Here you will get more and more study material

1. EDUCATION HOLE PRESENTS
PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
Unit-II

2. Constituents of Technical Written Communication .................................................................. 2
Words....................................................................................................................................................................2
Phrases..................................................................................................................................................................3
Word formation...............................................................................................................................3
Homophones ...................................................................................................................................4
Homophone Triads ...............................................................................................................................................4
Homophone Pairs .................................................................................................................................................5
Parts of Speech ................................................................................................................................6
Techniques and Methods .................................................................................................................6
Constituents of Technical Written Communication
Words
Write in the active voice, Sentences can be written in either of 2 "voices": active voice ("Turn on
the power.") or passive voice ("The power should be turned on."). Active voice sentences are
simpler to write and easier to read than passive voice sentences.
• An exception to this rule is when the simplest active voice sentence is in the first person
("I turned on the power."). In this case, many sources prefer using a passive voice
sentence to prevent the document from sounding as though it's about the person writing
it. First person is appropriate when the author did something manually ("I turned on the
power."), but first person plural ("we") should be avoided, as it will confuse and put off
the reader.
Use the present tense whenever possible, The present tense sounds less stilted than the past tense
and is appropriate for any statement that is true when written and will remain true in the future.
Keep sentences short without being choppy, Sentences sometimes need to be complex, but a
sentence that is too long, with numerous phrases and clauses, will lose the reader's attention.
Average sentence length should be 10 to 15 words, with some sentences as short as 7 words, and
others as long as 20.

3. Put words in the right places in the sentence, Most sentences in English begin with a subject,
followed by a predicate (verb), and then an object. As most technical documents are written in
English, sentences in technical writing should be structured in this fashion to avoid reading as
though written by technical writers from another planet.
Phrases
Avoid long-winded phrases, In many cases, one or two words can say the same thing with
greater impact than a long, convoluted phrase. "Said yes" is simpler and more direct than
"answered in the affirmative," while "if" is much shorter than "in the event that."
• Sometimes, additional words are necessary to avoid confusion. "Extraction by roots" and
"extraction from roots" have different and clearer meanings than saying "root extraction."
Initially, you'll want to use the longer phrase to establish your meaning; then you can use
the shorter phrase in subsequent passages.
Use words consistently and precisely,Related to words having various connotations, words can
also stimulate people to think of certain things when they see or hear them. For this reason,
restricting the way you use words when writing a technical document helps people understand
what you're covering.
• Vocabulary in technical writing is often arbitrary and domain/context specific. A word
used in one technical context may have a completely different meaning in another
technical context or in a more general context. The verb "copy" in text editing software
means to story temporarily in menu for immediate re-use. In journalism it means original
written materials. In more general use it means imitation or duplication. When you use a
term with a domain/context specific meaning for the first time in technical writing, use
italics or inverted commas, and explain what its meaning is when used in the context.
• Avoid using too many pronoun references, particularly when mentioning multiple items.
Word formation
In English three parts of words are typically distinguished:
Prefix + Stem + Suffix
Pre- means “before”, so a prefix is what comes before the stem. A suffix is what is attached to
the end of the stem. Prefixes usually change meaning of the word, e.g. legal – illegal. Suffixes
change one part of speech to another, e.g. quick (adjective) – quickly (adverb).
Find in the table below some suffixes and their application meaning, which are often used.

4. NOUNS VERBS ADJECTIVES ADVERBS
-ance -ise (am.-ize) -able -ly
-ence -ate -ible
-or -fy -less
-er -en -ic
-ist -ical
-ness -ish
-ment -ive
-ion -ial
-ure -al
The word-formation taking place on the Internet is characterized by the tendency to reduce the
necessary amount of characters that must be typed in order to express one’s ideas; and
accordingly, to accelerate the process of communication. The reduction is done by two means;
one being the creation of acronyms and initialisms, the other replacement of words by letters or
numbers.
Homophones
Homophones present many problems for spellers because these word partners sound similar,
even though their meanings and spellings are different. Some common homophones are listed
below.
Homophone Triads
aisle/I'll/isle flew/flu/flue rain/reign/rein
aye/eye/I for/fore/four raise/rays/raze
buy/by/bye gnu/knew/new right/rite/write
cent/scent/sent heal/heel/he'll road/rode/rowed

5. Chile/chili/chilly main/Maine/mane to/too/two
cite/sight/site meat/meet/mete vain/vane/vein
dew/do/due oar/or/ore ware/wear/where
ewe/yew/you pair/pare/pear
Homophone Pairs
aid/aide close/clothes its/it's ring/wring
air/heir coarse/course jam/iamb role/roll
allowed/aloud colonel/kernel knead/need root/route
altar/alter complement/compliment knight/night rose/rows
arc/ark core/corps knot/not sail/sale
ascent/assent council/counsel know/no scene/seen
assistance/assistants creak/creek lead/led sea/see
ate/eight crews/cruise leased/least seam/seem
bail/bale currant/current lessen/lesson serf/surf
ball/bawl cymbal/symbol lie/lye shone/shown
band/banned days/daze load/lode side/sighed
bare/bear dear/deer loan/lone slay/sleigh
base/bass die/dye made/maid soar/sore
be/bee doe/dough mail/male sole/soul
beach/beech dual/duel maize/maze some/sum
beat/beet earn/urn mall/maul son/sun
berry/bury faint/feint manner/manor stair/stare
berth/birth fair/fare might/mite stake/steak
billed/build feat/feet miner/minor stationary/stationery
bite/byte find/fined missed/mist steal/steel
blew/blue fir/fur muscle/mussel straight/strait
boar/bore flair/flare naval/navel suite/sweet
board/bored flea/flee none/nun tail/tale
boarder/border flour/flower one/won tea/tee
bolder/boulder forth/fourth pail/pale tear/tier

6. born/borne foul/fowl pain/pane theirs/there's
bough/bow grate/great passed/past threw/through
boy/buoy groan/grown pause/paws throne/thrown
brake/break guessed/guest peace/piece tide/tied
bread/bred hail/hale peak/peek toe/tow
bridal/bridle hair/hare peal/peel wade/weighed
canvas/canvass hall/haul pedal/peddle wail/whale
capital/capitol hangar/hanger peer/pier waist/waste
carat/carrot hear/here plain/plane wait/weight
cast/caste heard/herd pole/poll waive/wave
caught/cot hi/high pore/pour way/weigh
cede/seed higher/hire pray/prey weak/week
ceiling/seating him/hymn presence/presents weather/whether
cell/sell hoard/horde principal/principle weave/we've
cellar/seller hoarse/horse profit/prophet we'd/weed
cereal/serial hole/whole rap/wrap which/witch
cheap/cheep hour/our read/red who's/whose
chews/choose idle/idol read/reed wood/would
choral/coral in/inn real/reel your/you're
chute/shoot intense/intents
Parts of Speech
A part of speech explains how a word is used. In traditional English grammar, there are eight
parts of speech. Knowing about each part of speech will help you use words correctly when
speaking and writing. Your communication skills will be enhanced.
Techniques and Methods
Avoid wordiness. Say out loud what you are trying to write. Listen to how the words sound. For
example, the sentence, "I found out that I should take a look at our past sales figures in order to
come up with a plan to help us re-evaluate our sales technique" could be more simply stated as "I

7. must take a look at our past sales figures to re-evaluate our sales technique." Write for your
audience. Use simple language. You don't want the reader to need a dictionary to decipher what
you are trying to say. You should not try to impress your reader with your huge vocabulary.
Chances are you will frustrate your reader instead. Most people are juggling several tasks at the
same time, and are interested in receiving only necessary information. You are responsible for
making this happen. Instead of saying, "His gregarious nature credentials him as a superlative
candidate for the job," say "His friendliness makes him a top candidate for the job." Stay away
from jargon your reader may not understand. If your work is very technical, but the person you
are writing to is not well versed in that field, stick to words that person will understand. For
example, if you are a Web site designer, this sentence in a memo to your client, a psychologist,
will make no sense: "What would you like me to use as the BGCOLOR for your site: #ADD8E6
or #FFFFFF?" Anyone proficient in Web page design knows that this question can be translated
to "What would you like the background color of your site to be: Light Blue or White?"
However, don't expect your client to be more familiar with this technical jargon than you would
be with her discussion of a psychological term such as trichotillomania. A cliche a day keeps the
reader away — or at least it does not make him or her remember what you are saying. You want
your writing to be memorable. Because we hear cliches often, we become desensitized to them.
The words, then, are not uniquely associated with your writing. Rather than saying "Don't put off
until tomorrow what you can do today" in a memo to a subordinate you are trying to motivate.
Simply say, "Stop procrastinating. Get the job done now."
When possible, use the active voice. The active voice makes your sentence stronger and usually
shorter. Let's try these examples. Passive voice: "Sales increased due to the networking I did."
Active voice: "My networking increased sales." Don't be redundant. It is not necessary to say "2
p.m. in the afternoon" or "the expectant pregnant woman." Saying "2 p.m." or "2 in the
afternoon" or "the expectant woman" or "the pregnant woman" all convey what you want to say
and are less wordy. Of course pay attention to grammar. Use Strunk and White's Elements of
Style, available on the Web. A good dictionary should be nearby, along with a thesaurus. A
thesaurus will allow you to keep your writing fresh by helping you find a variety of words to use.
Many of these resources are available online.
Proofreading is one of the most important things you can do. Since you probably do most of your
writing on a computer, you have access to automated spelling and grammar checkers. Beware
though—some words, used in the wrong context may be missed by computerized spell checkers.
For example the sentence "To employees attended too meetings two learn about the gnu
software," would pass through the spell check without any misspellings being detected. Have
someone else proofread your document, if possible. If time allows, put your composition away,
and proofread it later, or even better, the next day.