Chapters 7-9

 My Experience Working on a group presentation about presentations.

by; Heyner Loaisiga

Our task as a group was to present chapters 7 through 9 which in short was to go into depth about which were about; Delivering speeches, Choosing your words and about Visual resources and presentation technology.

My personal task was to present two subtopics from chapter 8; the first one being How can you improve the clarity of your language use and How can you improve the style of your Language use. This two subtopics within chapter 8 had the key word of Improve and polish your clarity and language use during a full on presentation.

Going more in depth into the topic of Improving the clarity of your language use we first learn to:

Understand levels of  Abstraction:

In this subtopic we focus on cutting to the chase, we should avoid broad terms or words that contain concepts hard to grasp or comprehend, you sorta need to find a balance between abstract and concrete words.

Understand differences between denotative and connotative meanings:

Public speakers need to be aware of the varied meanings evoked by their words. One means of understanding varied meanings is to distinguish between denotative and connotative meanings.

 Denotative meaning is the direct, explicit meaning or reference of a word. The connotative meaning of a term refers to the idea suggested by a word other than its explicit meaning. Connotative meanings often evoke emotional meaning.

Use descriptive language:

Descriptive language attempts to observe objectively and without judgment. Evaluative language is full of judgments about the goodness or badness of a person or situation.

You can see why evaluative words can invite trouble and how descriptive words can help you avoid negative audience reactions.  In public presentations, a speaker is wise not to use hot-button terms that cause a strong, negative reaction in the audience because an outraged listener might very well disrupt your entire presentation.

Compare and contrast:

speakers often use comparisons and contrasts to clarify their messages. A comparison shows how much one thing is like another; a contrast shows how unlike one thing is from another. You can use both for clarification for your audience. Using the power of language is knowing how to use comparison and contrast for clarifying your intended meaning.

Reveal the origin of terms:

The origin of a word is called its etymology. Often a word’s etymology will help an audience remember the term. For example, the word psychology means “study of the mind.” Psychology comes from the Greek words psykhe, which means “soul,” and logia, which means “the study of.”

Telling a more complete story about a word is more likely to make it more memorable.

In summary this is a brief summary of some of the topics i touched upon on this first chapter. Now i will proceed to give a sample of the following subtopics for my upcoming topic.

How can you improve the style of your language use? touches the following topics:

Recognize That Written and Spoken Language Differ:

One might assume that the styles of written and spoken language are roughly similar. Such an assumption would be incorrect. Written and spoken language differ enormously; even variations within written or spoken language can be vast. Consider the difference between written language in a book in comparison to written language on Twitter, for instance. Recognizing how expectations between written and spoken language differ can help you be clearer. As a speaker, talking like you would write can cause listeners to be bored, confused, or both; alternatively, writing like you speak can possibly diminish your credibility as a writer. 

Use Words That Simplify:

You will often know more about your topic than do the people in your audience. However, you must be careful not to use language that reduces understanding. Effective public speakers use words that are recognizable to their audience.

Use substitutions and definitions:

Another move toward clarity is to define any language that may seem unfamiliar or potentially confusing to an audience. For example, the term “social justice” could be made clear by describing it as an effort that seeks to establish a society in which basic needs are met and all people flourish.

 The skillful presenter chooses words that listeners will understand or defines the terms so they will understand.

Use Figurative Language:

Language can be both literal and figurative. Literal language uses words to reveal facts, whereas figurative language compares one concept to another analogous but different concept. To say that a fighter hit his opponent 25 times in a round is literal; to say that he fought like a tiger is figurative. 

The best speakers know how to use figurative language to add succulent spices to an otherwise bland broth of literal language. 

Use Synonyms and Antonyms:

Another method of clarifying a word or concept, while also potentially improving your style, is to use synonyms, words that mean more or less the same thing, or antonyms, words that are opposite in meaning. Using synonyms and antonyms can open possible wording options for you and help you avoid using similar terminology over and over again.

Use Words That Evoke Images:

An effective speaker uses creativity to paint word pictures in the audience’s minds. These words create a picture in people’s minds that makes  more concrete, specific, and easy to understand.

Colorful words create vivid images in our minds.

Use Correct Grammar:

The way you talk affects your credibility with an audience. Language misuse ranks high in terms of the negative reaction and irritation it can elicit from people.  Society’s inherent understanding of being civilized apparently means, in part, the ability to communicate well with grace and accuracy and without offense. Bad grammar is much like having a bit of spinach in your front teeth: everyone sees that spinach, but nobody bothers to tell you it is there. consistent correct use of language gives a speaker credibility because other people assume the person is educated.

Use Repetition:

Repetition, repeated sounds, has striking effects in speaking because the audience gets caught up in the cadences, or rhythms, of linguistic structure. Usually, repetition is accompanied by increased volume, increased energy, and increased forcefulness as the repeated forms build toward some climactic ending.

Using repetition makes your speech easier to remember, makes your speech more energetic, and makes your speech more memorable.

and finally.

Use Alluring Alliteration:

Alliteration means the repetition of an initial consonant. Professional speakers use alliteration because repeated sounds make words memorable. Also used in advertising, repeated sounds attract attention and help listeners to remember.

Now that i have done a quick rundown of all i had to talk about for my presentation, it's time to explain how us as a group came about to putting everything together and form a one single cohesive experience. The whole group rehearsed twice before the actual presentation so we could practice and spot where we needed to work more in order to improve our own presentation skills. the day of presenting came upon us and needless to say i was very nervous. Overall i think us as a group did a fantastic job conveying what we set to present and we thankfully got an A in our presentation.

As a whole I'm very happy with my team and also very proud of myself for improving my own personal presenting skills and i truly look forward to working with my peers on future assignments.