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UNIT 6
We Need Retraining
Integrated Skills Development
Passage Improve Communication Skills
Your work in business will involve communication—a lot of it—because communication is a major and essential part of the work of business.
Throughout a company workers send and receive information. They process information with computers, write messages, fill out forms, give and receive orders, and talk over the telephone. More specifically, salespeople receive instructions and information from the home office and send back orders and weekly summaries of their activities. Executives use letters and telephone calls to initiate business with customers and other companies and respond to incoming letters and calls. Production supervisors receive work orders, issue instructions, and submit production summaries. Research specialists receive problems to investigate and later communicate their findings to management. Similar activities occur in every part of the company. Everywhere workers receive and send information as they conduct their work.
Oral communication is a major part of this information flow. So, too, are various types of forms and records provided by computers. Yet another major part consists of various forms of written communication—letters, memorandums, and reports.
All of these forms of communications go on in business because communication is essential to the organized effort involved in business. Communication enables human beings to work together. In a business, it is the vehicle through which management performs its basic functions. Managers direct through communication, coordinate through communication and control through communication.
Because communication is so important in business, businesses want and need people with good communication skills. All too often they do not get them, however, because most employees, even the college trained, do not communicate well. Among the recent studies that support this observation, perhaps the most notable reports that one of the four major criticisms of today's college-trained people is their "poor communication and, especially, written communication."
The communication shortcomings of employees and the importance of communication in business explains why you should work to improve your communication skills. Whatever position you have in business, your performance will be judged largely by your ability to communicate. If you perform well, you are likely to be rewarded with advancement. And the higher you advance, the more you will need your communication ability. One study reports that top level administrators spend 85 percent of their work time communicating. The evidence is clear: improving your communication skills improves your chances for success in business.
New Words and Expressions
administrator
n. 管理人员，行政人员
communicate
V. 交流，表达，联络
conduct
V. 实施，处理，指挥，引导
n. 举止，行为
coordinate
V. （使）协调
criticism
n. 批评
despite
prep.不管，尽管
direct
V. 指导，指挥
enable
V. 使…能
essential
a. 必不可少的，基本的
evidence
n. 迹象，证据
executive
n.& a. 经理，执行者，行政上的
flow
n.& v. 流动
initiate
V. 开始
instruction
n. 指示，命令，指导
investigate
V. 调查，审查
issue
V. 发布，发行
judge
v. 判断，识别
major
a. 主要的
memorandum
n. 备忘录
notable
a. 值得注意的，显著的
observation
n. 言论，意见；观察，观察结果
oral
a. 口头的
perform
V. 履行，执行
performance
n. 业绩；行动；演出
process
v.& n. 处理
respond
n. 回答，答复
reward
n.& v. 报答，报偿
shortcoming
n. 缺点
throughout
prep.贯穿，遍及
vehicle
n. 车辆，运载工具
all too often
太经常
be likely to
易于
consist of
由…构成，包括
go on
发生
Merry Learning
Outside the city hall, a boy selling newspapers bellowed, "Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Two men swindled!" A man walked up to the boy, bought a paper, and sat down to read it. "Hey, kid," he protested a few moments later, "there's nothing in there about two men being cheated."
"Extra! Extra!" shouted the boy: "Three men swindled!"
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