Principles of Effective Communication

General Communication:

 

The official definition of General Communication is “Communication is the transmission of information or message from one person to another.”  Essentially general communication covers a basis of talking to people, writing someone a letter or email.

General communication is used for a number of different things, some of the main purposes of general communication are:

·         Talking in front of an audience

·         Talking to friends

·         Writing letters

General communication is necessary because we need different ways of communicating with people, we need general communication as a universal means of communication. We need a universal means because not everyone speaks the same language as us and in some cases we need to find a common ground with people to communicate.

General communication can be used in the rainbow organization because not all of the organizations clients will be able to communicate as effectively and efficiently as some people, general communication will be very useful as this means we can keep a basic link between all of our customers

General communication could be used between the staff of the rainbow organisation to inform each other of various different business ideas that they could have.

One of the principles of general communication would be cultural differences and cultural differences should be taken into consideration because cultural differences could include people not speaking the same language as you so you would possibly need to organize a translator so that everyone can understand what is being said and also people may not understand your sense of humor because they may come from  another country so you should watch what is being said and that what you are saying is not offensive.
 

The next principle that I would like to discuss is ‘Adapting to suit an audience’ when presenting something to an audience there are things that you must take into consideration and these are:

·         Voice modulation

·         Terminology

·         Adapt format

Voice modulation refers to having to change your voices pitch up and down but the alternative to this would be to keep an even pitch throughout the sentence but this could wind up making you sound dull, boring and confusing. 

Terminology should be taken into consideration as not everyone will be from your particular area of living or even your country so you must make sure that the terminology that you use is not too advanced for the audience and that everyone can understand the message.

Adapt format essentially refers to the way that you present your message whether you use music or you present the message electronically.

Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal communication is the process of people exchanging ideas, feelings and thoughts through verbal and non-verbal messages. 

Interpersonal communication is generally used with face to face interaction using both spoken and body language.

Interpersonal communication is very important because it allows us to convey tone in a conversation and it allows us to gain and access information that people have with regards to certain individuals, organizations or perhaps even different topic.

Interpersonal communication could be used in the rainbow organisation to exchange messages and ideas that clients would like to explain to employees or perhaps the customers may want to explain ideas that they have had to the employees. 

Interpersonal communication could be used in the rainbow organisation to communicate between members of staff as using interpersonal communication such as emails and speaking to each other to exchange new and interesting ideas which could be explained to different members of staff which could make the new ideas take place more efficiently and interpersonal communication could also be used to relay messages between staff about any possible changes that could have taken place for some of the clients.

One of the principles of interpersonal communication is techniques and cues, especially when it refers to body language as different forms of body language can show that you are paying attention to what the person is saying and that you understand the message, an example of body language is eye contact and this shows that you are engaged in the conversation and that you are also confident.

Positive language is the next principle of communication and positive communication shows that you are connected with the person and that you are able to give positive feedback to a person, an example of positive communication is using the word yes, this is a positive response to a persons question and can be used to give the person more confidence in their speaking and presentations.

Written Communication:

Written communication is basically any form of interactive communication that uses written words to convey a message. Some of the forms of written communication that are commonly used include memos, manuals, electronic mail, job description and bulletins among many others.

The different types of written communication that could be used in the Rainbow organisation range from written emails to writing letters and notes as well as bulletins that would generally be placed on bulletin boards to inform people of appointments or important events.

It is necessary to communicate in writing because not everyone has the ability to speak so writing will help people to understand what is being said and also writing can help to make you sound more professional and convey messages much more easily.

Written communication could be used in the rainbow organisation between volunteers and clients as not everybody has the ability to speak so the written communication could be used in letters and bulletins to inform people of different events and schedule changes. 

The rainbow organisation could use written communication to convey messages between one another and these messages could vary from discussing tasks to be done for that particular day or another message could be the different appointments that each person has and the times of these appointments.  

Spelling and grammar are a very important principle of written communication as correct spelling and grammar can show that you are professional and take pride in your work wheras incorrect spelling and grammar can show that you perhaps are not professional are potentially lethargic and if your spelling and grammar were incorrect it could perhaps damage the reputation of your company. This can all be avoided if the company were to encourage the employees to use spellcheck more often and also proof read their work.

Structure is also very important, structure includes things like being well presented, follow a logical order, use subheading etc when appropriate and so on.
Structure allow people to get a better understanding of any presentation that you are doing or any documents that you are handing to your employer and without correct structure your document could be quite confusing if you do not put things in the correct order or do not use titles and subheadings