THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF ZANZIBAR
SCHOOL OF NATURAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
COURSE NAME
COURSE CODE
YEAR OF STUDY
SEMESTER OF STUDY
PROGRAM(S) OF STUDY
CREDIT POINTS
CONTACT HOURS PER WEEK
PREREQUISITE COURSE (S) :
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NONE
BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS
TM 1206
1
2
BTMM (Core)
10
3 HRS
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This is a more advanced and specific to tourism oriented communications skills course. The
course is introduced to equip students with skills related to the application of the effective
communications skills in service delivery, or marketing in tourism. The course aims at
preparing students to effectively manage the communication routines involved in different
tourism service industry as managers, accountants, decision makers and service provider.
The course is more advance, and specific to tourism orientations. Some of the topics covered
include effective business writing (brochures, articles, letters, memos etc.); presentations
and oral communications.
COURSE COMPETENCES

Communicate in a concise, clear, straightforward language.

Develop problem-solving and critical-thinking skills by analyzing business problems,
resulting in functional business documents: memoranda, letters, brochures, and
reports.

Strengthen writing and analytical skills by studying inductive and deductive
strategies, as well as comparing effective and ineffective business documents.

Communicate effectively as
perceptive and skillful communicators with
interpersonal, listening, and speaking skills necessary in both independent and
collaborative situations.

Apply functional and flexible communication skills within the expanding business of
tourism industry adhering to international, ethical, and diversity needs.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
The students aim at providing the advanced knowledge and skills of business
communication effective for tourism industry operation.
At the end of this course each student to be able to:
Use written Communication skillfully in different business situations for writing,
oral presentation.

Apply various types of written techniques, oral communications needed in day to
day tourist industry.
Course Outline
1. Introduction to Effective Communication in Business

Definition, characteristics, process, importance of communication in business,
different kinds of communication, features of communication.

Types of common spoken and written communication needs in tourism industry.

Elements of communication (verbal and non-verbal communication)
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Process for effective business messages
2. Effective Communication Principles:
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Completeness, clarity, conciseness, correctness, concreteness;

Gestures: considerations, manners: courtesy, presentations and follow-up or
feedback.
3. Different types/styles of the business letters:
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Direct request, inquiries, claims and requests for adjustments, requests regarding
routine business or public causes, invitations, orders, reservations, favorable replies,
unsolicited favorable messages, request, sales letter, evaluating your achievements,
market research, making preliminary career decisions, resume, job application letter.
4. Writing Business Report

Writing business Report: Meaning and classification of business reports, preparation
before writing reports, main parts of the report, organization and outline of report body,
visual aids, short reports, suggestions for short report, informational memorandum
reports, analytical memorandum reports with graphs, informational and analytical
report, formal report, working plans, prefatory parts: documentation and other notes,
supplemental parts, presentation of the formal report.

Preparation of brochures
ORAL PRESENTATION AND USE OF MODERN ELECTRONIC GADGETS:

Oral presentations and successful listening, improving oral presentations, improving
your listening. Successful informative speaking, purpose of informative speaking.
Analysis of audience. Organisation and outline of the informative speech. Support for
informative speeches, successful persuasive speaking. Purpose of persuasive speaking.
Audience analysis. organization of the persuasive speeches. Successful business
meetings. Meetings in business leadership responsibilities. Participant responsibilities.
Methods of solving problems in meetings.
TEACHING/LEARNING STRATEGIES
A combination of teaching/learning methodologies will be employed including lectures,
seminars, group discussions, field, assignments etc.
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
Assessment of this course will include Coursework 40% and End of Semester Examinations
60%. The grading criteria will be as follows:
 Test 1 & 2
20%
 Seminar Presentations
10%
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Practicals
Examination
10%
60%
REFERENCES:
Allred,
G.J. , Brusaw, C.T.
and Oliu, W. E.
(2012). Handbook of Technical Writing.
Macmilan. USA
Murphy, H. A. (1984) Effective Business Communication . McGraw Hill Company
Sundararaja, N. (2006) Effective Business Communication. SURA Boock Publishers
Taylor, S. (2005). Communication for Business: A Practical Approach. Pitman Publishing.
London.
Taylor, S. (2004). Model Business Letters, E-mails & Other Business Documents. FT
Prentice Hall