Office of Academic Affairs
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal

HSS 101: English for Communication (2)

Learning Objectives:

In this course students will learn the importance of and strategies for effective communication. The course is aimed at giving students basic English skills and to improve their existing skills to enable them to communicate effectively in their professional lives. It will give them an overview of the importance of good communication, processesand the different kinds of communications used. It will help students to develop and improve the four communication activities: listening, speaking, reading and writing, teaching them skills and strategies for effective communication through these different modes. Language skills,common grammatical mistakes etc will also be addressed. The course is aimed at giving students an understanding of the processes and challenges of communication, while simultaneously offering opportunities for anapplication and practice based learning, which will help them to practically implement their theoretical knowledge in communication studies in practical situations.

Course Contents:

Communication Skills: Process of communication; Different types of communication: Formal and Informal, Oral and Written, Verbal and Nonverbal Communication; Body language and its significance in communication

Reading Skills: Process of reading; Ways to improve reading skills; Reading comprehension skills: Practice exercises

Language Skills:Common grammatical mistakes: Sentence fragments, Comma splice, Run-together fused sentences; Faulty agreement and reference of pronouns; Errors of number and structure, Shifts in point of view; Mixed constructions; Articles; Identifying grammatically incorrect sentences and correcting them: Exercises

Speaking Skills: Importance of speaking in professional life; Common mistakes while speaking; Strategies for effective speaking;Types of speaking; Different speaking activities: Oral presentations: Different types of presentations, Planning and delivering effective presentations;Group discussion: Strategies and mistakes; Interview; Speaking practice and activities

Listening Skills: Importance of good listening skills; Process of listening; Barriers to listening; Effective listening, Listening practice: Note-taking, answering questions after listening.

Writing Skills: Formal writing; Paragraph writing; Summary writing; Technical writing: Qualities and aims;Letter Writing: Qualities and goals, Types of letters; Resume and Job application; Emails and Netiquette; Combination of different communication skills like reading and writing, and listening and writing: Summarising main ideas/arguments after reading and listening

Selected Readings

• Meenakshi Raman &Sangeeta Sharma, Technical Communication: Principles and Practice(Oxford University Press, 2011)
• Matthukutty M Monippally, Business Communication Strategies (Oxford University Press, 2011)
• Andrea J. Rutherfoord, Basic Communication Skills for Technology (Pearson Education, 2010)
• M Ashraf Rizvi, Effective Technical Communication (Tata McGraw- Hill, 2005)

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