Table of Contents

An easy way to build communication skills!

What is communication?
What is a communication skill? (Communication skills meaning)
Why do we need communication skills?
The Seven Seas of Communication
Communication Skills for Students
Communication Skills Development Tips

An easy way to build communication skills! Communication skills, known to us in English as communication skills, are a very important subject today. Communication skills are very important in all fields, whether it is a job or a start-up. Let’s know what communication skills are and some ways to increase them.

What is communication?

Before you know what communication is, you need to know the meaning of the word communication. The word communication comes from the Latin word “communication,” which means “to share,” more simply, to communicate or exchange information through speaking, writing, or any other means of communication. Successfully conveying one’s ideas to others or sharing feelings is also called communication.

What is a communication skill? (Communication skills meaning)

Communication skills are the ability to understand the information given by others and to understand what you want to say correctly to others. It can happen both in writing and in words. We’re just going to talk about the skills of communication that comes through talking. If you notice, you will see that there are two main parts of communication skills – understanding what others say and being able to explain yourself to others.

Communication skills are the abilities you use when exchanging different types of information. Some examples of communication skills include new ideas, feelings, or even an update to your project reaching a colleague or boss, conversations on mobile, and digital communications such as e-mail and social media.

Why do we need communication skills?

Communication skills have been and will continue to be necessary not only in the present, but in the past. Whether it’s academics or jobs or starting a start-up, communication skills are very important for our careers. Not only that, communication skills also increase our acceptance among people.

The Seven Seas of Communication

After knowing why communication skills are needed, let’s know the seven qualities of communication skills, which we know as the seven C of communication. In 1952, Professor Scott M. Cutlip and Allen H. Center refers to this Seven Seas.

1.Completeness:

Your words or writings should always be complete. Let this awaken your audience’s interest in knowing everything. When speaking or writing, keep in mind that the audience or reader will react based on your words or writings. Here are the good points we can see in a complete article or sentence:

Full communication enhances the professionalism of an organization or individual.
It reduces the waste of time and money. Let’s say you wrote a letter that cost something to courier. Now if it does not have complete information, then you will have to send it again and again the courier will cost. You’ve described something to someone. He didn’t understand a lot. Then you have to explain the whole thing to him again so that time will be spent.
It does not raise any new questions in the mind of the listener or the reader.
This makes decision-making easier.

2.Conciseness:

Brevity means saying the original in as few words as possible and adhering to that it contains all the characteristics of fair communication. One thing to always keep in mind when communicating is that the listener or reader is busy. So if he speaks or writes broadly, he will spend a lot of time understanding the essence of the word and he will be bored. This is not the case when the text or words are short. This prevents wastage of time.

3.Consideration:

When communicating, you have to put yourself in the place of the listener or reader. Here, the educational qualifications of the audience, caste, religion, etc. should be taken into consideration. Last year, we were given a project where we had to talk to the owner of three tong shops and make a short-term paper on it. As a BBA student, I have to deal with various English words on a daily basis.

The first time I went to the tong shop while working on the project, I used to say a couple of business words in the middle of the conversation for habitual reasons, and whenever I was talking, the tong shop owner was completely silent. There was a lack of consideration in this communication. Considering the educational qualifications of the shopkeeper of Tong, the communication would have been more fair.

“Once you say so many key things, the listener is confused and none of the words are said properly. ”

In this way, you have to put yourself in the place of the listener or reader during communication and then do it. Just as nothing that goes beyond the understanding of the listener can be said, nothing can be said that the listener considers himself trivial or hurts his beliefs. When speaking, use as many positive words as possible instead of negative words.

4 Clarity:

When communicating, one key thing should be emphasized. Once there are many main things to say, the listener becomes confused and none of the words are said properly. Talking about a topic at a time makes it easier for the listener to understand it. You will understand this only when you talk to your friends. When many friends talk together, there are many types of things mixed up and very rarely you will see that there is a specific topic being talked about there.

5 Concreteness:

Suppose someone asked you to meet him tomorrow morning. When will you meet now? At 8 a.m. or 11 a.m.? Again, he mentioned at the place of the meeting, but did not say how many floors the building was. What floor are you looking for him on now? There was a lack of specificity in these two types of communication.

The lack of specificity leads to confusion between the listener or the reader. This raises a lot of questions in their minds. Sometimes the listener or reader also misinterprets the message without specificity. Let’s say there are two buildings with the same name. Now, the sender of the message has thought of one building, but the recipient has thought of another. This causes a lot of suffering. Without specificity, the message introduces very unprofessionalism.

6.Courtesy:

Even if the message carries all the features of communication, the recipient will not be satisfied with it unless it is written in polite language. The message should show sufficient respect to the recipient. And imply that the sender really wants to achieve the satisfaction of the recipient. For this, the message has to be said or written from the point of view of the audience or the reader and the message should not be biased in any way. There will be a lot of words of courtesy here, but of course they should not be excessive.

If you read a well-written message, the recipient is already interested in the topic described in it and the recipient sends his answer beautifully. Assuming you’re dropping someone from somewhere, you can put some ‘strategic buffer’ at the beginning of your message. A strategic buffer is a courtesy call to lighten the situation before giving any bad news. Again, you can say something like this at the end of the message. Remember, some of your courtesy words are enough to make one’s day better.

7. Correctness

Accuracy means that there will be no grammatical errors in your message. Every sentence you write represents you. If your sentence has grammatical errors, no matter how skilled you are, that sentence will present you poorly in front of the recipient. If you don’t trust your grammatical knowledge, check with someone else. A grammatical mistake not only diminishes the dignity of not only you but also the organization you are sending the message on.

If you follow these seven rules of communication, you will be able to communicate properly. Today is the age of communication. In this day and age, no matter how skilled you are at any task, if you do not communicate properly, you will be deprived of the respect you deserve in many places

Communication Skills for Students

At present, communication skill development is very important for any age student studying in school, college or university. Not only that, the ability to communicate in English along with the mother language is also an important part of English communication skill development. Some of the ways a student can improve their communication skills are:

Reading a lot of books

There is no need to read books to increase communication skills. In addition to text books in the educational life, other educational books can be a tool to increase the student’s communication skills.

Educational Movies

The most basic use of communication skill development is conversation. If you practice watching any Bengali or English educational film or any other language educational film with English or Bengali subtitles, a student can develop communication skills without his knowledge. While talking about the actors in the film, he says,

The expression of speaking,
Speaking with a focus,
What and how does it refer to something in the summary,
Responding to someone’s words
If you notice things like this, communication skills can be mastered.

Using Technology

In the age of modern information technology, not only communication skills, any skill is now in the hands of companionship. Easy English learning apps like Voice thread, Paper Telephone, Bubble, Duolingo, etc. can help students learn English as well as increase communication skills.

Active Listening

To increase communication skills, not only is it enough to speak, but the tendency to listen actively is also necessary. Active listening or active listening means listening attentively as well as listening for understanding. Communication skills development can be easily achieved by increasing the tendency to active listening.

Group Presentation

Group presentations enhance students’ communication skills as well as confidence in public speaking.

Communication Skills Development Tips

There are a few small things to keep in mind to develop the ability to understand others and at the same time to increase communication skills by taking care of them. Let’s know some communication skill development tips, which can be easily understood what information someone wants to give through words.

1) Listen carefully:

Many people do not pay much attention to listening to the speaker in the middle of the conversation. That’s not right at all. In order to understand what others are saying, you must first pay attention to listen to the word well. If you don’t listen carefully, a lot of things are often not noticed. In that case, it is seen that when you go to say something in response to the word, you will stop without finding the word. That’s why you should listen carefully to the speaker. Then the conversation can be easily continued without getting stuck.

Think about how you would feel if someone listened to you carefully. Of course you’ll like it and feel like they’re paying you. Then you will try more to say the words well. When you listen carefully to others, the same thing will work in him and he will tell you his words well. As a result, you can easily gather the necessary information. So what’s the barrier to listening intently?

2.Looking at the expression:

Listening attentively is not limited to listening, it also comes down to noticing with your eyes. In listening carefully, the speaker’s facial posture and notice the movement of hands and feet, etc. help to understand the speaker easily. Even if it is subconsciously, the movement of the speaker’s body helps to highlight his speech. That is why in addition to listening to the speaker, attention should also be taken to the movement of his body and organs.

Many people do not say directly, but they also try to explain through hand movements, eye gestures that they want the conversation to end. In that case, understanding the gesture and finishing the conversation quickly is also within the communication skills.

3.Convincing the speaker that you are listening:

When a speaker speaks, he also notices whether the listener is listening to him or her. If the listener is interested, his or her enthusiasm to speak increases. So when listening, you have to convince the speaker that you are listening to him. In that case, shaking your head after a while, sometimes making hu-yes, etc. will make it clear to the speaker that you are listening to him. This will make the speaker more willing to talk, which will make your conversation easier and more fluent.

However, do not respond so much that there is a barrier in the middle of the speaker’s words. Then the speaker may be upset. This will defeat your original purpose.

4) Being able to explain yourself to others:

Being able to express one’s point of view to others is also an important part of communication skills. If you can look at some things, you can easily present your words to others.

5) Don’t talk too fast:

The first thing to keep in mind is to talk slowly so that people can easily understand what you are saying. If your words are too fast, people will easily lose interest in listening to you because they will not understand most things. In that case, it will affect your conversation and disrupt the real purpose.

Comedy makes our relationship easier

On the other hand, if you speak slowly, you will have enough time to find the right words to express your point. At the same time, your audience will have enough time to understand what you mean by that word as they listen. In this way, you can easily make yourself a good speaker.

But don’t be too slow. Then the person you are talking to will think that you do not have enough knowledge on the subject you are talking about. So he will lose interest in listening and speaking.

6) Looking into the listener’s eyes and talking:

When speaking, you must look into the eyes of the listener and speak. This will make the audience understand that you are confident and that you have enough knowledge about what you are saying. Also, if you talk to the audience’s eyes, the listener will not be able to avoid your words very easily. In this way, you can easily convey what you want to say to the audience.

If the audience is more than one, never look at one. Try to look at everyone and talk. This way they will understand that you are talking to everyone seriously.

7) Pay attention to body gestures:

Your body will also move as needed by adjusting to what you say in the mouth. This is very important because when a person listens to you, he also pays attention to your gestures. Because your gesture helps him understand that word easily. But make sure that your gestures are consistent with your statement. Only then will the audience understand you easily.

Among the gestures that will help the listener understand your words, hand movements, standing postures, etc. are more important. If you talk about an object in your mouth and have a posture to show its shape with your hands, then the audience will easily understand it. In this way, you can easily make the words accessible to the audience.

8) Decide the way you speak according to the audience:

You certainly don’t talk to your boss the way you talk to your co-worker. Or don’t talk to friends the way you do in a chat with family or work. Your relationship with each person is one-on-one. The way we talk to everyone is the same based on the relationship. That is, the type of person you talk to depends on your relationship with the audience.

The listener will speak as he is. This way, there will be no touch of anything disrespecting your words and no one will be offended by it.

9) Keep things short and specific:

No one likes overly irrelevant talk. So keep the conversation as short as possible and specific within the content. This is even more important for any type of article. It is not always true that the article will contain more important information only when it is too large. The reader always appreciates the writing in concise and fluent language.

Just as it is a waste of the author’s time to write more than necessary, the reader’s time is wasted when reading that article. Again, the more irrelevant things enter the article, the more likely it is that the quality of the article will decline. Poor quality writing can never be accepted. So the article should be concise and specific.

10) Avoid unnecessary complementary words:

Many of us have inertia in speaking. As a result, we use meaningless complementary words like “um” or “ah” at the beginning or in the middle of the sentence. We may feel that such words help keep the conversation moving. But that’s a misconception. Such words express the speaker’s hesitation. It’s better to take a moment to start talking. Or if you get stuck in the middle of the conversation, take some time.

From the speaker’s point of view, it seems to show our lack of confidence, but from the listener’s point of view it is not such a problem. Rather, it is better to start from silence for a while than to utter unnecessarily meaningless complementary words.

11) Keep away things that distract attention:

If your attention is stuck on your smartphone screen while someone is talking to you, it’s kind of disrespectful to your partner. When talking to someone, make sure that your partner always feels that you are paying maximum attention to his words. If you fail, your partner may be depressed. It’s normal to be. Because when you talk to someone yourself, you expect them to listen to you with full attention.

12) Pick the content for minor discussion:

Sometimes it happens that you want to build a relationship with someone. But when you start talking, you can’t figure out what to talk about. You stood in silence. Then all your attempts to establish contact will turn into a shameful situation. How can you get rid of such a situation? The solution is very small. Set aside minor content in advance to have a quick chat. Have a little knowledge of those things, so that your talk does not stop when the chat gathers. These minor content can create a big discussion. Where there will be an opportunity to share your ideas. By doing this, you will be successful in establishing contact.

13) Show empathy:

If your partner is afraid, ashamed, or hesitant to express his or her views, you can extend your hand of sympathy. This will increase his faith in himself as well as his faith in you. This way, there will be no time for you to talk. Good relations will be easily established.

The listener can easily understand what the speaker actually means by his words. As a result, the communication between you will be stronger than before.

14)Try to tell the story:

Make it a habit to tell beautiful stories beautifully. If you can give a couple of nice stories in the middle of the discussion, the discussion will get new life. The stories remove boredom between presentations. Because everyone likes good stories. However, care should be taken to ensure that the story is not irrelevant.

15) Using jokes:

Humor attracts people. So if you use the necessary jokes in your words, you can easily attract people. Also, comedy makes our relationship easier. So if you use some humorous words or hints from time to time, you can easily embrace the listener and be able to hold the audience’s attention towards you. But if the discussion is a discussion of grief or suffering, then do not use humor there again. Needless to say, the outcome will be.

Do you know what ways talking can enhance your communication skills? So why the delay? Through practice, keep increasing this essential skill a little bit from now on, with which you can make yourself more acceptable to people in the future.