{"id":12107,"date":"2018-09-30T15:05:56","date_gmt":"2018-09-30T23:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/?p=12107"},"modified":"2023-01-06T20:27:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-07T04:27:00","slug":"skills-360-english-communication-clear-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/2018\/09\/30\/skills-360-english-communication-clear-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Skills 360 &#8211; Communicating Clearly in English (2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-12107-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/bizpod\/360.70-Communicating2.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/bizpod\/360.70-Communicating2.mp3\">https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/bizpod\/360.70-Communicating2.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/businessenglishpod.com\/quiz\/360.70POD\/index.html\" title=\"Business English Skills 360 Lesson - Communicating Clearly in English 2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Skills-360-Communicating-Clearly-in-English-2-Lesson-600x258.jpg\" alt=\"Skills 360 - English Communication 2\" width=\"600\" height=\"258\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-12115\" srcset=\"https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Skills-360-Communicating-Clearly-in-English-2-Lesson-600x258.jpg 600w, https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Skills-360-Communicating-Clearly-in-English-2-Lesson-300x129.jpg 300w, https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Skills-360-Communicating-Clearly-in-English-2-Lesson-768x330.jpg 768w, https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Skills-360-Communicating-Clearly-in-English-2-Lesson-200x86.jpg 200w, https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Skills-360-Communicating-Clearly-in-English-2-Lesson-400x172.jpg 400w, https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Skills-360-Communicating-Clearly-in-English-2-Lesson-800x344.jpg 800w, https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Skills-360-Communicating-Clearly-in-English-2-Lesson.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Welcome back to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/category\/business-english-360\/\" title=\"Business English Skills 360 Lessons\">Business English Skills 360<\/a> for today&#8217;s lesson on how to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/category\/communication-skills\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">communicate clearly in English.<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There are times when you want to impress people with your language abilities. But there are actually far more situations that require the opposite approach &#8211; situations where you don&#8217;t want to risk confusing people, so you want to make sure you&#8217;re <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/category\/communication-skills\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">communicating clearly<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>In our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/2018\/09\/22\/skills-360-english-communicating-clearly-1\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">last lesson<\/a>, I talked about clear pronunciation and word choice. Today I want to look at making clear sentences and organizing your message. <\/p>\n<p>When it comes to sentences, shoot for simple and short. Rather than stringing a bunch of ideas into one long sentence, break it up into several short ones. Use simple words like \u201cbut\u201d and \u201cso\u201d instead of words like \u201cnevertheless\u201d and \u201cconsequently.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s something else that can add clutter to our sentences: the softening words and phrases we use to be diplomatic, polite, or careful. These expressions can be very important when the situation requires. But not all situations or audiences require such diplomacy. We also have some very confusing ways of asking questions in English. And if you&#8217;re trying to be clear, you should avoid some of these. That includes tag questions, such as \u201cyou&#8217;re quite busy, aren&#8217;t you?\u201d And negative questions, like \u201caren&#8217;t you going to read my report?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The last thing I want to talk about is how we structure our messages. And I mean longer messages, like a set of instructions or something. First off, it&#8217;s good to be clear about purpose. Tell people what you&#8217;re going to tell them. That&#8217;s exactly what I did when I said \u201cthe last thing I want to talk about is how we structure our messages.\u201d You see, when you heard that, you knew exactly what I was going to talk about next.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, it&#8217;s a good idea to use words like \u201csecondly.\u201d We call this \u201csignposting.\u201d Signposting is basically giving clear structure and logic to what you&#8217;re saying. That means introducing things clearly. It means outlining, using words like \u201cfirst, second, third\u201d and \u201clast.\u201d But it also means being clear about how your ideas fit together. Signposting makes it a lot easier for people to follow what you&#8217;re saying, and to remember it!<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, it&#8217;s a good idea to summarize what you&#8217;ve said. Just a little recap is good enough. And you can introduce your summary using signposting expressions like \u201cto sum up\u201d or \u201cwhat I&#8217;ve been trying to say is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>[tp no_translate=&#8221;y&#8221;]<strong>Lesson Resources: <a href=\"https:\/\/businessenglishpod.com\/quiz\/360.70POD\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lesson Module<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/businessenglishpod.com\/quiz\/360.70QIZ\/presentation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Quiz &amp; Vocab<\/a> | <a href=\"\/quiz\/360SN-Communicating2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PDF Transcript<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Download: <a href=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/bizpod\/360.70-Communicating2.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Podcast MP3<\/a><\/strong>[\/tp]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn how to improve your English communication skills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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