The IT revolution and globalisation of business have brought technical communication to the forefront of academia and industry. With the whole world becoming a global market and businesses becoming diverse and result-oriented, professionals and technocrats are facing newer challenges in communication every day. Success in this competitive environment depends not just on acquiring knowledge and hard skills, but also on developing effective technical communication skills.

Effective Technical Communication is designed as a textbook on communication skills for students of technical and management courses as well as for working professionals. Consistent with its aim to help the reader master the full range of skills required of a successful professional, this book provides a comprehensive coverage of all the four dimensions of communication skills, namely, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. I have tried to make the contents appropriate for a wide range of readers so that any student or professional, regardless of his or her field of specialisation, will find the desired ingredients in this book.

The book offers a complete training programme which can be used as a self-study resource, as a core text for classes, as a "refresher," or as a supplement by engineering and management students in IITs, IIMs, NITs, RECs, deemed universities, state technical universities and colleges, private engineering and management colleges and institutes, and similar educational institutes in other Asian countries. I have tried to make the coverage comprehensive, presentation simple, and have supplemented the treatment with examples, illustrations and exhibits.

The book consists of eight parts and three appendices. The first part deals with the fundamentals of technical communication. It contains three chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the nature of technical communication and focuses on the stages and channels of communication, nature and importance of technical communication, and barriers to effective communication. Chapter 2 deals with organisation in technical communication and concentrates on several methods of organising information in speaking and writing. Chapter 3 deals with technical style, ABC of technical communication, objectivity in speaking and writing, and use of formal language.

The second part concentrates on listening and language development. Chapter 4 discusses the listening process, types of listening, listening with a purpose, and barriers to listening. Chapter 5 concentrates on improving listening comprehension and focuses on effective listening strategies, listening in conversational interaction, listening to structured talks, team listening, and listening and note taking.

Part three discusses speaking strategies. It contains three chapters. Chapter 6 deals with the speech process and concentrates on conversation and oral skills, strategies for good conversation, improving fluency and self-expression, and body language. Chapter 7 covers key topics in phonetics and spoken English such as basics in phonetics, phonetic transcription, and pronunciation guidelines. Chapter 8 deals with speaking techniques and focuses on techniques of effective word accent, voice quality, rhythm in connected speech, and developing correct tone.

The fourth part is an extensive treatment of three important forms of professional speaking, that is, job interviews, group discussions, and oral presentations.

The fifth part concentrates on reading and language comprehension. Chapter 12 discusses the reading process, reading with a purpose, reading different kinds of texts, active and passive reading, and reading speed. Chapter 13 concentrates on reading skills, vocabulary skills, eye reading and visual perception, prediction techniques, scanning skills, skimming skills, and intensive reading skills such as distinguishing between facts and opinions, and drawing inferences and conclusions. Chapter 14 focuses on reading scientific and technical texts, reading methods, reading instructions and manuals, and reading and interpreting graphic information.

The sixth part discusses important study skills such as note-writing, summarising, parapharsing, and referencing.

The seventh part deals with writing strategies where as the eighth part is an exhaustive treatment of professional writing and covers routine business letters, sales letters, resumes and job applications, business memos, e-mails, reports, proposals, and technical articles. The appendices contain a comprehensive review of functional grammar, problem areas and grammatical analysis, and vocabulary development.

Learning Aids Some of the learning aids, which I have included in this book, to make it completely learner-centric, are:

1. Learning Objectives This promotes focused learning.

2. Review Tips These end-of-the-chapter tips provide a quick review and summary of the topic discussed

3. Progress Checks These are short modules of question answer sessions given after every conceivable important topic, as a reinforcement aid before moving on to the next topic

4. Recap Boxes The important points within each chapter have been highlighted in a box at the corresponding sections.

5. Figures and Tables They provide easy comprehension.

6. Functional Grammar Review Given as an appendix (Appendix A) at the end of the book, this feature will help the students in refreshing essential grammar

7. Common Errors in English Communication A short course designed to help students master the art of communicating in correct English (Appendix B)

8. Vocabulary Development Another special feature of this book, this module will help students communicate powerfully, and of course, effectively (Appendix C).

While my endeavor has been to give a good book to the students, I will welcome any critical suggestion on this book. Please write to me at ashrafrizvi@yahoo.co.uk or drop a letter at the publisher’s address.

M ASHRAF RIZVI