The Role Of Words In Our Communicating Effectiveness

Words fitly spoken are like apples of Gold in a picture of Silver - this saying by a man of wisdom spells out the importance of using proper words. It is a skill. It is the skill of communicating.

A skill worth developing as it helps us to communicate using well-structured language with clarity of expression. A word loosely spoken can lose a friend or even cause a war. There are some people who do not care much about what they say or write. They react when an impulse moves and utter words that comes to their mind without thinking of the effect that such loosely spoken words would have on others.

Little they realize that words are like birds and once they fly away you cannot catch them back. It is interesting to analyze and find that there are different types of words as there are bad words; good words, words that flash anger, hatred, dislike and words the denote love, compassion, goodwill etc. Unusually, a bad word is sharp like the sharp ended knife or a sward. There are other words they are like blades with extreme sharpness at both edges and these words are the double meaning words. Some wise-man in the past has rightly said that the tongue is like a sharp knife and it can kill without drawing blood.

Therefore, we should be mindful of the word that comes through our tongue and through our pen as well. In society we often come across certain words that should be tagged in bold red -Danger-Handle with Care. We must make it a habit to listen before we talk and listen attentively and use restrain in what we say. We must always keep in our mind that a closed mouth catches no flies.We govern the world with words said one successful leader. Many leaders of men and women are good communicators. Their oratorical powers enabled them to captivate the hearts of their followers. They had the capability to cloth beautiful ideas in fitting words. The ability to use fitting words to captivate an audience is needed in business much more now than before with the advent of online communication innovations like sending emails with promotional videos and online advertising using movie clips and video clips and also Video-Conferencing.

Therefore, in this age of communication the clarity of expression in communication is of paramount importance. The business environment of today is more competitive with customer loyalty becoming a thing of the past. The customer loyalty is being challenged because the customers can easily find other options such as low priced products from China etc. For any communication to be effective in our competitive environment it has to be made strong and useful with certain quality enhancing requirements.

And these ingredients are

a) adequate preparation
b) sound knowledge of what is communicated
c) clarity of expression
c) new ideas
d) innovative presentation
e) relevance of what is communicated to the needs and interests of the listener or the audience
f) facts in support of the view point being expressed by the communicator and
g) the conclusion that should lead to a positive outcome such as a sale or an agreement.

And for a person to person presentation or an address or a sermon to a group what George Burns said will apply. He said that the secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending and to have the two as close as possible.

Therefore, the brevity of expression is as important as the clarity of expression in enhancing the effectiveness of any form of communication.