Rules for Effective Communication
1-Simplicity: Keep the language appropriate for the audience. It is usually better to assume they do not know and explain all terms than it is to leave them with words they don’t understand.
2-Brevity: People have limited attention spans so be aware of the speech time. It is better to have fewer points than to have too many points.
3-Credibility: People will listen to you to the degree of trust that they have in you.
4-Consistency: Make sure what you say agrees with other things you have said. In other words, people look to the context of your life and other messages to interpret what you are saying.
5-Novelty: Find ways to grab attention and stand out.
6-Sound and texture: Creative use of words will help attract and hold the audience’s attention.
7-Aspiration: Help the audience reflect on how your message taps into them and their goals and dreams. Help them to see more and be more.
8-Visualization: Paint vivid pictures with your words to help the audience visualize the story or the outcome.
9-Questioning: Turn some statements into questions to engage the audience.
10-Context and Relevance: Tell the audience why your speech should matter to them.
The Importance of Organization
Key Points
Public speakers can structure the audience ‘s experience through skillful organization. As you write your speech, decide what you want your audience to feel in the beginning, middle, and end of your speech.
An effective speech should balance information, knowledge, and wisdom.
Information is the foundation of knowledge; knowledge is the basis of wisdom.
Key Terms
information: The category of information includes facts, figures, and concepts taken from primary and secondary texts.
knowledge: Familiarity or understanding of a particular skill, branch of learning, etc.
wisdom: Wisdom refers to insight that is gained from knowledge. This category includes truth, opinion, and perception.
Informative Speech Patterns
You would format your speech in the order things occurred.
Compare and Contrast:
You would compare things and point out how they are similar and how they are different.
Cause and Effect:
You would discuss what caused something and what was the overall effect.
Problem Solution:
State the problem, tell us why it is a problem, offer us a solution to the problem.
Spatial Organization:
Show us a map and move across the map and show us where things are located.
Less is More
Many speakers try to do too much in a speech. They have so much information that they either speak too quickly or explain too briefly. It is better to have fewer points than you can illustrate in numerous ways.
Three Ways to Make Yourself Understood
- Make no more than three points.
- Explain difficult ideas in three different ways.
- Find a subtle way to make an important point three times.
Remember This!
A speaker should pick a speech pattern that fits the goal, audience, and parameters of the speech
Following a standard speech pattern helps the speaker be more organized
Organized speakers are easier to listen to, are perceived as more credible.
Using the rule of threes can make your speech easier to listen to and more memorable.
Structuring the Speech
Organizing speeches serves two important functions.
First, organization helps improve clarity of thought in a systematic way.
Second, organization increases the likelihood that the speech will be effective
Introduction
The introduction needs to accomplish three things:
1-Focus your audience's attention
2-Establish goodwill and credibility.
3-Give a preview. Mentioning the main points to be covered in the body prepares the audience to listen for them.
Body
In the body, the fewer the main points the better. For short classroom speeches, under 10 minutes, speeches should not have more than three main points. For longer speeches, more than five main points ensures that audiences will have trouble following and remembering the speech.
Conclusion
Following a transition from the body of the speech, the conclusion follows. The conclusion should be somewhat shorter than the introduction and accomplishes two purposes: summarize main ideas and give the speech a sense of closure and completion.