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Communication, Public Speaking & Correspondence

A working method for professional communication: settling purpose, audience and required effect before form, writing institutional correspondence that survives disclosure, and speaking so that a room can follow, decide and remember.

Learning outcomes

Module 1 — State the purpose, audience and required effect of any professional communication before choosing its form, and identify the four failure modes that account for most damage in institutional correspondence and speech.
Module 2 — Construct letters and emails that are correctly addressed, correctly structured and correctly closed for British institutional practice, and choose deliberately between the two forms rather than defaulting to whichever is quicker.
Module 3 — Write, correctly and without formula, the social correspondence a professional life requires — invitation, acceptance, refusal, thanks, congratulation, condolence and apology — and judge when handwriting, printing or email is the appropriate vehicle.
Module 4 — Select and hold an appropriate spoken register for the relationship and the occasion, conduct professional telephone and video exchanges to a standard, and structure a conversation whose purpose is to reach a decision.
Module 5 — Plan and construct a spoken address of any length from purpose to close, selecting a structure that suits the argument, and prepare it in a form that survives the conditions of live delivery.
Module 6 — Deliver prepared and unprepared remarks with control of voice, pace, stance and eye contact, manage nervousness by method rather than by hope, and read and repair a room while speaking in it.
Module 7 — Perform the representative speaking duties of institutional life — introducing a speaker, proposing and replying to toasts, chairing a meeting or a session, and speaking at ceremonial occasions — to the standard those duties require.
Module 8 — Deliver refusal, correction, complaint, unwelcome news and public statements under pressure, holding the standards of clarity, courtesy and record when the circumstances make all three costly.

Syllabus

Module 1 — Module 1 — What communication is for, and how it fails

State the purpose, audience and required effect of any professional communication before choosing its form, and identify the four failure modes that account for most damage in institutional correspondence and speech.

1.1 Lesson 1.1 — Purpose before form
1.2 Lesson 1.2 — Audience: what they know, fear, and can do
1.3 Lesson 1.3 — Four failure modes

Module 2 — Module 2 — The institutional letter and the professional email

Construct letters and emails that are correctly addressed, correctly structured and correctly closed for British institutional practice, and choose deliberately between the two forms rather than defaulting to whichever is quicker.

2.1 Lesson 2.1 — Choosing the form: letter, email, note, or conversation
2.2 Lesson 2.2 — The anatomy of the institutional letter
2.3 Lesson 2.3 — Email that respects the reader

Module 3 — Module 3 — Social and ceremonial correspondence

Write, correctly and without formula, the social correspondence a professional life requires — invitation, acceptance, refusal, thanks, congratulation, condolence and apology — and judge when handwriting, printing or email is the appropriate vehicle.

3.1 Lesson 3.1 — Invitations and replies
3.2 Lesson 3.2 — Thanks, congratulation and the letter that need not be written
3.3 Lesson 3.3 — Condolence, apology and the difficult letter

Module 4 — Module 4 — Register, telephone and the conducted conversation

Select and hold an appropriate spoken register for the relationship and the occasion, conduct professional telephone and video exchanges to a standard, and structure a conversation whose purpose is to reach a decision.

4.1 Lesson 4.1 — Register: the third variable
4.2 Lesson 4.2 — The telephone and the video call
4.3 Lesson 4.3 — Conversations that reach a decision

Module 5 — Module 5 — Building a speech: argument, structure and preparation

Plan and construct a spoken address of any length from purpose to close, selecting a structure that suits the argument, and prepare it in a form that survives the conditions of live delivery.

5.1 Lesson 5.1 — The single proposition
5.2 Lesson 5.2 — Structures that work
5.3 Lesson 5.3 — Preparation, notes and rehearsal

Module 6 — Module 6 — Delivery: voice, body, nerves and the room

Deliver prepared and unprepared remarks with control of voice, pace, stance and eye contact, manage nervousness by method rather than by hope, and read and repair a room while speaking in it.

6.1 Lesson 6.1 — Voice and pace
6.2 Lesson 6.2 — Body, stance and eye contact
6.3 Lesson 6.3 — Nerves, questions and recovery

Module 7 — Module 7 — Speaking for others: introductions, toasts, chairing and ceremony

Perform the representative speaking duties of institutional life — introducing a speaker, proposing and replying to toasts, chairing a meeting or a session, and speaking at ceremonial occasions — to the standard those duties require.

7.1 Lesson 7.1 — Introductions and votes of thanks
7.2 Lesson 7.2 — Toasts and dinner speaking
7.3 Lesson 7.3 — Chairing, and speaking on ceremonial occasions

Module 8 — Module 8 — Difficult communication and communication under scrutiny

Deliver refusal, correction, complaint, unwelcome news and public statements under pressure, holding the standards of clarity, courtesy and record when the circumstances make all three costly.

8.1 Lesson 8.1 — Refusing, correcting and complaining
8.2 Lesson 8.2 — Bad news, and communication in a crisis
8.3 Lesson 8.3 — The written record, and communication that is read later