University of Mumbai 2006 B.Tech Comnication Skills - Question Paper

 

 

 

 

Communication Skills

 

May 2006

 

(REVISED COURSE)

 

Total Marks : 100

 

N.B. (1) Question No. 1 is compulsory.

 

(2) Attempt any four out of remaining six questions.

 

(3) Figure to the right indicate marks.

 

(4) Answers to all the sub questions should be attempted and grouped together.

 

1. (a) Communication is a dynamic and an ongoing process. Explain the communication process in the

 

light of this statement with the help of a communication cycle. 8

(b) Draft an application letter for the post of a senior Engineer in a Telecom Company, located in Mumbai. Attach a suitable bio-data showing about four to five years of experience. (Name the format you have chosen for the covering letter). 12

 

2. Write short notes on any four :- 20

(a) Any two non verbal methods of communication

 

(b) Environmental barriers to communication

 

(c) Encoding and decoding

 

(d) Clarity as principle of correspondence

 

(e) Letterhead of a Multinational company with illustration

 

(f) Semi block form of letter writing

 

(g) Any two psychological barriers to communication.

 

3. Give definitions for any five :-

 

(a) Electric mixer, Telescope, Hammer, Molding, Refrigerator, Lathe, Voltmeter. 10

(b) You are a wholesaler located at Ludhiana. You have received an enquiry regarding woolen garments 10 from a departmental store located at Indore. Draft an attractive and appropriate reply giving details about quality, sizes, type variety and price list in the form of a quotation. Also offer attractive incentives to make sure you get the order.

 

4. Describe any one of the following objects with the help of a diagram :-

 

(a) Thermometer or Electric Iron 10

 

(b) You have received wooden furniture for your new office. However the delivery has been delayed

 

10 due to which you had to postpone the opening. The furniture is also damaged and scratched

 

at various places. Draft a suitable complaint cum claim letter asking for appropriate compensation. 10

 

5. a) As a manager of a company you have to train the young trainees and guide them to be good senders

 

as well as good receivers. Explain how you would guide them to be effective in both written as

 

well as oral communication skills in this regard. 8

 

 

 

 

 

b) Identify the barriers : 8

 

(i) Director in his cabin calling the manager to inform the factory inmates (Language barrier/

 

physical barrier / status* barrier / cross cultural barrier).

 

(ii) Construction activity near a college building (Linguistic barrier / psychological barrier / social barrier /

 

noise barrier)

 

(iii) A student forgetting his identity card for the examination centre (Environmental barrier / social

 

barrier / psychological barrier / linguistic barrier)

 

(iv) Inability of school students to grasp a lecture on health care by a medical practitioner (Linguistic barrier /

 

status barrier / physical barrier / personal barrier).

 

(c) What do you understand by Warning and Caution. Give illustrations to support your answer. 4

 

6. Read the following passage and answer the questions given below :-

 

Most educated Indians do not read books. Books have become expensive and most literate Indians live and work in abysmal conditions, which sap their will and energy. The struggle for survival is too tough to permit them the luxury of reading books and reflecting on serious subjects. They need an escape from the harsh realities of their own lives and of the life around them. Therefore they can afford it, they either go and see films or read a work of low-brow fiction. This search for titration and escape into fantasy explains the steady increase in the number of gossip and film magazines and the popularity of comic strips and cheap fiction from the West. But -it is not only the lower middle-class Indian - his life blighted by want, cares and awful living and working conditions - who goes in for.vulgar movies and pulp literature. Members of the jet set, too, revel in these. This way at least we are moving towards the ideal of classless society. There are intelligent men and women who are doing well in their business and professions-lawyers, doctors, engineers and teachers. But the approach of most of them to reading is functional. They read either to inform themselves to matters of immediate and direct interest to them or for entertainment and that too of a very frivolous nature. General education is not for a majority of them. But then neither do journalists, or for that matter many academicians, read classics or serious books any more. Ask any bookseller in Mumbai, Chennai, New Delhi or Calcutta, how many titles of scholarly he sells.

 

The answer will be revealing.

 

Eminent Scholaras and writers point out that ours in an oral tradition and that before the arrival of the british in the 16th century we did not read books. They feel that our old ways stick to us despite the spread of literacy. It is difficult to fault the observation. Once can only point out the perils of this state of affairs. Intellectual life is inconceivable without the help of the written word. Oral discussion and statements are by definition imprecise, insubstantial and shallo. They lack both discipline and depth. It is easy enough to recognize that most of our politicians are products and practitioners of the oral tradition. But the rest of us including the journalists and academicians are much better. Out more successful men of letters are more often than not entertainers and not thinkers and teachers. This cannot serve us well in the age of knowledge explosion. Whatever be our past we cannot claim that we are people seized by the thirst of knowledge. Most of us today are not even curious. For example, we know precious little about our flora and fauna. There is hardly an outstanding travelogue in any Indian language. We do not even bother to learn about ourselves and about people around us.

 

In the past we have found escape in the belief that our interest are more profound, more philosophical. Today we cannot sustain that pretense. We are as crudely materialistic as anyone in the west. We have to recognize the reality that we are intellectually lazy. This may be the result of our own climate, our oral culture and our pre occupation with the immediate problems.

 

Men of ideas and learning are a minority everywhere But in our case the minority is too small for comfort and it loks as if it is shrinking. We are perhaps better off than any other third world country. But that is not good enough for us.

 

(01 mark each: Q.nos 1 o 4)

 

1). The lower middle class Indian lives a (carefree life/luxury life/life of struggle /all of the above)

 

 

 

 

 

 

2). Professionals get involved in (serious rading/ in depth reading/ spiritual reading/ none of the above)

 

3). People today are (inquisitive/ active / knowledge thirsty/ philosophers/ none of the above)

 

4).In the lastsentence of para one,the use of the term classless society‟shows that the author is (Humorous/ annoyed/sarcastic/neutral).

 

(02 marks each: Q.nos 5 to 8)

 

5). The two reasons for bad habit of Indians are _________________________

 

6). B ut the approach of m ost of them to reading is functional. F unctional here m eans

____________.

 

7). Why is the written word emphasized by the author? Give two reasons.

 

8). Why according to the author the Indians lack curiosity? Give two reasons.

 

(08 marks: Q.no 9)

 

9). Summarize the above passage in your own words.

 

 

 

 

7.(A) You are incharge of the maintenance of a commercial complex. Frame a set of instructions for cementing and repairing a broken staircase. Make use of appropriate language and draft not less than twelve instructions for the purpose. 8

 

B) Write brief answers explaining the use and importance of any three of the following and give examples of each 12

 

i) Methods of inserting reference number or file number in a letter.

 

ii) Identification Initial enclosures and carbon copy notation as a block.

 

ii) Inside address and salutations in a letter and its relation to the complementary close.

 

iv) Signature block and signatures for different purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 2005

 

(Revised Course)

 

N.B. Attempt any five questions including question No. 1 which is compulsory.

 

1. (a) Explain the concept of 'Barriers'. Using illustrations, explain how medium can be a potential source

 

of barriers in communication. 8

 

(b) Write an application with a bio-data in response to the following advertisement: - 12

"Wanted young, dynamic and result-oriented graduates to work as marketing executives. Candidates should have good communicative ability and marketing optitude, having 1-2 years experience in marketing. Write to P.O. Box No. 888, Times of India, Mumbai - 400 001.

 

2. (a) Answer briefly any two of the following questions :- 8

 

(i) Compare the features of oral and written communication.

 

(ii) Explain the use of silence in communication.

 

(Hi) Explain the term 'You Attitude' and its importance in a letter, with examples.

 

(b) You are a regular user of. milk supplied by Maharashtra Milk Products, Mumbai.- Of late, you 12 observe that the milk packets are not properly sealed resulting in leaks and on some days the packets do not have the date and seal on it. You suspect that the milk is adulterated. Write to the Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration, Complaining about the problem. (The letter should be in Complete Block Form).

 

3. (a) Identify the barriers in the following conversations, and discuss how you could eliminate or overcome them. 8

 

(i) "I don't agree with you. I have studied and tought this subject for years and I can't be wrong".

 

(ii) "I am not going to attend that lecture. The seniors say that the teacher is no good".

 

(b) You want to renovate your office at Bandra - Kurla Complex. Write a letter of enquiry to Elegant 12

Interior Decorators with special mention to the estimated cost of renovation.

 

4. (a) From the given alternatives, choose the one that is closest in meaning to the underlined word. 4

 

(i) No player can fjout the rules and remain In the team, (boast about, disobey, make a mockery of).

 

(ii) Developing indigenous technology is important to lead the nation to self-sufficiency.

 

(native, intelligent, capitalistic).

 

(iii) He felt mortified at his son's failure to pass the exam, (depressed, humiliated, unhappy).

 

(iv) His impeccable taste and sense of humour have helped his career, (remarkable;

 

unbelievable, flawless).

 

(b) Define the following : 4

 

(i) Paralanguage (ii) Encoding (iii) Decoding (iv) Kinesics.

 

(c) Write short notes any three of the following : 12

 

(i) Role of courtesy in a business letter.

 

(ii) Important points to be included in an adjustment letter.

 

(jii) Importance of reference number in business letter.

 

(iv) Different ways of writing a technical definitions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. (a) Read the passage and answer the questions that follow :- 8

 

By collecting things man can give free rein to his inborn greed. Whether the desire to collect is inborn or not, it makes its appearance very early in life. Little boys collect coins, labels or stamps. Children are more concerned with quantity than with quality. They will proudly say that they have 1000 stamps and go on counting and recounting them like a miser going through his hoard. They even engage in a kind of an exchange. Most of us grow out of this tendency. Those who do not, become obsessed with their collection and throughout their lives go on adding to them relentlessly. Those few who have made a successful job of collecting money, find new and exciting 'toys' to buy : expensive antiques, rare pictures and autographed manuscripts replace the labels and cards of their childhood.

 

People who claim that they never collect anything often have the biggest collections of all. Tucked away on the dark recesses of their houses, in the attics and cellars, there are masses of junk which they would never dream of throwing away. "You never know when it will come handy", they say as they relegate the broken chair to the attic. And so the collection grows. Tattered, moth-eaten umbrellas, coats and photographs all find their way there, to join the ancient gramophones and chandeliers.

 

Collectors, we are told, are useful and instructive. They very often are. But this claim is simply a cover for man's uncontrollable greed : his innate desire to have, to hold, to count and rarely to look at -

 

(i) In the first sentence the writer says that -

 

1.

 

(a) Man is born greedy.

 

(b) Man likes to collect things.

 

(c) By collecting things man proves he is greedy.

 

(d) Bv collecting things man can satisfy his need.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(ii) Point out the comparison in paragraph I;

 

(iii) "Most of us grow out of this tendency" what does "this tendency" refer to ? 1

 

(iv) Give two examples, of "exciting toys" mentioned in the passage. 1

 

(v) Give one phrase from the passage for the biggest useless collection of all. 1

 

(vi) In the last' paragraph the writer ___________the habits of collecting things

 

(disapproves,encourages, rejects, accepts). 1

 

 

 

(vii) Give the adjective forms of :- ____________ 2

 

(a) Picture (b) Photograph (c) Collect (iv) Desire.

 

(b) Describe any one" of the following objectswith a definition, diagram, materials and description

 

of different parts. 12

 

(i) Voltmeter .(ii) Calculator (iii) A Torch.

 

6. (a) Prepare on Instruction Sheet on Filing. 8

 

(b) Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow :-

 

Man is a symbol - making animal. The proudest and the most dangerous product of this symbol - makirtg is language. In the first place, language is the main cohesive force within a given ethnic group, but at the same time it creates barriers and acts as a repellent force between

" different groups. There exits around three thousand to four thousand human languages and this seems to be one of the main reasons why the disruptive forces have always dominated the forces of cohesion in our species as a whole. The stammering barbarian whose foreign tongue sounds like gibberish was never considered by the ancient Greeks to be fully human, and the same devisive force are at work to this day between inhabitants of neighboring Alpine valleys, who speak different dialects or between British upper and lower classes with their different accents. In the second place, quite apart from the diversity of vocabulary, the abstractive, concept - forming categorising power of language enables man to formulate conflicting doctrines and belief - systems.

 

 

 

 

(i) What role does language play in a group ? 1

 

(ii) What role does language play between groups ? 1

 

(iii) What was the attitude of the Greeks towards the barbarians ? 1

 

(iv) How are belief systems formulated ? 1

 

(v) Summaries the above passage in 50 words. 8

 

7. (a) Distinguish between :- 8

 

(i) Process writing and Instruction Writing.

 

(ii) Semi - Block Form and Complete Block Form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(b) Edit the rules given-below so that the language is more direct and identify caution, precaution warning, note accordingly.

 

(i) Half tablespoon of extra bleach, could be added to the white clothes so that you can

 

get better results.

 

(ii) You should use a face mask to protect your eyes from the arc light.

 

(iii) Reaction vessels should be protected by wrapping them in metal screen or wire mesh.

 

(iv) Clothes stained with kerosene.or gasoline should not be washed in a washing machine

 

as it may cause accidental fire.

 

(c) Match the following :-

 

A B

 

(i) Letter - Head Block Style

 

(ii) Date - line Emphasis

 

(iii) Post - Script Emblem

 

(iv) Mixed Punctuation No abbreviations.