Soft Skills (Bas-105) Unit Iii Notes New 2024-2025
Soft Skills (Bas-105) Unit Iii Notes New 2024-2025
Soft Skills (Bas-105) Unit Iii Notes New 2024-2025
Reading
Purpose of Effective Reading:
• It helps you to discover new things by enabling you to educate yourself in any area of life
you are interested in and to do your own research and thinking.
• It helps develop the mind and imagination and the creative side of a person.
• It helps to improve (vocabulary and spelling) communication both written and spoken.
In nutshell:
To gain knowledge
For entertainment
To improve vocabulary
To develop thoughts
1. Skimming
2. Scanning
3. Active Reading
4. Detailed
5. Speed
6. Structure-Proposition-Evaluation
7. Survey-Question-Read-Recite-Review
1. Skimming
Skimming is a strategic and selective reading method in which we focus on the main ideas of
the text.
Instead of closely reading every word, we focus on the introduction, chapter summaries,
first and last sentence of paragraphs, bold words and text features.
In nutshell: Skimming is extracting the essence of the text. It saves our time.
When to skim
• While reading, we should ask ourselves the following questions. If we answer ‘Yes’ to any of
these questions, we should skim as it is a useful tool.
2. Scanning
This reading mode is aimed only at finding the necessary information in the text. It does not
mean a complete immersion in the text and a deep comprehension of the facts, analysis
of grammatical constructions. This is called scanning. The most important benefit of scanning is
its ability to help us become a more flexible reader. Scanning adds another high gear to your
reading.
How to scan?
- Alphabetically in order to A to Z
After having proper idea of the information furnished, the reader should make his strategy for
scanning.
Active reading aims to get an in-depth understanding of the text. Under this technique, the reader
actively involved with the text while reading it to get in- depth knowledge.
This technique is used for extracting information accurately from the whole text. Under this
technique, we read every word for understanding the meaning of the text.
5. Speed Reading: -
The aim of speed-reading is basically to increase the reading speed without compromising the
understanding of the text reading. Some of the strategies used in speed reading are as follows:
Identifying words without focusing on each letter
Not to sounding-out all words
Not sub-vocalizing some phrases
Spending less time on some phrases than others
Skimming small sections
6. Structure-Proposition-Evaluation
This is an interesting reading technique suggested by Mortimer Adler in his book “How to Read a
Book”.
This reading technique is mainly applicable to non-fiction writing. This technique suggests reading as
per the three following patterns:
Survey
The survey involves getting a quick idea of the whole writing piece. For example, reading the
introduction or summary of a book will be enough to get an idea of that book.
Question
We are not just reading the words or looking at the words but are actually trying to make
out the underlying meaning of the text, so we should prepare questions in our mind and
look for the answers while reading the text.
Read
The reader should read selectively if they are looking for any specific content.
Recite
The reader should answer the questions in his own words using only the keywords that are
required to sum up the complete idea.
Review
The reader should review the entire things in his mind.
Churning and assimilation are the integral part of reading. In fact skimming and scanning are the
quick processes whereas churning and assimilation are slower.
Churning:
Churning means interpretation and inference. Interpretation is getting the summary of all the
important points on a topic. Inference means reading in between the lines i.e. understanding the
facts that are not stated openly.
Assimilation:
When we attempt to make a mental map of the entire passage that we have read, it is called
assimilating. Assimilation includes the understanding of the structure of the text, structure of
paragraphs, punctuation, author’s view point and summarizing.
• Completeness
• Effective communications are complete, i.e. the receiver gets all the information he needs to
process the message and take action. A complete message reduces the need for follow-
up questions and smoothen the communication process.
• Conciseness
• Brevity is the soul of wit. Conciseness is about keeping your message to a point. This is more
about the content of your message rather than its length. Even a short memo can include
irrelevant or redundant information. Conciseness helps the receiver focus on what’s
important, speeds up the processing of information and caters for improved understanding.
• Effective communication takes into account the receiver’s background to decode and points
of view. If your message hits a nerve or sounds as disrespectful, the emotional reaction of
the receiver might affect the perception of your message. Also, tailoring your message
to your audience – e.g. by using argumentations and examples which are relevant to their
experience – makes it easier for them to process the contents.
• Concreteness
• A concrete message is specific, tangible, vivid. It’s supported by facts and figures
for enhanced credibility. It helps your audience gain an overview of the broader picture.
Concreteness mitigates the risk of misunderstanding, fosters trust and encourages
constructive criticism.
• Courtesy
• Clearness/ Clarity
• The clearer your message, the easier it gets for the receiver to decode it according to your
original intent. While this sounds obvious, most communication pitfalls originate from lack of
clarity. Want to deliver an effective message? Start with a clear communication goal and
accurate thoughts. Clear communications build on exact terminology and concrete words,
to reduce ambiguities and confusion in the communication process.
• Correctness
• Correct grammar and syntax vouch for increased effectiveness and credibility of your
message. Formal errors might affect the clarity of your message, trigger ambiguity and raise
doubts. They might also have a negative impact on the overall perception of the message,
which could be seen as sloppy or negligent.
Paragraph:
• One sentence among them is the most important one. It is called the Topic sentence.
• The other sentences give support to the Topic sentence. These sentences are called
supporting sentences.
Writing Methods:
Depending upon our purpose, we can synchronize the “Topic sentence and the Supporting
sentences” in 7 specific ways. They are:
• Deductive: Deductive method is just the reverse of inductive method. For example a guided
thesis, book or magazine etc. It means that the teacher presents the rule, gives a model then
the learners do free practice and answer exercises. This logical pattern involves the process
of moving from a general statement premise, principle, or law to specific details.
• Interrupted: The punctuation marks ‘,’, ‘( )’, ‘_’, ‘!’ (Comma, parentheses, dash, exclamation
mark) serves as interrupters and adds emphasis to the sentences. The interrupt the flow of
sentences by breaking chunks of ideas. Remember, interrupters can be words, phrases, or
punctuation marks. Whenever the writer gives a break to the line of thought and gives a turn
to the idea to produce the desired effect, he uses this method.
• Spatial pattern: This method is used in developing the paragraph writing to emphasize the
visual description of a particular idea by providing details related topic. This description does
not need to fallow the time pattern but it can represent the spatial movement, namely
inside to outside, front to back, left to right bottom to top of the process.
• Chronological pattern: This technique is used to organize the ideas in a paragraph
chronologically and tells the importance to the date and time while writing/ organizing the
paragraph or story. A writer can arrange the sentences starting from the earliest event to
the most recent event, or vice versa, and accordingly. This order of arranging the sentences
is called chronological pattern
• Exposition: Exposition in a written work is the passages, which explain where events take
place, what happened before the story begins, and the background of the characters.
Exposition also plays an important role in film. When preparing a script, screenwriters often
write detailed biographies for each of their main characters. These back-stories may never
appear in the film directly.
Agenda:
An agenda lists the items of business to be taken up during a meeting or session. It may also be
called a "calendar". A meeting agenda may be headed with the date, time and location of the
meeting, followed by a series of points outlining the order in which the business is to be conducted.
There are a variety of agenda formats; the purpose and type of meeting will determine which
agenda format to use. Types of agendas typically used include informal, formal, prioritized and
timed. Familiarizing yourself with each agenda format will allow you to effectively choose the proper
type for your needs.
An informal agenda basically refers to an informal list of items that will be discussed during a
meeting and is often thrown together at the last minute. A formal agenda follows more of a format.
This format includes the type of meeting, lists the meeting facilitator and lists all of the attendees.
The agenda then follows a specific order: call to order, roll call, minutes from last meeting, open
issues, new business discussions and adjournment (ending).
In this case, agendas follow a priority system. Items are given an order according to perceived
importance to the group. The topics are then discussed in this order. Timed agendas refer to using a
set time line for the meeting -- usually a time keeper is assigned to help stay on task. In this format,
the agenda would be set up in time intervals. For example, 9:30-9:35: socializing/warm-up, 9:35-
9:40: review purpose and desired outcome, 9:40-9:50: review minutes from last meeting.
A meeting held with the Zonal Head (ZH) with all the 7 Regional Heads (RH) pertaining to
Production, Marketing & Logistics department on 6 th, December, 2022 at 8.40 a.m. in the main
Board Room of PIL Zonal Office Gurgaon.
CC: (i). Country Head – Head Office, Kolkata. for kind information please
Notice:
A notice is a written or an oral statement that contains the particulars of holding a meeting. When a
circular is served among the members of the meeting to attend the meeting, it is called a notice. It is
a letter of invitation which carries the request to the members to attend a meeting. A notice includes
time, place, date and agenda of a meeting. The notice should be sent by the proper authority in due
time so that the members can attend the meeting in due course of time. So, a notice is formally
written or it is a formal information, notification or warning about a fact or an invitation to the
concerned person for attending the meeting.
Specimen of notice:
1. Notice of statutory meeting of a company Maruti Suzuki India Limited 1, Nelson Mandela
Road, Vasant Kunj New Delhi - 110070
Dear Shareholders,
Notice is hereby given that the statutory meeting of the company will be held on March 20, 2020 at
12pm in the registered office of the company. Concerned shareholders are requested to attend the
meeting.
2. NOTICE OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTOR’S MEETING Skoda Auto India Private Ltd, A-1/1,
M.I.D.C. Five Star Industrial Area, Shendra, Aurangabad - 431201
Sir,
Being authorized I am informing you that the second meeting of the Board of Directors will be held
at the head office of the company on February 25, 2020 at 10am. You are duly requested to attend
the meeting.
Sincerely yours,
Agenda: 1 Discussion about the policies of the company 2 Disbursement of shares. 3 Miscellaneous.
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