Lesson 36 Verbal Communication I

Coaching for College Students

Lesson 36 – Communication I – verbal 1

So .. how about verbal communication?

There are business communications; formal communications; informal communications; communication between friends; communication between spouses; communication between parents and children; communications between bosses and employees. 

I went to: http://www.littlethingsmatter.com/blog/2010/11/30/10-verbal-communication-skills-worth-mastering/ for some suggestions for verbal communications skills:

1)      Be friendly

2)      Think before you think

3)      Be clear

4)      Don’t talk too much

5)      Be authentic

6)      Practice humility

7)      Speak with confidence

8)      Watch your body language

9)      Be concise

10)   Listen carefully

Let’s look at #3 – be clear.  Watch use of jargon or special language.  Don’t be vague (or .. .in the casual language – “beat around the bush”) – come to the point.  While I see this more in written essay questions from students where they never really come to the point in their analysis.  English can be a tough language – some words have multiple meaning.  In a similar fashion, there are homophones – words pronounced the same but spelled differently – foul / fowl; ad / add; hour / our; hear  /here.  In written communication, the reader can see “hear” and understand the author is implying using the ears to ‘hear’ as compared to being ‘here’.  But, in verbal communication, the listener cannot see how the word is spelled.  Make the meaning clear from your complete sentence.

And #5 – be authentic.  Don’t be what you think the other person wants you to be – be yourself.  After all, who can be you better than you can?  In communication, don’t play games – say what you need to say and listen and make the communication work.

Assignment:

Read the ten suggestions above from the website – what do you need to work on?