Qualitative Exploration Of Oral Communication Apprehension

Year-end Dinner Party Invitation

Discuss about the Qualitative Exploration Of Oral Communication Apprehension.

To: Staff

From: Communications Manager

Subject: Invitation for an end of Year Dinner Party

Dear Colleagues,

It is with much appreciation that you are all warmly invited to an end of year dinner party to celebrate the successes that we have achieved so far as well as interact with each other so as to promote teamwork and increased cohesion among workers in the company.

The festive event will be hosted on 15 December 2018 and will last only for a limited timeframe so as to give time for any other personal activities. It will be held from 6 pm to 11.00pm at the Westin Hotel at Martin Place, Sydney. Eternal guests and other company clients are invited and therefore a formal dressing code is encouraged. As part of the overall entertainment, attendants will be merrily served with a three-course meal.

A variety of issues will be discussed and the invited and staff members will get a chance to directly interact with the invited guests, who are knowledgeable in various fields and will, therefore, impart you with important skills. In order to portray a good picture to the external invites, all staff members are kindly requested to attend this dinner that will promisingly make you feel adored.

Appreciation and regards,

Communications Manager,

Commonwealth Bank.

An Invitation Letter to a Special Guest

Commonwealth Bank,

27 May 2018

Dear Denzel Washington,

323 Smithson,

Chicago.

Invitation

I hopefully believe this letter finds you well. The management and the overall Commonwealth Bank fraternity cordially invite you as a special guest to our end of year dinner party that will be held on 15 December 2018. The event will take place from 6 pm to 11.00pm and will be hosted at the Westin Hotel, Martin Place in Sydney. The main audience in the party will be the general company’s staff and clients.

The Commonwealth Bank is a multinational bank that has opened a number of branches across the country as well as in some numbered foreign countries. We provide economic services to our clients. Among the most commonly offered services in our organization include banking services to independent businesses and institutions, financial management services, insurance, broking services among others.

The main aims of the party are to facilitate cohesion in the company’s workforce, through holding a discussion about the importance and benefits of employee cooperation and teamwork at the workplace. Any topics and knowledge that contribute to the named aims will be of great importance and appreciation. I believe this will be an easy task for you considering you have been involved in management practices and you have given even more talks relating to the same topics.

Event Details

For your information, your talk in our previous meeting where you were invited as the main guest speaker was such a great success and the whole organization fraternity marked a significant improvement after following the adoption of your directions and instructions. Similarly, your attendance will be of great value to the company.

Please let me know if you will be available to attend.

Yours sincerely,

Richard

Communications manager.

Progress Report

Date: May 27, 2018

From: Communications Manager

To: Chief Executive Officer

Subject: Progress report on preparations for the dinner party

A five-people committee has been formed that takes care of all the duties that will facilitate the success of the dinner party. Among the responsibilities assigned to the committee include ensuring that the selected venue of the event will have all the required facilities and amenities. Moreover, the committee will provide assistance and answers to any individuals such as clients during the actual party, and ensure that there will be an orderly organization of events in the party. Events and activities that will take place on the occasion such as speeches by special guests are required to be allocated specific time to avoid overlapping.

Additionally, successful bookings have been accomplished. Westin Hotel has allocated us specific meeting room that we will use as our venue and has also given details about the services that they will offer us during that specific day, which include security services. A deposit has been repaid and the rest of the payment is to be made on that actual day of the party. Invitation emails have been sent to all the organization’s staff and invitation letters to the special guests.

Invitation confirmation and acceptance letters are yet to be received from the special guests and therefore any special preparations that cater for them are still impending. Additionally, the pending payment amounts have not been collected. To facilitate effective communication processes between the staff, the expected clients and special guests, a new email group chat will be created a few days before the named party date. Through the group chats, the named groups will be able to interact freely and remain in touch before and even after the event.

So far, the preparations have not been facing any critical challenges and problems and they are being successfully launched.

A Report Structure

Dinner Party Event Report

Commonwealth Bank

Author

Date

Executive Summary- Summarizes the whole event into a short story of a paragraph length

Special Guest Invitation Letter

1. Introduction-Covers the onset of the event by explaining the aims of the event, any important background information that might be useful to readers and any acknowledgements being addressed.
2. Opening remarks by the Organizing Officer.
3. Remarks forum-Discusses the remarks made by the following audience by highlighting briefly on the keywordsand phrases.
   • Clients remarks
   • Staff remarks
   • Management remarks
4. Special guests remark and recommendations-Addresses the guest'sremark and frame them under theoretical context.
5. Chief Executive Officer Remark-Addresses the major points that were rise by the officer briefly.
6. Entertainment report-Reflects back on the entertainment served and gives a short description that gives the reader a glimpse of the actual entertainment as enjoyed as at that day.
7. Problems and challenges-Explains any challenges that were associated with the event
8. Recommendations-Provides a solution to the identified challenges so as to prepare for any future events.
9. Conclusion-Draws together all the key activities addressed and tries to prioritize activities.
10. Reference list
11. Appendices

At the beginning of this unit, I was very poor in expressing myself through oral communication in discussions as well as written communication when writing such items such as letters and emails. I could hardly differentiate the difference in format and structure between various writings. Moreover, I was unable to express my ideas in a logical order and as a result, understanding my key points and arguments proved to be even harder. This unit has improved my academic progress by equipping me with the important abilities I needed in order to be able to communicate effectively. Comparison and contrasts between my Turnitin report, the feedback from the lecturer and the Studiosity submission show a clear progress and improvement. The progress ranges from the logical arrangement of my points, my level of argument as well as the correctness of the formats and structure used when writing the different essays.

Communication is very essential and its need inevitable in the life of every human. An individual’s ability to communicate effectively and efficiently will have a great influence on both his personal and professional lives (Atkinson, 2012). Friends are very important and they make a person’s social life to be bright and credible. Communication abilities and skills determine the effectiveness of a person in making new friends as well as retaining old friends. The ability to communicate effectively with other people helps a person to create a positive environment around his friends as well as other people who he might interact with (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2016). Communicate may take different forms such as verbal and nonverbal communication, written and nonwritten communication (Bhatia, 2014). Through learning how to communicate effectively using the various forms of communication has helped me to significantly be able to express myself using the various identified methods of communication.

Business communication ensures that there is a constant information flow and feedback is received at the appropriate time and immediacy (Bridge & O'Neill, 2012). Throughout the learning, I have gained critical knowledge about how to keep the information relating to businesses in a constant flow through the application of effective and efficient communication methods. Both oral and written communication methods can be employed to facilitate the essential delivery of quality information from one worker to the other and from one department to another in the same organization (Bovée & Thill, 2012). Memos are commonly used to convey information to different individuals such as staff in a common business organization. I have learnt how to formulate effective internal memos that are well detailed yet short and brief. The effectiveness of memos in their function highly depends on their composition. The knowledge that I have gained in this learning has helped me to figure out and evaluate any available information, and as a result, I am able to include those details that are only essential, and express them in a shortened form. Comprehensive memos are boring to read and they are inefficient in conveying urgent information.

Progress Report on Preparations

Additionally, I have greatly incorporated oral communication abilities, that have in turn enhanced my efficiency my general communications skills are required during group discussions and presentations. Oral communication abilities enable individuals to be clear when holding arguments and discussions in classes (Byrne, Flood & Shanahan, 2012). I can now argue my points out clearly without causing any unnecessary alarm which often arises when individuals use sensitive languages. Moreover, the knowledge that I have gained in this unit has enabled me to be an active listener in meetings and interviews. For interviews to be successful, both parties involved must be knowledgeable in the application and use of oral communication abilities. I have learnt important concepts such as the need and importance of maintaining eye contact during oral communication. Apart from improving the engagement of individuals in the communication process, eye contact enhances one's understanding since they are able to identify any other non-verbal cues and expressions that might be used by the other party when communicating (Daymon & Holloway, 2010).

On the other hand, written communication focuses on the formal and informal communication that include writing and reading of materials (Guffey & Loewy, 2010). Written communication in business encompasses a variety of writings such as agendas, letters, reports, memos, among others (Guffey & Loewy, 2012). This signifies that most of the business written communication takes a formal perspective. Through this learning, I have become knowledgeable in writing most of these formats correctly and expressing the required details and information with a higher level of clarity which in turn enhances the ease of understanding. Reports are written to give a detailed comprehension of an occurrence or an event (Kassim & Ali, 2010). Through the writing skills that I have acquired in this unit, I am now able to give reports of events as required, putting keen emphasis on the most critical areas. Different writing styles require different formats (Hair, et al., 2015). For instance, the format and structure of a report differ from that of a memo and vice versa (Mehra, 2016). I am now able to use different formats while writing different item and this greatly helps to reduce confusion, especially to the reader.

A number of activities will help me to improve my academic progress following the results that I learnt from this unit. To start with, a continued writing experience will help me to familiarize with the different styles and formats used when writing (O'Rourke, 2012). I will carry out various writing practices so as to polish my written communication skills. I will ensure that I consult with my lecturer when I find trouble in comprehending or applying the different styles as learnt. Carrying out an extensive reading practice will, on the other hand, equip me with a vast vocabulary and language literacy as required when writing the different skills (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel & Roy, 2014). I will also read those books that offer illustrations and diverse illustrations relating to communication. Lastly, I will engage in the oral communication practices so as to equip more practical skills in my presentations (Blume, Baldwin & Ryan, 2013). Among those practices, I will actively engage in include group discussions, group meetings and group presentations that rotate around most popular topics. Oral presentations and discussions are the building blocks of effective oral communication (Turban, Sharda & Delen, 2010)

References

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2016. Scope of practice in speech-language pathology.

Atkinson, D., 2012. Intercultural rhetoric and intercultural communication. In The Routledge handbook of language and intercultural communication (pp. 132-145). Routledge.

Bhatia, V.K., 2014. Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. Routledge.

Blume, B.D., Baldwin, T.T. and Ryan, K.C., 2013. Communication apprehension: A barrier to students' leadership, adaptability, and multicultural appreciation. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12(2), pp.158-172.

Bridge, S. and O'Neill, K., 2012. Understanding enterprise: Entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan.

Bovée, C.L. and Thill, J.V., 2012. Excellence in business communication. Pearson Higher Ed.

Byrne, M., Flood, B. and Shanahan, D., 2012. A qualitative exploration of oral communication apprehension. Accounting Education, 21(6), pp.565-581.

Daymon, C. and Holloway, I., 2010. Qualitative research methods in public relations and marketing communications. Routledge

Guffey, M.E. and Loewy, D., 2010. Business communication: Process and product. Cengage Learning.

Guffey, M.E. and Loewy, D., 2012. Essentials of business communication. Cengage Learning.

Hair Jr, Joseph F., Mary Wolfinbarger, Arthur H. Money, Phillip Samouel, and Michael J. Page. Essentials of business research methods. Routledge, 2015.

Kassim, H. and Ali, F., 2010. English communicative events and skills needed at the workplace: Feedback from the industry. English for Specific Purposes, 29(3), pp.168-182.

Mehra, P., 2016. Business Communication for Managers, 2/e. Pearson Education India.

O'Rourke, J.S., 2012. Management communication. Pearson Higher Ed.

Samovar, L.A., Porter, R.E., McDaniel, E.R. and Roy, C.S., 2014. Intercultural communication: A reader. Cengage Learning.

Turban, E., Sharda, R. and Delen, D., 2010. Decision Support and Business Intelligence Systems (required). Prentice Hall Learning Outcomes:.