Business Communication

Unit 4

Question Bank

1. What is the format of a formal email?

Any company that does business online has an email address for customers to use, and most companies offered several different addresses that enable customers to send the message to the proper department within the company. The question is often not one of email, but rather of what sort of email to possess. While online providers like Google, Yahoo! and Hotmail offer free email, these sorts of services often leave the user with spam issues. Additionally, a number of these services mistakenly block messages to customers. This means that a company should consider investing during a business email provider that gives stronger filters.

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

2.                      What are the uses of a PowerPoint Presentation?

PowerPoint presentations are an excellent way to present information visually and highlight key points. It’s important to make an efficient PowerPoint that highlights key elements, communicates ideas and increases the audience’s retention on the subject matter. Learning what to incorporate and how to format PowerPoint slides can make your presentation more visually appealing.

A PowerPoint presentation may be a collection of slides curated to inform an audience on a specific topic. PowerPoint is a part of various software designed for office use be Microsoft called Microsoft Office. PowerPoint presentations are often used for business or educational purposes. Slides within the PowerPoint include but are not limited to text, images, graphics and other elements that help illustrate the subject matter. It’s important to make an efficient PowerPoint so as to take care of your audience’s attention throughout your presentation.

You can use a PowerPoint presentation:

• To persuade an audience to shop for a product or accept your pitch
• To present statistical data in the form of graphs or charts
• To show a visual aspect of a project
• A PowerPoint presentation are often an efficient accompaniment for meetings, presentations or pitches for individuals or large groups.

3.                      Describe the steps for creating a PowerPoint presentation.

You can create a PowerPoint presentation in Microsoft Office- PowerPoint. Below are the steps to be followed to create a PowerPoint Presentation:

1. Open Microsoft PowerPoint

2.                       After opening the application, click “Blank Presentation” on the opening screen and edit it to your liking. You can also create a brand-new PowerPoint by clicking “File” to change to “Backstage View” then “New.” this will offer you the choice to settle on a blank presentation, choose a template or search templates.

3.                       On the “Home” tab, click the “New Slide” button in the Slides group to create as many as needed for your presentation.

4.                       To select a unique layout for subsequent slides, click the “Layout” button within the “Home” tab to display the gallery of slide layouts and choose the layout of your choosing.

5.                       You can then add text, images and graphics to every layout using the toolbar.

6.                       Once you’re ready to give your presentation, click on the “Slide Show” tab and click “From Beginning.”

7.                       To go to the next slide, click anywhere on the slide or press the right arrow key.

8.                       Once you’re finished with your PowerPoint, you can save it on your computer by pressing ‘Ctrl + s’ keys or clicking save under the file menu.

4.                      Provide some techniques for creating effective PowerPoint presentations?

When preparing a PowerPoint presentation, it’s a good idea to create with intention, cohesion and purpose. A slideshow should include a clean design and key visual elements to assist audience engagement. Here are several things to think about in your approach and an in-depth check out each of them:

1. Outline Your Presentation

The purpose of a PowerPoint is to focus on key information. Start by making an overview of what you’d like your presentation to appear like. Minimize the number of slides so as to take care of a clear message. Creating an outline before time will assist you in staying focused on what to present to your audience.

2.                      Create an Easy Template

Once you have got an idea of what you’d like your presentation to incorporate, consider the visual elements that might correspond to your talking points. A well-designed presentation is vital for keeping your audience captivated.

Make your presentation stand out from the remainder by creating one of your own that's simple, refined and professional. Consistent backgrounds and slide formats will present your message with more transparency, as well. The content within each slide may vary, but the design elements should remain the same.

3.                      Consistency with Fonts and Colours

Your audience’s interest and comprehension can be increased with a sleek template paired with consistent design elements. Choose fonts and colours that correspond with your subject material and make the data easily readable.

Fonts

• Limit your presentation to 2 to 3 fonts.
• Try using for sans serif fonts like Futura or Gill Sans that are easier to read on PowerPoint slides.
• Keep a large font size (at least size 24) that your audience can read from afar.
• Use bold type and multiple sizes for subheads, captions or to intensify overall importance.
• Avoid italicized type because it can be harder to read.

Colours

• Limit the types of colours you employ throughout your presentation.
• Choose a colour scheme that matches your subject matter. For instance, you may use greens and blues if presenting a subject associated with the environment.
• Use modern colours and pairings like teal and red, opposites like blue and yellow or a colour scheme palette like blue, green and cyan shades.
• Use contrasting colours in each slide (i.e. dark text on a light background and light text on a dark background).

4.                      Focus on Your Key Points

When writing the text for your presentation, concentrate on the most essential material you want to cover. Your PowerPoint must guide the flow of your speech. Keeping your points simple will allow your audience to better comprehend your message. Make sure each sentence holds a purpose. Consider adding short and precise sentences to keep your presentation concise.

Many times, words can hinder more than they help when explaining a point. It’s also significant to keep in mind that visual elements such as photos, graphics, graphs and charts must be utilized in PowerPoint presentations in conjunction with the text.

5.                      Utilize the Right Type of Chart When Necessary

Charts and graphs are a great way to display a statistical data set and add another visual element to a PowerPoint presentation. Choose a chart type that best explains your data. The following are suitable choices:

• Pie charts: For comparing percentages.
• Horizontal bar graphs: For comparing quantities.
• Vertical bar graphs: For showing changes in quantity over time.
• Line graphs: For showing trends over time.

6.                      Use Transitions with Caution

If you use too many transitions between slides, it may easily distract your audience and make it more challenging to understand your message. If you’re using transitions, use no more than two types of effects, choose simple transitions and don’t use them between every slide.

7.                      Avoid Sound Effects

Sound effects can obstruct your presentation and distract others from your message. Your audience can easily lose focus with sound effects that are unrelated to your presentation. Use music only when extremely necessary to highlight a point and try to avoid irrelevant sound effects altogether.

8.                      Use Audio and Video if Necessary

Audio-visual aids are a great way to gain the audience’s attention and will make the subject matter simpler to comprehend. These multimedia elements can often state your thoughts more easily and will separate any string of text-filled slides. Try to use audio and video that adds value to your presentation and does not digress from your overall message.

9.                      Use Quality Images

Images are a great way to separate the monotony of text and statistical content in a presentation. When adding photographs or graphics to your presentation, make sure the resolution is large enough to fit within the confines of your layout and not be blurry at the same time. If needed, use open-source websites such as Gettyimages.com for high-quality images to add to your presentation.

10.                  Review Your Presentation upon Completion

Once you think you have completed your presentation and covered every topic, review your slides from the beginning.

A well-edited PowerPoint will add credibility and value to your work. Read through every slide as if you’re seeing it for the first time, check for redundancy and remove anything that doesn’t add value. Simplify your wording and proofread for spelling and grammar.

A PowerPoint’s purpose is to highlight key points in your message. Rehearse your presentation, time yourself and use the slides to navigate through your speech. Know your subject material and when you feel ready to present, do so confidently.

5.                      State the importance of audio-visual aids while making presentations. Also give guidelines for using them.

Spoken words are ephemeral: as soon as they come out of our mouth they evaporate into air. Because of this limitation, speeches often need strong visual support – handouts, chalkboards, flip chart, slides, computers, charts, tables, film, etc.

The importance of visual aids:

• Increase audience interest
• Illustrate key points
• Signal transition from one part of the presentation to the next
• Increase impact of message
• Help listeners retain information
• Help you; present ideas without depending on notes
• For those not familiar with your language or accent, turn the incomprehensible to understandable.

Guidelines to make effective visuals:

1. If you feel that the audience needs explanations for your visual aids explain to them lest they should misunderstand it.
2. Organize the visual aids as a part of the presentation. Fit them into the plan.
3. Emphasize the visual aids. Point to them with bodily action and with words.
4. Talk to the audience, not to the visual aids. Make sure that lecterns, pillars, charts, and such don’t block anyone’s view. Take care not to stand in anyone’s line of vision.
5. Refrain from removing the aid before the audience has an opportunity to absorb the material.
6. Don’t talk about the visual aid after you have put it aside.
7. Use enough visuals to make your points clear, but don’t overdo it.
8. Don’t use too many lines or figures on one aid, make sure that it’s visible to one and all from all the corners of room.
9. It should not be very light that the audience finds it too hard to see. Too small an illustration will not be visible to those in the back of the audience.
10. Keep them at an inconspicuous place, if aids are too many, or they may distract the attention of the audience.
11. Be familiar with the basic operation of the electronic devices which you would use for your presentation.

6.                      What are the principles of using audio-visual aids?

Below are the principles on how to use visual aids in presentations:

1.                       Slides should support your message, not behave instead. If you look at the speeches on Ted.com you will notice that the focus is on the speaker, not the slides. Watch Dr. Kristina M. Johnson (Figure 2), an engineer and former Secretary of the Energy, discuss a clean 20-minute economy at the Institute of International and European Affairs. We don't need slides to understand what you're saying.

2.                      Visual presentations and written reports speak different languages. In other words, you can simply cut and paste words and images into your reports into slides. Think about how your audience is different from your reader, and how you can use visual presentation language to your advantage. Here, the authors demonstrate by looking at how decision-making factors (blue) match their specific intentions by building a production environment.

 Keep the slides simple. When your material is more comprehensible, you should simplify the presentation to the reader. As Doumont puts it, "increase the signal-to-noise ratio" (2010). Neuroscientist Stephen Kosslyn observes that "audience members in general can only hold 'cctualtual units' (a word, phrase or image) at a time." (Grant, 2010). Pay attention to font size and images. Alley recommends keeping the font side below 18 points (2003, 116). What if you need to show good detail? Make a handout.

Three websites offer detailed tips on how to prepare presentation slides:

o                         Michael Alley's Writing Guidelines for Students of Engineering and Science at Penn State include links to pages that discuss examples of excellent slide projects and suggest another template for PowerPoint performance. Alley introduces the argument with the "Assertion-Evidence Structure", where the title of the article is "implied" and the body provides "evidence."

o                         Jean-Luc Doumont's support website for his book Trees, maps, and books that offer perspective, direct advice on producing professional texts, oral presentations and illustrations. In his link, "Explore Articles," the "Practical Display Applications" section shows how to improve graphs, having practical examples before and after examples.

o                         Melissa Marshall’s Being a successful presenter of engineering and science, and at Penn State, provides detailed guidelines on Structure, Speech, Delivery, and Visual Aids. Also, very useful for this site is its use of video examples, both TED talks and student presentations.

7.                      What is teleconferencing?

High-speed data connections allow for the use of teleconferencing, virtual meetings held over audio and video links. Teleconferencing can save substantial amounts of money otherwise spent on pass by connecting important employees in far-flung branches together to share ideas and information. The use of virtual whiteboards, communal data-sharing platforms where remote users can interact as if round the same table, further increase the chances of the virtual workplace. Teleconferencing only has audio. Teleconferencing allows you to be a neighbourhood of a virtual meeting even while you’re on the move. During a teleconference, if there are quite a couple of individuals, things become tons more chaotic. They're more useful for smaller groups and quicker discussions. Teleconferencing conference calls allow just for one main group. In teleconferencing, you've got to be a touch more old-fashioned with a separate device or a paper file with the knowledge ahead of you.

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.

Teleconferencing 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. Teleconferencing 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 teleconferencing encompass meetings, training events, lecture, presentations from a web-connected computer to other web-connected computers.

Teleconferencing 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.

8.                      What are the advantages of teleconferencing?

Five Advantages of Web Conferencing Solutions are:

1. Application and Desktop Sharing

One of the most important advantages of teleconferencing 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

Teleconferencing 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 teleconferencing 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

Teleconferencing tools can even be employed to improve customer support and relationships. Utilizing the benefits of teleconferencing 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 teleconferencing benefit is that it allows your organization to act without geographical limitations. You can manage and run all the operations of your company through teleconferencing 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 teleconferencing solutions ensures that your entire organization is working on the same page, vastly improving the data flow of the corporate.

9.                      What are the main features of a FAX machine?

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)

10.                  Provide reasons why FAX machines relevant in today’s internet age.

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.