P2 - Explain the principles of effective communication

Unit 1 - Communication & Employability Skills

P2- Explain the principles of effective communication

General skills

Cultural differences

- Effective communication would be affected by cultural differences, not just different languages but even different accents. If you are presenting an idea to a room of people from all over Britain  the audience can range in accents from a programmer from Manchester to a graphic artist from Ireland and one from Liverpool there could even be managers from Newcastle and Scotland.

Adapting your content to suit the audience

- With such a broad range dialects you need to make sure that you can communicate to them all,. this would be improved by adapting your content to suit the audience. By doing this you can make sure that you don't offend anyone and that you can carry your message across and reach all audiences.

Accuracy

- Accuracy can also help communicate with an audience, if you can get what you want across to the audience accurately then you will be able to keep everyone entertained and keep their attention span with you but you will able to make sure your message is understood.

Interpersonal skills

Barriers

- When you are communicating to an audience there are certain barriers that could affect your effectiveness of the how you are communicating these are barriers like the audience looking at their PC's and not at you or if there is a car outside or if there is air conditioning on this could cause misunderstanding in the audience.

Types of questions

-Another way of keeping attention with the audience is using questioning techniques to make sure that they understood fully what you are trying to get across.

Techniques and cues

- There are different methods or skills you can use when communication with an audience like hand gestures and body language. These can help with cultural differences and keeping attention.
Along with questioning you could also change your body language and tone to suit the positive or negative vibe of what you are trying to portray. So if we are telling someone that there is a barrier of them not paying attention we could show this by may be speaking louder and more to the point where as if we are telling someone their work is good you can use a friendlier tone of voice.

Written communication skills

Spelling and grammar

- When you are trying to write a piece of work or trying to send a letter you have to make sure you use the correct spelling, punctuation and grammar. Keeping these in mind can ensure your work looks professional and saves embarrassing re-submissions or e-mails saying you have written something wrong.

‘Smileys’ or Emoticons

- Also knowing when to use 'slang' language or emotions in writing is vital, slang can sound better or be easier to type out but dependent on who you are talking to it can be inappropriate. If you are sending a request to your boss to ask for a raise you would not want to use slang like calling him mate or even worse 'M8' this would look extremely unprofessional and would not help the cause.

Proofreading

- Tied in with this is proofreading, when you have to send something off weather it is an E-mail or a document you should always proofread it as sometimes you can just type what you are thinking or what you would usually say where as this may not make sense on paper. Also you may have covered a point more than once and need to remove some text.