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Would you like to become a better communicator? Here are ten simple rules that can help you do so:

1. Think first, speak second: If you blurt out the first thing that comes into your head, you may say things that are better left unsaid.
2. Learn to be a good listener: If you want to be listened to, then you, too, must be a careful listener.
3. Watch: don't become so wrapped up in what you're trying to say that you forget to watch to other person's reaction to what you say.
4. Understand body language: make certain that your body language is congruent with the message you want to communicate. 
5. Use words that are appropriate, understandable, and precise: Vagueness may be useful in international diplomacy, but not helpful in everyday communications between human beings.
6. Tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, but be tactful: Honesty is the best policy, but remember: cruel, tactless words are easy to speak and impossible to retrieve.
7. Be yourself: Communicate in the way that's comfortable for you; if you're funny, be funny; if you're serious be serious. Don't pretend to be someone you're not. Be a first class you rather than a second class imitation of someone you wish were you.
8. Eschew Obfuscation: In other words, keep it simple.
9. Be a trustworthy communicator: Don't hedge the truth, don't omit important facts, and don't make promises that you can't keep. People always find out, and they don't forget.
10. Be brief: longwinded monologues, although satisfying to the speaker, are often torture for the audience.

By Cris Freeman, Psy.D

For helpful quotations about communications, click here.

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