Communication Methods Report

Introduction
In this report I will be evaluating how different communication methods work. The three methods of communication I will be talking about are a briefing, a report and a webpage. The reason I will be comparing these three is that they are all a different form of communication; briefing is verbal, a report is written and a webpage is on-screen.
Findings
A Briefing
Firstly, I am going to talk about a briefing. A briefing is a short informal meeting where someone is giving instructions or information to someone/a team. In my briefing I talked about all of the promotions that were going on at Beales, which promotions could be improved upon and what I wanted my team to do (to create a Christmas advert for a younger audience).
There are many barriers to effective verbal communication; speed, (talking too slow/fast), language (uses of jargon, using formal/informal language in the wrong situations, a simple misunderstanding of what is being said), selecting an incorrect medium (this is how something is presented or communicated), and culture. To overcome these barriers there are many things you can do. Firstly, make sure you hold the briefing in an area free of background noise, as this can cause a lot of distraction within communication, it can cause the person giving the brief to lose track of what they are talking about or can result in the listeners not being able to hear what’s being said.
There are also a lot of other distractions that happen during a briefing e.g. someone comes in late, or leaving before you are finished or a mobile going off. The three main types of distractions are noise, visual and stress. Noise comes in various forms: from people, equipment, street noise and more. When it becomes difficult to hear and concentrate (assuming it is an important conversation) move to a place that has less noise. It can be difficult to concentrate when there is a lot of activity or other visual distractions in the area. As with noise, move to a place where there are less visual distractions. Stress in anyone’s life will make it difficult to concentrate. This stress could be related to someone’s family life, work problems, financial issues, illness or worry for a family member. Although it usually helps to distract oneself by focusing on other things, taking time to talk things out often helps too.
My experience of giving a briefing taught me that to give a successful and effective briefing you must be confident in what you are saying, prepared to answer questions about what you are saying (so you must know what you are talking about), and you should always engage your team/audience.

A Report
Secondly, I am going to talk about giving a report. A report is a written account of something that one has heard, observed, done or investigated. In my report I wrote about our promotions going on in Beales, what we have started doing for the Christmas season and what is successful with the customers.
One significant barrier to written communication is failure to check the little things e.g. spelling errors and incorrect grammar. When these mistakes are made, they can reflect poorly on you. They could imply that you are not educated enough to know you have made a mistake or that you are too lazy and careless to even bother checking and correcting them. Make sure you check and correct your mistakes with every piece of written communication. Another barrier would be that you use jargon or the wrong words in the wrong context. Knowing which words your audience will understand and anticipating how they will interpret them will help you to create a report that everyone will understand. Lastly, the best way to avoid any barriers to communication through a report is to always re-read what you have written! When you go to revise your report however, make subtle changes, if needed, don’t ruin any good work you’ve already written!
My experience of writing a report taught me to always check over what I have written, add pictures/screenshots to make the document easier to break down and read and use paragraphs frequently to also break down the information into easy-to-read chunks. A Webpage
Lastly, I am going to talk about a webpage. A webpage is a type of onscreen communication, connected to the internet.
The main barriers to effective onscreen communication would be that they can crash at any time, this makes them unreliable and they should not be constantly relied on. There is also no guarantee that the message will be read, for example if you gave somebody a website to go and visit, there is no guarantee that they would go away and look at it. However, they are the most entertaining and visual of all the communication methods, they are appealing and they gain and hold your attention.
To create a successful web page I would suggest including pictures, videos and many visual aids. You should be sure to include minimal information, but include what is important for others to know. However, you should not make your web page too cramped or with too much going on, this would distract the reader and make the web page unappealing.
Recommendations
Briefing
In my briefing I went straight into it and started telling the audience about the promotions in store. If I were to do another briefing I would start off slower, introduce myself properly and not rush through the beginning. However, if I were to do it again I would continue to use good eye contact, good body language, speak at a good pace and remain well spoken. I enjoyed giving the briefing because the information was easier to give across in a group. The last recommendation I would give myself if I were to do a briefing again would be to refer to my notes less.
Report
I found the report a lot easier to do as I found it easier to use formal language in the report than to stand in front of a people and just speak. This is because I find it easier to get across what I am trying to say through a report and typing it out because I sometimes find it hard to try to get what I am saying across just through talking. However, a report is not as collaborative and interactive as a briefing. A recommendation for if I were to write a report again would be to add more information and to thoroughly check more than once that the message I am trying to get across is easy to understand.
Webpage
In designing a webpage, I found it helped me get my creativity conveyed. The webpage is also helpful in giving information across in a more visually attractive way. The recommendations I would give myself if I were to do another webpage would be to make it more visual and interactive, perhaps with more attractive colouring and pictures. I would also make sure that the information I put into my webpage was all necessary and important
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would suggest using all of these types of communication as they are all effective in their own ways. Some people will prefer different types and they will all be suited to different situations. You should also consider all of the barriers and aids to the different types of communication in order to gain the most success from these methods.