What are the 7 C’s of communication?

What are the 7 C’s of communication? Do you know how to apply those principles to your written and oral messages? What does it mean that the message has to be clear, correct or complete? To find out more read the article below.

What are the 7 C’s of communication? – table of content:

1. What are the 7 C’s of communication?
2. Clarity
3. Correctness
4. Summary
5. Courtesy
6. Concreteness
7. Consideration
8. Completeness
9. Summary

What are the 7 C’s of communication?

The 7 C’s stand for seven essential principles of communication starting with the letter C. The concept was first introduced in 1952 in the field of public relations. Each C represents one principle that has to be followed to make sure that the communication in business is effective and successful from the point of view both the sender of the message and the recipient.

There are 7 C’s of communication in business that can be applied both to written and to oral communication and these are:

• Clarity
• Correctness
• Conciseness
• Courtesy
• Concreteness
• Consideration
• Completeness

Clarity

The message you are delivering should have a clear purpose, which means that the recipient should be made aware of the reasons for the message. An effective communicator should transfer his thoughts and ideas into the mind of the recipient effectively, which means that the message should be simple and precise.

Clarity is very important for effective communication in business hence the content of the communication should be free from jargon, difficult vocabulary and terminology. To improve clarity one should avoid idioms, technical terms, contractions, slang. Active voice, present tense and simple structures are recommended.

Clarityis interconnected with the principle of completeness and concreteness.

Correctness

The message should be correct and accurate. It is important both for verbal and non-verbal communication that it should not contain any grammatical or spelling mistakes. For written communication it is good to double-check or find a proofreader, while during writing it is advisable to consult a dictionary frequently.

Correctness is interconnected with the principle of consideration.

Conciseness

When communicating one should stick to the point and be precise. The lengthy sentences should be avoided and the message should be short and simple. One should avoid necessary repetitions and filler words.Conciseness means that the minimum number of words possible should be used to pass the message.

Conciseness is interconnected with the principles of concreteness and consideration.

Courtesy

In some texts courtesy is called consideration and in a way it refers to your good manners. While communicating the speaker or the writer should acknowledge his audience, so his message should show necessary respect to the recipients. Effective communication is always: polite, friendly and unbiased. The speaker should not make any assumptions about his receivers and it would be advisable so he could show his appreciation for their time and attention.

Courtesy is interconnected with the principle of completeness.

Concreteness

The message should be of such clarity that there is no space for misinterpretation. Your message should be backed by fact and figures from credible sources while the data used should be specific. Any vagueness should be avoided, hence all the words that have multiple meanings should not be used extensively.

Concreteness is interconnected with the principles of clarity, conciseness and consideration.

Consideration

Always consider the other part of the process – remember that your text is read by somebody else and needs to be easy to digest and decode. Put yourself in the position of the recipient and think about his experience with your message. Try to imagine your receiver, his knowledge, opinions, attitudes, values or even background. Make sure your message don’t bring negative emotions.

Consideration is interconnected with the principle of correctness.

Completeness

Include all relevant information such as: contact names, dates, times, locations, web-sites, bibliography. Your recipient needs to obtain all the information that is related to your topic. You should make sure that there are no missing parts, meaning your message should not look incomplete and it should be easy to follow your line of reasoning.

Completeness is interconnected with the principles of clarity and courtesy.

Summary

Nowadays, we communicate with people almost all the time during the day, we write e-mail, participate in conference, write reports and make presentations. There is a great need for clear and effective communication. Knowing what are the 7 C’s of communication will not instantaneously improve our communicative skills, but the mere awareness of such concept should give us a good understanding of what we should focus on. Adhere to the 7 principles of communication and create great oral and written messages, because the better we communicate the more respect and credibility we have with our colleagues, supervisors and clients.

Read also: 4 types of employees every company needs

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