Chapter 10
Basic Skills Count
Lesson 10.1
Getting Your Message Across
Getting Your Message Across
Discover
How to apply the basics of
speaking
How to listen effectively
continued
Chapter 10 Basic Skills Count
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Getting Your Message Across
Discover
How to improve your reading and
writing skills
How to use images, or pictures,
to present ideas
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Getting Your Message Across
Why It’s Important
Basic skills are tools for getting
information and sharing ideas.
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Getting Your Message Across
Key Terms
communication
purpose
audience
subject
active listening
previewing
Chapter 10 Basic Skills Count
continued
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Key Terms
skimming
context clues
images
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Getting Your Message Across
Getting Your Message
Across
The exchange of information
between senders and receivers is
called communication.
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Getting Your Message Across
Getting Your Message
Across
Communication skills are among
the most important basic skills you
can have.
Speaking Listening Reading
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Writing
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Getting Your Message Across
Speaking
Talking is an important part of
relationships.
It is also an important part of
nearly every kind of work.
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Getting Your Message Across
Speaking
In the work world, speaking is
one of the main ways of sharing
information.
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Getting Your Message Across
Having a Purpose
Most people have a purpose, or
overall goal or reason, for
speaking.
It is important to have a clear
purpose in mind when speaking.
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Getting Your Message Across
Know Your Audience
Knowing your audience can help you
achieve your purpose in speaking.
An audience is anyone who receives
information. When you speak, your
listeners are your audience.
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Know Your Subject
You should know your subject—
your main topic or key idea—
when speaking.
Getting to know your subject may
require some preparation.
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Planning Ahead
To know your purpose, audience,
and subject, you need to plan
ahead.
Think about what you’re going to
say before you speak.
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Good Speaking Habits
No matter what the situation, how
you say something will be just as
important as what you have to
say.
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Getting Your Message Across
Graphic Organizer
Good Speaking Habits
Connect with your
audience.
Make eye contact with your listeners.
Address people by name if possible.
Match your body
language to your
message.
Check your posture and facial expressions.
Use appropriate gestures.
Avoid nonwords.
Avoid uh and um and “empty” words such as
well, sort of, like, and kind of.
continued
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Getting Your Message Across
Graphic Organizer
Good Speaking Habits
Stress key ideas with
inflection.
Inflection is the pitch or loudness of your
voice.
Use correct
pronunciation.
Pronunciation is how you say the sounds
and stresses of a word.
Practice enunciation.
Enunciation is speaking each syllable
clearly and separately.
Be enthusiastic and
positive.
Remember, attitude counts!
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Getting Your Message Across
Listening
Like speaking, listening takes
practice.
When you listen, you use your
brain to interpret, or make sense
of, what you hear
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Active Listening
Good listeners show that they
care about what someone is
saying.
Active listening is listening and
responding with full attention to
what’s being said.
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Try This Activity
Practice Active
Listening
Try active listening with your friends,
family members, and teachers.
continued
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Try This Activity
Practice Active
Listening
Note Reactions Note how people
react when you pay attention to what
they’re saying.
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Getting Your Message Across
Taking Notes
Taking notes helps you
remember facts and keeps your
attention focused.
When you take notes, both your
mind and your body are involved
in listening.
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Getting Your Message Across
Reading and Writing
Employers value employees who
can read and write well.
Employees with these skills can
take in and process large
amounts of information.
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Key Reading Skills
Previewing is reading only the
parts of a written work that
outline or summarize its content.
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Key Reading Skills
Skimming is another timesaving
reading skill.
You are skimming when you
read through a book or document
quickly, picking out main ideas
and key points.
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Key Reading Skills
Context clues are hints about the
meaning of unfamiliar words or
phrases provided by the words
surrounding them.
You can use context clues to
understand the meaning of words
you don’t know.
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Getting Your Message Across
Reading on the Job
Keep polishing your reading
skills.
You’ll need them just as much in
the future as you do now.
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Writing Basics
Writing is a way to communicate.
You can communicate better
when you know why you’re
writing, and what you’re writing
about.
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Graphic Organizer
Writing Tips
Organize
Your
Writing
Check
Spelling
and
Grammar
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Proofread
Your
Work
Watch
Your Tone
Edit Your
Work
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Forms of Business
Writing
Businesspeople often use memos
to communicate with others.
Memos are usually brief and focus
on a limited topic.
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Forms of Business
Writing
Letters are more formal than
memos.
Letters are used to communicate
with people outside the office who
are customers or who work in
other businesses.
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Forms of Business
Writing
The purpose of a report is to
address a topic at length.
People both within and outside an
office may read reports.
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Forms of Business
Writing
Today, most written business
communication is sent by e-mail.
E-mail enables fast communication.
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Forms of Business
Writing
E-mail should be written carefully
and formally.
It should be considered a public
and permanent record.
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Getting Your Message Across
Using Images to
Express Ideas
Images include photographs,
illustrations, videos, maps, and
graphs.
Images grab people’s attention
and interest them in a subject.
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Graphic Organizer
Working With Images
Can this image say
something that I
couldn’t say with
words?
?
?
Is the message of the
image clear?
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Is the image accurate?
Up-to-date?
In good taste?
?
Is the image
interesting? Will it
catch people’s
attention?
?
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Getting Your Message Across
Attitude Counts
Learning From Mistakes
It’s easy to learn from successes, but
what about mistakes? Part of becoming a
successful worker is learning how to have
a sense of humor about your own
mistakes.
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Critical Thinking Review
Critical Thinking
Q What might happen if you do not take time
to figure out your purpose before speaking?
A You might ramble and lose the interest of
your listeners. You might also forget an
important point, or be unable to guide your
audience clearly from one point to the next.
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End of Chapter 10
Basic Skills Count
Lesson 10.1
Getting Your Message Across