're also visually pleasing. Lists are especially useful when you have to convey steps, phases, years,
procedures, or decisions.
For example, to receive a degree in engineering, you must complete the following:
Core Courses
Elective Courses
Senior Design