GENERAL PRINCIPLES
OF EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION
General Principles of Effective Communication
1. Know your purpose in communicating.
Are you communicating basically to inform, to
entertain, or to persuade? While you may have more
than one purpose, there is still a more dominant
objective or reason why you communicate.
General Principles of Effective Communication
2. Know your audience. In both speaking and
writing, you should know your audience as it will
dictate the speaking or writing style you are going to
employ. Consider the age, educational background,
profession, culture, and other salient features of your
listeners or readers.
General Principles of Effective Communication
3. Know your topic. You communicate essentially
because you want to share something. In speaking
situations, speakers are invited because they have
something to share. This also applies to writing. You
write because you wish that other people learn
something from you.
General Principles of Effective Communication
4. Adjust your speech or writing to the context of
the situation. The environment in which your speech
or writing is to be delivered determines the kind of
language you will use.
General Principles of Effective Communication
5. Work on the feedback given you. Once you
receive comments from the listeners/readers, work on
them. Take kindly to criticisms. In the long run,
constructive criticisms will prove beneficial to you as
you learn to address them.
PRINCIPLES OF
EFFECTIVE ORAL
COMMUNICATION
Principles of Effective Oral Communication
1. Be clear with your purpose. You should know by
heart your objective in communicating.
Principles of Effective Oral Communication
2. Be complete with the message you deliver. Make
sure that your claims are supported by facts and
essential information.
Principles of Effective Oral Communication
3. Be concise. You do not need to be verbose or wordy
with your statements. Brevity in speech is a must.
Principles of Effective Oral Communication
4. Be natural with your delivery. Punctuate
important words with the appropriate gestures and
movements. Exude a certain degree of confidence
even if you do not feel confident enough.
Principles of Effective Oral Communication
5. Be specific and timely with your feedback. Inputs
are most helpful when provided on time.
PRINCIPLES OF
EFFECTIVE WRITTEN
COMMUNICATION:
THE 7Cs
Principles of Effective Written Communication
1. Be clear. Be clear about your message. Always be
guided by your purpose in communicating.
Principles of Effective Written Communication
2. Be concise. Always stick to the point and do not
beat or run around the bush. Be brief by focusing on
your main point.
Principles of Effective Written Communication
3. Be concrete. Support your claims with enough
facts. Your readers will easily know if you are bluffing
or deceiving them because there is nothing to
substantiate your claims.
Principles of Effective Written Communication
4. Be correct. It is important that you observe
grammatical correctness in your writing. Always have
time to revise and edit your work. Even simple
spelling errors may easily distract your readers.
Principles of Effective Written Communication
5. Be coherent. Your writing becomes coherent only
when you convey a logical message. The ideas should be
connected to each other and related to the topic. Make
sure that you observe a sound structure that will present
a smooth flow of your ideas. Use transitional or cohesive
devices so that the ideas cohere with one another.
Principles of Effective Written Communication
6. Be complete. Include all necessary and relevant
information so That the audience will not be left wanting
of any information. Always place yourself in the shoes
of the audience, who is always interested to receive new
information.
Principles of Effective Written Communication
7. Be courteous. The tone of your writing should be
friendly. Avoid any overtone/undertone or insinuation to
eliminate confusion and misinterpretation.
ETHICS OF
COMMUNICATION
Ethics of Communication
• Communication ethics emphasizes that morals
influence the behavior of an individual, group, or
organization thereby affecting their communication.
• It is important to note that one's behavior should be
regulated by honesty, decency, truthfulness, sincerity,
and moral uprightness.
Ethics of Communication
Be guided by the following to achieve ethical
communication:
1. Establish an effective value system that will pave the
way for the development of your integrity as a person.
One’s behavior and decision-making style affect, in turn,
the operations of an organization.
Ethics of Communication
2. Provide complete and accurate information. Whether
it is needed or not, the data you provide should always
be contextualized and correct.
Ethics of Communication
3. Disclose vital information adequately and
appropriately. Never conceal or hide information that are
necessary for purposes of transparency.
Ethics of Communication
Observing a code of ethics is essential as it determines
the kind of behavior that is proper and desirable over
one that is displeasing and offensive. A code of ethics
sets the standards to be observed by a person or a
company that will create a good reputation or a positive
image not only for an individual but also for the
organization.
Ethics of Communication
It will, therefore, pave the way for the attainment of the
desired results leading to the success of an individual or
the entire company. Success in decision-making will
likewise impact the company’s reputation.
COMMUNICATION
MODES
Communication Modes
Communication mode refers to the channel through
which one expresses his/her communicative intent. It is
the medium through which one conveys his/her
thoughts.
Communication Modes
1. face-to-face interaction. It is an informal or casual
conversation between two or more people. People
engage in social conversations to establish relationships
or maintain them. It is one way of gaining new
acquaintances or friends.
Communication Modes
Dau Voire suggests: “Be brave enough to start a
conversation that matters.”
Margaret J. Wheatley states: “All social change
begins with a conversation.”
Communication Modes
As Diana Wheatley aptly puts it:
Meaning is made in conversation,
Reality is created in communication,
And knowledge is generated through social interaction...
Language is the vehicle through which we create our
understanding of the world."
Communication Modes
2. Video Web cameras are used so that two or more
people who cannot interact face-to-face
can communicate. f there are no technical glitches
encountered, this could be a very effective mode of
communication especially for people separated by
distance.
Communication Modes
3. Audio. Audio means transmitted sound. Thus, in this
mode of communication, only the voice of the speaker is
heard. Ordinarily, someone's voice is heard through the
telephone or an answering machine when the other party
is not able to answer a call.
Communication Modes
4. text-based communication such as e-mail, text
messaging, and instant messaging. Social Networking
sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram likewise
offer text-based interaction. While text-based
communication mode does not originally provide video
and audio benefits, it has a wider reach and can
disseminate information to a bigger audience quickly.