In recent years, due to the advancement of technology, we can communicate with hand phones, Instant Messaging (IM) systems (such as MSN and Yahoo Messenger) and even emails instead of face-to-face communication. While real-time communication is now possible even between two parties of different geographical location, something crucial to successful communication is lost: the ability to provide a closure for each communication process.

So, what is this closure that is so vital to successful communication? Well, it can range from a simple gesture such as saying or rather, typing a simple goodbye message in a SMS or IM system to a more complicated process, such as summarising what have been said in email correspondences that have taken place over the past few weeks and giving an overview to the other party of the current situation. Important aspects of communication such as these seem to be lost over the years. Due to the increased pace of life alongside technological advancement, most people now merely wants to get the information that they want and then pull out of the conversation.

But this is not right.

One of the most important ingredients in successful communication lies in closing the communication process after it has been initiated. This is even more important in written communication such as emails and SMSes since the absence of facial expressions and body language means that the recipient’s perception of the senders’ temperaments and personality is more dependent on the words that the senders use. In another words, the ratio of all written communications change from the typically accepted ratio of “55% body language + 38% tone of voice + 7% words” to “0% body language + 0% tone of voice + 100% words”. From this ratio, one can observe how crucial words are to written communication.

It’s not merely the words that are important. The way that the words are used and the way that the sentences are structured are also determining factors in successful communication.  As communicators, we can’t determine the receptivity of the recipients to our messages but we can try our best to make the written communication process as fluent and smooth as possible through the use of our words.

However, be it in person or in written communication, we should be mindful of the words that we use to close or conclude the communication process. It will definitely take some practice but over time, I believe that we can all be effective communicators.