Unit 4
Effective Listening
Nature
The process of listening is receiving a language through the ears. It involves the identificationof the sounds of speech and processing them into words and sentences. Listening is the ability to precisely receive and interpret messages in the communication process.
Listening is one of the most important factors to all effective communication. Without effective listening ability, messages may be easily misunderstood. Therefore, as a result, sometimes communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated.
While listening, we use our ears to receive individual sounds (letters, stress, rhythm and pauses) and our brain converts these into messages that mean something to us.
Listening, like any other communication skill such as reading, writing or speaking requires focus and attention. It is a skill that some people need to work at harder than others. People who have difficulty concentrating are typically poor listeners. Listening in a second language requires even greater focus.
Types of Listening
The nature of listening can be understood by the various kinds of listening. Here are descriptions of the main types of listening and the processes involved in it:
- Discriminative listening:
Discriminative listening is the first form of listening humans develops as babies. This type of listening does not focus on words but rather the tone of voice and other subtleties of sound to understand meaning and intention. Babies don’t understand words, but they rely on their discriminative listening to understand who is speaking and what mood is being communicated. As an adult, you may find yourself relying on discriminative listening when people around you are speaking a foreign language that you don’t understand. Though you may lack the language skills to understand the words being spoken, you can rely on the tone of voice and inflection to derive a vague meaning. When you can only rely on discriminative listening, you may turn to visual stimuli. The mannerisms, facial expressions, and body language of a speaker help clue you in to the speaker’s message.
2. Comprehensive listening:
Comprehensive listening is the next level of critical listening skills that humans usually develop in early childhood. Comprehensive listening requires language skills and a grasp of basic vocabulary to understand what is being communicated through by the speaker. Comprehensive listening covers most other forms of listening that critical listeners utilize. Through the course of their day-to-day lives, people use comprehensive listening paired with verbal cues to understand what messages are being communicated to them.
3. Informational listening:
Informational listening (or informative listening) is the type of listening practices during the process of learning. Informational listening builds upon basic comprehensive listening and requires a high level of concentration and engagement to understand new concepts and comprehend technical jargon. Informational listening has less to do with the emotional content of what is being communicated and more to do with critical thinking and following a logical sequence as it is communicated. When you try to learn important skills that are being taught to you, it’s vital that you pay attention and use informational listening skills.
4. Critical listening:
Critical listening is the style of listening people use when they are trying to analyse and judge complex information that is being communicated to them. You might use critical listening if you’re problem-solving on the job and trying to decide if you agree with a proposal being floated by one of your co-workers. The word “critical” has multiple meanings, but in this case it simply means that you are evaluating information—not necessarily passing judgment.
5. Biased listening:
Biased listening (or selective listening) is a type of selective listening where the listener only tries to understand what they want to hear. Biased listening is different from critical listening because the listener is not actually listening to the speaker's opinions but instead trying to confirm their own opinions. People generally do not realize that they are using a biased listening process. Biased listening can lead to a falsification of facts in the mind of a listener who is not in harmony with to what a speaker intends to communicate.
6. Sympathetic listening:
Sympathetic listening is an emotionally-driven type of relationship listening, wherein a listener processes the feelings and emotions of a speaker and tries to provide support and understanding in return. You might use sympathetic listening when a child tells you about trouble they had at school. In this case sympathetic listening is used to make the child feel heard and provide them with comfort and support. Sympathetic is useful in trying to establish a deep connection with another person, especially when that person is experiencing adversity.
7. Therapeutic and empathetic listening:
Therapeutic or empathetic listening is a listening process wherein a listener tries to understand the point of view of a speaker and imagines themselves directly in the speaker’s position. Empathetic listening (sometimes referred to as empathic listening) goes a step further than sympathetic listening in that an empathic listener will relate to the speaker’s experience as if it were their own.
Characteristics of Effective Listening
From communicating with business partners to understanding market trends, good listening skills can give you a competitive advantage. The ability to understand the needs and requests of others can be easier when you practice active listening.
The most skilled listeners offer their complete attention, carefully process what they hear and respond empathetically. They also tend to be open-minded as they listen. As you develop your listening skills, you’ll find that you can participate more fully in conversations and offer more effective feedback.
Below are the main characteristics of effective listening:
1. Maintaining Eye Contact
When you are listening to someone talk, you should avoid looking out a window, texting or scrolling through your phone, or scanning a computer screen. Limit any unnecessary distractions, provide the speaker with your undivided attention and make an effort to look at them. This provides them with a nonverbal cue that you are interested in what they are saying, which encourages them to continue expressing themselves.
Consider that the speaker may not look at you because they might be shy, feel uncertain, or their culture may not use direct eye contact for communication. You should continue to face the speaker even if they do not look at you.
2. Visualizing
Try to conjure up mental images of what the speaker is talking about while you are listening to help retain information. This may be a literal picture or other concepts that relate to the topic. This will help you to remember keywords and phrases when you listen for long periods. Visualizing what the speaker is saying will also help you to not have to prepare for what to say next.
If you happen to lose focus, make sure to immediately refocus.
3. Limiting judgments
Listen without criticizing the speaker in your mind while they talk. Even if the message causes you agitation or alarm, try to avoid thinking about negative or judgmental comments because this compromises your ability to listen. You also want to listen with an open mind and understand that the person is giving you their perspective. You may realize that they make more sense as they continue to talk to you, and you won't know the full story without listening.
4. Eliminating distractions
If possible, remove any distractions from the area. If you’re at your desk, put paperwork away and close notebooks. Dim the screen on your computer or laptop to prevent yourself from staring at the screen or becoming distracted by incoming emails. Turn down the sound so you won’t hear alerts during your conversation.
Phones can be one of the biggest causes of distraction. To make sure you can maintain full focus, keep your phone on silent and put it in an area where you can’t see it or reach it easily.
If you’re attending a scheduled meeting, make sure you find a quiet room or space. Close the door to limit noise and external distractions. Try to make the area as comfortable as possible to enable focused listening.
5. Building a strong rapport
To encourage your conversation partner to share as much as possible, make the other person as comfortable as possible. In addition to removing distractions and focusing your attention on the other person, try subtly mirroring your conversation partner’s movements. Adopt a similar posture and use comparable body language as you listen. Reflect their facial expressions to indicate that you understand what they’re saying.
Rather than making your gestures and body language too similar to your conversation partner, make sure they reflect the other person’s mood. You’ll build a rapport with your conversation partner and establish trust, both of which are essential for being a good listener. You’ll also respond with empathy, which can open up lines of communication and help the conversation flow more naturally.
6. Non-Interruption
Everyone speaks and processes information at different rates. If someone is delivering their message slowly, try to cultivate patience and wait for them to finish before trying to rush them along by guessing the next thing they are going to say or replying before they have finished talking. Interrupting sends the wrong message to the speaker. It may suggest that what you have to say is more important, that you don't care about what they are saying or that the conversation is a competition.
It is also important to refrain from offering solutions. Most often people just want you to listen. However, if you have a brilliant idea, you may consider asking if you can share your ideas before you offer your solution.
7. Waiting for Pauses
You may not understand everything someone says to you. It is best to wait until they pause to ask them to back up and provide clarification for the topic or phrase you misunderstood.
8. Asking Questions
Asking clarifying questions helps to keep the conversation on topic. You only want to ask questions that pertain to your understanding rather than ask a question about something that is not related to the main idea the speaker is trying to get across. When you ask clarifying questions without interrupting, it shows that you are listening, paying attention and willing to discuss things further.
9. Empathizing
Empathy is essential to effective listening. You should mirror the emotions the speaker has. For instance, if their face conveys sadness or joy then your facial expressions and words should also convey similar emotions. Empathizing with the speaker takes concentration and expends energy, but it allows for open communication and establishes relationships.
10. Non-Verbal Ques
Most of the communication that takes place between individuals is nonverbal. You can learn a great deal about someone through their body language and tone of voice when they are communicating with you. It is easy to detect boredom, enthusiasm or irritation on someone's face when they talk depending on their eyes, mouth and position of their shoulders. Therefore, listening also includes paying attention to nonverbal cues. It helps you to make inferences based on what a person actually means when they are talking to you.
11. Providing Feedback
Feedback can be verbal and nonverbal. You can use verbal feedback by saying things like, "I understand," "that must be difficult," or "okay." You can use nonverbal cues such as nodding your head and using appropriate facial expressions.
The goal is to send signals to the speaker so they know that you are actively listening. In a situation where someone is giving you tasks, make sure to repeat the task list back to the speaker so they know you understand what you are supposed to do. Writing down what they say also shows attentiveness.
12. Practicing
You can practice listening by being aware of what you do when someone is talking to you. Do this by writing down what you heard, understood and acknowledged after an in-person interaction with someone, or listen to audiobooks or podcasts without any text in front of you. Try listening to no more than four-minute clips and replay them to see how much information you are able to retain. This will help you to become more aware of your role as a receiver of information and it can enhance your overall communication skills.
Purpose
It is often contested that speaking as a skill is more important than listening which is a common misconception. Listening is as important a skill as speaking if not more, as it is only by listening one can learn proper pronunciation and intonation of words which allows him to speak fluently.
Oral language skills including listening comprehension also are important for writing development. Although oral language skills aren't explicitly laid out in the developmental models of writing, they are essential component skills as writing requires generation of ideas, which then need to be translated into oral language.
Below are some areas where listening skills can prove to be extremely important:
Academic Purpose
When one focuses on the material presented in a classroom, they will be able to identify not only the words used in a lecture but their emphasis and their more complex meanings. They will take better notes, and will more accurately remember the instructor’s claims, information, and conclusions. Many times, instructors provide oral cues about what is likely to appear in an examination, specific expectations for assignments and instructions on specific study material, hence active listening can be extremely beneficial.
Social Purpose
In a social setting, if a person genuinely listens to other people, they are often considered to be a good friend. Most people prefer "good listeners" over people who won't stop giving advice without even listening to a word the speaker is saying. Many people just wait for their turn to speak instead of trying to understand what someone is saying to them. Therefore, listening skills also help with one's social relationships.
Perceptual Purpose
A person who has the ability to listen properly is often considered an intelligent person. It is essential to let someone finish their thoughts before giving voice to one's own opinions. Listening silently while someone is speaking gives them a sign that they are being heard. This creates an image of a smart individual in the mind of the speaker.
Important for Public Speaking
When one listen's well to others without interrupting, they begin gathering up on more impressive ways to organize and present arguments. Which helps one understand how people think and what are the factors that influence them. While speaking publicly this can be helpful as one can assume how people will react to a certain argument. This also helps in connecting with people in general and potentially influencing them.
Significance
Listening skills are an essential part of good communication. When you are an attentive listener, you can begin to improve relationships, make decisions more effectively and reach agreements with others quickly. Here are some additional reasons why listening skills are important:
- Demonstrates your ability to pay attention to thoughts, behaviors and feelings of an individual
- Increases your power to influence, serve, motivate or develop people effectively
- Enables an organization to operate efficiently with the information they are given that may cause them to adapt to market trends or consumer needs
- Enhances basic human interaction
- Builds personal and professional relationships
Whether you’re seeking a new job opportunity, striving to earn a promotion or working to improve in your current role, improving your active listening skills will help you succeed. Much like critical thinking and conflict resolution, this soft skill will help increase your value as an employee.
Active listening in the workplace is important because it's a way to show your co-workers that you value what they have to say. During meetings or brainstorming sessions, active listening can help you fully absorb what others are sharing and think of meaningful ways to add to the conversation. When you show others that you are listening to them, they feel like you respect them. This is an important part of establishing open communication and camaraderie in the workplace.
Listening skills are also important to many business roles such as:
- Sales
- Negotiation
- Coaching
- Mentoring
- Interviewing
- Marketing research
- Facilitation
- Managing
There are two ways in which a person can listen to something being said to them – active and passive. Passive listening is listening without giving the speaker your full attention. Passive listening is like not listening at all therefore one must always give the speaker their full attention and practice active listening in order to fully grasp the meaning of what the speaker wants to say.
Below are some ways in which one can develop their listening skills:
- Listening to Podcasts and Audio Books
One can start listening to podcasts or audio books with comprehensible difficulty level, meaning the ones which one can already understand 60-80%. This is necessary as listening to material far above one’s skill level will only leave them dazed and confused.
2. Listening to the Appropriate Material
Listening to what one enjoys is also important. It would build up motivation to continue exercising their listening skills. If you are interested in a particular genre of a book or a particular speaker then try listening to them first as they would be able to keep you more interested and engaged in the subject.
3. Entertainment is a Good Source of Learning
One should start watching English content beginning with short clips and move on to full movies and shows in English along with subtitles. This will help them get familiar with native pronunciation and syntax of different kinds of sentences. While watching with subtitles one should always avoid reading the subtitles beforehand and should read them as the words are being spoken.
4. Listen and Re-listen
Native English is fast spoken. Therefore, it is necessary to acquaint oneself with different speeds in spoken English. To do this, one should listen and re-listen the same material at different speeds while trying to focus on the different sounds, words and their meanings.
5. Taking Notes
When listening to an audio, it is often helpful to take notes.
While practicing listening, the following steps will help to understand the content more clearly:
Step 1:Write down the topic of the audio
Step 2:If there are multiple speakers, their names are to be written down (e.g. Speaker 1, Speaker 2)
Step 3:Write down the crux of what each speaker is trying to convey.It is even better to use points for their central ideas.
Step 4:If you frequently hear a word you do not understand, try to write it down so you can look it up later
Step 5:If there's a word or sentence you find interesting, write it down so that you can practice using it in your own conversations.
6. Conversing with Native Speakers
If possible, try talking to native speakers as they will have good pronunciation and intonation. At first it would be difficult to understand because of their accents and word stress but with more practice you will be able to successfully communicate with them. Conversing also has another additional advantage, it will not only help with your listening comprehension but will also help you learn how to speak the language with proper pronunciation.
Barriers to Active Listening
The types of barriers to effective listening can be classified as follows:
- Physical Barriers
- Psychological Barriers
- Linguistic Barrier
- Cultural Barriers
- Environmental Barrier
Physical Barriers: The physical conditions of the listener can affect concentration and restrict the amount of information taken on. For example: 1. Headache 2. Hearing impairment 3. Tiredness 4. Discomfort, pain, illness
Psychological Barriers: Emotional states which are brought to the communications or result from it can come between what is being said and effective listening and understanding. For example: 1. Own Anxiety 2. Anger 3. Frustration – inability to put across ideas
CulturalBarriers- Different cultures possess different norms of social interactions and communication. Something deemed appropriate in one culture might not be the same in another. Body language and gestures play a vital role in non-verbal communication which might suffer due to cultural differences.
Linguistic Barriers: Linguistic barriers derive from the speaker and make it difficult for them to be listened to. They can be summarized as follow:
- Jargon or Specialist language
- Monotonous voice
- Inappropriate tone
- Hesitant manner
- Badly organized material
- Complex sentences
- Complex vocabulary
Environmental Barriers:The following, if encountered, can make us switch off from what is being said, to allow our minds to temporarily concentrate on our surroundings:
- The room too hot or too cold.
- The lighting too bright or too dim.
- Uncomfortable seating
- Smells
- Infrastructure
- Noise
Some other barriers to active listening include:
1.Ambiguity in the mind of the sender about the message.
2.Inability to convey the message as per the need and level of the receiver.
3. Inappropriate use of medium to convey the message.
4. Lack of understanding about the cultural differences of the listener.
5. Lack of the interest or inattentiveness of the receiver.
6. Listening with preconceived ideas or a prejudiced mindset.
7. Physical discomfort in terms of seating arrangements, hunger, thirst or nature’s call.
8. Noise e.g. Vehicles or murmur among the audience.
How to Overcome the Barriers to Active Listening
Below are some useful techniques for overcoming listening barriers:
1. Minimize Distractions
To avoid getting distracted, make sure you are physically facing the speaker and attempt to make frequent eye contact with them while they are speaking. Make sure you are seated or standing comfortably but appropriately so you can remain engaged. Put away your cell phone or any other pieces of technology that could become a distraction. The speaker will appreciate the gesture you have made to show them that they have your undivided attention.
2. Prioritize Listening Over Speaking
If you think you might be an excessive talker, try to practice self-control in conversation. Give the other person room to speak. During any conversation with a co-worker, wait until they’re finished speaking before you respond to show respect for what they’re saying. Finally, observe your listeners’ reactions as you talk. If you notice signs of distraction in someone you are speaking with, consider asking questions to encourage them to talk more and direct their focus back on the conversation.
3. Reduce Outside Noise
Minimize sound in your environment that could be distracting or make it more challenging to hear before beginning a conversation. A noisy environment can create distractions for both listeners and speakers, resulting in possible disruptions to conversations. Turn off mobile devices or place them on silent to minimize noise. Plan to hold important conversations in a place that you know will be quiet. It is often better to politely ask them to move elsewhere or keep the noise down, If someone is talking loudly outside your office or making other distracting noises.
4. Practice Reflecting Instead of Deflecting
To bond with your conversation partner or show them you’re engaged, you may feel eager to share your personal experiences when listening. A better approach to this typically involves merely listening and providing responses that focus on the other person’s situation. This shows that you’re genuinely invested in their side of the conversation.
Keep deflecting to a minimum and try reflecting to listen effectively. Reflecting involves paraphrasing back to the speaker what they have said. To accomplish that you may use language like, “What I am hearing from you is…” or “It sounds frustrating that that happened to you.” Reflecting could also involve asking questions based on what you have heard, such as “What did you do after he said that?” or “How did that make you feel?”
Reflecting assures your listener that you are paying close attention, it will also help to correct any possible misunderstandings. Reflecting allows the other person to correct what you may have misheard.
5. Ask Questions
Asking questions is an effective listening technique. Focus on asking questions based on what the speaker has already told you and are designed to elicit more information. The most significant questions are non-judgmental and flow directly from something the speaker has recently said.
6. Listen Fully Before Giving Advice
You may sometimes feel the temptation to offer advice after someone shares a problem or concern with you, especially if you want to help them solve that problem. However, you should not give advice unless the speaker specifically asks for it. People often share concerns simply to build bonds with friends, colleagues or to make a co-worker aware of a problem.
If you want to share advice, think first about whether the speaker is truly soliciting advice or just looking for a way to vent. Consider offering empathy instead of advice with responses such as, “That sounds frustrating,” or try reflecting instead.
Internet
The internet is fundamentally a communications tool, and since its invention decades ago, people are using it to communicate with each other. Early ways to communicate online on the web that still exist include email, Usenet newsgroups, internet relay chat and other chatroom services. In recent years, the world wide web has been developed including social networking tools, instant messaging programs, videoconferencing tools, newer chat programs and internet phone calling.
Understanding Internet Communication History
The internet evolved from a 1960s research called Arpanet, termed after the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, an annex of the Pentagon that funds basic scientific research and development. The agency realized that the computers that were increasingly shooting up in offices, universities and military bases across the planet would be more useful if they are able to send data to each other over long distances.
By early 1970s, people had already begun to send email between computers far apart from each other, unveiling an era of connecting and communicating online. The transmission control protocol, or TCP, considered as the core protocols employed in internet communication, had been developed, and Usenet, the worldwide network of message boards, had been created in the early 1980s.
Domain names like '.com' for commercial entities, '.edu' for educational institutions like universities, '.org' for non-profit groups and '.mil' for military installations and specific country-based domains began to be widely utilized to divide up the categories of groups on the web.
Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) developed the hypertext mark-up language to build websites in the early 1990s. Web browsers soon became available for operating systems including Microsoft's Windows 95 at the time. Chat programs, like Yahoo Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger, also became popular during the 1990s. Email became widespread, with people receiving addresses from their internet service providers or employers and, soon, from free services like Yahoo Mail, Microsoft's Hotmail and Google's Gmail.
Internet Based Communication
Below are some ways in which communication may be carried out through the internet:
Email is one of the foremost fundamental internet communication tools. Email addresses are required to register for several services online, and it's generally assumed that everybody on the web has at least one email address. Email addresses are available from many free services, most prominently from big companies like Microsoft and Google that include Gmail.com and Microsoft Outlook.
Internet Relay Chat
Dating back to the 1980s, internet relay chat was one of the earliest chat tools on the web . It's still in use today for recreational purposes, coordinating work teams and handling tech support for a few open-source software products.
Using networks of internet servers and specialized client software, IRC let anyone establish chat rooms, or "channels," dedicated to topics of their choice. It influenced subsequent chat systems like AOL and Yahoo chat and even contributed the convention of using the "@" symbol before a username and also the "#" symbol to denote a topic.
Instant Messaging Services
Computer-based instant messaging tools like ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger became popular ways to remain connected with people down the road or around the world in the 1990s for no cost beyond whatever users already paid to gain access to the net. Some of these tools developed cult followings among particular kinds of users, like Yahoo Messenger's rise among oil traders.
Most of those early tools have since been retired by the businesses that operated them, though some, like ICQ, continue to exist with loyal fan bases.
Smart Phone Messaging Apps
Chat tools have since been supplanted by a brand-new breed of messaging tools, including Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, Apple Messages and easy cell phone-based text messaging in the 1990s. Many of these tools work on smart phones as well as desktop computers, or perhaps on smart phones alone, they also contain more features than their earlier counterparts.
Workplace messaging tools, like Slack and Microsoft Teams, have also become popular in many companies as the simplest way to share information without going through the phone or drafting an email.
Internet Message Boards and Forums
Many of today's internet users are acquainted with the concept of online discussion forums, including Facebook groups, subreddits on the forum site Reddit or independent forums on interest group sites. These let people discuss the news of the day or details of their hobbies, medical conditions or hometowns. Many have moderators set up to maintain the peace and repel trolls, fraudsters and other undesirable users.
As the old saying goes, don't believe everything you read. This is especially true when it involves online message boards, where rumours and misinformation can spread quickly. It's also a decent idea to hold your temper instead of get into fights, or flame wars, on these forums.
Social Networking Tools
Some of the most popular internet communication tools are social networking services, including Facebook, Twitter, Facebook-owned Instagram, Snapchat and work-oriented LinkedIn. These services generally enable people to connect with and follow posts from a selected group of associates, sharing updates about their lives, careers or musings throughout the day.
People frequently use social networking tools to remain connected with remote friends and family or perhaps just for entertainment. Many people use them as a way to follow the news additionally by, following media organizations on Facebook or perhaps individual journalists on Twitter. Social networking sites are generally free and supported by advertising.
Internet Phone Calling
Many people have switched to internet-based calling systems, using what's called voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), from traditional telephones, especially in office settings. VoIP systems are often cheaper and faster to install and set up than traditional phones, and they often allow international and long-distance calling for a fraction of the price of landline telephones.
These systems are available through internet service providers, including many cable and traditional phone providers, as well as through independent providers that may use your existing internet connection.
Video Calls and Conferences
Popular video chat systems include Microsoft's Skype, Google Hangouts and Apple FaceTime. Video chat facilities also are built into popular office messaging tools like Slack. It's generally possible to video chat with any modern computer or smart phone equipped with a working camera. Many video chat programs enable people to perform audio-only chats if they want to.
Emails are basically letters sent electronically. They can be long or short, formal or informal. Although for business purposes only formal emails are considered important.
Emails have become a dominant form of communication. Being able to write polished, relevant email is now a critical skill in college and work.
Formal Email:
- Written for a professor, colleague, manager, etc.
- Must always be professional.
- Accurate grammar, punctuation, and spelling necessary
Example:
Dear Professor Johnson,
I was unable to attend class today due to a doctor’s appointment. If you have a moment, can you let me know what I missed and what homework I need to complete on Friday?
Thank you,
Julia Smith.
Email Format
- Greetings / Salutation:
A formal email greeting is similar to a letter greeting. When you write a letter to a stranger, you put the question “Who Can Worry About You”? When applying for a job, you were addressing the person, “Dear Hiring Manager.” If you know the name of the recipient, you put “Mr. Dear Mr.M /. Smith. "For formal greetings, you should not use the recipient's first name or the informal greetings" Hello "or" Hello."
- Physical Categories/ Body Paragraphs:
It is important to remember that the email needs to be shorter.
I hope that all goes well for you.
Thank you for your prompt response.
However, in official emails it is best to understand the point. Depending on the topic, you should have four main roles and each paragraph should have one point. In your last paragraph you should provide a "thank you" or "call to action" depending on the topic of your email.
Thank you for your help with
Thank you for your time and look forward to hearing from you.
Please feel free to call me or email me if you have any questions. If this can be taken care of immediately.
- Closing:
As a greeting, the closing of the official email can be the same as the closing of the book. However, unlike mourning, there are many ways to close.
Thank you
very humble
Sincerely
It is also helpful to add your post (if any) and a phone number under your name in paragraph 4.
For example:
Yours sincerely,
Julia Smith
President of Student Body
Menlo College
(555) 555-5555
- Tips:
DO NOT use a contract.
Example: no, no, I'm not, I'm not.
DO NOT write about all the coins.
Use structured vocabulary and sentence structure. DO NOT use slang.
Close email at least twice and get a second opinion if possible.
FAX
Invented in the early 19th century, the Fax machine was actually invented much before the invention of workable telephone lines. Fax - short for facsimile, also referred to as telecopying or telefax, performs the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images) to a telephone number connected to a printer or other output devices. The fax machine has reduced in size and increased in functionality gradually and today the fax machine exhibits features which really make it a completely multifunctional device. Therefore, the fax machine has become a device which has improved with time and technology and in the present scenario has become irreplaceable in business environments.
The key features typically found in the present fax machines are functional in nature and significantly increase the convenience of use of this device. Some of the features of a fax machine are as follows:
- Printing is one of the main features found in fax machines today. The whole process of printing documents has become more reliable, accurate and cost effective at the same time with the options of laser and colour printing available at the disposable of every fax owner.
- New age feature like dual access lets the sender print incoming faxes from memory while transmitting another fax, or scan a fax into memory while receiving a fax.
- Modified Read protocol increases the transmission time of a fax machine and thus makes it more efficient.
- One of the most important features of a Fax machine is out of paper reception. This feature allows the device to receive and store the faxes even when the fax machine is out of paper.
- Another often overlooked but rather important feature of a fax machine is speed dialling.
- The Fax machines have become a multifunction device today. It can act as a phone, fax machine, scanner, printer and copier as well and is known as Multi-Function Device (MFD)
Relevance and Importance of Fax Machines
Below are some reasons why fax machines are important and relevant even today:
1.Global coverage and acceptance
Fax has long been established as a global communications medium. Even after the arrival of the internet age, sending and receiving documents via fax is recognized as the “lowest common denominator” in business-to-business communications worldwide. Although Internet-based alternatives do exist, none have managed to overthrow the humble fax machine as a universally recognized standard. There are over one-hundred million fax devices in use today globally.
2. Simple
Employees of all ages comprehend fax technology and have sent or received a fax as a component of their normal business duties. Traditional fax machine design is simple and intuitive – feed the pages that you want to send into the machine, enter a fax number like you would on a standard desk phone or mobile, and sit back and wait for the confirmation. Businesses that incorporate high volumes of fax messages into their workflows often choose a fax server solution which allows sending and receiving faxes from any desktop via email.
3. Traceable
Outgoing faxes generate notifications which are delivered to the sender informing him/her about the status of the fax delivery (sent/failed). A successful notification can only be generated when the remote device signals that everything was received correctly.
Fax servers go even further since they may even be configured to log and archive copies of all inbound and outbound faxes. Multifunctional peripheral devices (MFPs) when integrated with a fax server (instead purchasing a fax card option AND providing an analog line), all of the fax messaging can be logged and archived at a central location, optimizing both management and security while also providing consistent and professional coversheets for outbound faxes.
4.Legally binding
There are legal precedents for faxed documents such as signed contracts to be legally binding in a court of law. The intrinsic nature of the T.30 fax protocol, accurately reproducing documents between two remote points, meets the legal requirements of custodianship – that no third party could reasonably intercept or alter the document between the sender and the receiver. Support for digital signatures are also included into the fax server software which further ensures the integrity of the fax data.
5. Assured delivery
Unlike with email and mobile text messaging, with faxes the receiving fax machine must acknowledge that the document was received successfully – that the call wasn’t interrupted half way through and the device didn’t run out of paper, toner, or ink. Your notification is proof that your document has been successfully delivered to the recipient.
6. Ease of integration
Fax servers can be integrated with a business communication environment either on-premise or in the cloud, including servers such as Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino and Novell GroupWise. The capabilities of CRM, ERP and document management systems may also be extended with fax capabilities through dedicated and licensed fax server connectors. Legacy systems and non-Windows platforms can also interface with fax servers through standardized protocols like SMTP (email) and Samba (Unix/Linux file and print services).
7. Secure
The T.30 fax protocol is a point-to-point communication system and any malicious attempt to intercept or alter the data will be detected by either the sending or receiving party and ultimately cause the transmission to fail. This is the basis of the “legally binding” nature of faxed contracts and the primary reason why fax technology is still around today.
8. Still Popular
By establishing a foothold well before the age of the Internet, fax machines and servers are a ubiquitous technology available to every business and organization throughout the world. Many business processes, like transferring medical records and financial information, are linked exclusively to fax and don't have any universally recognized alternative. Organizations often forget about the importance of fax until there is a telephony glitch or a fax server goes down, then their reliance on the technology comes into sharp focus.
9. Fax over IP
Many corporates have progressed towards voice-over-IP technologies to save telephony expenses by eliminating the public switched telephone network as much possible and using Internet-based least cost routing. Because these systems are optimized for the human voice, a complimentary technology was created called fax-over-IP that is generally available on most voice-over-IP telephony systems. Although commonly not as quick as modern fax machines, fax-over-IP solutions can exist totally in a virtualized environment with no dependency on hardware.
10. Fax is established
It appears as if every decade ends with writers/bloggers making lists of practices and technologies that have reached the top of their usefulness and wish to be laid to rest. Business cards, newspapers, optical discs, credit cards, etc., are all debatable, but nobody omits fax machines. Indeed, the humble fax machine as we know it may fade away, but fax as a communication standard for national and international commerce is deeply entrenched and not going anywhere any time soon.
Video Conferencing
If a business is disseminated in various locations, you may be able to save both time and money by using videoconferencing for meetings with staff from various offices. Applications such as Google Hangouts and Skype allow you to see one another while you hold your meetings. This allows for face-to-face communication although participants are many miles apart. This is an especially useful instrument for maintaining camaraderie among office personnel despite long distances.
Video conferencing is typically used as an umbrella term for multiple types of online collaborative services including web seminars (“webinars”), webcasts. And peer-level and organizational web meetings in general. Video conferencing is made possible by internet using information technology, particularly on TCP/IP connections. Services may allow time point communications as well as multicast communications. From one sender to many receivers. It offers data streams of text-based messages, voice and video chat to be shared simultaneously, across geographically dispersed locations. Applications of video conferencing encompass meetings, training events, lecture, presentations from a web-connected computer to other web-connected computers.
Video conferencing usually allows real-time point-to-point communication as well as multi-task communications from one sender to several receivers in separate locations. Depending on the requirements, either an application (additional software) is downloaded and installed or a web-based client application is launched in the member's browser. The latest open source technology for Web-conferencing is offered by Google’s WebRTC.
Five Advantages of Web Conferencing Solutions are:
1. Application and Desktop Sharing
One of the most important advantages of video conferencing is desktop and application sharing. The ability to present information through PowerPoint Presentations, Excel Spreadsheets, and any number of other applications ensures that your meeting runs smoothly and that all members are on the same page despite the distance.
2. Increase Productivity
Video conferencing does save time and costs, but that’s not the only way it can save time. Through web collaboration solutions, companies can give online demos of products and services without dalliance in the planning process. You can save the time that’s usually spent on coordinating with clients, employees, and customers by having a webinar demo or tutorial ready for online deployment.
3. Conduct Employee Training Easily
Most people consider the benefits of video conferencing in terms of internal meetings, but you can also utilize it for employee training. Web-conferencing programs like Blackboard specialize specifically on training and education, making it easier than ever to train employees located in various locations at the same time.
4. Improve Customer Relations
Video conferencing tools can even be employed to improve customer support and relationships. Utilizing the benefits of video conferencing solutions can give your support team more ability to acquire control of a client’s computer and fix problems in a more efficient and timely manner.
5. Unrestricted by Locations
Finally, the most important video conferencing benefit is that it allows your organization to act without geographical limitations. You can manage and run all the operations of your company through video conferencing with the best webinar tools, and the technology is improving at such a meteoric rate that the geographical distance between employees and team members will soon be a non-issue.
As you may see, leveraging the benefits of video conferencing solutions ensures that your entire organization is working on the same page, vastly improving the data flow of the corporate.
Unit 4
Effective Listening
Nature
The process of listening is receiving a language through the ears. It involves the identificationof the sounds of speech and processing them into words and sentences. Listening is the ability to precisely receive and interpret messages in the communication process.
Listening is one of the most important factors to all effective communication. Without effective listening ability, messages may be easily misunderstood. Therefore, as a result, sometimes communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated.
While listening, we use our ears to receive individual sounds (letters, stress, rhythm and pauses) and our brain converts these into messages that mean something to us.
Listening, like any other communication skill such as reading, writing or speaking requires focus and attention. It is a skill that some people need to work at harder than others. People who have difficulty concentrating are typically poor listeners. Listening in a second language requires even greater focus.
Types of Listening
The nature of listening can be understood by the various kinds of listening. Here are descriptions of the main types of listening and the processes involved in it:
- Discriminative listening:
Discriminative listening is the first form of listening humans develops as babies. This type of listening does not focus on words but rather the tone of voice and other subtleties of sound to understand meaning and intention. Babies don’t understand words, but they rely on their discriminative listening to understand who is speaking and what mood is being communicated. As an adult, you may find yourself relying on discriminative listening when people around you are speaking a foreign language that you don’t understand. Though you may lack the language skills to understand the words being spoken, you can rely on the tone of voice and inflection to derive a vague meaning. When you can only rely on discriminative listening, you may turn to visual stimuli. The mannerisms, facial expressions, and body language of a speaker help clue you in to the speaker’s message.
2. Comprehensive listening:
Comprehensive listening is the next level of critical listening skills that humans usually develop in early childhood. Comprehensive listening requires language skills and a grasp of basic vocabulary to understand what is being communicated through by the speaker. Comprehensive listening covers most other forms of listening that critical listeners utilize. Through the course of their day-to-day lives, people use comprehensive listening paired with verbal cues to understand what messages are being communicated to them.
3. Informational listening:
Informational listening (or informative listening) is the type of listening practices during the process of learning. Informational listening builds upon basic comprehensive listening and requires a high level of concentration and engagement to understand new concepts and comprehend technical jargon. Informational listening has less to do with the emotional content of what is being communicated and more to do with critical thinking and following a logical sequence as it is communicated. When you try to learn important skills that are being taught to you, it’s vital that you pay attention and use informational listening skills.
4. Critical listening:
Critical listening is the style of listening people use when they are trying to analyse and judge complex information that is being communicated to them. You might use critical listening if you’re problem-solving on the job and trying to decide if you agree with a proposal being floated by one of your co-workers. The word “critical” has multiple meanings, but in this case it simply means that you are evaluating information—not necessarily passing judgment.
5. Biased listening:
Biased listening (or selective listening) is a type of selective listening where the listener only tries to understand what they want to hear. Biased listening is different from critical listening because the listener is not actually listening to the speaker's opinions but instead trying to confirm their own opinions. People generally do not realize that they are using a biased listening process. Biased listening can lead to a falsification of facts in the mind of a listener who is not in harmony with to what a speaker intends to communicate.
6. Sympathetic listening:
Sympathetic listening is an emotionally-driven type of relationship listening, wherein a listener processes the feelings and emotions of a speaker and tries to provide support and understanding in return. You might use sympathetic listening when a child tells you about trouble they had at school. In this case sympathetic listening is used to make the child feel heard and provide them with comfort and support. Sympathetic is useful in trying to establish a deep connection with another person, especially when that person is experiencing adversity.
7. Therapeutic and empathetic listening:
Therapeutic or empathetic listening is a listening process wherein a listener tries to understand the point of view of a speaker and imagines themselves directly in the speaker’s position. Empathetic listening (sometimes referred to as empathic listening) goes a step further than sympathetic listening in that an empathic listener will relate to the speaker’s experience as if it were their own.
Characteristics of Effective Listening
From communicating with business partners to understanding market trends, good listening skills can give you a competitive advantage. The ability to understand the needs and requests of others can be easier when you practice active listening.
The most skilled listeners offer their complete attention, carefully process what they hear and respond empathetically. They also tend to be open-minded as they listen. As you develop your listening skills, you’ll find that you can participate more fully in conversations and offer more effective feedback.
Below are the main characteristics of effective listening:
1. Maintaining Eye Contact
When you are listening to someone talk, you should avoid looking out a window, texting or scrolling through your phone, or scanning a computer screen. Limit any unnecessary distractions, provide the speaker with your undivided attention and make an effort to look at them. This provides them with a nonverbal cue that you are interested in what they are saying, which encourages them to continue expressing themselves.
Consider that the speaker may not look at you because they might be shy, feel uncertain, or their culture may not use direct eye contact for communication. You should continue to face the speaker even if they do not look at you.
2. Visualizing
Try to conjure up mental images of what the speaker is talking about while you are listening to help retain information. This may be a literal picture or other concepts that relate to the topic. This will help you to remember keywords and phrases when you listen for long periods. Visualizing what the speaker is saying will also help you to not have to prepare for what to say next.
If you happen to lose focus, make sure to immediately refocus.
3. Limiting judgments
Listen without criticizing the speaker in your mind while they talk. Even if the message causes you agitation or alarm, try to avoid thinking about negative or judgmental comments because this compromises your ability to listen. You also want to listen with an open mind and understand that the person is giving you their perspective. You may realize that they make more sense as they continue to talk to you, and you won't know the full story without listening.
4. Eliminating distractions
If possible, remove any distractions from the area. If you’re at your desk, put paperwork away and close notebooks. Dim the screen on your computer or laptop to prevent yourself from staring at the screen or becoming distracted by incoming emails. Turn down the sound so you won’t hear alerts during your conversation.
Phones can be one of the biggest causes of distraction. To make sure you can maintain full focus, keep your phone on silent and put it in an area where you can’t see it or reach it easily.
If you’re attending a scheduled meeting, make sure you find a quiet room or space. Close the door to limit noise and external distractions. Try to make the area as comfortable as possible to enable focused listening.
5. Building a strong rapport
To encourage your conversation partner to share as much as possible, make the other person as comfortable as possible. In addition to removing distractions and focusing your attention on the other person, try subtly mirroring your conversation partner’s movements. Adopt a similar posture and use comparable body language as you listen. Reflect their facial expressions to indicate that you understand what they’re saying.
Rather than making your gestures and body language too similar to your conversation partner, make sure they reflect the other person’s mood. You’ll build a rapport with your conversation partner and establish trust, both of which are essential for being a good listener. You’ll also respond with empathy, which can open up lines of communication and help the conversation flow more naturally.
6. Non-Interruption
Everyone speaks and processes information at different rates. If someone is delivering their message slowly, try to cultivate patience and wait for them to finish before trying to rush them along by guessing the next thing they are going to say or replying before they have finished talking. Interrupting sends the wrong message to the speaker. It may suggest that what you have to say is more important, that you don't care about what they are saying or that the conversation is a competition.
It is also important to refrain from offering solutions. Most often people just want you to listen. However, if you have a brilliant idea, you may consider asking if you can share your ideas before you offer your solution.
7. Waiting for Pauses
You may not understand everything someone says to you. It is best to wait until they pause to ask them to back up and provide clarification for the topic or phrase you misunderstood.
8. Asking Questions
Asking clarifying questions helps to keep the conversation on topic. You only want to ask questions that pertain to your understanding rather than ask a question about something that is not related to the main idea the speaker is trying to get across. When you ask clarifying questions without interrupting, it shows that you are listening, paying attention and willing to discuss things further.
9. Empathizing
Empathy is essential to effective listening. You should mirror the emotions the speaker has. For instance, if their face conveys sadness or joy then your facial expressions and words should also convey similar emotions. Empathizing with the speaker takes concentration and expends energy, but it allows for open communication and establishes relationships.
10. Non-Verbal Ques
Most of the communication that takes place between individuals is nonverbal. You can learn a great deal about someone through their body language and tone of voice when they are communicating with you. It is easy to detect boredom, enthusiasm or irritation on someone's face when they talk depending on their eyes, mouth and position of their shoulders. Therefore, listening also includes paying attention to nonverbal cues. It helps you to make inferences based on what a person actually means when they are talking to you.
11. Providing Feedback
Feedback can be verbal and nonverbal. You can use verbal feedback by saying things like, "I understand," "that must be difficult," or "okay." You can use nonverbal cues such as nodding your head and using appropriate facial expressions.
The goal is to send signals to the speaker so they know that you are actively listening. In a situation where someone is giving you tasks, make sure to repeat the task list back to the speaker so they know you understand what you are supposed to do. Writing down what they say also shows attentiveness.
12. Practicing
You can practice listening by being aware of what you do when someone is talking to you. Do this by writing down what you heard, understood and acknowledged after an in-person interaction with someone, or listen to audiobooks or podcasts without any text in front of you. Try listening to no more than four-minute clips and replay them to see how much information you are able to retain. This will help you to become more aware of your role as a receiver of information and it can enhance your overall communication skills.
Purpose
It is often contested that speaking as a skill is more important than listening which is a common misconception. Listening is as important a skill as speaking if not more, as it is only by listening one can learn proper pronunciation and intonation of words which allows him to speak fluently.
Oral language skills including listening comprehension also are important for writing development. Although oral language skills aren't explicitly laid out in the developmental models of writing, they are essential component skills as writing requires generation of ideas, which then need to be translated into oral language.
Below are some areas where listening skills can prove to be extremely important:
Academic Purpose
When one focuses on the material presented in a classroom, they will be able to identify not only the words used in a lecture but their emphasis and their more complex meanings. They will take better notes, and will more accurately remember the instructor’s claims, information, and conclusions. Many times, instructors provide oral cues about what is likely to appear in an examination, specific expectations for assignments and instructions on specific study material, hence active listening can be extremely beneficial.
Social Purpose
In a social setting, if a person genuinely listens to other people, they are often considered to be a good friend. Most people prefer "good listeners" over people who won't stop giving advice without even listening to a word the speaker is saying. Many people just wait for their turn to speak instead of trying to understand what someone is saying to them. Therefore, listening skills also help with one's social relationships.
Perceptual Purpose
A person who has the ability to listen properly is often considered an intelligent person. It is essential to let someone finish their thoughts before giving voice to one's own opinions. Listening silently while someone is speaking gives them a sign that they are being heard. This creates an image of a smart individual in the mind of the speaker.
Important for Public Speaking
When one listen's well to others without interrupting, they begin gathering up on more impressive ways to organize and present arguments. Which helps one understand how people think and what are the factors that influence them. While speaking publicly this can be helpful as one can assume how people will react to a certain argument. This also helps in connecting with people in general and potentially influencing them.
Significance
Listening skills are an essential part of good communication. When you are an attentive listener, you can begin to improve relationships, make decisions more effectively and reach agreements with others quickly. Here are some additional reasons why listening skills are important:
- Demonstrates your ability to pay attention to thoughts, behaviors and feelings of an individual
- Increases your power to influence, serve, motivate or develop people effectively
- Enables an organization to operate efficiently with the information they are given that may cause them to adapt to market trends or consumer needs
- Enhances basic human interaction
- Builds personal and professional relationships
Whether you’re seeking a new job opportunity, striving to earn a promotion or working to improve in your current role, improving your active listening skills will help you succeed. Much like critical thinking and conflict resolution, this soft skill will help increase your value as an employee.
Active listening in the workplace is important because it's a way to show your co-workers that you value what they have to say. During meetings or brainstorming sessions, active listening can help you fully absorb what others are sharing and think of meaningful ways to add to the conversation. When you show others that you are listening to them, they feel like you respect them. This is an important part of establishing open communication and camaraderie in the workplace.
Listening skills are also important to many business roles such as:
- Sales
- Negotiation
- Coaching
- Mentoring
- Interviewing
- Marketing research
- Facilitation
- Managing
There are two ways in which a person can listen to something being said to them – active and passive. Passive listening is listening without giving the speaker your full attention. Passive listening is like not listening at all therefore one must always give the speaker their full attention and practice active listening in order to fully grasp the meaning of what the speaker wants to say.
Below are some ways in which one can develop their listening skills:
- Listening to Podcasts and Audio Books
One can start listening to podcasts or audio books with comprehensible difficulty level, meaning the ones which one can already understand 60-80%. This is necessary as listening to material far above one’s skill level will only leave them dazed and confused.
2. Listening to the Appropriate Material
Listening to what one enjoys is also important. It would build up motivation to continue exercising their listening skills. If you are interested in a particular genre of a book or a particular speaker then try listening to them first as they would be able to keep you more interested and engaged in the subject.
3. Entertainment is a Good Source of Learning
One should start watching English content beginning with short clips and move on to full movies and shows in English along with subtitles. This will help them get familiar with native pronunciation and syntax of different kinds of sentences. While watching with subtitles one should always avoid reading the subtitles beforehand and should read them as the words are being spoken.
4. Listen and Re-listen
Native English is fast spoken. Therefore, it is necessary to acquaint oneself with different speeds in spoken English. To do this, one should listen and re-listen the same material at different speeds while trying to focus on the different sounds, words and their meanings.
5. Taking Notes
When listening to an audio, it is often helpful to take notes.
While practicing listening, the following steps will help to understand the content more clearly:
Step 1:Write down the topic of the audio
Step 2:If there are multiple speakers, their names are to be written down (e.g. Speaker 1, Speaker 2)
Step 3:Write down the crux of what each speaker is trying to convey.It is even better to use points for their central ideas.
Step 4:If you frequently hear a word you do not understand, try to write it down so you can look it up later
Step 5:If there's a word or sentence you find interesting, write it down so that you can practice using it in your own conversations.
6. Conversing with Native Speakers
If possible, try talking to native speakers as they will have good pronunciation and intonation. At first it would be difficult to understand because of their accents and word stress but with more practice you will be able to successfully communicate with them. Conversing also has another additional advantage, it will not only help with your listening comprehension but will also help you learn how to speak the language with proper pronunciation.
Barriers to Active Listening
The types of barriers to effective listening can be classified as follows:
- Physical Barriers
- Psychological Barriers
- Linguistic Barrier
- Cultural Barriers
- Environmental Barrier
Physical Barriers: The physical conditions of the listener can affect concentration and restrict the amount of information taken on. For example: 1. Headache 2. Hearing impairment 3. Tiredness 4. Discomfort, pain, illness
Psychological Barriers: Emotional states which are brought to the communications or result from it can come between what is being said and effective listening and understanding. For example: 1. Own Anxiety 2. Anger 3. Frustration – inability to put across ideas
CulturalBarriers- Different cultures possess different norms of social interactions and communication. Something deemed appropriate in one culture might not be the same in another. Body language and gestures play a vital role in non-verbal communication which might suffer due to cultural differences.
Linguistic Barriers: Linguistic barriers derive from the speaker and make it difficult for them to be listened to. They can be summarized as follow:
- Jargon or Specialist language
- Monotonous voice
- Inappropriate tone
- Hesitant manner
- Badly organized material
- Complex sentences
- Complex vocabulary
Environmental Barriers:The following, if encountered, can make us switch off from what is being said, to allow our minds to temporarily concentrate on our surroundings:
- The room too hot or too cold.
- The lighting too bright or too dim.
- Uncomfortable seating
- Smells
- Infrastructure
- Noise
Some other barriers to active listening include:
1.Ambiguity in the mind of the sender about the message.
2.Inability to convey the message as per the need and level of the receiver.
3. Inappropriate use of medium to convey the message.
4. Lack of understanding about the cultural differences of the listener.
5. Lack of the interest or inattentiveness of the receiver.
6. Listening with preconceived ideas or a prejudiced mindset.
7. Physical discomfort in terms of seating arrangements, hunger, thirst or nature’s call.
8. Noise e.g. Vehicles or murmur among the audience.
How to Overcome the Barriers to Active Listening
Below are some useful techniques for overcoming listening barriers:
1. Minimize Distractions
To avoid getting distracted, make sure you are physically facing the speaker and attempt to make frequent eye contact with them while they are speaking. Make sure you are seated or standing comfortably but appropriately so you can remain engaged. Put away your cell phone or any other pieces of technology that could become a distraction. The speaker will appreciate the gesture you have made to show them that they have your undivided attention.
2. Prioritize Listening Over Speaking
If you think you might be an excessive talker, try to practice self-control in conversation. Give the other person room to speak. During any conversation with a co-worker, wait until they’re finished speaking before you respond to show respect for what they’re saying. Finally, observe your listeners’ reactions as you talk. If you notice signs of distraction in someone you are speaking with, consider asking questions to encourage them to talk more and direct their focus back on the conversation.
3. Reduce Outside Noise
Minimize sound in your environment that could be distracting or make it more challenging to hear before beginning a conversation. A noisy environment can create distractions for both listeners and speakers, resulting in possible disruptions to conversations. Turn off mobile devices or place them on silent to minimize noise. Plan to hold important conversations in a place that you know will be quiet. It is often better to politely ask them to move elsewhere or keep the noise down, If someone is talking loudly outside your office or making other distracting noises.
4. Practice Reflecting Instead of Deflecting
To bond with your conversation partner or show them you’re engaged, you may feel eager to share your personal experiences when listening. A better approach to this typically involves merely listening and providing responses that focus on the other person’s situation. This shows that you’re genuinely invested in their side of the conversation.
Keep deflecting to a minimum and try reflecting to listen effectively. Reflecting involves paraphrasing back to the speaker what they have said. To accomplish that you may use language like, “What I am hearing from you is…” or “It sounds frustrating that that happened to you.” Reflecting could also involve asking questions based on what you have heard, such as “What did you do after he said that?” or “How did that make you feel?”
Reflecting assures your listener that you are paying close attention, it will also help to correct any possible misunderstandings. Reflecting allows the other person to correct what you may have misheard.
5. Ask Questions
Asking questions is an effective listening technique. Focus on asking questions based on what the speaker has already told you and are designed to elicit more information. The most significant questions are non-judgmental and flow directly from something the speaker has recently said.
6. Listen Fully Before Giving Advice
You may sometimes feel the temptation to offer advice after someone shares a problem or concern with you, especially if you want to help them solve that problem. However, you should not give advice unless the speaker specifically asks for it. People often share concerns simply to build bonds with friends, colleagues or to make a co-worker aware of a problem.
If you want to share advice, think first about whether the speaker is truly soliciting advice or just looking for a way to vent. Consider offering empathy instead of advice with responses such as, “That sounds frustrating,” or try reflecting instead.
Internet
The internet is fundamentally a communications tool, and since its invention decades ago, people are using it to communicate with each other. Early ways to communicate online on the web that still exist include email, Usenet newsgroups, internet relay chat and other chatroom services. In recent years, the world wide web has been developed including social networking tools, instant messaging programs, videoconferencing tools, newer chat programs and internet phone calling.
Understanding Internet Communication History
The internet evolved from a 1960s research called Arpanet, termed after the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, an annex of the Pentagon that funds basic scientific research and development. The agency realized that the computers that were increasingly shooting up in offices, universities and military bases across the planet would be more useful if they are able to send data to each other over long distances.
By early 1970s, people had already begun to send email between computers far apart from each other, unveiling an era of connecting and communicating online. The transmission control protocol, or TCP, considered as the core protocols employed in internet communication, had been developed, and Usenet, the worldwide network of message boards, had been created in the early 1980s.
Domain names like '.com' for commercial entities, '.edu' for educational institutions like universities, '.org' for non-profit groups and '.mil' for military installations and specific country-based domains began to be widely utilized to divide up the categories of groups on the web.
Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) developed the hypertext mark-up language to build websites in the early 1990s. Web browsers soon became available for operating systems including Microsoft's Windows 95 at the time. Chat programs, like Yahoo Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger, also became popular during the 1990s. Email became widespread, with people receiving addresses from their internet service providers or employers and, soon, from free services like Yahoo Mail, Microsoft's Hotmail and Google's Gmail.
Internet Based Communication
Below are some ways in which communication may be carried out through the internet:
Email is one of the foremost fundamental internet communication tools. Email addresses are required to register for several services online, and it's generally assumed that everybody on the web has at least one email address. Email addresses are available from many free services, most prominently from big companies like Microsoft and Google that include Gmail.com and Microsoft Outlook.
Internet Relay Chat
Dating back to the 1980s, internet relay chat was one of the earliest chat tools on the web . It's still in use today for recreational purposes, coordinating work teams and handling tech support for a few open-source software products.
Using networks of internet servers and specialized client software, IRC let anyone establish chat rooms, or "channels," dedicated to topics of their choice. It influenced subsequent chat systems like AOL and Yahoo chat and even contributed the convention of using the "@" symbol before a username and also the "#" symbol to denote a topic.
Instant Messaging Services
Computer-based instant messaging tools like ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger became popular ways to remain connected with people down the road or around the world in the 1990s for no cost beyond whatever users already paid to gain access to the net. Some of these tools developed cult followings among particular kinds of users, like Yahoo Messenger's rise among oil traders.
Most of those early tools have since been retired by the businesses that operated them, though some, like ICQ, continue to exist with loyal fan bases.
Smart Phone Messaging Apps
Chat tools have since been supplanted by a brand-new breed of messaging tools, including Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, Apple Messages and easy cell phone-based text messaging in the 1990s. Many of these tools work on smart phones as well as desktop computers, or perhaps on smart phones alone, they also contain more features than their earlier counterparts.
Workplace messaging tools, like Slack and Microsoft Teams, have also become popular in many companies as the simplest way to share information without going through the phone or drafting an email.
Internet Message Boards and Forums
Many of today's internet users are acquainted with the concept of online discussion forums, including Facebook groups, subreddits on the forum site Reddit or independent forums on interest group sites. These let people discuss the news of the day or details of their hobbies, medical conditions or hometowns. Many have moderators set up to maintain the peace and repel trolls, fraudsters and other undesirable users.
As the old saying goes, don't believe everything you read. This is especially true when it involves online message boards, where rumours and misinformation can spread quickly. It's also a decent idea to hold your temper instead of get into fights, or flame wars, on these forums.
Social Networking Tools
Some of the most popular internet communication tools are social networking services, including Facebook, Twitter, Facebook-owned Instagram, Snapchat and work-oriented LinkedIn. These services generally enable people to connect with and follow posts from a selected group of associates, sharing updates about their lives, careers or musings throughout the day.
People frequently use social networking tools to remain connected with remote friends and family or perhaps just for entertainment. Many people use them as a way to follow the news additionally by, following media organizations on Facebook or perhaps individual journalists on Twitter. Social networking sites are generally free and supported by advertising.
Internet Phone Calling
Many people have switched to internet-based calling systems, using what's called voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), from traditional telephones, especially in office settings. VoIP systems are often cheaper and faster to install and set up than traditional phones, and they often allow international and long-distance calling for a fraction of the price of landline telephones.
These systems are available through internet service providers, including many cable and traditional phone providers, as well as through independent providers that may use your existing internet connection.
Video Calls and Conferences
Popular video chat systems include Microsoft's Skype, Google Hangouts and Apple FaceTime. Video chat facilities also are built into popular office messaging tools like Slack. It's generally possible to video chat with any modern computer or smart phone equipped with a working camera. Many video chat programs enable people to perform audio-only chats if they want to.
Emails are basically letters sent electronically. They can be long or short, formal or informal. Although for business purposes only formal emails are considered important.
Emails have become a dominant form of communication. Being able to write polished, relevant email is now a critical skill in college and work.
Formal Email:
- Written for a professor, colleague, manager, etc.
- Must always be professional.
- Accurate grammar, punctuation, and spelling necessary
Example:
Dear Professor Johnson,
I was unable to attend class today due to a doctor’s appointment. If you have a moment, can you let me know what I missed and what homework I need to complete on Friday?
Thank you,
Julia Smith.
Email Format
- Greetings / Salutation:
A formal email greeting is similar to a letter greeting. When you write a letter to a stranger, you put the question “Who Can Worry About You”? When applying for a job, you were addressing the person, “Dear Hiring Manager.” If you know the name of the recipient, you put “Mr. Dear Mr.M /. Smith. "For formal greetings, you should not use the recipient's first name or the informal greetings" Hello "or" Hello."
- Physical Categories/ Body Paragraphs:
It is important to remember that the email needs to be shorter.
I hope that all goes well for you.
Thank you for your prompt response.
However, in official emails it is best to understand the point. Depending on the topic, you should have four main roles and each paragraph should have one point. In your last paragraph you should provide a "thank you" or "call to action" depending on the topic of your email.
Thank you for your help with
Thank you for your time and look forward to hearing from you.
Please feel free to call me or email me if you have any questions. If this can be taken care of immediately.
- Closing:
As a greeting, the closing of the official email can be the same as the closing of the book. However, unlike mourning, there are many ways to close.
Thank you
very humble
Sincerely
It is also helpful to add your post (if any) and a phone number under your name in paragraph 4.
For example:
Yours sincerely,
Julia Smith
President of Student Body
Menlo College
(555) 555-5555
- Tips:
DO NOT use a contract.
Example: no, no, I'm not, I'm not.
DO NOT write about all the coins.
Use structured vocabulary and sentence structure. DO NOT use slang.
Close email at least twice and get a second opinion if possible.
FAX
Invented in the early 19th century, the Fax machine was actually invented much before the invention of workable telephone lines. Fax - short for facsimile, also referred to as telecopying or telefax, performs the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images) to a telephone number connected to a printer or other output devices. The fax machine has reduced in size and increased in functionality gradually and today the fax machine exhibits features which really make it a completely multifunctional device. Therefore, the fax machine has become a device which has improved with time and technology and in the present scenario has become irreplaceable in business environments.
The key features typically found in the present fax machines are functional in nature and significantly increase the convenience of use of this device. Some of the features of a fax machine are as follows:
- Printing is one of the main features found in fax machines today. The whole process of printing documents has become more reliable, accurate and cost effective at the same time with the options of laser and colour printing available at the disposable of every fax owner.
- New age feature like dual access lets the sender print incoming faxes from memory while transmitting another fax, or scan a fax into memory while receiving a fax.
- Modified Read protocol increases the transmission time of a fax machine and thus makes it more efficient.
- One of the most important features of a Fax machine is out of paper reception. This feature allows the device to receive and store the faxes even when the fax machine is out of paper.
- Another often overlooked but rather important feature of a fax machine is speed dialling.
- The Fax machines have become a multifunction device today. It can act as a phone, fax machine, scanner, printer and copier as well and is known as Multi-Function Device (MFD)
Relevance and Importance of Fax Machines
Below are some reasons why fax machines are important and relevant even today:
1.Global coverage and acceptance
Fax has long been established as a global communications medium. Even after the arrival of the internet age, sending and receiving documents via fax is recognized as the “lowest common denominator” in business-to-business communications worldwide. Although Internet-based alternatives do exist, none have managed to overthrow the humble fax machine as a universally recognized standard. There are over one-hundred million fax devices in use today globally.
2. Simple
Employees of all ages comprehend fax technology and have sent or received a fax as a component of their normal business duties. Traditional fax machine design is simple and intuitive – feed the pages that you want to send into the machine, enter a fax number like you would on a standard desk phone or mobile, and sit back and wait for the confirmation. Businesses that incorporate high volumes of fax messages into their workflows often choose a fax server solution which allows sending and receiving faxes from any desktop via email.
3. Traceable
Outgoing faxes generate notifications which are delivered to the sender informing him/her about the status of the fax delivery (sent/failed). A successful notification can only be generated when the remote device signals that everything was received correctly.
Fax servers go even further since they may even be configured to log and archive copies of all inbound and outbound faxes. Multifunctional peripheral devices (MFPs) when integrated with a fax server (instead purchasing a fax card option AND providing an analog line), all of the fax messaging can be logged and archived at a central location, optimizing both management and security while also providing consistent and professional coversheets for outbound faxes.
4.Legally binding
There are legal precedents for faxed documents such as signed contracts to be legally binding in a court of law. The intrinsic nature of the T.30 fax protocol, accurately reproducing documents between two remote points, meets the legal requirements of custodianship – that no third party could reasonably intercept or alter the document between the sender and the receiver. Support for digital signatures are also included into the fax server software which further ensures the integrity of the fax data.
5. Assured delivery
Unlike with email and mobile text messaging, with faxes the receiving fax machine must acknowledge that the document was received successfully – that the call wasn’t interrupted half way through and the device didn’t run out of paper, toner, or ink. Your notification is proof that your document has been successfully delivered to the recipient.
6. Ease of integration
Fax servers can be integrated with a business communication environment either on-premise or in the cloud, including servers such as Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino and Novell GroupWise. The capabilities of CRM, ERP and document management systems may also be extended with fax capabilities through dedicated and licensed fax server connectors. Legacy systems and non-Windows platforms can also interface with fax servers through standardized protocols like SMTP (email) and Samba (Unix/Linux file and print services).
7. Secure
The T.30 fax protocol is a point-to-point communication system and any malicious attempt to intercept or alter the data will be detected by either the sending or receiving party and ultimately cause the transmission to fail. This is the basis of the “legally binding” nature of faxed contracts and the primary reason why fax technology is still around today.
8. Still Popular
By establishing a foothold well before the age of the Internet, fax machines and servers are a ubiquitous technology available to every business and organization throughout the world. Many business processes, like transferring medical records and financial information, are linked exclusively to fax and don't have any universally recognized alternative. Organizations often forget about the importance of fax until there is a telephony glitch or a fax server goes down, then their reliance on the technology comes into sharp focus.
9. Fax over IP
Many corporates have progressed towards voice-over-IP technologies to save telephony expenses by eliminating the public switched telephone network as much possible and using Internet-based least cost routing. Because these systems are optimized for the human voice, a complimentary technology was created called fax-over-IP that is generally available on most voice-over-IP telephony systems. Although commonly not as quick as modern fax machines, fax-over-IP solutions can exist totally in a virtualized environment with no dependency on hardware.
10. Fax is established
It appears as if every decade ends with writers/bloggers making lists of practices and technologies that have reached the top of their usefulness and wish to be laid to rest. Business cards, newspapers, optical discs, credit cards, etc., are all debatable, but nobody omits fax machines. Indeed, the humble fax machine as we know it may fade away, but fax as a communication standard for national and international commerce is deeply entrenched and not going anywhere any time soon.
Video Conferencing
If a business is disseminated in various locations, you may be able to save both time and money by using videoconferencing for meetings with staff from various offices. Applications such as Google Hangouts and Skype allow you to see one another while you hold your meetings. This allows for face-to-face communication although participants are many miles apart. This is an especially useful instrument for maintaining camaraderie among office personnel despite long distances.
Video conferencing is typically used as an umbrella term for multiple types of online collaborative services including web seminars (“webinars”), webcasts. And peer-level and organizational web meetings in general. Video conferencing is made possible by internet using information technology, particularly on TCP/IP connections. Services may allow time point communications as well as multicast communications. From one sender to many receivers. It offers data streams of text-based messages, voice and video chat to be shared simultaneously, across geographically dispersed locations. Applications of video conferencing encompass meetings, training events, lecture, presentations from a web-connected computer to other web-connected computers.
Video conferencing usually allows real-time point-to-point communication as well as multi-task communications from one sender to several receivers in separate locations. Depending on the requirements, either an application (additional software) is downloaded and installed or a web-based client application is launched in the member's browser. The latest open source technology for Web-conferencing is offered by Google’s WebRTC.
Five Advantages of Web Conferencing Solutions are:
1. Application and Desktop Sharing
One of the most important advantages of video conferencing is desktop and application sharing. The ability to present information through PowerPoint Presentations, Excel Spreadsheets, and any number of other applications ensures that your meeting runs smoothly and that all members are on the same page despite the distance.
2. Increase Productivity
Video conferencing does save time and costs, but that’s not the only way it can save time. Through web collaboration solutions, companies can give online demos of products and services without dalliance in the planning process. You can save the time that’s usually spent on coordinating with clients, employees, and customers by having a webinar demo or tutorial ready for online deployment.
3. Conduct Employee Training Easily
Most people consider the benefits of video conferencing in terms of internal meetings, but you can also utilize it for employee training. Web-conferencing programs like Blackboard specialize specifically on training and education, making it easier than ever to train employees located in various locations at the same time.
4. Improve Customer Relations
Video conferencing tools can even be employed to improve customer support and relationships. Utilizing the benefits of video conferencing solutions can give your support team more ability to acquire control of a client’s computer and fix problems in a more efficient and timely manner.
5. Unrestricted by Locations
Finally, the most important video conferencing benefit is that it allows your organization to act without geographical limitations. You can manage and run all the operations of your company through video conferencing with the best webinar tools, and the technology is improving at such a meteoric rate that the geographical distance between employees and team members will soon be a non-issue.
As you may see, leveraging the benefits of video conferencing solutions ensures that your entire organization is working on the same page, vastly improving the data flow of the corporate.