Mastering Communication of Information 2 What is logic?

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William Fortunato via Pexels

In this lesson, we’ll talk about the logical connection.

Introduction

What role does logic play in communication?

It may not seem that important, but logic is critical when trying to get a point across. Let’s see how.

Warm Up

What is the problem in the following story?

I’ve been studying English since I was a child. I like speaking with my colleagues. I studied English at school. I can’t speak English. I want to speak with people all over the world.

The story makes no sense because not only are there no transitions, but it also lacks explanation - are the colleagues English-speaking? If you studied English since you were a child, why can’t you speak English? What do colleagues have to do with speaking with people around the world?

While the story is about language, that’s the only similarity in topics between the sentences. If your student is higher level, you can ask them how they would fix it.

Example:

I’ve been studying English at school since I was a child. I want to speak English with people all over the world, because English is a common language. If I learn to speak better English, I could use it at my workplace, because some of my colleagues are English-speakers.

Language

The first step to telling a story or answering a question logically is making sure you answer the 5W1H (who, what, when, where, why, how). Look at the example. Connect the following 5W1H to the correct information:

5w1h	Example	YOUR TURN
Who	My boss
What	Went to a trade show
When	For a week last May
Where	In the USA
Why	To market some of our products
How	Using presentations and pitch decks

What information is each 5W1H giving us?
Make up your own sentence or story.
Will the sentence still make sense, even if we were to mix the pieces up?

Who: Who is the main character or subject of the story?
What: What actions did they take?
When: When did this action occur?
Where: Where did this action happen?
Why: Why was the action carried out? What was it for?
How: How was the action carried out?

The thing is, every (good) story will give us these details. Whether it’s a sentence, or a longer story, these components are crucial. The interesting thing is that each piece of information has to connect back to the information before it:

⇾ It was the boss who went to the trade show last May.

⇾ The trade show last May that my boss went to was in the USA.

⇾ At the trade show, he marketed products and used presentations and pitch decks.

No matter how you order the information, it all connects!

Practice

Let’s look at a longer example. Can you point out the 5W1H in the following answer?

What do you do?

I’m a consultant at one of the biggest consulting firms in Japan. I’ve been working at the head office in Tokyo for the last 5 years. I specialize in introducing different types of AI technology into the private healthcare system. I really enjoy working in healthcare and using my background in medicine, so I’m interested in learning to work on projects in public health, as well.

Now answer the following questions, paying attention to the 5W1H.