Identify ways in which audience and situation affect choices of style and tone
Demonstrate proficient listening skills
Follow oral directions by listening attentively, taking accurate notes, and asking questions
Demonstrate business telephone techniques
Demonstrate courtesy and respect for a speaker through attentive listening
Demonstrate correct usage and mechanics in English, including sentence structure, punctuation, and grammar, to communicate clearly and concisely
Compose sentences using the correct forms of commonly misused or misspelled words
Examples: accept/except, to/too/two, want/won’t, their/there/they’re
Utilize reading strategies to read efficiently, comprehend content, and retain information.
Select and utilize reading methods for a particular situation
Example: Use skim and scan techniques to preview a document, noting headings, topic sentences, vocabulary, words in bold print, titles, and questions within the text
Read, follow, and create detailed written directions
Describe the purpose of a particular message, identifying propaganda and biased, literal, inferential, or factual statements
Produce effective written documents
Explain the purpose of each step of the writing process: planning, drafting, revising, editing, publishing
Use the writing process to produce emails and letters appropriate to task, purpose, and audience
Format business documents, including business letters, emails, and reports
Utilize design elements to enhance written communications
Examples: layout, illustrations, tables, graphs, charts
Compose an effective business report
Use research and the writing process to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish a business report
Identify the parts of the business report, including title page, table of contents, abstract/executive summary, body (including introduction and conclusion), references, and appendices
Compare and contrast analytical and informational reports and their appropriate uses
Apply communication skills in varied professional roles
Demonstrate steps of a conflict-resolution process
Describe effective leadership skills
Examples: planning, organizing, monitoring
Explain the stages of team development, indicating the procedures involved in each stage
Examples: forming, storming, norming, performing
Explain ethics and integrity as they relate to business communication
Use technology to enhance the effectiveness of communication
Utilize basic software applications
Refine and enhance documents as needed using spell check, thesaurus, grammar check, layout, design, and graphics
Demonstrate proficiency in word processing software to create, edit, and publish professional business documents
Share and maintain documents by configuring options, restricting access to a document, and adding and modifying templates in an existing document
Format content of a document by applying advanced font and paragraph attributes, creating tables and charts, constructing reusable content, and linking sections
Track and reference documents by reviewing, comparing, and combining documents, creating a reference page, and creating an index
Use digital technologies, communication and networking tools, and social networks appropriately to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and disseminate information in professional settings
Distinguish between personal and professional use of social media outlets
Evaluate the effectiveness of social media for business messaging and brand awareness
