The ways in which you organise, structure and present information depends on what information you have to communicate and the knowledge and experience of your audience with the subject. In an office environment you must ensure your written communication such as typed letters and memos follow the same presentation in order to give off a good impression to clients. In many offices programmes can be used to create templates so that all letters can be set out in a specific way in the same font with same formatting every time. It is important that also you structure the information to meet the needs of a specific audience, for example, if somebody has poor eyesight and trouble reading you will use larger fonts and simple formatting so they are able to understand the information you are giving to them. There are many ways to check the accuracy of your written communication. The first is checking your facts; ensure that you double check any statistics, numbers, dates, times, spellings and other facts with a reliable source as if the facts are wrong your reputation and professionalism will suffer. Another is to use a spellchecker as this may pick up any misspellings or grammatical errors in your written communication. Maybe use a style guide – this is a reference that you can use to ensure style consistency in every document you produce. The key to using one of these is to simply pick one and stick to it, using it to check everything your write every time. Finally you could also give your written work to others to check as they may find a mistake or error that you necessarily don’t pick up on. By using commonly accepted correct grammar, punctuation and spelling the audience will be able to understand the information you are providing them with. Also this helps to ensure the audience see’s your professionalism in how you present and produce your written work. Plain English is avoiding too much technical or insider language. Using plain English, especially with people who are not experts in your field, ensures they can understand your point and you will be able to get your information across. You proof read and check your written work to make certain you have said what you wanted to say. You also need to check for errors so that the audience don’t think you’re deficient. Timing is important when trying to identify work as important and urgent. It is crucial that you prioritise. Ask yourself, will you work have an effect today. Now is urgent, later is okay but it is important that the work gets done. There are different organisational procedures for the filing and saving of written communication. Typed written communication should be saved on the system where it is relevant and also printed off and filed in correct date/time, alphabetical order on the corresponding folder. Hand written communication, again should be filed in the corresponding folder in date/time order, but should also be scanned so that you can always refer to an electronic copy when necessary.
When communicating verbally it is important that information and ideas are communicated clearly. Enunciate clearly. Break up complex ideas in short sentences. Be clear. Do not digress. Make sure that the audience is following your line of reasoning by asking short questions. Avoid discombobulating by exchanging complex vocabulary with simpler words. Vary your tone of voice; do not drone. Have very clear body language. Do not wring your hands, fiddle with a pen, or otherwise distract the audience from your message. You can make contributions to discussions that help move them forward by reminding people to stay on track and not walk into different subjects that are not necessarily related to the topic of information at hand. Active listening is a communication technique that requires the listener to feed back what they hear to the speaker, this can be done by asking short questions, using body language or short utterances to show that you're following (nodding, etc.). It is important that you look at the person and don't fidget. Don't encourage the person holding a presentation to digress from their primary message. The purpose of summarising verbal communications is to make sure that one is on the same page when it comes to understanding what was communicated, and to avoid mishaps resulting from misunderstandings.
Constructive criticism and objective observations will help maintain a professional distance to one's communication skills. The objective is not to win a debate, but to get feedback on how something was done. Using feedback can help develop your communication skills. Ensure that you do not immediately defend yourself but take on board any comments or criticism that people may want to give, by listening you can take what they have said and use it to improve the next time you are communicating. Having someone to act as a more impartial sounding board after the feedback collection is finished is quite important. The sounding board will help you vet your thought process, and to help you discern between irrelevant and relevant feedback.
Before you start to communicate, try and figure out what you want to say and why. Don’t take too much time conveying information that isn’t necessary, this can make you feel as if your covering all the points but it can often confuse your audience. Take time to also think about the audience you are presenting information to and you can then plan the information you are going to use and how you are going to present it based on their needs. By planning the methods of communication you can use, you can weigh up the pro’s and cons of how to present it. For example: somebody who struggles reading and words, written communication may not be the best way of presenting it – by planning you can find the best way of getting your point across.
In my work place, communication is very important, when communicating with customers and clients I ensure I always plan my communication and the method I am going to use to get my information across. I ensure I use the correct grammar, spelling and punctuation when producing written communication and always follow the same formatting. I proof read all documents to ensure that I have made no mistakes. When communicating verbally, I analyse the situation before talking to people so that I know how they need to be dealt with and spoken to. When using electronic communication I ensure that I save all forms of this onto the system and print out where necessary. I take feedback and constructive criticism from others as I believe that by doing this you can improve your own way of working and it can have a positive impact on the way in which you communicate.