What are the Types of Communication : with Diagrams and Examples

In order to be a skilled professional in communication, you must understand ‘What are the Types of Communication’. 

Spending a quality year of time in the field of education and teaching, I realised that there are mainly ‘5 Types of communication’, where you need to be excellent in for being a wonderful communicator and noticed.

Understanding ‘What are the Types of Communication’ and working on them to develop your communication skill, will help you a lot to reach the pick of success. 

The five types of communication are: Verbal communication, Nonverbal communication, Written communication, Listening communication and Visual communication

I found a large number of people are struggling to get hired for a quality job in spite of having excellent academic and technical skills, just because they have serious problems with the five types of communication skills. 

You may be strong in verbal communication but if you are poor in nonverbal communication, you are still in trouble. 

You may also be excellent in verbal and Nonverbal communication but being poor in written communication still causes severe problems for you. 

So, gaining a strong knowledge on all the types of communication and gathering expertise on them will certainly make you an excellent communicator the employer or businesses are looking for.  

TABLE OF CONTENT

5 TYPES OF COMMUNICATION

1. Verbal communication 
2. Nonverbal communication 
3. Written communication
4. Listening 
5. Visual communication

Formal communication

Informal communication

Final Thoughts on ‘What are the Types of Communication’

5 TYPES OF COMMUNICATION

1. Verbal Communication

Where some of the examples of verbal communication are:

• Face to face talk with other people.
• Talking over the telephone.
• Having communication through Skype or Zoom softwares.
• Chatting with your friends, family or the colleagues in the workplace. 

There can also be many more examples of verbal communication.

Among all the types of communication the most used types of communication is verbal communication. We all like to talk, think if you are kept in a place where you can not talk for a month, how will you feel. You will feel terrible, right? Even though talking or communicating through words are the most common way of communication for the most, still not knowing how to talk in the right manner can cause severe issues in your social and professional life. 

Many relationships were broken, numerous troubles occurred in the family, a large number of people were rejected in the process of interview just because they were so poor in verbal communication. 

Believe it or not, our tongue has literally immense power to solve a problem or create chaos. Not knowing how to communicate verbally wisely and smartly, has a huge capacity to bring a load of unwanted problems in your social and professional life. 

I have seen one’s marriage life become too bitter just because of poor verbal communication. Professionals were thrown out of jobs because of bad verbal communication. 

Here are some of the good practices to follow during verbal communication:

• Prepare well before you make  a verbal communication in your workplace or professional area. 
• Make sure you have a good internet connection while you are making verbal communication over the internet. 
• Let your words be clear to understand.
• Use words maintaining professional standards. 

2. Nonverbal Communication

Your strong verbal communication is not enough if you have not learnt and developed the nonverbal communication. 

Some of the examples of nonverbal communication are:

• Eye contact
• Facial expression
• Volume of speech
• Body language
• Tone of voice
• Hand movement
• Touch
• Posture
• Gesture

There can be many more other examples of nonverbal communications.

Nonverbal communication works like salt in the curry. You may cook a very good dish but without salt it is a mess. In the same manner you may talk very well but way of deliverance like volume of speech, tone of voice, facial expression, eye contact and facial expression are real matter, either in adding salt to curry or creating mess. 

Here are some of the good practices to follow during nonverbal communication:

• Talking with maintaining a good eye contact
• Expressing a smile and happy facial expression, remember no one likes to see a facial expression with bad mood.
•  Maintaining a professional body language during the time of conversation.
• Speak with clearly audible voice 
• The tone of voice must be smooth and sweet to hear
• Don’t let your hand movement or body movement distract your listener
• Be attentive in exposing quality gesture and posture 

3. Written Communication

Written communication is another widely used way of communicating with others. Almost in every industry, many times you need to communicate with others through writing. Therefore, written communication plays an essential role in the way of communication. 

Some of the examples of common written communication are:

• Email writing
• Report writing
• Bulletin
• Notice
• Letter writing
• Manual
• Telegram

Having a good written communication skill always demands a strong command on the language and way of better deliverance. Knowing the format of writing style in different documents is also an important part of written communication. 

As an example,  the way you write an email cannot be the same way as you write a notice. Again the way you write a notice cannot be the same the way you write a letter.

So in order to gain a good hold in written communication you must work on understanding the formats of different writing and good command on language, grammar etc.

Here are some of the good practices to follow during written communication:

• Make sure your written piece of document is pleasing to others.
• Use the right vocabularies appropriate in your industry.
• Avoid any grammatical mistakes in your writing. 
• Gain a good knowledge on formats of different styles of  writing for different purposes. 
• Check the errors and rectify them before you deliver the written documents.

4. Active Listening

Listening is one of the most misunderstood types of communication. As many people do not consider listening or active listening as a part communication, but in reality active listening is an integral part of communication, it has power enough to make a communication successful or successful. 

Here are some of the good practices to follow for active listening during communication:

• Pay your undivided attention to the speaker 
• Express your listening through your body languages like nodding head
• Give Feedback to prove your listening
• Respond Appropriately according to your industry standard
• Do not interact while the speaker is still talking

5. Visual Communication

Visual communication is an integral part of communication, as our communication is made easy by visualising the data or information through different formats. 

Some of the examples of visual communication are:

• Chart
• Graph
• Maps
• Images
• Infographics
• Videos
• Visual presentation

It is our basic human characteristics that we love to see things visualised. Data or information which is visualised wisely and smartly  makes a powerful impact in understanding and retention in our mind. 

This is the reason you find that the platforms that use the information in visualized form like Facebook, YouTube etc are very popular platforms in order to exchange the information.

Here are some of the good practices to follow during visual communication:

• Use the visual effects in you content according to your industries 
• Understand the audience and use appropriate visualization
• Include the visuals that are easy to understand
• Apply attractive and eye catchy visuals 
• Never use any sensitive, offensive, violent graphic visuals
• Use appropriate visuals according to the data or information

Communication can also be classified in other two groups, they are:

1.  Formal communication
2.  Informal communication

1. Formal Communication

Formal communication is the way we communicate in  office, business or in the workplace. The way we communicate with others in our workplace is much different than the way you communicate with others at our home or with our family and friends.

Some of the examples of formal communication are:

• An interview time
• A business meeting
• Business deal
• Legal document
• A real estate agreement
• An appointment letter 

 Formal communication requires some special and certain set of styles in our communication, where we restrict a lot of informal behavior in order to present formality. 

Here are some of the good practices to follow during formal communication:

• Know your work environment and communicate accordingly 
• Gain a good understanding about the culture of industry
• Maintain the way of communication that go with your industry

2. Informal Communication

In informal communication we communicate with individuals or a group of people without formalities, official rules, systems or certain types of commands. 

It is the casual or unofficial way of communication to exchange the information. 

Some of the examples of informal communication are:

• Chatting with friends
• Talking with family
• Discussion with colleagues

Here are some of the good practices to follow during informal communication:

• Establish good relation
• Make friendship
• Influence and motivate others
• Have a desire of resolving conflicts
• Having talk around the dinner table with friends and  family
• Send a friendly email to friends or colleagues wishing or showing concern
• Chatting with people at a social occasion or festivals
• Communicating with friends, family and colleagues in social media platforms

Final Thoughts on ‘What are the Types of Communication’

In order to be a successful person in social life or corporate life, you need to be a good communicator. And in order to become an excellent communicator it is essential to understand the types of communication we can make and how to improve them. 

• Some communication requires some formal rules and strategies to be done, they are called formal communication. This kind of communication takes place in offices, business places, workplace etc.
• We also communicate with our friends, family and colleagues without any formal rule, this kind of communication is called informal communication.
• Gaining understanding and maintaining good communication in social and professional life, makes you respectable and acceptable to others in the workplace or among friends, family and colleagues. 
• Other Types of communication are: Verbal communication, Nonverbal communication, Written communication, Listening, Visual communication, Formal communication
• Remember learning and developing the communication skills will enhance the employable opportunity and the possibility of promotion in your workplace as you add value to your workplace. 

Let me know your suggestion in the comment section below for adding more life to this article for growing together and helping other to grow.

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