CAPITAL
LETTERS
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When and how to use capital
letters can be a thorny problem.
It may be acceptable to drop
capital letters when writing
casually to friends but if you are
writing anything more formal
then you need to use capital
letters correctly.
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Capital letters are useful signals
for a reader.
They have three main purposes:
to let the reader know a
sentence is beginning,
to show important words in a
title, and
to signal proper names and
official titles.
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WHAT ARE THE RULES OF CAPITALISATION?
Capitalise the first word of a sentence.
Always capitalise the first word of a
sentence:
The cat is sleeping.
Where did I put that book?
Capitalise names and other proper
nouns.
My favourite author is James
Patterson.
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WHAT ARE THE RULES OF CAPITALISATION?
Capitalise the first word of a quote
when the quote is a complete
sentence.
Mark asked, 'What is everyone
doing this weekend?'
Don’t capitalise the first word of partial
quotes.
Sarah said she was 'way too busy'
to join the gym.
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WHAT ARE THE RULES OF CAPITALISATION?
'I'
The personal pronoun I is always
written as a capital letter.
I thought I was alone.
The words me, my, mine, and myself
are not written with a capital letter,
unless they come at the beginning of a
sentence.
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WHAT ARE THE RULES OF CAPITALISATION?
Capitalise cities, countries,
nationalities, and languages.
English is made up of many
languages, including Latin, German
and French.
My mother is Ghanaian and my
father is Nigerian.
The capital of Botswana is Gaborone.
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WHAT ARE THE RULES OF CAPITALISATION?
Use capital letters for many
abbreviations and acronyms:
G.M.T. or GMT (Greenwich Mean
Time)
N.A.T.O. or NATO or Nato (North
Atlantic Treaty Organization)
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QUIZ
Go through the following sentences and
use capital letters wherever necessary.
jawaharlal nehru was the first ever
prime minister of india.
we met fr. benedict on our way to
arunachal pradesh.
my brother, danny and i enjoy going
on road trips.
teena said that she has read ‘the tale
of two cities’ more than five times.
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ANSWERS
Check the answers for the above
exercise to find out if you have used
capital letters in all the right places.
Jawaharlal Nehru was the first ever
prime minister of India.
We met Fr. Benedict on our way to
Arunachal Pradesh.
My brother, Danny and I enjoy going
on road trips.
Teena said that she has read ‘The Tale
of Two Cities’ more than five times.
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Try to re-read what you write
after writing it to identify
missing/wrongly used
punctuation marks.
You will be surprised how
often we goof up in this area.
Have fun with grammar!
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[email protected] THE POWER
OF WORDS
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" Words are, of course, the
most powerful drug used
by mankind"
Rudyard Kipling
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Influence comes down to two different
elements that often collide: what you
communicate (the message) and how
you communicate it (the delivery).
The message encompasses the verbal
part of communication — the words you
speak or write.
The delivery represents the nonverbal
portion — all the ways you express
yourself apart from the actual words.
THE POWER
OF WORDS
We definitely use
our image &
dressing to make
our first impression
but what comes
next is the
vocabulary and
words.
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POWER OF WORDS IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION.
Content - You need to mentally
prepare the content of what you
want to speak, see it as a
communication war.
Enlarge your Vocabulary -
Reading daily and aggressively
finding new words and their
meaning is very important.
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POWER OF WORDS IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION.
Improve Grammar - Grammar
plays an important role in
communication. While words
convert thoughts, grammar gives
you structure.
Use online tools to improve written
communication always, tools like
Grammarly help you improve
grammar & spelling.
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POWER OF WORDS IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION.
Cut out the jargon - Jargon &
Buzzwords are a big NO-NO,
especially to clients, as they may
not understand the dialect and
meanings.
Learn to replace - Always rethink
your sentences as it may help
you to replace tough words with
simple ones.
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POWER OF WORDS IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION.
Avoid Slang – Slangs are a thing in
Nigeria nowadays, it’s best to keep
it professional always.
Use of PLEASE & THANK YOU
always as it shows politeness and
respect in business
communication.
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IMPROVING COMMUNICATION
1. Clarify your own ideas before
attempting to communicate them.
2. Be clear about the purpose of the
communication. For example, its
purpose could be to inform others, to
obtain information or to initiate
action.
3. See if the other person can repeat
what you have said, in his or her own
words.
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EFFECTIVE LISTENING
1. Avoid jumping to conclusions, avoid
making value judgements such as
good or bad, desirable or
undesirable, true or false, while the
speaker is talking.
2. Listen to the full story.
3. Restate the other person's position in
your own words.
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Issues arising from poor communication
are difficult to come to grips with,
especially because they come in all
shapes and sizes.
Disguised as low morale, high turnover
rate, or breach of deadlines, inefficient
workplace communication doesn’t do your
business any service if left unattended.
However, the use of the right business
communication words and phrases is a
formula to a success story.
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In time, polishing your writing and
making sure all your words fall into
place in discussions change the
direction of your entire workflow.
In the end, instead of the words
being in charge of your business
outcomes, you take over and own
your words.
Happy Communication!
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