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Communication Skills-II

notes self assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. A literary work written in form of a ………………… can be referred to as a dialogue.

2. A writer can create two types of dialogues: ………………… dialogue and …………………
dialogue.
3. Stream of consciousness is also called an internal ………………… .

4.2 Dialogue Writing in formal situations

Human behavior tends to be modified by the group you are acting in at the time of behavior, thus
your behavior and conversation in the office would likely be different from your behavior at home
or in an athletic event, etc. This applies mainly to conversation that is situational. Basic character
traits are less likely to change according to the context, although it’s not always predictable. Some
character traits may be more or less likely to emerge under different situations. The explicit and
implicit values of each group are a very strong determining factor. To the extent that these values
are different, different behaviors are likely to emerge; to the extent that they are similar, similar
behaviors are likely to emerge. While writing dialogues based on formal situations, we must
keep this in mind.

Guidelines to Write effective Dialogues

l Avoid filler words: People often use filler words such as um, uh, like, or uh huh, but while
writing a dialogue based on formal situations, we should avoid using these words.
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l Use modern language: Use current language that is understood by 21 centurions. Even
when a character would speak in an old-fashioned manner, be careful. The occasional
ancient word can help in characterisation, but too many cause readers to think about the
words, not the story.

l Avoid writing dialogue that overuses names: Overuse of name hints of insincerity, and the
overuse becomes especially obvious and unnatural in fictional dialogue.

Example: In the 2008 US presidential campaign, vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin
made news in her interview with Charlie Gibson for overusing his name. During the interview,
Palin called Gibson “Charlie” so often that she became a target of parody.

Instead of this, it is fine to write, “Thank you, Charlie. I appreciate that,” you would do
yourself no favour to write, “Thank you, Charlie. I appreciate that. By the way, Charlie,
now that I have you here, what do you think of the Bush Doctrine.”

l Don’t weigh down your dialogue by exposition: When the dialogue is carrying exposition
and trying to tell the reader too much, characters end up saying a lot of very unnatural and
unwieldy things. You’ll see things like:

“Remember that time we made a sale and the customer was delighted, that’s how our
company became popular?”
“Yeah, totally! And now we’re in the 7 year and have to live up to our reputation. We
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have to live up to it at any cost.”
So much of this dialogue would already be already obvious to the characters. They’d know
how started without having to talk about it. It’s very clear to the reader that they’re not
talking to each other: they’re really talking to the reader.

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