Page 246 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

Project Name: Manual for Soft Skills
\\mtpdy01\Womat\Indesign\Bhatnagar-Manual for Soft skills\06-Pagination\06-A-Finals\06-AA-Appl\Bhatnagar_Chapter 10.indd

234 | Chapter 10 ACE Pro India Pvt. Ltd.

ii. Reading, the passive counterpart of writing has, nevertheless, a unique
role to play in refining an encoder’s written message. For effective
communication through writing, the encoder has to be an efficient
reader. Such reading skills as previewing, skimming and scanning,
and effectively using a library help a reader. In the final analysis, the
encoder, who reads more, communicates better through writing. You
would agree that the more you read the better is your written com-
munication in your capacity as a teacher and as an administrator.
iii. Now let us look at the communication chain to understand yet another
unique quality of writing. Communication, as you have already learnt
in your earlier chapters, is a process wherein an encoder sends a
message to a decoder. The encoder uses a medium via which he con-
veys message. Writing is unusual as a communication skill because
it uses many different means to communicate this message. In addi-
tion to language an author can use visuals and graphics–diagrams,
charts, graphs, and tables—to communicate well. Secondary means
such as these enhance the communicative possibilities of writing.
We have to remember though that these effects are often not integral
to the conveying of the message. Language is primarily responsible in
conveying the meaning of the written communication. The content
of your message and the style you use are much more important than
such visual designing which is often accused of diverting the decoder’s
attention—a fact we should keep in mind when we communicate as
academics. It should not make us forget that of all the communication
skills writing alone enjoys such a simultaneous multiplicity of media.
iv. As a communication skill writing is unusual in yet another way.
When an encoder communicates through writing, we must remember
that his decoder is not physically present. Yet any form of writing
is clearly decoder-oriented. A reader determines the way a writer
writes. When you are writing a textbook for the pre-primary kids,
your content and style would radically differ from the way you
would write while preparing a handbook for management trainees.
The way you would write a memo to your junior colleagues would
differ from the official correspondence you share with the HRD
Ministry. In all these instances, the absent decoder determines the
contours of your communication. Your textbook for the nursery
kids, for example, would be heavy on visual effects while your hand-
book for the management trainees would be rich in ideas and more
formal in tone.

v. Interestingly, moreover, as a communication skill, writing mixes the
private and the public domains uniquely. As a communication event

Bhatnagar_Chapter 10.indd 234 2011-06-23 7:53:36 PM
Modified Date: Thu, Jun 23, 2011 06:50:37 PM Output Date: Thu, Jun 23, 2011 07:53:35 PM
TEMPLATE Page Number: PB