Preface It is an established truth that having strong communication skills surely aids one to achieve in all aspects of life-from professional life to personal life and everything that falls in between. From a professional standpoint, all transactions result from communication. Good communication skills are essential to allow others and yourself to understand information more accurately and quickly. Though everybody accepts the importance of vital role of communication skills in our life, proper acquisition of or gaining competent of communication skills still vogue in academic atmosphere. Students are often overlooked these life skills while in the college and found very difficult during the time of searching for employment. As per the LinkedIn survey on employability on 2016, communication skill stood first preferred skill. Thus, as a teacher we are offering courses of communication skill and its role in agricultural development for last 10 years. We often found that students never think of crafting these skills in the college. Unfortunately, they take it for granted and struggled to communicate concisely of what they need. In this context, we are planning to write book on why and how these communication skills are important for not only professional success but also in the personal life too. Considering wider application of the topic, keeping the ICAR Syllabus for base and collect and did intensive research in the available literature we bring out this book for all the graduate students and specifically to the agricultural graduates. We have systematically planned the chapters to make an easy reading and digesting the concepts well. We introduce what is communication is all about and provided detailed description on types of communication and its application in the everyday life.

Origin The world ‘Communication’ comes from the Latin word ‘communis’, meaning common. This implies that when we communicate, we are trying to establish ‘Commonality’ with someone through a message. Communication, then, is a conscious attempt to establish commonality over some idea, fact, feelings and the like, with others. In essence, it is a process of getting a source and a receiver tuned together for a particular message or a series of messages.

Aristotle, Shannon and Weaver, Schramm, Berlo, Westly and Maclean, Leagan, Rogers and Shoemaker, Littererls model and Dance’s Helical Model-Elements of communication-communication barriers Introduction Models are symbolic representation of structures objects or operation. They can be used to show the size shape or relationship of various parts or components of an object or process. It helps to explain the working of a system. A model helps to get a whole idea of the system. Model help to illustrate, predict and explain the concept They can be structural or process oriented Make us to understand the way how to interpret the process

Verbal communication-definition and meaning-Verbal vs Oral communication - Types-Styles-Barriers to effective verbal communication Meaning Verbal communication takes place directly between the superiors and juniors in organizations and between farmers and extension functionaries in the field and is often known as face to face communication. It takes the form of talks, a public address, verbal discussions, telephonic talks, telecommunications and other forms such as audio-visual aids speeches and orders, holdings of meetings and conferences, lectures, social get-togethers, training sessions, public address systems, museums, counseling etc. Definition The Verbal Communication is a type of oral communication wherein the message is transmitted through the spoken words. Here the sender gives words to his feelings, thoughts, ideas and opinions and expresses them in the form of speeches, discussions, presentations, and conversations. Verbal vs Oral communication Verbal Communication - Oral: It consists of spoken messages which include exchange of ideas, questions or comments. Few examples of verbal (oral) communication are face-to-face conversations, group discussions, counselling, interview, radio, television, calls, etc. Man is the only privileged species which can use language. Language is mostly used in speech and writing comes later. Oral communication has much wide and acceptable use when compared to written communication. As a part of everyday life, in informal relations or formal organization, we communicate more orally than in writing. Oral communication is a building block of human relations. Without oral communication, any interaction is lifeless. Thus, its importance cannot be ignored. Verbal Communication - Written: This type of verbal communication does not require speech or sound. Though technically, written communication is nonverbal, it falls under this category as it includes the use of words and language. Few examples of verbal (written) communication are books, letters, text, newspapers, etc.

Definition and meaning – Proxemics, Chronemics, Movement and body position, Posture, Facial Expression, Gestures and Eye Contact – importance of non verbal communication Meaning A message can be sometimes expressed without the help of words. Nonverbal communication is the process of communicating without the use of words. Definition It is defined as non-word human responses like facial expressions and gestures and the perceived characteristics of the environment through which the human verbal and nonverbal messages are transmitted. Nonverbal communication is also known as “silent language.” It involves the use of cues, gestures, vocal characteristics, facial expressions, and spatial relationship between the sender and the receiver to convey a message. For example, a smile, glance, stare or a frown convey different meanings.

Definition – Listening vs Hearing – Active listening – Types of listening – Guidelines for effective listening – Developing listening skills - Barriers to listening – Listening misconceptions. Listening skill is key to receiving messages effectively. It is a combination of hearing what another person says and psychological involvement with the person who is talking. Listening is a skill of Language. It requires a desire to understand another human being, an attitude of respect and acceptance, and a willingness to open one’s mind to try and see things from another’s point of view. It requires a high level of concentration and energy. It demands that we set aside our own thoughts and agendas, put ourselves in another’s shoes and try to see the world through that person’s eyes. Introduction Listening is a language modality. It is one of the four skills of a language i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing. It involves an active involvement of an individual. Listening involves a sender, a message and a receiver. It is the psychological process of receiving, attending to constructing meaning from and responding to spoken and/or non verbal messages.

Importance-Effective writing -Components of writing : Introduction , Audience and format, Composition and style, Structure, Grammatical errors, Proofing and Conclusion-Ways to improve writing skills -Technical writing. A written communication is always put into writing and generally used when the audience is at a distance or when a permanency or record is required or where its preservation is essential in case it is needed as a evidence in cases of dispute. It is generally in the form of instruction, orders, rules and regulations, policies, procedures, posters, memos, reports information bulletins. Importance of writing skills 1. Expression Writing is one of the important ways of expressing your thoughts, and communicating ideas and views to others. Some have the innate ability to put their thoughts into words. Writing is more beneficial, specifically for those who are emotional, and do not express verbally. This tool allows them to express their ideas, thoughts or their existing mental condition, which otherwise, may not be possible. People express themselves by writing novels, short stories, biographies and even personal diaries, etc. 2. Judgment of a person Often, a person is judged by the quality of writing, he/she possesses. Be it a school, college, workplace or a society, writing has become a vital yardstick to assess one’s knowledge and intellectuality. When we come across a person who is prim and proper, we immediately make an impression about that person being careful, responsible and sincere. Similarly, if the writing is devoid of mistakes, we tend to create a good impression about the writer.

Basics of effective oral presentation : Planning , preparing (Introduction, Body and conclusion), Delivery, Body language and Handling anxiety-Strategies for giving oral presentation Oral presentation means delivering an address to a public audience. It also refers to public speaking and/or speech-making. It is a brief discussion of a defined topic delivered to a public audience in order to impart knowledge or to stimulate discussion. The skill in oral presentation is equally as important as effective writing. Almost every oral presentation contains an introduction, main body and conclusion like a short paper. Though it is a formal speech in nature or vocal performance to an audience, it may occasionally require adequate planning and thorough preparation in using one’s voice, body language and visual aids such as slideshows to present and illustrate the points more effectively and to achieve the desired results. Body languages such as eye contact, facial expression, posture and gesture plays a significant role in oral presentation process. The proper use of the voice and the ability to adjust it to suit the slightest differences of meaning are also very important in oral presentation. In addition to correct pronunciation, variation in pitch and cadence, free from speech mannerism, fluency in delivery are also very important in oral presentation.

Definition – Components to be included – Parts of field diary – Field diary in social sciences. The field diary is the basic document which contains all the data collected. Facts and interpretations are to be written separately and conversations to be noted in the vernacular languages. Two kinds of field notes are to be observed a) Taking notes on the spot b) Writing detailed diary. Daily field diary It is instructed to write the field diary everyday in which a) Detailed notes of observations b) Field notes on discussion and conversations c) Details of Interpersonal communication, gossips, fold history‘s similar events d) Specific details of special events Specific reference about the main field of study for instance, the details about the process of message diffusion, various kinds of channels of communication were described in detail. Field diary for research process documentation The most useful tool for a process documenter is a field diary. The documenter uses a field diary to record his or her observations and thoughts in an orderly fashion. Recording observations and impressions enables a researcher to pick up clues about how the system is operating. A field diary should help the investigator understand the systems physical and social setting. It should help describe who, what, why, where, when and how. Who refers to the people or system being studied. What concerns the information gathered. Why, where, when and how provide important details about the observation. There is no special format in writing a field diary but entries should be written daily in chronological order so information is not forgetten or changed because of forgetfulness. The critical concern is that observations are recorded in a diary regularly.

Definition-Importance of keeping a lab record-Features of a lab record - Contents of lab record-Guidelines for keeping a lab record Definition It is a primary record of research. Researchers use a lab note book to document their hypotheses, experiments and initial analysis or interpretation of these experiments. Laboratory Record The following is a general description of how to keep a proper laboratory notebook. Requirements for different teaching, research, clinical, or industrial labs will most likely vary. Some institutions/labs will require less stringent record keeping, others will hold you to a very strict protocol. A well kept notebook provides a reliable reference for writing up materials and methods and results for a study. It is a legally valid record that preserves your rights or those of an employer or academic investigator to your discoveries. A comprehensive notebook permits one to reproduce any part of a methodology completely and accurately.

Indexing is the act of describing or classifying a document by index terms or other symbols in order to indicate what the document is about, to summarize its content or to increase its findability. The function of indexing in libraries and information retrieval systems is to indicate the whereabouts or absence of items relevant to a request. It is essentially a time-saving mechanism. Theoretically, we can always find the relevant items by an exhaustive search through the whole collection (assuming that we can recognize what is relevant when we see it). Since this is economically impossible, the size of the store to be examined is reduced by classification, using this term in its very broadest sense, i.e., as the recognition of useful similarities between documents. Indexing performs an indispensable service to the filing function. Index, is a reference list used for locating a particular document in the filing equipment. Similarly, while filing a document, the index aids tracing out the place where the particular paper should be filed. Particularly when a large number of files are maintained for various purposes, index is very essential. Indexes are constructed, separately, on three distinct levels: terms in a document such as a book; objects in a collection such as a library; and documents (such as books and articles) within a field of knowledge. Subject indexing is used in information retrieval especially to create bibliographic indexes to retrieve documents on a particular subject. Examples of academic indexing services are Chemical Abstracts and PubMed. The index terms were mostly assigned by experts but author keywords are also common.

A footnote is a notation at the bottom of the page in a printed document. Footnotes are usually presented in smaller print than the dominant text, and they are used for a variety of purposes. The “foot” in “footnote” refers to the fact that the notation is located in the “footer” or “bottom” of the document. A similar concept is the endnote, a note which is provided at the end of a document, rather than at the bottom of a specific page. When a text has footnotes, they are indicated with various symbols or superscript numbers. The asterisk symbol, *, is a common symbol for footnotes, but a variety of symbols including daggers, †, may be used. In a text with a lot of footnotes, numbers are usually used to indicate footnotes, so that the reader can keep track of what is going on. Endnotes are typically indicated with numbers, to make it easier for people to look them up. Different style manuals have different rules about using footnotes, and it is important to follow style guidelines when submitting material for publication. Because footnoting can get very complicated, most style guidelines devote at least a few pages to the footnote. Some people avoid using footnotes at all, while others relish footnotes, because footnotes provide a great degree of freedom when they are used well.

Reading is a means for language acquisition, communication and sharing information and ideas. Reading skill is considered to be most rewarding skill. Reading is not merely going through a book or a magazine or a journal. Reading is the process of gaining meaning from print. It Demands different types of skills depending on readers’ needs & requirements. Though lot of books discuss quite a number of reading skills-major part of reading skills - useful to students both for academic & professional purposes. There are different types of reading. They are: 1. Intensive reading It’s a detailed reading. When we read our text books/newspaper/ report of great interest, we read sentence by sentence, trying to find out meaning of difficult words by reading in detail. Intensive reading has to be done when we do close texts or reading comprehension passages in exams or in classroom sessions. 2. Extensive reading It contains longer texts. It should not be read sentence by sentence but we skip certain portions and find out overall meaning of text. When we read novels, magazines & newspapers, etc. we can do this type of reading. Extensive reading texts are generally meant for pleasure and they need overall global understanding. 3. Selective reading Select to read news items that interest us. For many students sports page interests them. Within this column, another selection by reading about the game in which they are interested. Similarly scientists read topics which belong to their field. In these examples prior knowledge, technically called schema, acts. Sometimes people make a survey and find out what text is about. At times people make a survey when they do scanning.

Derivation & Meaning-Skills required-Method or procedure-Guidelines; Summarising-Meaning-Steps to write a summary. Derivation ‘Precis’ is a French word which means to cut off, to be brief. Meaning A precise is a summary or the gist of the main ideas of written matter. Thus, precise writing means summarising. It is an exercise in concentration, comprehension and condensation. In order to make a summary of an article, a speech or a story, one has to read it carefully and grasp its meaning. Precise-writing forces one to concentrate on the material which is to be summarised. In summarising a passage, though the length of the precise is not fixed, it is generally expected that the it should be one third the length of the passage. The summary is known as precise and precise writing means summarising. A precise is not a paraphrase. At the same time, the essential points of the main passage must be presented in the precise in such a manner that reader may easily grasp the main ideas of the passage. A better precise can be written with more and more practice. Before writing a precise, it is important that you take care of a few essential points. Also, make sure that all the important points of the passage are conveyed in the precise. Focus on language and try and make it as clear, crisp and concise as possible. There is no fixed pattern to write a precise. But we must follow certain rules and procedure so that the precise can be more effective. Follow the right diction and you will be able to write a good precise.

Definition-Purpose of abstract-Types of abstract-Abstract Styles-Steps for Writing Effective Abstracts- Some Do’s Don’ts in preparing abstracts. Definitions The word abstract comes from the Latin word abstractum, which means a condensed form of a longer piece of writing. Abstracts are important parts of reports and research papers and sometimes academic assignments. The abstract is often the last item that you write, but the first thing people read when they want to have a quick overview of the whole paper. We suggest you leave writing the abstract to the end, because you will have a clearer picture of all your findings and conclusions. An abstract is a paragraph that provides an overview of a paper. Abstracts should be between 100 and 200 words long and usually contain a list of keywords at the end to help readers identify the main points of the paper. While abstract requirements differ across academic disciplines, there are two main types of abstracts: humanities abstracts and scientific abstracts. Purpose of abstracts? Abstracts typically serve five main goals:

Meaning-Steps for individual presentation; Group presentation-Meaning-Stages of group presentation; Impromptu presentation. A Presentation is the process of presenting a topic to an audience. It is typically a demonstration, introduction, lecture, or speech meant to inform, persuade, inspire, motivate, or to build good will or to present a new idea or product. Individual Presentations allow a person to completely control the thoughts, ideas, and methods of presenting without outside influence. Individual presentations allow someone to work at their own leisure and pace. The practice of showing and explaining the content of a topic to an audience or learner is known as presentation. A presentation is a process of offering for consideration or display. Presentations can also be categorized as expository or persuasive. They can also be impromptu, extemporaneous, written, or memorizes. But it’s more important to focus on their purpose. There are three basic purposes for giving presentations:

Meaning – Points to be considered in public speaking – Effective public speaking: Group Discussion: Meaning – Procedure – Advantages – Limitations; Seminar Conferences: Definition and meaning – Steps in organizing seminar / conferences/ symposium / workshop Definition Public speaking is the process and act of speaking or giving a lecture to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain a listening audience. Public speaking is commonly understood as face-to-face speaking between individuals and an audience for the purpose of communication. It is closely allied to “presenting”, although the latter is more often associated with commercial activity. Most of the time, public speaking is to persuade the audience. Public speaking can serve the purpose of transmitting information, telling a story, motivating people to act or some combination of those. This type of speech is deliberately structured with three general purposes: to inform, to persuade and to entertain. Knowing when public speaking is most effective and how it is done properly is a key part in understanding the importance of it. Points to be considered in public speaking 1. Prepare to succeed The single most important thing you can do to make your next presentation successful is to be prepared. That means make time for some serious practice. Experts suggest you spend 60% of your time to prepare your content and slides and 40% of your time to practice. 2. Say it correctly Part of good preparation is double-checking the pronunciation of any tricky words—especially jargon. Your correct pronunciation and knowledge of industry terms lends credibility to your presentation.

Subject Index A Abstract, 99, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132-140, 161 B Barriers, 11, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 36, 37, 38, 43, 48, 49, 52 Bibliography, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 110, 111-112 C Citation, 98, 99, 104, 106, 107, 108 Communication, 1-47, 50, 53, 68, 69, 78, 79, 81, 83, 84, 85, 113, 139, 147, 163 Comprehension, 2, 21, 45, 46, 50, 110, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 124 Conflict, 58, 152, 153, 156, 157