Forms of Communication

Forms of Communication

In a general way, communication can be of three broad types- oral, written and nonverbal.

Verbal communication

The verbal communication is a type of oral communication when in a message is transmitted through the word spoken.

In oral or verbal communications, information is given directly, either through face-to- face or through telephone, mobile phones or office intercom. Meetings, lectures, seminar, conferences, interviews are example of verbal communication. There are some points for the oral communication which can be summed up as follows:

·           Saves time and money

·           Provides personal touch

·           Tends to be more effective as the feedback can be received immediately

·           Doubts can be clarified on the spot

·           Chances of understanding are better

·           Provides greater flexibility

Disadvantages of Oral Communication

·           Oral communication suffers from some inherent limitations.

·           It is not always feasible (as in the case of long distances and sometime beyond the network services).

·           Not appropriate for lengthy or complicated conversation.

·           Not suitable for keeping records

·           It has no legal validity and hence lead to problems in certain situations.

·           May have chances of misunderstanding.

Non- verbal communication

It refers to the clues we send to others all the time regarding our feelings and emotions, either knowingly or unknowingly through our facial expressions, gestures and body postures, emphasis and intonations on some words, and the physical distance between the sender and receiver.

Advantages

·           The message of non verbal communication reaches very fast and reduces the waste of time.

·           Non verbal cues of communication like sign and symbols can be communicated quickly than written or oral messages.

·           Helps illiterates people.

Disadvantages

·           Non verbal communication is vague because words or languages are not used.

·           Long conversation and necessary explanation are not possible.

·           It cannot be used at public tool for communication.

·           In some cases it involves huge cost. e.g. neon sign, power point presentation etc. are very much costly compared to the other forms of communication.

Written communication

It is a formal method of communicating. It can provide more information to the receiver that what is not possible in oral communication. Oral communications may take the forms of reports, circular, memos, note, manual etc. writing is more reliable than speech.

Advantages of written communication

·           Suitable for lengthy matters.

·           At times it might be the only available form of communication ( as in long distance transactions).

·           Can be maintained as a permanent record for later references.

Disadvantages of written communication

·           Time consuming and sometimes costly.

·           Has a greater chance of mis-interpretation and misunderstanding.

·           Difficult to maintain secrecy.

·           Suffer from lack of flexibility.