Preparing for Conscious Communication

1. Preparing for Conscious Communication Based on Chapter 3, Goodall and Goodall Lynne Dahmen COM 2301: Advanced Speech

2. Choosing a Goal • Assess your audience • Eg: clients, your peers, your boss • What are their needs/expectations • Generate desired outcomes • Eg: persuade, convince, inform • Establish criteria for success • Eg: hire company, create an event, receive positive feedback

3. How can we learn about the audience and their needs? • Primary documents and research • Material provided by audience • Inquiries about or from members of audience • Secondary research • Similar types of audiences and their needs • Similar situations

4. Audiences for our Project • Scenario 1: variety of Moroccan workers of the hotel • Scenario 2: Moroccan executives, internationally traveled and experienced • Scenario 3: Specialized health workers (disease control)

5. Needs and Expectations • What specialized information is needed? • How must this information be communicated effectively? • What is the audience’s relationship to the presenters? • What sense of urgency?

6. Possible Outcomes • Inform: relatively neutral goal • Persuade: listeners accept, purchase, value, or act on information • Entertain: little consequence • Build a relationship: notion of dialogue • Mixed goals: common!

7. What are the goals for our class presentations? • For ourselves • For our target audience • For our organization or company

8. How will we measure success? • Financial gain? • Building relationships? • Long-term profit? • Short-term satisfaction? • Enhanced reputation? • Lives saved?

9. Creating a Message • Thesis • Organization • Support • Transitions • Intro and Conclusion (basics of writing and speaking!)

10. Basic Structural Patterns • Causal (cause and effect) • Problem—solution • Chronological • Topical • Combination (frequent)

11. Types of Verbal Support • Facts and Statistics • Testimony or authoritative sources • Examples • Narratives/personal anecdotes

12. When using statistics, make sure: • they are from credible sources • they can be validated independently • to use them sparingly • to tie them to your point • to provide interpretation as needed • to use visual representations as appropriate • to cite the sources (!!)

13. When using quotes, make sure: • the source is credible • the reference is relevant to the topic • to only cite what is needed, nothing extra • not to alter the meaning by selective quoting • the link is made clear to the audience

14. When using examples or narratives, make sure: • the story is attention getting • they support your points/sub points • they will not be offensive to your audience • it is memorable • the stories have not been heard before

15. When using visual support, make sure: • the visuals meet the professional expectations of your audience • they suit the meeting space • the show doesn’t go over time • they add visual quality

16. Ways to use Transitions • Introduce or preview points • Signal topic changes • Signal progression in chronology • Offer extended explanations, key definitions or ideas • Indicate spatial relationships • Remind the audience of prior points

17. Goals for Introductions • Gain attention • Ask a question, a quote or use a startling statement, relate an experience, tell an anecdote, use a captivating image • State a thesis • Preview the points in the speech • Offer how the listeners will benefit

18. Goals for Conclusions • Reviews main points • Provides closure • Leads to future possibilities

19. Step 3: Coordinating with Others • Gain feedback • Rehearse the message • Make sure there are no mistakes • Makes people feel included

20. Step 4: Delivering the Message • Practice • Depends on previous experience, complexity of presentation, familiarity with topic and audience, confidence, formality of occasion • Fluency • Language ability, comfort with topic • Naturalness • Manner of speaking • Vivacity • Energy and enthusiasm • Non-verbal confidence