Chapter Three

Principles of Communication
There are some specific communication principles that have to be followed to compose effective
messages. These are the seven C’s
 Completeness,
 Conciseness,
 Consideration,
 Concreteness,
 Clarity,
 Courtesy, and
 Correctness
1. COMPLETENESS: A business message whether oral or written is complete when it contains
all facts the reader or listener needs for the reaction we desire. To achieve both the specific
purpose of the message and goodwill, examine your messages to make sure that you have
covered everything you intended to cover and that you provided sufficient detail for your
reader/receiver to know what you expect of him/her. Complete letter also minimizes the possible
cost of additional letter. To make your message complete, make sure the reader/receiver knows
who is to do what as well as where, when and why he/she is to do it. Guidelines for
Completeness include:
o Answer all Questions Asked: when you are replying to an inquiry try to answer all
questions asked. Incomplete reply could be unfavorable to a customer. It could mean
carelessness or may mean intension to cover a weak side. For instance, in a reply to a
customer request, if you fail to answer the entire question, you might loss a customer.
Hence, you should take your time to give reply to the customer.
o Give Something Extra, when desirable: at times when the question is not adequate or the
person does not know what she wants, then you have to give more information. That is,
Answer anticipated questions the reader may have but forgot to ask. Example, Customer
entering one’s supermarket for the first time; Customer buying insurance policy; First day
of a foreign college student.
o Check for the Five W’s and any other essentials: to help make our message complete is
to answer, whenever desirable, the ‘five W’ questions who, where, what, when, why and
other essentials like how. For instance, to organize a concert, we need to specify the type of
concert (what), location (where), date and time (when), performers (who), and other
necessary details (how).

2. CONCISENESS: Conciseness is saying what you have to say in the fewest possible words.
Conciseness is one of the most important principles of effective business writing because a
wordy message requires more time and money to type and read. This means economy in writing
saves time and money. Guidelines to achieve conciseness:
o Eliminate Wordiness: eliminate unnecessary words from your statements.
  Wordy: If and when we can establish and define our goals and
objectives, each and every member will be ready and willing to give aid
and assistance.
 Instead: When we define our goals, each member will be ready to help.
 Wordy: There are 4 rules that should be observed.
 Concise: Four rules should be observed.
 Wordy: There is no question that the increased use of advertising
benefited the company.
 Concise: Unquestionably, the increased advertising benefited the
company.
Omit unnecessary articles, relative pronouns prepositions, and conjunctions
Examples:
Article:
the evidence we have Evidence we have
Relative pronoun:
He said that he agreed. He said he agreed.
Prepositional phrase:
Date of the policy Policy date
Conjunction:
and colon or period
Wordy Concise
During the year of 1993 during 1993
For the reason that since, because
o Include only Relevant Statements: not only unnecessary word, but also unnecessary facts
should also be excluded. The major causes of irrelevance include:
 Failure to stick to the purpose of the message.
 Including information obvious to the reader.
 Using big words to make an impression.
 Beating around the bush - failure to come to the point.
 Being excessively polite, etc.
o Avoid Unnecessary Repetition: when the same thing is repeated again and again it
becomes boring. Here are some ways to eliminate unnecessary repetition.
o Use a short name after you have mentioned the longer one once. For
example, instead of the Mina Trading company, “use the company”
o Use pronouns rather than repeating long names. For instance, instead of
using “the Ethiopian Insurance Company" again and again, uses “it.”
3. CONSIDERATION: Consideration is to show care for your listener or reader, to see things
form the receiver’s point of view, and to have a ‘you-attitude’ instead of ‘I-attitude’. This is
because the relationship between of the message, the sender and the receiver profoundly affects
communication effectiveness.
Is your letter and its message considerate?
 Do you show your readers you care about their needs in the message you send and the
way in which you send it?
 Have you looked at your letter from your reader’s point of view?
 Have you used a warm, friendly tone that tells your readers you care about their
needs?
Guidelines to achieve consideration
o Focus on ‘you’ instead of ‘I’ or ‘’We’: a receiver is more concerned about her than us or
our organization. Hence, we should try to get their attention by focusing on the ‘you-
attitude’.
 Poor: we give the best service from around the vicinity.
 Better: You can get the best service from around the vicinity.
 Poor: We welcome you to our online bookshop. If we can be of additional help, please
call on us.
 Better: You are welcome to our on-line bookshop. Please call on us whenever you need
additional help.
 Poor: I want to send my Congratulations…….
Better: Congratulations to you on your …
NB: In situations like below, it is advisable not to use ‘YOU’.
1. When the reader has made a mistake
 Poor: Your contract tells you clearly not to
 Better: I am glad to explain more fully the contract terms.
2. When a reader has an opinion different from us.
 Poor: You are entirely wrong in your attitude.
 Better: The proposed plan has three aspects which are extremely important
and which we need to explain now.
o Show Reader Benefit or Interest in Reading: show your receiver the benefit that she will
get from the message. For instance, “Buy Nyala Insurance” - one should then state what
special benefits Nyala has as compared to EIC, Nile Insurance, … OR We hope you will be
glad to know that we are now open on Sundays and until mid-night on all weekdays.
o Emphasize the Positive, Pleasant Facts: Stress on what can be done instead of what
cannot and focus on words your recipient will consider favorably.
 Negative: There is no way that we give you a discount of that much on the
machinery.
 Positive: You will be legible for that much discount if you can also buy these
accessories.
o Apply Integrity and Ethics: integrity is to be honest and reliable. Ethics is moral and
belief. Communication requires honesty and moral, both within and outside the
organization. Integrity with persons outside the organization; “Doing the harder right
instead of the easier wrong.”
 E.g. some managers use a different material (low quality) after they make a contract with a
particular client.
Integrity is also important with or about co-workers. Dishonest behavior towards employer
include claiming sick leave when not ill; internal thefts, etc. Unfair communication about co-
workers includes providing false information about someone to a superior.
4. CONCRETNESS: Concreteness refers to being specific, definite, and vivid rather than vague
and general
o Do you use easy-to-understand words that give your reader specific mental pictures about
your message?
- Do your verbs show actions (such as direct, send, produce) instead of just being (such as
is, are, were, was)?
Guidelines for Concreteness include:
 Use Specific Facts and Figures: facts and figures tend to last long in somebody’s mind
than general statements.
a. General: Our Company serves the majority of the market.
b. Concrete: Our Company serves 60% of the market.
a. General: Please send your check for the full amount soon.
b. Concrete: Please send your check for Birr 5,000 on or before June 5.
a. General: NASA claims that it has the best Physicists from all over the world.
b. Concrete: 7 out of the 10 physicists who have won the ‘Nobel’ prize in the field
of physics have worked in NASA at one point in their lives.
Often vague, general words may have different meanings to the sender and the receiver.
The list that follows gives words, which can lead to uncertainty, misunderstanding, or
confusion.
A few more short
High most slow
Large nice small
Low quick soon
Many several tall
Using plenty of examples, prefixed by phrases like “for instance,” “for example,” “such
as,” also helps make your writing concrete as well as clear.
 Put Action in your verbs: Strong verbs can activate other words and help made your
sentences definite. To write strong sentences:
 As much as possible use the active voice rather than the passive voice as who did
what to whom stands out loud and clear in active sentences than passive
sentences.
 Put action in your verbs instead of in nouns and infinitives.
Example:
“The board of directors decided” is more explicit than “A decision has been made.”
“Figures show” is more concise than “It is shown by figures.
 The passive requires more words and thus, slows both the writing and reading.
“W/t Almaz is generally disliked here. Her work habits are frequently criticized. Prior to
beginning work as supervisor, she was rated poorly as a leader”.
Almaz may insist and say:
 Who dislikes (active) me?
 Who criticizes (active) me?
 Who rates (active) me poorly?
She might thus request her evaluation be written in active form, not passive, so that she
confronts her accusers.
Action must also be put in verbs, not in nouns and infinitives. Notice the following
examples:
Action hiding in a Noun
The function of this office is the Collection of accounts and the Compilation of statements.
Action in the verb
This office collects accounts and compiles statements.
Action hiding in Infinitive
The duty of a stenographer is to check all incoming mail and to record it.
Action in the verb
A stenographer checks and records all incoming mail.

 Choose Vivid, Image-Building Words: methods of making words more forceful, vivid,
and specific are comparisons, and figurative language.
a. Comparisons: Comparing one with its equivalent builds a meaningful
picture. E.g. CBE Vs other banks
b. Figurative language: figures of speech may express an idea more clearly than
literal language.
Example: Selam is the one who usually organize social activities; instead of she is
usually the one who organize things.
5. CLARITY: Clarity refers to getting a message across so that the receiver will understand
what you are saying easily. That is, Clarity is the transfer of the writer’s thoughts to a reader
without misunderstanding. It is the single most important factor in communication. A
misunderstood message is worse than no message at all. A message that is not clear to a reader
cannot possibly communicate the writer’s intentions. Thus, clarity is the writer’s first
responsibility. The first and most important task of the writer is to be understood. That is, the
writer wants to have his/her reader interpret the message with the same meaning as intended.
Guidelines for Clarity consist of:
• Choose short and simple words rather than long and complicated words –Generally,
short, familiar and everyday words communicate more effectively than longer and less
known words. Therefore, use short and familiar words if your reader is to understand your
message. Example:
Complicated word simple word
 Interrogate ask
Subsequent to after
Give consideration to consider
Under date of on
As of this writing now

In addition, when you select words you should make sure that the words you have selected
would mean the same thing to your audience as they do to you. Words have both
denotations (dictionary meaning) and connotations (associated, personal meanings). The
words inexpensive and cheap can denote the same thing. But their connotations are
different. For most people, inexpensive simply means low in cost while cheap means
poorly made or a poor value.
• Avoid ambiguous and equivocal words – Ambiguous words have more than one meaning
and equivocal words
Whenever possible, avoid technical jargons when you talk or write to a person who is not
familiar with such words. If you must use technical words, define them briefly and clearly,
other wise you will confuse, embarrass, or irritate your reader, and perhaps be forced to
explain later.
Examples:
Technical jargon Expressions familiar to layperson
Annual premium annual payment
Assessed valuation value of property for tax purpose
Charge to your principal increase the balance of your loan
Maturity date final payment date
Per Diem daily
Sentence: Days of grace under this policy expire May 15, 1980
Revised: The extra 30 - days allowed you to pay your premium without interest end May
15, 1980
• Use concrete and specific words rather than general and abstract words – Specific
language enables the reader to visualize the action of your letter and it creates believability.
Always give exact facts, figures, details, explanations and examples. For example, instead
of soon use March 15, 2002.
• Use short and simple sentences – Sentence structure is also an important consideration in
achieving clarity. The easiest sentences to read and to understand are short, simple
sentences using active voice in the past, present, or future tense and making an explicit
statement. While it is true that to avoid monotony, sentence length should be varied; short
sentences are easier to read and are therefore usually clearer than long sentences. Use short
sentences for your main ideas, and place supporting information in the longer sentences.
Beyond proper length, sentences seem to grow weaker with added word.
 • Your message must be definite and straight for ward – State your message explicitly
rather than implicitly. Using specific and concrete words will help you make explicit
statements. Example:
Implicit: It will be to your advantage to order now
Explicit: By ordering now, you will receive two issues absolutely free.
• Construct effective sentences and paragraphs – Clear writing depends on logical
structure. A clear message requires a definite beginning, middle and end. In addition to
the logical structure, the writer also needs to provide the reader with a unified message that
moves clearly from point to point.

A unified message has continuity of thought. Unity and structure requires planning. You
should group related ideas together and then arrange the groups into a logical sentence.
Eliminate ideas that do not pertain to either your subject content or your feeling content. So
that your reader will always know where your message has been and where it is going as you
move from idea to idea, provide your reader with a clear, specific reference to the preceding
idea or anticipate your next idea with an explicit statement of direction. As a result your
statement (writing) should aim for unity and coherence.
[
In a sentence, unity means having one idea and other ideas closely related to it. For instance,
the manager of the firm-X is Abebe and Alemu won a gold medal in the marathon, game.
These two ideas do not relate; the second idea is irrelevant to the first ideas

Sentences and paragraphs should have logical sequence showing the reader the relationship
between them. The use of linking words is important in this case.
• Include examples, illustrations, and other visual aids, when desirable: you can improve
the clarity of you message by giving illustration, examples, or visual aids such as
tabulation, charts, pictures, etc.

6. COURTESY: Courteous message helps to strengthen present business friendship, as well as

make new friends. Courtesy stems from sincere you-attitude. It is not merely politeness with
mechanical insertions of “pleases” and “thank-yous”. To be courteous, the communicator should
follow the following suggestions regarding tone and promptness of messages.
 Being Sincerely Tactful, Thoughtful, and Appreciative: Tactful instead of bluntness.
Not only, tactful, messages should also be thoughtful and appreciative.
o Blunt: Obviously, if you’d read your policy carefully, you’d be able to answer
these questions yourself.
o Tactful: Sometimes policy wording is a little hard to understand. I’m glad to clear
up these questions for you.
  Omit Expressions that Irritate, Hurt, or Belittle: do not offend the reader or listener of
your message. Avoid expressions such as: you forgot to; you surely don’t expect; you
failed to; you are probably ignorant of the fact that; you have to etc.
 Grant and Apologize Good-Naturedly: begin your message with the good news and
continue with a courteous and willing tone.
 Answer your mail promptly
For courtesy as well as better results one should answer a business inquiry promptly. If
you need time to gather information, or have a stack of other urgent work, before you can
answer a request, send a short note like the following:
I will gladly send you the information you need. It may take a few days to assemble the
facts. You will hear from me by….
7. CORRECTNESS: Presenting a message correctly helps you to avoid the risk of
miscommunication. Mistakes cause misunderstanding and they can destruct the recipients from
concentrating on the intended message. Besides, errors can affect the credibility of the sender
and the message. As a principle of effective writing the broad term correctness refers to:
 Correct figures, accurate statements, facts and explicit identification of assumptions and
opinions. It is obvious that without correct figures and statements, accurate communication
is impossible.
 Correct spelling, grammar, mechanics, and language usage. Misspelled words, faulty
punctuation, and awkward constructions will be barriers to communication. Your ability to
use language correctly and to write a message free from superficial errors is a nonverbal
message that tells your readers that you are an intelligent, careful person who cares enough
about them to pay attention to the details of your message. Because your letters, memos, and
reports provide a lasting record of your abilities to think, write and communicate about
business matters, you should take the time to ensure correctness since communication errors
will undermine your business effectiveness. Thus, as a writer of a business letter, you should
apply the following guidelines in your communication:
 Use of the right level of language: there are 3 levels in the English language
o Formal level – a language level that is usually used for scholarly dissertation,
legal documents, or government agreements.
o Informal level - a language level that is used for business letter, newspaper,
reports, etc, and
o Substandard level – a language level that is colloquial. The substandard has to be
avoided at all times.
 Use short, well-known, and conversational words.
 Maintain Acceptable writing Mechanics: use words, and punctuation marks correctly;
Avoid grammatical errors; Watch out for spelling errors and careless omission.
Spelling errors: nad (and); form (from)
Careless Omission: No (No.)
  Choose Nondiscriminatory Expressions: avoid discrimination between the sexes, races,
ethnic groups, and physical features.
Discriminatory: mankind; manpower; chairman
Nondiscriminatory: human being; human power; chairperson
 Check Accuracy of Figures, Facts, and Words: check for the correctness of figures,
facts, or words. In some cases inaccurate figure or fact can cause a serious problem.
Words can also be confusing, thus chose correct words to communicate your message.
Example: Reporting an amount of Birr 300,000 instead of Birr 30,000 as the total
revenue in an important company meeting
Example: between and among -Between involves two people or groups while among
involves three or more.

Planning in Communication
Your careful planning of the message is most important for effective communication since your
goal is to gain desired reaction or action from the recipient. Thus, think and plan before you
communicate. This means, to determine what points to include in your message, and to
determine how to arrange those points for greatest effectiveness. You need to analyze the
communication context by asking yourself: what is the purpose of the message? What is the
reader’s point of view? And what is necessary to achieve the principles of effective
communication? Planning in communication requires applying the following steps:
i) Understand the purpose of the message
Determine the receiver of your message and what you want to achieve. Your first step is to
determine what you want to achieve out of the message. Every message has two categories
of purposes or objectives.
Business objective - establishes the subject content. Your business objective is to obtain the
information that will help your dealer help you. Example: informing your reader that you are
offering a new product or service or persuading him/her to purchase the new product or
service or informing him/her the delay of the shipment. You may also inquire the availability
of sufficient goods.
Human objective - establishes the feeling content. Your human objective is to establish
empathy with the reader so that a spirit of cooperation will prevail. This part of purpose is
important to build goodwill. Thus, be sure to keep, both your business purpose (specific) and
human purpose (general), in mind as you plan every message.
ii) Visualize your reader
Understand your reader and your reader’s point of view. Your reader can be a business or
professional person, superior, colleague or subordinate; man or woman; young, middle aged,
or elderly new or longtime customer; and so on. The different people with whom you are
communicating will not have the same point of view. Visualizing that there is an individual
difference adjust your message accordingly. Write your message with the individual reader
in mind
iii) Choose the ideas that the message is to include
 Identifying the purpose and the ideas that the purpose is to include is helpful to avoid
irrelevant ideas and overall wordiness. The ideas you will include in the writing depend
upon the type of message you are considering.
iv) Get all the facts to support your ideas
Once you have determined the ideas, you must ensure that you have the necessary figures,
facts and quotations to support these ides. Be sure you know your company policy,
procedures and product details if this message requires them.
v) Organize your ideas/thoughts
Before you write your message, outline your ideas in a sequence/logical order so that the
flow of ideas can be smooth.
vi) Write, revise, and proofread
Write and revise your message carefully. No matter your writing is routine short
communication or complex long communication you must read your draft objectively, from
the viewpoint of your reader. Make sure that your message meets all principles of effective
business writing. Finally, after your message is written, it needs careful proofreading.
Proofreading is essential to correct any possible error; so that your message will reflect
favorably on you and your business.