Communication: A Comprehensive Overview for University Students, Exercises of Technical Writing

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Dr. Naeem Khan

Associate Professor

Electrical Department, UET, Bannu

Campus

Lecture 1



In academic environment , we encounter

various situations involving

 speech or writing,  conversation with friends,  professors or office staff to achieve various purposes  seminars, group discussions, written tests,  examinations  and laboratory or project report submissions on diverse topics

 The Society for Technical Communication ( https://www.stc.org/) defines technical communicators as those who “research and create information about technical processes or products directed to a targeted audience through various forms of media. Technical communicators may put the information they capture into paper documents, web pages, digitally stored text, audio, and video.

 The communication cycle involves  sending information to receiver via a channel in the communication environment.  (^) If the message received is the same as message sent, there will be a response  If there is breakdown in communication, noise exists  Noise is defined as any unplanned interference in the communication environment which causes hindrance in the transmission of the message



General purpose communication



messages that are non technical or

informal in nature



Technical or business

communication



messages pertaining to technical,

industrial, or business matters

General Communication Technical Communication Contains a general message Contains a technical message Informal in style and speech Mostly formal No set pattern of communication Follows a set pattern Mostly oral Both oral and written Not always for specific audience Always for a specific audience Does not involve the use of technical vocabulary or graphics etc. Frequently involves jargon, graphics etc.



According to the ideas put forward by

eminent linguists such as Noam

Chomsky and Ferdinand de Saussure,

language is:

 Artificial  Restricted  Abstract  Arbitrary  Creative  Repetitive  Recursive

Artificial Language  No organic construction between a symbol and its meaning  It is created by human as it is needed  For example  Word AIDS,  Word Nice: has changed over hundred of years.  Today nice is used to describe something as good in an abstract way.  Its Latin root “nescire” meant to be ignorant and in thirteen century English, it came to mean “foolish, stupid’.

 Language is arbitrary  Language keeps changing to include new concepts, and words can attach a number of specific and arbitrary meanings  OR Languages are said to be arbitrary because there is no necessary or natural relationship between the words of a given language and the concepts that they represent. For example, there is nothing in the word "tree" that connects it to the concept of a tree; which is why Spanish can use a totally different sign for the same concept: "árbol"; and so on with other languages.



Language is creative



Ability to generate so many words every

day.



(e.g., seminar/webinar, telecast/webcast,

edutainment=education+entertainment)

Human communication takes place at various

levels

(1) Extrapersonal

 Communication between human beings and non human entities. (e.g., pet dog wagging its tail)

(2) Intrapersonal Communication

 (^) This takes place within the individual.  (^) This kind of communication pertains to thinking, which is the basis of information processing.

(3) Interpersonal communication  This refers to the sharing of information among people  In this case, there are few participants involved, interactants are in close proximity to each other and feedback is immediate  It can be :  (^) formal: (e.g., interaction with sales clerk) Or  (^) informal: (e.g., casual, friendly)

 Requires a mediator to transmit information such as journals, books, television, and newspaper  This type of communication is more persuasive in nature than any other form of communication  Characteristics of this type of communication are  Large reach  Impersonality (i.e., participants unknown to each other)  Presence of gate keeper  (^) mass communication needs additional persons, institutions or organizations to convey the message from sender to receiver.

 Information flows in an organization both formally and informally  Formal communication  follows the official hierarchy  Informal communication  does not follow any formal channel  This type of communication can flow in various directions:  Downward,  Upward,  Lateral, or  Diagonal