Communication Skills

Communication is fundamental for our survival and quality of life. We communicate ideas, views,
information, feelings, love, our likes and dislikes and our appreciation in so many different ways.
This is the subject we will be exploring today. Language is one of the most powerful means of
communication. In my presentation I will deal with this in detail. We will be mainly concentrating on
communication in English.

Our first activity in communication today is self-introduction

I am going to do this session as an exercise to find out your current skills in communicating about
yourself to the rest of the audience. Please use the following aspects in your introduction.

Name

Age

Your employment?

Work experience

Education

Sports

Extra-curricular activities

Travelling, exploring, touring, site seeing, mountain climbing, cycling ---

Reading culture – do you read ? If so what do you read? How long you read each day?

General knowledge – tell us about your general knowledge.

Current affairs – social, political, science, technology, sport, wars, parliament etc. through,
newspapers, radio, TV

Humour

TV/cinema

English/Sinhala proficiency

Your aspirations

About yourself – your personality, about your unique qualities – what are the things you enjoyed
doing in your life and what are the things you hated doing?

What are your expectations today?

Our second activity today

How do you communicate?

Body language
Eyes

Face

Hands

Language – words, verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, phrases and sentences.

Spoken communication

Written communication

Electronic communication

TV/Cinema/radio/internet

Music

Dance

Signs

We will now move on to spoken and written communication in English, which is the key for you to
succeed socially, professionally and intellectually.

Why?

English has now become an international language. If you spoke only Tamil your life will be
confined to the NP only.

If you are proficient in Tamil and Sinhala you can travel, work and live happily in any part of Sri
Lanka, without being handicapped in any way. Proficiency in Tamil and Sinhalese for all Sri
Lankans is also essential for social and political intercourse, for a better understanding between
Tamils and Sinhala people and for peace and reconciliation. It will become difficult for politicians to
divide and rule as has been. So tri-lingualism is a national and local need.

If you are proficient in Tamil, Sinhala and English you can operate anywhere in the world with
confidence. You will be international and universal with unlimited access to knowledge. Your
personality will expand and you will feel empowered. Your employment chances will be very high
indeed.

Why English?

International language – it is the language of all the powerful countries

Trade description and labels are generally in English

Internet access

Essential to secure employment

Knowledge store

Powerful, very v versatile and well developed language

Today the language of nearly all professions is English.

Certainly Engineering cannot be practiced without English proficiency.

All the engineering terminologies are in English.

Engineering education is in English

Nearly all the engineering books are in English.

All the codes of practice, specifications, conditions of contract, bill of quantities, ICTAD
publications, contract documents, drawings are all in English.

So not only engineers but technical officers and even supervisors must have sufficient knowledge in
English language to be able to perform their duties effectively. They must be able to:

Read and clearly understand the contract documents

You need to communicate with the consultant, employer, client, statutory bodies, government and
local government departments, security forces etc (1) verbally, (2) in writing, (3) by telephone,
texting or electronically with ease and confidence.

Technical staff must clearly understand all the technical, contractual and legal terms.

Let us now have a brainstorming session on this:

Contract documents?

Contract period

Contract duration

Compensation event and notification of a compensation event

Variation – as a supervisor how do you handle variation?

Acceleration

BOQ

Liquidated damages

Extension of time

Adjudication

Arbitration

Dispute resolution

Health and safety

The Engineer

The Contractor
The Employer/Client

Funding Agent

Tender drawing

Construction drawing

Shop drawing

As built drawing

Inventory

Maintenance manuals

Warrantee certificates

Retention and release of retention

Defects liability period or maintenance period

Quality Assurance - ISO 9000 certification

Quality control

Health and safety at work – who is responsible for this?

Performance bond

Advance payment

Advance payment bond

Method statement – how to write a method statement

Contractual correspondence

Uneconomic sequence of construction

Cash flow problems

Contract clauses

Architecture, aesthetics, sustainability, green building concept, environment friendly, green house
effect, Ozone layer depletion, temperature rise, rise of sea level, renewable energy, deforestation ,
reforestation, carbon positive, carbon negative, energy content of a building etc..

Duties and responsibilities of the Engineer, Employer, the Contractor, workers and the public

To make your communication effective it is important to know clearly what you want to
communicate.

So prepare yourself first on this before starting to communicate (martial your thoughts)
Before you make a telephone call jot down the points you need to communicate on a paper or in your
mind. You must do the same before you start writing a contractual or any other letters.

Use the most effective and appropriate words

Don’t make any spelling mistakes

Don’t make any grammatical mistakes or at least minimize them as far as possible.

Credibility and professionalism suffers through such mistakes. Your company’s image suffers.

Never beat about the bush. Learn to write clear, short, sharp, evidence based and polite letters.

Writing styles:

Official letters

Contractual letters

Informal letters

Personal letters

Letters to friends, relations, sisters, brothers, your children etc. Letters from Nehru to Indira
Gandhi?

Love letters! How do you start? Darling? Sweet heart? Honey?

Report writing – direct speech and indirect speech

Essay writing – techniques of essay writing, brain storming, list of points, paragraphing,
arrangement of logic and analysis, introduction and conclusion. Must be interesting to read, clear
ideas, well focused, convincing, informative, factually correct etc.

How to improve your English:

Build up your vocabulary – words, spelling, pronunciation and meaning, learning just 5 new words
per day will take you on the fast track!

Learn the basic rules of grammar – verbs, nouns, adjective, adverb, preposition, tenses and how they
can be connected in sentences.

Learn to form complete sentences

Listen to people who speak good English

Listen to radio and TV in English

Read news papers, journals, novels, sports TV

Try speaking in English – it does not matter if you make mistakes

Learn the use of English in different situations – spoken as well as written:

Social situation, personal, sports, cultural, political, technical, professional, human relations, legal,
contractual etc.

Letter writing

Report writing

Preparation of minutes of meeting

Answering telephone (telephone manners) - speak loud and clear

Use words like please, kindly, thank you, grateful, If you don’t mind, can I help you, how can I help
you, always ask name, tel.no, position, fax no, e-mail address etc.

Be polite and be always helpful and service minded.

Company’s image depends on you

Be positive – don’t ever say you do not know. If you don’t know say that I will try to find out.

You must sound optimistic always, never be pessimistic.

Different ways to write letters:

Official letters: Always be precize

Dear Sir/Madam,

Always do a subject title

I refer to your letter or further to your letter etc. I confirm the following:

Please be informed that ----

Please find enclosed ----

Please provide the following information ---

As per Clause 9 of the contract, we are entitled to compensation ----

Shall we will do now a cross word puzzle – it will be fun as well as a learning process?

Please ask any questions on anything and everything!

Now I want all of you to make resolution for yourselves on what will you do from today to improve
your English communication. This is the last and concluding part of today’s session.

Eng.M. Sooriasegaran