Purposive Communication

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Lecture 6– Communication for Various Purposes

TOPIC 1 -PREPARING A SPEECH OR ORAL REPORT

Introduction
Communication serves five major purposes: to inform, to express feelings, to imagine, to influence,
and to meet social expectations. Each of these purposes is reflected in a form of communication.

When we hear the word speaking what comes in our mind might be the president of the nation
giving a speech, politicians, and guest speakers in an event. We speak to express our feelings and
thoughts; one can share his/her experience. He/she can appreciate and be grateful through his/her
speech, might as well you can roast someone and entertain everyone, speaking is so applicable in all
we do.

It is also used in school when a student delivers an oral report; it develops the confidence,
vocabulary, pronunciation, and even the speaking skills. In fact, speaking is a norm that we all share.
We hear a lot of great and influential speakers from different countries. Through speaking we
achieve world peace and through speaking it creates partnership with other nations. Having the
confidence to speak in front of numbers of people can be both courageous yet critical.

Amazing how powerful your message yet critical that leads to conflict. That is why you need to be
direct and clear with your ideas on how you will deliver it. That also applies with the students.

Madrunio and Martin (2018) said that ―some students and professionals do not like the idea of
speaking in public, whether in front of small or large groups. Just the thought that they will be facing
people already makes them jittery. ‖ (p.223) Communication skills are vital for a student ‘s
academic success and future career prospects. In today ‘s challenging environment, students must
not only possess academic expertise, but also the requisite skills to enhance their learning and
employability prospects in the future. An individual learns the basics of oral communication right at
home. The school environment takes this learning a notch higher by teaching the student how to
interact with peers and teachers alike.

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The quality of communication in student life will define professional communication later in life.
Good communication enables students to assimilate more from the learning process by empowering
them to ask relevant questions and discuss doubts. From the book of Madrunio and Martin entitled
―Purposive Communication‖ the following is to be considered to have an effective speech and be a
good public speaker:

1. Audience- Know the profile of your listeners. It is important that you know who will listen to
you-their age, gender, educational background, religion, economic status, and interests.
Also, know how much the audience knows about the topic. That way you can avoid discussing points
that would run contrary to their beliefs and practices and thus prevent miscommunication and
misunderstanding. Further, you can introduce new things for them to learn and not simply repeat
things that they may have already learned from previous speakers. Know how to read the posture
and the gesture of your audience members as these will signal to you what kind of an audience they
are.

Be ready to face different kinds of audiences as there may be some who are questioners, hecklers,
disrupters, hostile, or unresponsive/bored audiences. Know how to deal with any unpleasant
incident or conflict with your audience and always stay in control of the situation.

2. Logistics- It is something basic or essential for every speaker to know who is organizing the
event. Know who will be introducing you and who will be speaking before and after you. That way,
you will be able to tie up the earlier presentation with your own resulting in a more coherent
presentation. You may even give the audience an idea as to what the next talk is going to be.

2.1 Venue- The venue is equally important. Locate the lights and if you have movable visual aids,
know where to position them. As a speaker, you should also know how to position yourself and how
you should move in front to get the attention of the listeners. Remember to work on your posture
and avoid bad habits when speaking. Do not block the view of your visual aids as you present them.
Employ a balanced posture by not standing on one leg only. Do not lean on any object that will give
support to your weight. These postures give the impression that you lack confidence and authority.

2.2 Facilities- Ask beforehand about the pieces of equipment available for you. These facilities
should match the presentation aids that you will use. If there is no available projector, find a way to
have one especially if your visual aids are highly complex. If there are any electrical problems or
technical glitches you encounter, know how to trouble-shoot them.

3. Content of report/speech/lecture- Since you have been invited as a speaker, the organizers
might have sought you because of your reputation as an effective speaker. If the purpose of the
event is to inform just like in a convention, conference, or a training seminar, it is expected that you
are able to contribute new information. If the purpose is to entertain, your speech should be light-
hearted, amusing, and lively. If the purpose is to persuade, your presentation should sound
convincing enough. Note, however that any communicative event may have more than one purpose
but there is always a more dominant one.

Preparing an Effective Presentation An effective presentation is more than just standing up and
giving information. A presenter must consider how best to communicate the information to the
audience. Oral presentations require a good deal of planning. Scholars estimate that approximately
50% of all mistakes in an oral presentation actually occur in the planning stage (or rather, lack of a
planning stage). Use these tips to create a presentation that is both informative and interesting:

1. Organize your thoughts. Start with an outline and develop good transitions between sections.
Emphasize the real-world significance of your research.
2. Have a strong opening. Why should the audience listen to you? One good way to get their
attention is to start with a question, whether or not you expect an answer.
3. Define terms early. If you are using terms that may be new to the audience, introduce them
early in your presentation. Once an audience gets lost in unfamiliar terminology, it is extremely
difficult to get them back on track.
4. Finish with a bang. Find one or two sentences that sum up the importance of your research. How
is the world better off as a result of what you have done?

5. Design PowerPoint slides to introduce important information. Consider doing a presentation

7. Create effective notes for yourself. Have notes that you can read. Do not write out your entire
talk; use an outline or other brief reminders of what you want to say. Make sure the text is large
enough that you can read it from a distance.
8. Practice, practice, practice. The more you practice your presentation, the more comfortable you
will be in front of an audience. Practice in front of a friend or two and ask for their feedback. Record
yourself and listen to it critically. Make it better and do it again.

Presenting Effectively When you start your presentation, the audience will be interested in what
you say. Use these tips to help keep them interested throughout your presentation:

1. Be excited. You are talking about something exciting. If you remember to be excited, your
audience will feel it and automatically become more interested.

2. Speak with confidence. When you are speaking, you are the authority on your topic, but do not
pretend that you know everything. If you do not know the answer to a question, admit it. Consider
deferring the question to your mentor or offer to look into the matter further.

3. Make eye contact with the audience. Your purpose is to communicate with your audience, and
people listen more if they feel you are talking directly to them. As you speak, let your eyes settle on
one person for several seconds before moving on to somebody else. You do not have to make eye
contact with everybody, but make sure you connect with all areas of the audience equally.

4. Avoid reading from the screen. First, if you are reading from the screen, you are not making eye
contact with your audience. Second, if you put it on your slide, it is because you wanted them to read
it, not you.

5. Blank the screen when a slide is unnecessary. A slide that is not related to what you are
speaking about can distract the audience. Pressing the letter B or the period key displays a black
screen, which lets the audience concentrate solely on your words. Press the same key to restore the
display.

6. Use a pointer only when necessary. If you are using a laser pointer, remember to keep it off
unless you need to highlight something on the screen.
7. Explain your equations and graphs. When you display equations, explain them fully. Point out
all constants and dependent and independent variables. With graphs, tell how they support your
point. Explain the x- and y-axes and show how the graph progresses from left to right.

8. Pause. Pauses bring audible structure to your presentation. They emphasize important
information, make transitions obvious, and give the audience time to catch up between points and
to read new slides. Pauses always feel much longer to speakers than to listeners. Practice counting
silently to three (slowly) between points.

9. Avoid filler words. Um, like, you know, and many others. To an audience, these are indications
that you do not know what to say; you sound uncomfortable, so they start to feel uncomfortable as
well. Speak slowly enough that you can collect your thoughts before moving ahead. If you really do
not know what to say, pause silently until you do.

10. Relax. It is hard to relax when you are nervous, but your audience will be much more
comfortable if you are too.

11. Breathe. It is fine to be nervous. In fact, you should be all good presenters are nervous every
time they are in front of an audience. The most effective way to keep your nerves in check aside
from a lot of practice before hand is to remember to breathe deeply throughout your presentation.

12. Acknowledge the people who supported your research. Be sure to thank the people who
made your research possible, including your mentor, research team, collaborators, and other
sources of funding and support.

Synthesis

1. Preparing a speech or oral report you must follow the principle of public speaking from audience
to logistics, venue, facilities and content of your report.
2. Preparing a speech and oral report require a good deal of planning by following the guidelines in
preparing an effective and informative presentation.
3. To overcome anxiety or stage fright you must strictly abide with the steps given in effective
presentation.