Administrative & Business Communication AKU, CBE, Management Department

CHAPTER THREE

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION PRINCIPLES

3.1 Introduction
The application of business communication principles helps to communicate effectively through
letters, memorandums, reports, speeches, telephones, face-to-face conversation, etc. The
commonly used principles in business communication these principles are called 7Cs. The 7 Cs
provide a checklist for making sure that your meetings, emails, conference calls, reports, and
presentations are well constructed and clear – so your audience gets your message.
The commonly used principles are:
1. Principle of Completeness

Your business letter is “complete” when it contains all facts the reader needed for the reaction
you desire. To achieve both the specific purpose of the message and goodwill, examine your
messages to make sure that you have covered everything you intended to cover and that you
provided sufficient detail for your reader/receiver to know what you expect of him/her.
Complete letter also minimizes the possible cost of additional letter. To make your message
complete, make sure the reader/receiver knows who is to do what as well as where, when and
why he/she is to do it. The message should be complete to bring desirable results. It should
include everything the reader needs for the reaction you desire. You must know what
information our reader wants or needs; you should be able to know the reader’s background
viewpoint needs, attitudes and emotions.
In a complete message, the audience has everything they need to be informed and, if applicable, and
take action.
Furthermore to ensure completeness:
 Answer all questions asked by the reader/receiver.
 Answer anticipated questions the reader may have but forgot to ask.
 Provide all the information necessary for the reader/receiver to make a logical decision.
 Explicitly ask the reader/receiver to perform an action required, as may be necessary.
 Make the subject content sufficiently clear to accomplish the business objective and
 Make the feeling suitable to accomplish the human objective.

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2. Principle of Conciseness
Conciseness is one of the most important principles of effective business writing because a wordy
message requires more time and money to type and read. Conciseness is writing a message in the
minimum possible words without sacrifice completeness and courtesy. Conciseness involves
eliminating unnecessary words. This means economy in writing saves time and money. The following
are suggestions that could help to achieve conciseness.
I. Omit unnecessary and longer expressions – Example: Use thank you” instead of "I want to
thank you".
II. Avoid unnecessary repetition and wordy statements – Avoid unnecessary repetition even
though it is sometimes necessary for emphasis. Here are some ways to eliminate unnecessary
repetition.
 Use a short name after you have mentioned the longer one once. For example, instead of the
Guna Trading company, “use the company”
 Use pronouns rather than repeating long names. For instance, instead of using “the Ethiopian
Insurance Company" again and again, uses “it.”
 Omit unnecessary articles, relative pronouns prepositions, and conjunctions Example:
Article:
The evidence we have Evidence we have
Relative pronoun:
He said that he agreed. He said he agreed.
Prepositional phrase:
Date of the policy Policy date
Conjunction:
and colon or period
Wordy Concise
During the year of 1993 during 1993
For the reason that since, because
3. Principle of Concreteness: The business writing should be specific definite unambiguous and
vivid rather than vague and general. The following guidelines lead to concreteness.
- Use specific facts and figures

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- Put action in your verb

- Choose vivid image building words.
- Comparison & figurative language
- Use more adjectives and adverbs.
i. Use specific facts and figures – To make your message concrete, use exact facts and
Figures rather than general words. Example:
Vague, general, indefinite. Concrete and convincing
Our product has won several (Name) product has won first prize
Prizes.
Put action in your verbs – Strong verbs can activate other words and help made your sentences
definite. To write strong sentences:
 Use active rather than passive verbs, and
 Put action in your verbs instead of in nouns and infinitives.
Example: “The board of directors decided” is more explicit than “A decision has been made.”The
passive requires more words and thus, slows both the writing and reading. For instance: “Figures
show” is more concise than “It is shown by figures.
Action must also be put in verbs, not in nouns and infinitives. Notice the following examples:
Action hiding in a Noun Action in the verb
The function of this office is the This office collects accounts
collection of accounts and the and compiles statements.
compilation of statements.
Action hiding in Infinitive Action in the verb
The duty of a stenographer is A stenographer checks and
to check all incoming mail and records all incoming mail.
to record it.

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4. Principle of Clarity
Clarity is the transfer of the writer’s thoughts to a reader without misunderstanding. It is the single
most important factor in communication. A misunderstood message is worse than no message at all.
A message that is not clear to a reader cannot possibly communicate the writer’s intentions. Thus,
clarity is the writer’s first responsibility. The first and most important task of the writer is to be
understood. That is, the writer wants to have his/her reader interpret the message with the same
meaning as intended. Clarity demands that the business message should be correct concise complete
concrete and with consideration. When writing or speaking to someone, be clear about your goal or
message. Clarity is getting your message understood by others. The receiver must interpret your
message with the same meaning in your (sender’s) mind. The following are some specific ways that
help to make business writing clear.
Choose short and simple words rather than long and complicated words
Generally, short, familiar and everyday words communicate more effectively than longer and less
known words. Therefore, use short and familiar words if your reader is to understand your message.

Example:
Complicated word simple word
Interrogate ask
Subsequent to after
Give consideration to consider
In addition, when you select words you should make sure that the words you have selected would
mean the same thing to your audience as they do to you. Words have both denotations (dictionary
meaning) and connotations (associated, personal meanings). The words inexpensive and cheap can
denote the same thing. But their connotations are different. For most people, inexpensive simply
means low in cost while cheap means poorly made or a poor value.
Avoid ambiguous and equivocal words
Ambiguous words have more than one meaning and equivocal words. Whenever possible, avoid
technical jargons when you talk or write to a person who is not familiar with such words. If you must
use technical words, define them briefly and clearly, otherwise you will confuse, embarrass, or irritate
your reader, and perhaps be forced to explain later.
Example:

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Technical jargon Expressions familiar to layperson

Annual premium annual payment
Assessed valuation value of property for tax purpose
Charge to your principal increase the balance of your loan
Maturity date final payment date
Per diem daily
Use concrete and specific words rather than general and abstract words
Specific language enables the reader to visualize the action of your letter and it creates believability.
Always give exact facts, figures, details, explanations and examples.
Use short and simple sentences
Sentence structure is also an important consideration in achieving clarity. The easiest sentences to
read and to understand are short, simple sentences using active voice in the past, present, or future
tense and making an explicit statement. While it is true that to avoid monotony, sentence length
should be varied; short sentences are easier to read and are therefore usually clearer than long
sentences. Use short sentences for your main ideas, and place supporting information in the longer
sentences. Beyond proper length, sentences seem to grow weaker with added word.
Your message must be definite and straight forward
State your message explicitly rather than implicitly. Using specific and concrete words will help you
make explicit statements. Example:
Explicit: By ordering now, you will receive two issues absolutely free.
Construct effective sentences and paragraphs
Clear writing depends on logical structure. A clear message requires a definite beginning, middle and
end. In addition to the logical structure, the writer also needs to provide the reader with a unified
message that moves clearly from point to point.
A unified message has continuity of thought. Unity and structure requires planning. You should group
related ideas together and then arrange the groups into a logical sentence. Eliminate ideas that do not
pertain to either your subject content or your feeling content. So that your reader will always know
where your message has been and where it is going as you move from idea to idea, provide your
reader with a clear, specific reference to the preceding idea or anticipate your next idea with an
explicit statement of direction. As a result your statement (writing) should aim for unity and
coherence.

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5. Principle of Correctness
When your communication is correct, it fits your audience. And correct communication is also error-
free communication. Communication is correct when it bears real information and uses formally
appropriate titles of persons, words etc to express matters.
Presenting a message correctly helps you to avoid the risk of miscommunication. Mistakes cause
misunderstanding and they can destruct the recipients from concentrating on the intended message.
Besides, errors can affect the credibility of the sender and the message. As a principle of effective
writing the broad term correctness refers to:
 Correct figures, accurate statements, facts and explicit identification of assumptions an opinion.
It is obvious that without correct figures and statements, accurate communication is impossible.
 Correct spelling, grammar, mechanics, and language usage. Misspelled words, faulty
punctuation, and awkward constructions will be barriers to communication. Your ability to use
language correctly and to write a message free from superficial errors is a nonverbal message that
tells your readers that you are an intelligent, careful person who cares enough about them to pay
attention to the details of your message. Because your letters, memos, and reports provide a lasting
record of your abilities to think, write and communicate about business matters, you should take the
time to ensure correctness since communication errors will undermine your business effectiveness.
Thus, as a writer of a business letter, you should apply the following guidelines in your
communication.
Use correct level of language, spelling, and grammar and mechanics.
 Use short, well-known, and conversational words.
 Spelling - misspelled words are the single most common error in business letters.
 Punctuation - Review the rules for using commas, semicolons, and quotation marks.
 Use colon before a list of items, Example: Use the first five English alphabets: A, B, C, D, and E.
 Use commas to separate items in a series. Use quotation- Example. For direct quotations when
said, “I will go to USA”
Subject - verb agreement. Subjects and verbs must agree in number and in person.
Example: The manager (singular) is (singular) quite young.
Ensure that the facts, figures and words used are accurate:
One erroneous digit can make a difference of thousands of money. Even small errors of a few cents
can be annoying to customers and undermine goodwill. To be sure of the accuracy of your facts, you

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should verify all statements before writing and again before you sign approve the message. You also
need to be up-to-date on laws that affect your organization.
Guessing or assuming that you are right can be costly. Just because a certain fact was true about a
customer last year- or even last month- does not assure it is true now. You should also realize that,
like most things in life, language is alive and ever changing. This is to say that language is in a
continuous development. New words emerge; old words die. The change in words may result
confusion in usage.
6. Principle of Consideration
The relationship between the message, the sender and the receiver profoundly affects communication
effectiveness. Consideration means that preparing a message with the recipient in mind. This includes
trying to put oneself in his/her place. It involves visualize and evaluating the recipient's situation, the
desires, problems, circumstances, emotions and probable reactions to one's request so as to adjust the
message from the recipient's point of view. This includes taking into account the language and tone of
your message. This thoughtful of consideration is also called “you - attitude,” empathy, the human
touch, and understanding of human nature.
To achieve consideration, it is necessary to apply the following.

 Show reader benefit & interest; your message should show interest in and concern
for the reader’s needs or viewpoints. Whenever possible and true, show how your
receivers will benefit from whatever the message asks or announces. If so, they will
be more likely to react favorably.

 Focus on YOU instead of I & WE: People or readers are usually concerned about
themselves than about others. They are likely to read your messages when they see
their names and the pronoun ‘you’ rather than ‘I’ or ‘we’us
Study the following example:
We – attitude: May I take this opportunity to express my thanks for the account you recently opened
with our store.
We are pleased to furnish a wide variety of products for the home or individual
You – attitude: Thank you for the account you recently opened at DASHEN’S.
Serving you with your needs for clothing and a home furnishing is a pleasure.

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As the foregoing example illustrates, a letter is likely to have better you – attitude when it contains
more “you’d” than “I’s.”
 Be honest
To be truly considerate, apply integrity - high moral standards, personal honor, truthfulness, sincerity-
to your messages. Integrity is always indispensable. Without it business communications would
prove worthless and our confidence in people would be shattered. Since you are an agent of your
company, always remember that your messages help build the company’s image.
7. Principle of Courtesy
Courteous message strengthen present relations and make new friends. It is a goodwill building.
Courtesy stems from sincere you-attitude. To make your message courtesy, be sincere, tactful,
thoughtful and appreciative, Omit expressions that hurt, irritate, or insult. Courtesy is more important
and advantageous in business writing than it is in face to face communication or conversation.
To be courteous, the communicator should follow the following suggestions regarding tone and
promptness of messages.
Be sincerely, Tactful, Thoughtful, and Appreciative
A truly courteous person sincerely likes people, is thoughtful of their feelings, and tries honestly to
help them. The courteous communicator tries to make messages tactful and shows thoughtful
appreciation in special messages as well as in every day communication.
Tactless Tactful.
Your letter is not clear at all: If I understand your letter
I can’t understand it. Correctly…..
Words that convey cordial and courteous messages in congratulations and appreciation (to persons
both inside and outside the organization) help build goodwill. Much money is spent on advertising to
attract new customers and to keep desirable old customers. While advertising may bring buyers into
the front door of your firm, discourteous letters can drive customers out the back door. Remember,
since customers indirectly help pay your salary; you should let them know you appreciate their orders,
payments and inquiries.
Omit Expressions that Irritate, Hurt, or Belittle
The thought-full business writer should avoid expressions that might offend the reader. Therefore, in
order to keep your letter courteous you have to avoid:
Irritating expressions such as “contrary to your inference” I do not agree with you”

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Belittling statements - Talking undermining a reader is another form of discourtesy that can have a
profoundly unfavorable effect.
Planning in Communication
Your careful planning of the message is most important for effective communication since your goal is
to gain desired reaction or action from the recipient. Thus, think and plan before you communicate.
This means, to determine what points to include in your message, and to determine how to arrange
those points for greatest effectiveness. You need to analyze the communication context by asking
yourself: what is the purpose of the message? What is the reader’s point of view? And what is
necessary to achieve the principles of effective communication? Planning in communication requires
applying the following steps:
 Understand the purpose of the message
Determine the receiver of your message and what you want to achieve. Your first step is to determine
what you want to achieve out of the message. Every message has two categories of purposes or
objectives.
Business objective- establishes the subject content. Your business objective is to obtain the
information that will help your dealer help you. Example: informing your reader that you are offering
a new product or service or persuading him/her to purchase the new product or service or informing
him/her the delay of the shipment. You may also inquire the availability of sufficient goods.
Human objective - establishes the feeling content. Your human objective is to establish empathy
with the reader so that a spirit of cooperation will prevail. This part of purpose is important to build
goodwill. Thus, be sure to keep, both your business purpose (specific) and human purpose (general), in
mind as you plan every message.
 Visualize your reader
Understand your reader and your reader’s point of view. Your reader can be a business or professional
person, superior, colleague or subordinate; man or woman; young, middle aged, or elderly new or
longtime customer; and so on. The different people with whom you are communicating will not have
the same point of view. Visualizing that there is an individual difference adjust your message
accordingly. Write your message with the individual reader in mind
 Choose the ideas that the message is to include

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Identifying the purpose and the ideas that the purpose is to include is helpful to avoid irrelevant ideas
and overall wordiness. The ideas you will include in the writing depend upon the type of message you
are considering.
 Get all the facts to support your ideas
Once you have determined the ideas, you must ensure that you have the necessary figures, facts and
quotations to support these ides. Be sure you know your company policy, procedures and product
details if this message requires them.
 Organize your ideas/thoughts
Before you write your message, outline your ideas in a sequence/logical order so that the flow of ideas
can be smooth.
 Write, revise, and proofread
Write and revise your message carefully. No matter your writing is routine short communication or
complex long communication you must read your draft objectively, from the viewpoint of your reader.
Make sure that your message meets all principles of effective business writing. Finally, after your
message is typewritten (handwritten) it needs careful proofreading. Proofreading is essential to correct
any possible error; so that your message will reflect favorably on you and your business.

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