Business Communication I Objective: By the end of this trimester students will be able to Understand the nuances of Business communication

and its emerging trends Put into use effective communication strategies in their interactions Enhancing multi industry perspective An introduction to Business Communication MODULE 1 - Business Communication Framework Purposes of Business communication, The communication process Communicating within the organizations Levels of Communication - intrapersonal communication, interpersonal communication, group communication, organizational communication, public communication, Communication flow in organizations External influences on Business communication legal and ethical constraints, diversity challenges, communication differences in work team MODULE 2 - Using technology for communication Appropriate use of Technology Electronic Mail Communication Web Page Communication Voice and Wireless Communication - Voice Mail Communication, Wireless communication and the future, Cell Phone Communication, Conducting Teleconference, Video conferencing Communication in Context MODULE 3 - Business Presentations Planning an effective presentation, Developing the Presentation content, Using Appropriate Visuals, Building Rapport, Managing Anxiety, Rehearsing a Presentation, Delivering a Presentation, Managing Questions and Answers MODULE 4 - Project / Seminar Management Planning & Organizing - Topic selection, Resource / Expert selection, Scheduling time, venue, etc. Oral Communication - Taking appointments, Discussing subject / topic, Fund raising and Sponsorship persuasion, Written Communication - Preparing letters, invitations and promotional material

Follow up and Good will messages Text Book BCOM, Lehman, Dufrene and Sinha, Cengage Lerning Reference Books: Krizan, Merrier, Logan and Williams, Effective Business Communication, Cengage Learning Professional Communication, Aruna Koneru, TMH Hynes, Managerial Communication Strategies and Applications, 4th ed, Mc Graw Hill Lesiker, Petit Basic Business Communication, TMH Bovee et al , Business Communication Today, Pearson Chaturvedi & Chaturvedi,Business Communication Concepts, Cases and Applications, Pearson Locker, Kaczmarek, Business Communication Building Critical Skills, TMH Taylor, Chandra, Communication for Business, 4th Ed, Pearson Sehgal M K, Khetrapal V, Business Communication, Excel Books Mohan, Banerji, Developing Communication Skills, 2nd Ed, Macmillan Ramachandran et al, Business Communication, Macmillan Rajesh Viswanathan, Business Communication, Himalaya Publishing House Raman Singh, Business Communication, Oxford Madhukar R K, Business Communication, 2nd Ed, Vikas

Phonetics_improvement(From Sillla Sir) Sounds of English Phonetics Introducing Letters and Sounds In writing, words are made of letters. In speech, words are made of sounds. Letters are not always the same as sounds. e.g., key [ki:] car [ka:] The following word pairs have the same pronunciation but different spelling. buy bye sun son

weak week too two Introducing Letters and Sounds There are two kinds of sound: Consonant sounds [C] and Vowel sounds [V] In duck there are three sounds: duck

weigh write

way right

/d k/ CVC

Writers often play with the sounds in words. Repeat the first sound, e.g., Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny Repeat the final sound/s, e.g., Dennis the Menace Places of Articulation Pronunciation - Production of Sound Speech sounds are classified into: Vowels Pure Vowels Diphthongs Closing diphthongs Centering diphthongs Consonants Further classified basing on: Place of articulation Manner of articulation. VOWELS & DIPHTHONGS Vowels Pure Vowels Diphthongs Diphthongs in whose production the tongue glides from one point of articulation to another. They are eight in number divided into two categories Closing Diphthongs and Centering Diphthongs. Long Vowels Vs Short Vowels Diphthongs Consonants Consonants are produced by an audible friction or a modification at some place in the mouth. Consonants Consonants are classified on the basis of : the place of articulation; and the manner of articulation. The place of Articulation Bilabial: articulated by the two lips. [ p b m w ] Labio-dental: articulated by the lower lip against the upper teeth. [ f v ]

Dental: articulated by the tip of the tongue and the back of the upper teeth. [ ] Alveolar: articulated by the tip or the blade of the tongue against the teeth-ridge. [ t d s nl] The place of Articulation Palato-alveolar: articulated by raising the main body of the tongue and touching the teeth ridge with the blade of the tongue. [ r ] Palatal: articulated by the front of the tongue against the hard palate. [ ch dz sh ] Velar: articulated by the \back of the tongue against the soft palate. [ k g ] Glottal: articulated in the glottis. [ h ] The Manner of Articulation Plosive / Stop: there is a complete closure at some point in the mouth or at the lips. The flow of air stream is stopped and released suddenly, making an explosive sound. [ p b t d kg ] Affricate: the flow of air is stopped as in a plosive but the speech organs are separated slowly. [ ch dz ] Fricative: the air passage is narrowed at some place in the mouth so that the air, cause audible friction. [ f v sh h] Nasal: there is a complete closure at some point in the mouth and the air is released through the nose. [m n ] The Manner of Articulation Lateral: there is a partial closure of the mouth with the air escaping through the sides of the tongue. [ l ] Semi-vowel: it is a voiced gliding sound produced like a vowel, i.e., there is no obstruction or friction in the mouth. It has, however, the functional status of a consonant and occurs in consonant positions in syllables. [ w j ] Frictionless Continuant: it is produced by bringing the speech organs in contact as in the production of a fricative consonant but it is very weakly breathed so that there is no audible friction. [ r ] Consonants STRESS & INTONATION Understanding Syllables To understand word stress, it helps to understand syllables. Every word is made from syllables. Each word has one, two, three or more syllables. Prominence: It would have been logically possible for every syllable to have exactly the same loudness, pitch, and so on. (Some early attempts at speech synthesizers sounded like this.) But human languages have ways to make some syllables more prominent than others. A syllable might be more prominent by differing from the surrounding syllables in terms of: loudness pitch length

Prominence is relative to the surrounding syllables, not absolute. (A stressed syllable that is nearly whispered will be quieter than an unstressed syllable that is shouted.) The realization of stress in English In English, the three ways to make a syllable more prominent are; to make it: louder longer higher pitched (usually) In many languages, changing which syllable is stressed can change the meaning of a word. STRESS In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. Rules of Word Stress in English There are two very simple rules about word stress: One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.) We can only stress vowels, not consonants. Where do I put a word stress? These rules are rather complicated! Probably the best way to learn where to put a word stress is from experience. Listen carefully to spoken English and try to develop a feeling for the "music" of the language. When you learn a new word, you should also learn its stress pattern. If you keep a vocabulary book, make a note to show which syllable is stressed. If you do not know, you can look in a dictionary. All dictionaries give the phonetic spelling of a word. This is where they show which syllable is stressed, usually with an apostrophe (') just before or just after the stressed syllable. (The notes at the front of the dictionary will explain the system used.) Word Stress If a word ends in -tion, the syllable preceding it is stressed. Examples: Exami`nation Pro`duction Fortifi`cation Sani`tation Word Stress If a verb ends in -fy, -ate, -ize, -ise or -yse, the main stress is on the third syllable counted from the end. Examples `Magnify `Mediate `Minimise `Analyse Word Stress

If a word ends in logy, the main stress is on the syllable immediately before this. Examples Psy`chology Pa`thology Gem`mology Word Stress If an adjective ends in ic, the main stress is normally on the second syllable counted from the end. Example Eco`nomic Em`pathic `Psychic Word Stress If an adjective ends in ical, the main stress is normally on the third syllable counted from the end. Example His`torical Geo`graphical Bo`tanical Word Stress If an adverb ends in ically, the main stress is normally on the fourth syllable counted from the end. Example Em`phatically Eco`nomically `Physically Word Stress If a word ends in ity, the main stress falls on the third syllable counted from the end, and on the second syllable counted from the end if there are only two syllables. Example For`mality Ca`pacity `Gravity Responsi`bility `pity `city Word Stress If a word ends in ee, or eer, the main stress is normally on the last syllable. Example Pa`yee Devo`tees Nomi`nee Engi`neer Pio`neer Word Stress If a word ends in ette, the main stress falls on the last syllable.

Example Ciga`rette Ga`zette Word Stress If words with weak prefixes, the root is stressed. Example A`head A`lone A`part Be`low Com`pose De`velop Re`duce Word Stress The inflectional suffixes -ed, -es, and -ing, do not affect the stress pattern. Example re`late related sub`mit sub`mitted com`pose com`poses `focus `focusses be`gin be`ginning ad`vance ad`vancing Word Stress The derivational suffixes age, -ance, -er, -en, -ess, -ful, -hood, -ice, -ish, -ive, -less, -ly, -ment, -ness, -or, -ship, -ter, -ure, and zen do not normally change the stress pattern. Example `marry `marriage per`form per`formance `bright `brighten a`chieve a`chievement `yellow `yellowish Con`clude con`clusive `leader `leadership Word Stress In words ending in ian or ious the syllable preceding the suffix is stressed. Example Mu`sician Poli`tician In`jurious La`borious Word Stress In compound words ending in ever or self, the second element is stressed. Example how`ever when`ever him`self

my`self Word Stress Quiz Can you pass me a plas/tic knife? I want to take a pho/to/gra/phy class. Chi/na is the place where I was born. Please turn off the tel/e/vi/sion before you go out. I can't de/cide which book to borrow. Do you un/der/stand this lesson? Sparky is a very hap/py puppy. It is cri/ti/cal that you finish your essay. TYPES OF STRESS: The ways stress manifests itself in the speech stream are highly language dependent. In some languages, stressed syllables have a higher or lower pitch than non-stressed syllables so-called pitch accent (or musical accent). In other languages, they may bear either higher or lower pitch than surrounding syllables (a pitch excursion), depending on the sentence type. There are also dynamic accent (loudness), qualitative accent (full vowels) and quantitative accent (length). Stress may be characterized by more than one of these characteristics. Further, stress may be realized to varying degrees on different words in a sentence; sometimes the difference between the acoustic signals of stressed and unstressed syllables may be minimal. In English, stress is most dramatically realized on focussed or accented words. For instance, consider the dialogue "Is it brunch tomorrow?" "No, it's dinner tomorrow." In it, the stress-related acoustic differences between the syllables of "tomorrow" would be small compared to the differences between the syllables of "dinner", the emphasized word. In these emphasized words, stressed syllables such as "din" in "dinner" are louder and longer. They may also have a different fundamental frequency, or other properties. Unstressed syllables typically have a vowel which is closer to a neutral position, while stressed vowels are more fully realized. Stressed syllables are often perceived as being more forceful than non-stressed syllables. Research has shown, however, that although dynamic stress is accompanied by greater respiratory force, it does not mean a more forceful articulation in the vocal tract. Emphatic Stress One reason to move the tonic stress from its utterance final position is to assign an emphasis to a content word, which is usually a modal auxiliary, an intensifier, an adverb, etc. Compare the following examples. The first two examples are adapted from. Roach (1983:144). i. It was very BOring. (unmarked) ii. It was VEry boring. ` (emphatic) i. You mustn't talk so LOUDly. (unmarked) ii. You MUSTN'T talk so loudly. (emphatic) Some intensifying adverbs and modifiers (or their derivatives) that are emphatic by nature are

Indeed, utterly, absolute, terrific, tremendous, awfully, terribly, great, grand, really, definitely, truly, literally, extremely, surely, completely, barely, entirely, very (adverb), very (adjective), quite, too, enough, pretty, far, especially, alone, only, own, -self. Contrastive Stress In contrastive contexts, the stress pattern is quite different from the emphatic and nonemphatic stresses in that any lexical item in an utterance can receive the tonic stress provided that the contrastively stressed item can be contrastable in that universe of speech. No distinction exists between content and function words regarding this. The contrasted item receives the tonic stress provided that it is contrastive with some lexical element (notion.) in the stimulus utterance. Syllables that are normally stressed in the utterance almost always get the same treatment they do in non-emphatic contexts.) Examples Consider the following examples: Do you like this one or THAT one? I like THIS one. Many other larger contrastive contexts (dialogues) can be found or worked out, or even selected from literary works for a study of contrastive stress. Consider the following: She played the piano yesterday. (It was her who...) She played the piano yesterday. (She only played (not. harmed) ...) She played the piano yesterday. (It was the piano that...) She played the piano yesterday. (It was yesterday.. Tonic Stress An intonation unit almost always has one peak of stress, which is called 'tonic stress', or 'nucleus'. Because stress applies to syllables, the syllable that receives the tonic stress is called 'tonic syllable'. The term tonic stress is usually preferred to refer to this kind of stress in referring, proclaiming, and reporting utterances. Tonic stress is almost always found in a content word in utterance final position. Consider the following, in which the tonic syllable is underlined: I'm going. I'm going to London. I'm going to London for a holiday. A question does arise as to what happens to the previously tonic assigned syllables. They still get stressed, however, not as much as the tonic syllable, producing a three level stress for utterances. Then, the following is arrived at., where the tonic syllable is further capitalized: I'm going to London for HOliday. New Information Stress In a response given to a wh-question, the information supplied, naturally enough, is stressed. That is, it is pronounced with more breath force, since it is more prominent against a background given information in the question. The concept of new information is much clearer to students of English in responses to wh-questions than in declarative statements. Therefore, it is best to start with teaching the stressing of the new information supplied to questions with a question word: a) What's your NAME b) My name's GEORGE.

a) Where are you FROM? b) I'm from WALES. a) Where do you LIVE b) I live in BONN a) When does the school term END b) It ends in MAY. a) What do you DO b) I'm a STUdent. The questions given above could also be answered in short form except for the last one, in which case the answers are: George, Wales, in Bonn in May TIMING: English is a stress-timed language; that is, stressed syllables appear at a roughly constant rate, and non-stressed syllables are shortened to accommodate this. English does this to some extent with noun-verb pairs such as a rcord vs. to recrd, where the verb is stressed on the last syllable and the related noun is stressed on the first; record also hyphenates differently: a rc-ord vs. to re-crd. DEGRESS OF STRESS: It is the stronger degree of stress. Primary stress gives the final stressed syllable. Primary stress is very important in compound words. Two Word Stress Knowing when and where to stress the words you use is very important for understanding, and therefore, as part of a good accent. A clear example is that of stress in two word expressions. According to whether it is an ordinary two-word expression or a special, set expression, the place of the stress changes. In an ordinary expression the two words are used to describe something like a "white HOUSE" (meaning a house that is painted white, and not blue or gray). In this case the most important note is the noun because we are talking about a house that happens to be white. Similarly, a "fat BOY" is an overweight young male. But sometimes short two word expressions are set or "consecrated", (that is, they mean something special) and have to be made different from similar expressions. One example is "the WHITE house" where Mr. Bush lives. In this case, the emphasis is on the adjective because we are more interested in stressing that it is the house that is known because it is white. In the same way, "FAT boy" is the nickname of a boy, chosen because the word fat emphasizes his weight. It will be useful for you to be aware of both types of two word expressions. Here is a list

of a few that will get you thinking and give you some practice in identifying them and using them correctly. Underline the syllable that is stressed, and write a brief explanation, for both uses of each phrase. I start the exercise with two examples. You do the rest. Make sure you say the phrases OUT LOUD! white HOUSE House painted white LIGHT bulb Shines with electricity Light BULB A bulb that is not heavy NOTATION: Different systems exist for indicating syllabification and stress. In IPA, primary stress is indicated by a high vertical line before the syllable, secondary stress by a low vertical line. Example: [slbfken] or /slbfken/. In English dictionaries which do not use IPA, stress is typically marked with a prime mark placed after the stressed syllable: /si-lab--fi-kay-shn/. In ad hoc pronunciation guides, stress is often indicated using a combination of bold text and capital letters. Example: si-lab-if-i-KAY-shun or si-LAB-if-i-KAY-shun INTONATION: In linguistics, intonation is the variation of pitch when speaking. Intonation and stress are two main elements of linguistic prosody. Intonation is the "music" of a language, and is perhaps the most important element of a good accent. Often we hear someone speaking with perfect grammar, and perfect formation of the sounds of English but with a little something that gives them away as not being a native speaker. Intonation the rise and fall of pitch in our voices plays a crucial role in how we express meaning. Understanding Syllables To understand word stress, it helps to understand syllables. Every word is made from syllables. Each word has one, two, three or more syllables. Prominence: It would have been logically possible for every syllable to have exactly the same loudness, pitch, and so on. (Some early attempts at speech synthesizers sounded like this.) But human languages have ways to make some syllables more prominent than others. A syllable might be more prominent by differing from the surrounding syllables in terms of: loudness pitch length Prominence is relative to the surrounding syllables, not absolute. (A stressed syllable that is nearly whispered will be quieter than an unstressed syllable that is shouted.) The realization of stress in English

In English, the three ways to make a syllable more prominent are; to make it: louder longer higher pitched (usually) In many languages, changing which syllable is stressed can change the meaning of a word. Intonation contours in English Not all rises and falls in pitch that occur in the course of an English phrase can be attributed to stress. The same set of segments and word stresses can occur with a number of pitch patterns. Consider the difference between: You're going. (statement) You're going? (question) The rise and fall of pitch throughout is called its intonation contour. English has a number of intonation patterns which add conventionalized meanings to the utterance: question, statement, surprise, disbelief, sarcasm, teasing. An important feature of English intonation is the use of an intonational accent (and extra stress) to mark the focus of a sentence. Normally this focus accent goes on the last major word of the sentence, but it can come earlier in order to emphasize one of the earlier words or to contrast it with something else. For example, consider the statement Nancy bought a new house on Thursday. The figures shows different Intonation counters for this statement with stress on each word present in it. Tone A unit of speech bounded by pauses has movement, of music and rhythm, associated with the pitch of voice. This certain pattern of voice movement is called 'tone'. A tone is a certain pattern, not an arbitrary one, because it is meaningful in discourse. By means of tones, speakers signal whether to refer, proclaim, agree, disagree, question or hesitate, or indicate completion and continuation of turn-taking, in speech. Types fall low-rise high-rise fall-rise Fall (A Falling Tone) A falling tone is by far the most common used tone of all. It signals a sense of finality, completion, belief in the content of the utterance, and so on. A speaker, by choosing a falling tone, also indicates to the addressee that that is all he has to say, and offers a chance (turn-taking) to the addressee to comment on, agree or disagree with, or add to his utterance. Example Consequences of his unacceptable behavior. I'll report you to the HEADmaster A falling tone may be used in referring expressions as well. I've spoken with the CLEAner. Questions that begin with wh-questions are generally pronounced with a falling tone:

Where is the PENcil? Imperative statements have a falling tone. Go and see a DOCtor. Requests or orders have a falling tone too. Please sit DOWN Exclamations: Watch OUT! Yes/No questions and tag questions seeking or expecting confirmation You like it, DON'T you? YEES. Here it is used when it is sure that the answer is yes. Have you MET him? YES. Low Rise (A Rising Tone) This tone is used in genuine 'Yes/No' questions where the speaker is sure that he does not know the answer, and that the addressee knows the answer. Such Yes/No questions are uttered with a rising tone. For instance, consider the following question uttered with a rising tone, the answer of which could be either of the three options: A) Isn't he NICE B) i) Yes. ii) No. iii) I don't know. Compare the above example with the following example, which is uttered with a falling tone, and which can only have one appropriate answer in the context: a) Isn't he NICE b) YES. Other examples which are uttered with a rising tone are: Do you want some COFfee? Do you take CREAM in your coffee? High Rise (A Rising Tone) If the tonic stress is uttered with extra pitch height, as in the following intonation units, we may think that the speaker is asking for a repetition or clarification, or indicating disbelief. Examples a) I'm taking up TAxidermy this autumn. b) Taking up WHAT? (clarification) a) She passed her DRIving test. b) She PASSED? (disbelief) Fall Rise Fall-rise signals dependency, continuity, and non-finality. It generally occurs in sentence non-final intonation units. Consider the following in which the former of the intonation units are uttered with a fall-rise tone (the slash indicates a pause): Examples

Private enterPRISE / is always EFficient. A quick tour of the CIty / would be NICE. PreSUmably / he thinks he CAN. Usually / he comes on SUNday. Cross-linguistic differences People have a tendency to think of intonation as being directly linked to the speaker's emotions. In fact, the meaning of intonation contours is as conventionalized as any other aspect of language. Different languages can use different conventions, giving rise to the potential for cross-cultural misunderstandings. Two examples of crosslinguistic differences in intonation patterns: Contrastive emphasis Many languages mark contrastive emphasis like English, using an intonational accent and additional stress. Many other languages use only syntactic devices for contrastive emphasis, for example, moving the emphasized phrase to the beginning of the sentence. Instead of I want a car for my birthday. (as opposed to a bike) you would have to say something like: A car I want for my birthday. It's a car that I want for my birthday. Listeners who speak the second type of language will not necessarily interpret extra pitch and volume as marking emphasis. Listeners who don't speak the second type of language will not necessarily interpret a different word order as marking emphasis (as opposed to assuming that the speaker doesn't know basic grammar). Questions Questions The normal intonation contours for questions in English use: final rising pitch for a Yes/No question Are you coming today? final falling pitch for a Wh-question When are you coming? Where are you going? Using a different pattern typically adds something extra to the question. E.g., falling intonation on a Yes/No question can be interpreted as abruptness. Rising intonation on a Wh-question can imply surprise or that you didn't hear the answer the first time and are asking to have it repeated.