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Communication: Written English | 233

hierarchy. Similarly, in the personal context, your writing will be formal
when you are writing to decoders distantly related to you and/or decoders
older than you.
Informal writing, on the contrary, is in the personal domain and is used
while communicating with decoders you are close to or with decoders who
are your age. Rarely used in the official context, it could be used, if at all,
while communicating with colleagues you are close to.
Writing can also be sub-divided as fictional and non-fictional.
Fictional writing refers to writing of novels, short stories, and poems. Non-
fictional writing is what most communicators need. It consists for example
of CVs, letters of application, reports, brochures, schedules, articles, or
advertisements.
Non-fictional writing can be further sub-divided into five types:

i. descriptive: describes things/places/persons/processes
ii. expository: explains processes/scientific subjects/professions/func-
tioning of institutions, industries
iii. narrative: narrates (that is, describes in a sequential and causal
order) events/a series of events/natural phenomenon and disasters/
accidents/journeys/legends/biographies
iv. reflective: discusses issues/abstract ideas/provides pros and cons of a
debate.
v. imaginative: the encoder tries to identify with situations/things/peo-
ple/events which (s)he might not have experienced.

You use the descriptive type while writing reports, the expository type while
preparing workbooks introducing stem cell research to your students, the
narrative while explaining schedules to your colleagues and/or learners, the
reflective while submitting an article to a research journal, and the imagina-
tive while making your learners explore and express possibilities.

Unique Qualities of Writing As a Communication Skill

Whichever may be the type of writing you use, writing is a special com-
munication skill. Let us now understand the unique qualities of writing as a
communication skill.

i. Let us begin with the division academia generally prefers. During
your B.Ed. days, you must have learnt how to teach the four LSRW
skills. In this context you must have learnt that writing is an active skill
of communication. In other words, when we communicate through
writing we are an agent or initiator of the act of communicating. We
are not mere recipients as in reading.

Bhatnagar_Chapter 10.indd 233 2011-06-23 7:53:35 PM
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