Page 435 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

Model Question Papers | 423

In the science textbook, for example, you would use more of the passive while you may
use more of conditionals in your ‘grant’ letter. Your words in the science textbook may be
technical while your ‘grant’ letter would use more business-oriented vocabulary. It is, thus,
that the discourse defines communicative strategies at all the levels of writing. The skill of
writing is represented diagrammatically below:

Writing

Word level Sentence level Discourse level

Syntax Organization
Word choice Mechanics

Sentence structure Paragraph division
Vocabulary Handwriting Structural varieties Cohesion
tone spelling
collocations punctuation Coherence
Figure M.3

In other words, right from the most fundamental level, that is, the word, communicating
through writing involves making choices that jell, at the sentential and at the discourse level,
so as to enable us to convey ideas clearly and logically to our decoders.
Now that we know the basic elements of writing as a communication skill, let us look at the
types of writing that we use to communicate through writing. Through its tone, writing can
be sub-divided as formal and informal.
Formal writing refers to communication used in official contexts, especially when you are
addressing colleagues, rank wise higher than you in the hierarchy. Similarly, in the personal
context, your writing will be formal when you are writing to decoders distantly related to you
or decoders older than you.
Informal writing, on the contrary, is in the personal domain and is used while commu-
nicating 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 communica-
tors need. It consists of cvs, letters of application, reports, brochures, schedules, articles or
advertisements, for example.
Non-fictional writing can be further sub-divided in to five types:

i. descriptive: describes things/ places/ persons/ processes
ii. expository: explains processes/scientific subjects/professions/functioning of institutions,
industries

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