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Category: Communication Skills

  • APA citation style

    It is a citation style used in psychology, nursing, business, communications, engineerings and social sciences.

    It requires four elements for every citation which includes:

    • author of the content
    • publish date
    • title
    • publication data

    The general guidelines for using this format in citing your sources includes:

    Author Names
    • Start with name of the author and invent the names such that the last name comes first, then comma and then the initials and leave a space between the initials.
    publish Date
    • place the year between the parenthesis and end it with a period.
    Title
    • Capitalize only the first letter of the first word. For a two part title, capitalize the first word of the second part of the title.
    • Capitalize the proper nouns and do not italicize but end with a period

    Specifications for a Journal Article

    The general format for a journal is:

    Author last name, FirstName initial. middleName initial., & Author Name, initial. initial. (Year). Title of the article.Name of the periodical, volume(issue), page. url-link.

    Periodical name
    • Capitalize all major words in the periodical names.
    • follow with a comma
    • italicize the periodical name but not the comma after it.
    Volume number
    • Italicize the volume number
    • Do not put a space between the volume number and the issue number
    issue number
    • Do not italicize the issue number or parenthesis
    • Follow the parenthesis with a comma
    • if there is no issue number, follow the volume number with a comma
    page range
    • use an en dash to include page range
    • do not put spaces around the en dash
    • end with a period
    Date of issue
    • Include a date of issue for all articles that have one
    • Do not put a period after the date of issue

    Specifications for a book

    The general format is :

    Author, FirstName initial. middleName Initials., & Author, B. B. (Copyright Year). Title of the book (7th ed.).Publisher. DOI or URL

    Author Names
    • Invert names so that the last name comes first,followed by a comma and the initials.
    • Leave a space between initials.
    • Retain the order of authors’ names.
    Copyright year
    • Place the copyright year in parentheses.
    • End with a period.
    Title
    • Capitalize only the first letter of the first word.
    • For a two-part title, capitalize the first word of the second part of the title.
    • Also capitalize proper nouns.
    • Italicize the title.
    • End with a period.
    Edition
    • if book has edition or volume include the number in parentheses after the title but before the period.
    • If both, show edition first and volume second, separated by a comma.
    • Do not put a period between the title and the parenthetical information
    publisher
    • Include the name of the publisher, followed by a period.
    • Do not include the publisher location.
    • If there multiple publishers , separate them with a semicolon.
    Date of Issue
    • Include a DOI if available.
    • Do not include a URL or database information for works from academic research databases.
    • Include a URL for ebooks from other websites.
    • Do not put a period after the DOI or URL.

    Citing a chapter in an edited Book

    The general format is :

    Author, FirstName initial. middleName Initials., & Author, B. B. (Copyright Year). Title of the book chapter. In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of the book (2nd ed., pp. #–#). Publisher. DOI or URL

    specific formatting should be:

    • Place the copyright year in parentheses and end with a period.
    Title of the book chapter
    • In the title, Capitalize only the first letter of the first word.
    • For a two-part title, capitalize the first word of the second part of the title.
    • Also capitalize proper nouns but do not italicize.
    • End title with a period
    Book editors
    • Write the word “In” and the initials and last name of
      each editor.
    • Use “(Ed.)” for one editor or “(Eds.)” for multiple
      editors.
    • End with a comma.
    Book Title
    • Provide the title of the book in which the chapter appears.
    • Capitalize only the first letter of the first word.
    • For a two-part title, capitalize the first word of the second part of the title.
    • capitalize proper nouns.
    • Italicize the book title.
    Edition and page number
    • Include the chapter page range and with a period.
    • if book book has an edition or volume number, include the number in parentheses before the page range.
    • If both, show edition first and volume second, separated by a comma,
      before the page range.
    • Do not put a period between the title and the parenthetical information.
    publisher
    • Include the name of the publisher followed by a period.
    • Do not include the publisher location.
    • If there are multiple publishers, separate them with a semicolon.
    DOI and URL
    • Include a DOI if available.
    • Do not include a URL or database information for works from
      academic research databases.
    • Include a URL for ebooks from other websites.
    • Do not put a period after the DOI or URL.

    Citing a website

    Contributor last name First Name initial, last Name initial, suffix,(publish Date).Title.website name.Date accessed from url

    Example:

    Njuguna, C. W., Dr. (2024, April 5). Preparing a speech. Easy Simple Learning. Retrieved April 20, 2024, from https://precisestudy.online

    Related Topics

  • AMA Citation Style

    AMA Citation Style

    A citation is a formal reference to source of publication that you have consulted and obtained information from while writing a paper. Citation shows the reader where to find more information incase they need to expand their knowledge beyond your writings and increases your credibility as an author. Citation illustrates the non-linear and contested nature of knowledge creation and reinforces your arguments by demonstrating that you consulted relevant and knowledgeable sources before engaging on what you are saying.

    Citation refers to a source of information that supports a factual statement, proposition, argument, or assertion or any quoted text obtained from a book, article, web site, or any other type of material. Materials cited at the end of a paper may be listed under the heading like References, Sources, Works Cited, or Bibliography. Rules on how to properly cite a source depends on the type of writing style you have adopted and your target audience as per the subject matter in your writing.

    Citations helps the reader understand the contextual aspects of your research by highlighting what sources that were most important to you while you were writing your paper and also helps you honour other people that have contributed to the knowledge and information you want to share.

    Citation Styles

    Popular citation styles includes:

    • American Medical Association (AMA)
    • American Psychological Association (APA)
    • American Sociological Association (ASA)
    • chicago manual style
    • Modern language association
    • Turabian styles
    • Science & Engineering Styles

    American Medical Association (AMA)

    It specifies writing and citation styles for scholarly works in medicine and was created by editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

    Rules used in this citation styles includes:

    • We list authors last name and initials of their first and middle names.
    • separate author names with commas
    • do not use periods between initials
    • if authors are less than or equal to six, list their names in the given style.
    • if authors more than six, list the fist three and then write “et al” to show there are more authors
    • follow the same rule as that of listing authors but include “ed.” at the end of the editors lists.
    • for Items without authors or editors,begin the citation with the title of the item
    • must be abbreviated using national Library of medicine abbreviations

    The formats for specific type of writing includes:

    Journal Article

    List of Authors First Name initial, middle Name initial. Title of article.Abbreviated title of Journal. Year of publication; volume; complete page numbers.

    example:

    Caballero D, Bedalanga DM, singh VA. Studying the Puzzle of the Pion Nucleon Sigma Term.SJP.2017; 6(3):1-10.

    Online Journal Article

    list of Authors First Name initial, middle Name initial.Title of the article.Abbreviated Title of the journal.Year of publication;volume(issue):page numbers/article number.Date of Issue.

    if Digital object Identifier is not available, use:

    list of Authors First Name initial, middle Name initial. Title of article. Abbreviated Title of Journal. Year of publication;volume(issue):page
    numbers or article number. URL of page where you accessed the article. Published date. Updated date.Accessed date.

    Example:

    • Huang W, Lee SL, Lu LX. Mechanistic approaches to predicting oral drug absorption. AAPS J. 2009;11(2):217-24.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1208%2Fs12248-009-9098-z. Published April 21, 2009. Accessed August 5, 2018.
    Entire book


    Author First Name initial, middle Name initial or Editor First Name initial, middle Name initial, ed. Title of Book. Edition number (only include if beyond first). City, state of publication: publisher name; year of publication.

    e.g

    • Dorland WAN. Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary. 31st ed.
      Philadelphia, PA: Saunders Elsevier; 2007.
    • Alldredge BK, Corelli RL, Ernst ME, et al., eds. Koda-Kimble and
      Young’s Applied Therapeutics: The Clinical Use of Drugs. 10th ed.
      Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins; 2013.

    Chapter in an edited book

    Author(s) of chapter. Title of Chapter. Editor(s) of chapter, eds. Title of Book. Edition number (onlyinclude if beyond first). City, state of publication: publisher name; year of publication:pages


    for example a Chapter that has 2 authors in a book with 3 editors will be like:
    Relling MV, Giacomini KM. Pharmacogenomics. In: Brunton LL,
    Chabner BA, Knollmann BC, eds. Goodman and Gilman’s The
    Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. 12th ed. New York, NY:
    McGraw-Hill; 2011: 145-168.

    Entire Online Book

    Editors or authors. Title of Book. Edition number(only include if beyond first). City, state of publication: publisher name; year of publication. URL. Published date. Updated date.Accessed date.
    example:
    DiPiro JT, Talbert RL, Yee GC, Matzke GR, Wells BG, Posey LM,
    eds. Pharmacotherapy: A Pathophysiologic Approach. 9th ed.
    New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 2014.http://accesspharmacy.mhmedical.com/book.aspx?bookid=689.
    Accessed April 3, 2016.

    Website


    Author(s). Title of the specific item cited (if none is given, use the name of the organization responsible for the site). Name of the website. URL. Published date. Updated date. Accessed date.


    You MUST include the date you accessed the site.

    Examples:

    Models of communication. Easy simple learning. Published February 16, 2024. Accessed April 20, 2024. http://precisestudy.online/2024/02/16/models-of-communication/

    • Website with no named author; no publication or update dates:

    Compound summary for CID 146571: Escitalopram Oxalate.
    PubChem Compound Database. https://pubchem.ncbi
    .nlm.nih.gov/compound/146571. Accessed April 16, 2016.

    • A website with group author and publication date:

    National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Diabetic foot problems: prevention and management. National Guideline Clearinghouse.http://www.guideline.gov/content.aspx
    ?id=49566&search=diabetes. Published August 26, 2015.
    Accessed April 25, 2016

    Related Topics

    References:

  • Information Literacy

    Information Literacy

    Information literacy is a set of abilities that enables somebody to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information.

    Information literacy has increased it’s importance in the contemporary environment of rapid technological change and rapidly increasing information resources where individuals are faced with diverse and abundant information choices in their academic studies, workplace, and personal lives.

    As information increases and becomes readily available, It comes to individuals in unfiltered formats, raising questions about its authenticity, validity, and reliability.

    Information literacy enables learners to master content and extend their investigations, become more self-directed, and assume greater control over their own learning especially when they engage in lifelong learning.

    Being information literate helps us to:

    • Determine the extent of information needed
    • Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
    • Evaluate information and its sources critically
    • Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base
    • Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
    • Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the
      use of information, and access and use information ethically and
      legally

    Information Literacy and Information Technology

    Skills in Information technology enables an individual to use computers,
    software applications, databases, and other technologies to achieve a
    wide variety of academic, work and personal goals. To be information literate, one will need some literacy in information technology.

    information literacy focus on content, communication, analysis, information searching, and evaluation whereas information technology literacy focuses on a deep understanding of technology and skills in using it.

    Information literacy is an intellectual framework for understanding,
    finding, evaluating, and using information activities which may be accomplished partly by fluency with information technology, in partly by sound investigative methods, through critical discernment and reasoning.

    Information literacy initiates, sustains, and extends lifelong learning through abilities which may use technologies but are ultimately
    independent of them.

    Information Literacy and learning

    Colleges and Universities promotes Information literacy to it’s graduates by ensuring they have the intellectual abilities of reasoning and critical thinking and by helping them construct a framework for learning how to learn providing foundation for continued growth throughout their careers and in their roles as informed citizens and members of communities.

    Information literacy extends learning beyond formal classroom settings and provides practice with self-directed investigations.

    Information literacy augments students’ competency with evaluating, managing and using information and so it is considered by several as a key outcome for college students.

    Information literacy is a useful skill for distance learning students not on traditional campuses and enables them to use information resources
    available through networks and other channels and in distributed learning technologies permitting teaching and learning to occur when teacher and the student are not in the same place at the same time, enabling range of learning experiences as offered on traditional campuses.

    Information Literacy and the Instructional methods

    Information literacy is required in student-centered learning environments where learning is accomplished through inquiry , problem solving and critical thinking. It multiplies the opportunities for students self-directed learning, as they become engaged in using a wide variety of
    information sources to expand their knowledge, ask informed questions, and sharpen their critical thinking for still further self-directed learning.

    Achieving competency in information literacy requires an understanding that this cluster of abilities is not extraneous to the curriculum but is woven into the curriculums’ content, structure, and sequence where students reason about course content at a deeper level than it is possible through the exclusive use of lectures and textbooks.

    To obtain the information they are seeking for their investigations, individuals utilizes an information retrieval systems such library or in databases accessible by computer in the networks or select appropriate investigative method for observing phenomena directly.

    Standards to measure information literacy

    There are five standards and twenty-two performance indicators that focuses upon the needs of students in higher education at all levels.

    the standards includes:

    1.A person determines the nature and extent of the information needed.

    The performance indicator for this is that:

    i. An individual defines and articulates the need for information.

    ii. The individual identifies a variety of types and formats of potential sources for information

    iii.An individual considers the costs and benefits of acquiring the needed information.

    iv. An individual reevaluates the nature and extent of the information need.

    2. A person accesses needed information effectively and efficiently.

    This is indicated by:

    i. Individual selects the most appropriate investigative methods or information retrieval systems for accessing the needed information.

    ii. An Individual constructs and implements effectively designed search strategies.

    iii. An individual retrieves information online or in
    person using a variety of methods.

    iv.An individual refines the search strategy where necessary.

    v. An individual records, and manages the information and its sources.

    3.A person evaluates information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base and value system.

    This can be indicated by:

    i. An individual summarizes the main ideas to be extracted
    from the information gathered.

    ii. An individual articulates and applies initial criteria for evaluating both the information and its sources.

    iii. An individual synthesizes main ideas to construct new concepts.

    iv. An individual compares new knowledge with prior knowledge to determine the value added, contradictions or other unique characteristics of the information.

    v. An individual determines whether the new knowledge has an impact on the individual’s value system and takes steps to reconcile differences.

    vi. An individual validates understanding and interpretation of the information through discourse with other individuals subject-area experts, and/or practitioners.

    vii. An individual determines whether the initial query should be revised.

    4. A person individually or as a member of a group uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.

    This can be indicated by:

    i. The individual applies new and prior information to the planning and creation of a particular product or performance.

    ii. The individual revises the development process for the product or performance.

    ii. The individual communicates the product or performance effectively to others.

    5. A person understands many of the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses information ethically and legally.

    This can be indicated by:

    i. The individual understands many of the ethical, legal and socio-economic issues surrounding information and information technology.

    ii. The individual follows laws, regulations, institutional
    policies, and etiquette related to the access and use of information resources.

    iii. The individual acknowledges the use of information
    sources in communicating the product or performance.

    Related topics
  • Conflict Management

    Conflict Management

    Conflict is a struggle or clash between opposing forces. It is a battle or a state of opposition between ideas, interests, disagreement or controversy.

    what you need to understand about conflict
    • handling conflict requires understanding of it’s causes
    • conflicts has escalating factors
    • conflicts can lead to better things
    • Conflict is normal part of life and cannot be avoided
    • conflict periodically occurs in all forms of relationships
    • conflicts causes change or fuel growth
    • It is only dysfunctional when it prevents team from achieving it’s goals
    • Conflicts can results to positive outcomes

    Benefits of conflicts

    • It causes discovery of problems that has been existing
    • It exposes opportunities that has not been visible to the team
    • It encourages self-discovery and builds self-esteem
    • Helps people discover new ways of doing things
    • promotes understanding of other team members perspectives
    • can lead to new and better ideas
    • Fuels team growth
    • can increase team’s productivity

    There are two types of conflicts:

    1. rational/cognitive conflict
    2. Emotional/ Affective conflict

    Rational/Cognitive conflict

    • It is a conflict whose is goal is to find the best possible solution rather winning
    • It is about ideas and ways of doing things
    • Alternatives are viewed as valuable rather than threatening
    • It is a conflict that focuses on issues and not attacks on people or their personalities
    • Results to productive and united team
    • Comes from team members with growth mindsets
    Emotional / Affective conflict
    • It is driven by people whose goal is to win at all cost without interest on finding the best solution.
    • It is a conflict where opposition is met with aggressiveness rather than finding it’s ideas
    • Focuses on personal issues rather than the problems that need to be solved
    • Creates less productive and fragmented teams
    • Disagreements are taken personally and disagreeing party antagonized
    • People disagreeing are seen as having problems

    Steps in conflict management

    1. Acknowledge conflict and set goals

    Seek to understand the problem and then invite team members into conversation. One should be clear about the intentions of the interaction and state the objectives of meeting before the conversation.

    2. share perspective

    Ask team members view about the conflicting situations and listen carefully as you record their inputs. Acknowledge inputs from team members and then clearly explain your perspectives

    3. Build understanding

    Identify issues from all parties so that you can establish a common ground in your conversation as you work together to dissects the differences.

    work together to explore the differences separating intentions from the impacts of the conflict.

    use clear, direct and neutral language avoiding being judgmental as you explore assumptions, interests and feelings among the conflicting parties.

    4. Agree on the solution

    You explore the best solutions that works the best for the team which has a potential of resolving the conflict. The ideal solution is the one that has positive results in the wrong run and satisfies the best interests of team members.

    5. Take action

    Determine the cause of action stating who need to be involved when they need to do it describing how interaction should take place.

    6.Reassess and revise

    Where necessary reassess the collaboration efforts and gives feedback highlighting what is working and what is not working.

    Address minor concerns so that they don’t escalate to be conflicts and seek support from colleagues and peers.

    Related Topics
  • The art of public speaking

    The art of public speaking

    Researching and Supporting Your Speech

    In the modern world, we have a lot of information at our fingertips and so research skills are more important than ever because our challenge is not accessing information but discerning what information is credible and relevant.

    Finding Supporting Material

    You must be familiar with what you want to talk about if you are to deliver a meaningful speech. studying the existing knowledge forms the first step of your research process. The amount of research and background studies depends on your level of familiarity with the topic you need to talk about.

    Background research is just a review of summaries available for your topic that helps refresh or create your knowledge about the subject.

    If you’ve thought of a topic to do your speech on, chances are that someone else has thought of it, too, and people have written and published about it and so consulting libraries can be very useful.

    College and university libraries are often at the cutting edge of information retrieval for academic research.

    Types of information sources

    Different types of sources that may be relevant for your speech topic includes:

    • Periodicals:-include magazines and journals which are published periodically. If your searching for online periodicals, the results can be overwhelming and so you may need to may limit your search to results that have your keyword in the abstract which is the author-supplied summary of the source.
    • Newspapers and Books:-Newspapers are good for topics that are developing quickly, as they are updated daily. smaller local papers can also be credible and relevant if your speech topic doesn’t have national or international reach. Books are good for a variety of subjects and are useful for in-depth research that you can’t get as regularly from newspapers or magazines.
    • Reference Tools:- Dictionaries are handy tools when we aren’t familiar with a particular word. Citing a dictionary doesn’t show deep research skills. Reference sources like encyclopedias are excellent resources to get you informed about the basics of a topic and many of them are Internet based, which makes them convenient but they are still not primary sources.
    • Interviews:- When conducting an interview for a speech, you should access a person who has expertise in or direct experience with your speech topic. Previous employers, internship supervisors, teachers, community leaders, or even relatives may be appropriate interviewees, given your topic. After identifying a good interviewee, you will want to begin researching and preparing questions to ask them.
    • Websites:- some information may be better retrieved from websites.If you know there is an organization related to your topic, you may want to see if they have an official website. It is almost always better to get information from an official website because it is likely to be considered a primary source information.

    Supporting Material

    There are several types of supporting material that you can pull from the sources you find during the research process to add to your speech. These materials includes:

    • examples
    • explanations
    • statistics
    • analogies
    • testimony
    • visual aids
    Examples

    This is a cited case that is representative of a larger whole.

    Examples are especially beneficial when presenting information that an audience may not be familiar with. They are also useful for repackaging or reviewing information that has already been presented. Examples can be used in many different ways, so you should let your audience, purpose and thesis, and research materials guide your use. You may pull examples directly from your research materials, making sure to cite the source.

    Explanations

    They clarify ideas by providing information about what something is, why something is the way it is, or how something works or came to be. One of the most common types of explanation is a definition. Many authors will define concepts as they use them in their writing, which is a good alternative to a dictionary definition. In your speech think about how much your audience knows about a given subject as you do not need to provide definitions when information is common knowledge. It is important to anticipate audience confusion and define legal, medical, or other forms of jargon as well as slang and unfamiliar words words or phrases.

    Repeating a definition verbatim from a dictionary often leads to fluency hiccups, because definitions are not written to be read aloud but It is a good idea to put the definition into your own words

    Consciously incorporating clear explanations into your speech can help you achieve your speech goals.

    Statistics

    Statistics are numerical representations of information. As a speaker, you can capitalize on the power of statistics if you use them appropriately. All statistics are contextual, so plucking a number out of a news article or a research study and including it in your speech without taking the time to understand the statistic is unethical.

    Although statistics are popular as supporting evidence, they can also be boring especially to people in our audience who are not good at processing numbers. Even people good at numbers may find it difficult to follow a speech full of figures hence it is a good idea to avoid using too many statistics and to use startling examples when you do use them. Rounding off figures instead of giving exact figures and expressing them in format that audience can relate easily like percentage can be useful.

    Analogies

    involve a comparison of ideas, items, or circumstances like when you compare two things that actually exists. A figurative analogy compares things that are not normally related, often relying on metaphor, simile, or other figurative language devices; for example when we compare a battery that produces current to a pump that pumps water.

    To use analogies effectively and ethically, you must choose ideas, items, or circumstances to compare that are similar enough to warrant the analogy.

    Testimonies

    This is quoted information from people with direct knowledge about a subject or situation.

    Expert testimony is from people who are credentialed or recognized experts in a given subject.

    Lay testimony is often a recounting of a person’s experiences, which is more subjective.

    In courtrooms, Lawyers know that juries want to hear testimony from experts, eyewitnesses, and friends and family.

    Visual Aids

    This are things that help a speaker reinforce speech content visually helping amplify the speaker’s message.

    skillfully incorporating visual aids into a speech has many potential benefits:

    • Helping your audience remember more information
    • Helping your audience understand information because it is made more digestible through diagrams, charts etc.
    • Helping your audience see something in action by demonstrating with an object, showing a video etc.
    • Engaging your audience by making your delivery more dynamic through demonstration, gesturing etc.

    The visual aids you can use in a speech includes:

    • chalkboards
    • whiteboards and flip charts
    • posters and handouts
    • pictures
    • diagrams
    • charts
    • graphs
    • videos
    • presentation software.

    Reference:  A Primer on Communication Studies, lardbucket.

    Related topics
  • The art of public speaking

    The art of public speaking

    The speech making process

    Speech making is a process that involves various stages which includes  Selecting and narrowing the topic selection. One should always see every subject in the speech through the eyes of your audience.  It  is important  to  tailor  every  topic  to  suit  your  particular  audience.  This should be reflected in the topic wording, among other things. Use the following criteria:

    Apparent worth –Is it important to you and to your audience?

    Appropriateness– does it fit your personal interests, the audience, and the occasion

    Availability of material  – do not deliver a speech you are not well conversant with or the one you only have limited knowledge about                    

    Sometimes the topic is prescribed, but on a number of occasions, you will need to come up with your own.   A good topic requires that you consider the audience, the purpose of your speech, and the speech situation, because these factors influence the success of your presentation.

    so the speech making process involves:

    Selecting and narrowing the topic

    Speech preparation should be done in an informed and systematic way otherwise it may turn out to be irrelevant to the audience and damage reputation of the speaker. sound speech preparation is an important ingredient of good speaking skills.

    i. Analyse your audience

    Audience analysis is the process of gathering information about the people in your audience so that you can understand their needs, expectations, beliefs, values, attitudes, and likely opinions.

    Ask the question: “who is my audience?”.

    Assume there is diversity of opinion and background among your listeners in terms of age, race, gender, religion, culture, philosophy, believe system etc. Do not base your speech on the majority of the group and ignore minority group even if they are scantly represented. One person that is different from all other listeners is still worthy considerations in your speech, you cannot assume he/she does not exist in your speech even if he/she is the only one among the group of many homogeneous people. However, you can focus on commonalities among the audience, for instance, assume everyone is living withing the locality of your speech environment, everyone has same professional interest about the subject if the subject is addressing a certain professional field.

    There are several types of audience analysis that may includes:

    • Demographic audience analysis
    • Psychological audience analysis
    • situational audience analysis

    Demographic audience analysis

     Demographics are broad sociocultural categories, such as age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, education level, religion, ethnicity, and nationality usually segment a larger population into groups. A large population could be divided into smaller groups like teenagers, the elderly, the middle aged, married single, intellectuals, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, people in blue coat industries etc.  Being aware of diverse demographics is useful in that you can tailor and vary examples to appeal to different groups of people.

    Psychological Audience Analysis

    An important aspect of psychological audience analysis involves considering the audience’s attitudes, beliefs, and values, as they will influence perceptions they will have about your speech.

    Attitudes are our likes and dislikes and they are easier to influence than beliefs or values because they are often reactionary. Likes and dislikes change frequently and can change dramatically based on recent developments. If there is something going on in popular culture or current events that has captured people’s attention and favor or disfavour, then you can tap into that as a speaker to better relate to your audience.

    We come to hold our beliefs based on what we are taught, experience for ourselves, or have faith in.Naturally, beliefs change with age and experiences and so our beliefs change if we encounter new information or experiences that counter previous ones.

    Our values deal with what we view as right or wrong, good or bad and do change over time but mostly as a result of a life transition or life-changing event such as a birth, death, or trauma.

    Psychological Audience Analysis considers your audience’s psychological dispositions toward the topic, speaker, and occasion and how their attitudes, beliefs, and values affects disposition toward your topic.

    When considering your audience’s , you want to assess your audience’s knowledge of the subject.

    To positively engage your audience,establish your credibility to make them see you as a competent, trustworthy and worthy of listening. If your reputation is not positive based on your previous speeches, you will need to work much harder to establish your credibility. If your speeches were good in earlier speeches, your speech will be readily received.

    To establish your trustworthiness, include good supporting materials in your speech,cite credible sources and present information and argument in a balanced , non-coercive and non manipulative manner.

    Your verbal and nonverbal delivery should be fluent and appropriate to the audience and the context.

    The circumstances under which your audience attend your speech will affect their view of the occasion. These circumstances creates two types of audience:

    • captive audience
    • voluntary audience

    Captive audience

    Includes people who are required to attend your presentation for example mandatory meetings that are common in workplace settings. many people don’t even like those regular meetings and so you may want to build common ground with your audience to overcome any potential resentment for the required gathering.

    You may have to work harder to maintain the attention of a captive audience since they may expect to hear the same content they hear every time this particular meeting comes around, and they could just be enduring through your speech.

    voluntary audience

     Includes people who have decided to come hear your speech. This is perhaps one of the best compliments a speaker can receive, even before they’ve delivered the speech. You should be aware that this group of audience may have preconceived notions or expectations that you must live up to.

    To a voluntary audience, ask yourself what the audience members expect. Why are they here? If they’ve decided to come and see you, they must be interested in your topic or you as a speaker. You may need to understand what makes them attracted to your speech. Perhaps you have a reputation for being humorous, being able to translate complicated information into more digestible parts, or being interactive with the audience and responding to questions. Whatever the reason or reasons, it’s important to make sure you deliver on those aspects. If people are voluntarily giving up their time to hear you, you want to make sure they get what they expected.

    Situational Audience Analysis

     Considers the physical surroundings and setting of a speech. It’s always a good idea to visit the place you will be speaking ahead of time so you will know what to expect. If you expect to have a lectern and arrive to find only a table at the front of the room, that little difference could end up increasing your anxiety and diminishing your speaking effectiveness. Knowing your physical setting ahead of time allows you to alter the physical setting, where possible or alter your message and speaking strategies if needed.

    ii. Determine Your Purpose for the speech

    Your speeches will usually fall into one of three categories; to inform, to persuade, to entertain or amuse our audience. You will choose the topic based on what you want to achieve but most often you may find a need to incorporate more than one purpose to deliver an effective speech.

    iii. Choosing a Topic

    Once you have determined (or been assigned) your general purpose, you can begin the process of choosing a topic. In most academic, professional, and personal settings, there will be some parameters set that will help guide your topic selection. Speeches delivered at work will usually be directed toward a specific goal such as welcoming new employees, informing about changes in workplace policies, or presenting quarterly sales figures. We are also usually compelled to speak about specific things in our personal lives, like addressing a problem at our child’s school by speaking out at a school board meeting. it’s not often that you’ll be starting from scratch when you begin to choose a topic.

    Whether you’ve received parameters that narrow your topic range or not, the first step in choosing a topic is brainstorming.

    iv. Brainstorming

     It Involves generating many potential topic ideas in a fast-paced and nonjudgmental manner and can take place multiple times as you narrow your topic. You may begin by brainstorming a list of your personal interests that can then be narrowed down to a speech topic.

    It makes sense that you will enjoy speaking about something that you care about or find interesting hence research and writing will be more interesting, and the delivery will be easier since you won’t have to fake enthusiasm for your topic.

    Speaking about something you’re familiar with and interested in can also help you manage speaking anxiety. Some speakers may get stuck here if they don’t feel like they can make their interests relevant to the audience. In that case, you can look around for ideas.

    v. Specific Purpose

    Once you have brainstormed, narrowed, and chosen your topic, you can begin to draft your specific purpose statement.

    Specific purpose  is a one-sentence statement that includes the objective you want to accomplish in your speech. You do not speak aloud your specific purpose during your speech but you use it to guide your researching, organising, and writing. A good specific purpose statement is audience centred, agrees with the general purpose, addresses one main idea and is realistic.

     Since a speaker may want to see if he or she effectively met his or her specific purpose , the objective should be written in such a way that it could be measured or assessed, and since a speaker actually wants to achieve his or her speech goal, the specific purpose should also be realistic. 

    The speaker could also test this specific purpose by asking the audience questions related to the speech delivered.

    vi. Thesis Statement

     It is a one-sentence summary of the central idea of your speech that you either explain or defend.

    You would explain the thesis statement for an informative speech, since these speeches are based on factual, objective material.

    You would defend your thesis statement for a persuasive speech, because these speeches are argumentative and your thesis should clearly indicate a stance on a particular issue. In order to make sure your thesis is argumentative and your stance clear, it is helpful to start your thesis with the words “I believe.” When starting to work on a persuasive speech, it can also be beneficial to write out a counterargument to your thesis to ensure that it is arguable.

    The thesis statement is different from the specific purpose in two main ways:

    1. The thesis statement is content centred, while the specific purpose statement is audience centered.
    2. The thesis statement is incorporated into the spoken portion of your speech, while the specific purpose serves as a guide for your research and writing and an objective that you can measure. 

    A good thesis statement is declarative, agrees with the general and specific purposes and focuses and narrows your topic. 

     Although you will likely end up revising and refining your thesis as you research and write, it is good to draft a thesis statement soon after drafting a specific purpose to help guide your progress.

    As with the specific purpose statement, your thesis helps ensure that your research, organising, and writing are focused so you don’t end up wasting time with irrelevant materials. Keep your specific purpose and thesis statement at the top of your working outline so you can reference them often.

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  • Note taking

    Note taking

    Note-taking is the practice of writing down or otherwise recording key points of information and is useful exercise when doing research or gathering information. e.g trying to understand what the speaker is saying in a lecture hall.

    Benefits of note taking

    •  Actively taking notes during class can help you focus and better understand main concepts and keeps your mind from wandering from the speaker.
    • crucial for reviewing and studying class material so that you better understand it and can be handy when preparing reports or acts as a guide when preparing for an examination.
    • enables you to pay closer attention to and become more familiar with the new information.

    One of the reasons why we listen is to acquire information. Research has shown that we can lose up to 80% of the content is forgotten within two weeks if no effort is made to record or to remember the material. This stresses the importance of note-taking during a listening session.

    • Remember, however, not to make a copy of the speaker’s material because:
    • It is not possible – You cannot match the speaker’s speed.
    • It is not necessary – Record only what will enable you to recall everything of significance the speaker says.

    Note taking helps you to remember both what you heard and what you understood. It is learning about the subject and not simply recording all that the speaker says. By taking notes you are able to pay closer attention to and become more familiar with the new information.

    GUIDELINES TO NOTE-TAKING

    • Date the page
    • Record any other pertinent information you might need like ,Speaker’s name, Title of the lecture/speech, Venue, time, etc.
    • Use symbols-they help you to represent many words by a single symbol as the talking speed of the speaker is often faster than our writing speed. With symbols, you can capture a group of letters or words at onces
    • Use Abbreviations-short form of the words instead of typing the whole word. e.g info. instead of information. note the dot at end of the shorted word info. to signify that the word is a short form of another word.
    • Use acronyms -This are names formed from the first letters or syllables of other words, for example International Livestock Research Institute is written as ILRI.
    • Use the form that will help you to review your notes easily. You will need to consider the nature of the content. A note format for Mathematics will not be the same as that one for History, Biology, etc. Biology, for example may call for diagrams; Geography for maps, charts, graphs, etc.
    • Think of how the presenter has ordered the material. A good lecture or speech has three distinct parts: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. Listen to the main points for discussion, which are usually given in the introduction. The body then develops them while the conclusion (among other functions) sums them up and points forward to the next step.
    • Use Letter and Numeral Format efficiently to arrange main points
    • Clustering/Mind Maps e.g
    • use Flow Charts especially when a process to do something is being explained.
    WHEN NOT TO TAKE NOTES
    1. When the speaker tells you not to write.
    2. When the speaker hands out an outline, notes, or other material and then reads directly from the handout. In this case you can annotate the handout for any extra details.
    3. When it is very clear that what is being said is out of topic. For example, a poor presenter may bring in unrelated issues especially if there is no clear plan or organisation. At other times the speaker may notice lack of concentration among some listeners. He/she then cracks a joke to re-establish the listening mood.

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  •    Levels of Listening

       Levels of Listening

    listening is deliberate and voluntary action we must consciously chooses
    to do. Active listening is hard work as it requires concentration on what the speaker is saying and It calls for discipline and practice.To be able to listen effectively, you must consciously deal with anything that might interfere with your listening understanding of what is being said. Interferences with spoken message could be external or internal.

    Levels of Listening

    You will find that you listen with varying levels of concentration depending on:

    • the purpose of listening
    • your physical and psychological state
    • your background knowledge on what is spoken
    • and the content of the speech.

    Listening is therefore, said to be more than just a single simple hearing.

    Listening occurs in various levels that includes:

    Reception

    This involves hearing without attending to sounds or noises around you. An example when this happens is when you are busy doing other things in your room but you have a loud music playing. A student could be in classroom and sitted when teacher is talking but his/her mind is far away from the class.

    Attention

    Attention means focusing briefly on something and then tuning out.

    This is the lowest level of active listening, where isolated facts and details are attended to without any apparent organisational plan. This happens when certain words or concepts capture your attention.

    For example, you could be near two people talking near you while you are concentrating on something else when they mention something you have interest in causing you to want to join the conversation and participate in it actively .

    Attention could also be described as listening passively with no effort to relate what you hear with what you already know or without striving to understand what is being said. A person could be enjoying music because of the tunes and lyrics without giving much attentions to the message artist is trying to communicate.

    Integration

    Relating new information to old learning. E.g. Learning a new
    method of solving a mathematical problem when you have a method you have been using already.

    Interpretation

    It involves synthesizing information or bringing it together and putting it
    into your own words. It also involves figuring out how the information affects what you do as an employee, student, individual, etc. (e.g. information about the reorganisation of your department).

    Implication

    It involves making your own conclusions from the information received.

    Application

    Applying information to personal experiences. For example preparing a public speech after attending a lecture on public speaking. Application is when the new information heard changes your behavior in response to what is heard.

    Evaluation

    It involves judging information in terms of accuracy and relevance to your
    circumstances.

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  • Listening skills

    Listening skills

    We most often interact with others by speaking and responding to their words. Speaking plays a significant part of human life and their interactions. Listening skills are essential abilities that allow individuals to effectively receive, understand, interpret, and respond to verbal and nonverbal messages. These skills are crucial in various aspects of life, including personal relationships, professional settings, and academic environments. By honing these listening skills, individuals can improve their communication abilities, build stronger relationships, resolve conflicts more effectively, and achieve greater success in various personal and professional endeavors.

    Definitions

    The International Listening Association defines it as “the process of receiving, constructing meaning from and responding to spoken and /or nonverbal messages” (International Listening Association, 1996)

    some key components of effective listening skills includes:

    Active Listening

    Active listening involves giving full attention to the speaker and demonstrating engagement through verbal and nonverbal cues. It includes maintaining eye contact, nodding, providing verbal affirmations (like “ooh” or “okay”,etc), and avoiding distractions.

    Empathy

    Empathetic listening involves understanding and sharing the feelings and perspectives of the speaker. It requires putting yourself in the speaker’s shoes and acknowledging their emotions without judgment.

    Open-mindedness

    It involves approaching a conversation without a pre-conceived imagination of what the speaker is going to say. It involves removing personal judgement about the speaker and what he/she will say before speaking. Effective listeners approach conversations with an open mind, being receptive to new ideas, perspectives, and information. They avoid making assumptions or jumping to conclusions prematurely.

    Seek Clarification

    Good listeners ask clarifying questions to ensure they understand the speaker’s message accurately. They may paraphrase or summarize what they’ve heard to confirm their understanding.

    Nonverbal Communication

    Nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice can convey additional meaning beyond words. Skilled listeners pay attention to these cues to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the speaker’s message.

    Patience

    Patience is essential in listening. Effective listeners allow the speaker to express themselves fully without interrupting or rushing the conversation.

    Respect

    It will involves listening without being distracting by your inner needs of wanting to criticize or interject the speaker before he/she finish their statements or have given cues of wanting a feedback.Respectful listening involves showing consideration and regard for the speaker’s thoughts, feelings, and opinions, even if they differ from your own. It fosters a positive and supportive communication environment.

    Feedback

    Feedback is the response we give to the speaker upon receiving their message. It is the message we give back as a reply to what we have received. Providing constructive feedback demonstrates active engagement in the conversation and helps clarify misunderstandings or address any points of confusion.

    Attention to Detail

    This shows we are interested with what is being spoken and that we value what the speaker is saying showing them that what they are communicating is valuable to us.Paying attention to details in the speaker’s message shows respect and reinforces understanding. It involves noticing subtleties, nuances, and underlying meanings.

    Practice

    Most of people are not good listeners by nature, listening effectively is a skill that is learnt and we can improve our listening skills by training ourselves and practicing to do it. Regularly engaging in conversations and actively applying listening techniques can enhance your ability to listen effectively.

    Barriers to effective listening

    Anything that stands in the way of effective communication is called a barrier.  Due to listening barriers, it is usually difficult to attach mirror- image meanings to the messages we receive from others. some common listening barriers includes:

    i. Unfamiliarity with the subject

    If you hear something for the first time, your mind will engage in thinking about it’s meaning rather than on storing it in memory. Our mind usually takes time before sparing memory for something and so to fully grasp something, we may need to interact with it in more than one time.

    If you are to attend an educational lecturer, it is advisable that you research ahead of the lecture about the subject so that the concepts and vocabulary in the lecture mentioned will not sound unfamiliar to you. Studying the lecture topic ahead can also help you formulate some of the questions you would like to ask during the lecture.

    Preparation for a lecture is a very important exercise. Communication scholars have found out that unprepared listener can only recall 50% or less of a 10-minute lecture when they are tested immediately.

    ii. Prejudice and bias

    we sometimes meet a speaker who we have bias against based on culture, gender, religion, ethnic background etc. What we hear from the speaker is filtered through this prejudices and so it hinders our understanding of what they have to say.

    Sometimes people we don’t agree with in terms of our values, religion, ethnicity and all the things we use to judge people can have valuable information that can benefit us. It is always advisable to separate the message from the speaker and concentrate on the message. For example if your math lecturer is a christian and you are a Muslim, The math concepts are not affected by the religion and so it is pointless and stupid to miss out on the concepts when thinking about their religious or cultural background

    iii. distractions

    Many thoughts and ideas run through our mind at any given time. Our mind has a tendency of wandering away from what is being spoken and so detaching itself from the speaker. When your mind is away from the speaker, it is impossible to understand what they are saying. Your mind is the most important tools in listening.

    You will need to make conscious decisions to fight against all enticements that steals your concentrations. Deliberately postpone thinking about other things during lecture, whether they are personal problems or things you are interested in.

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  • The Art of Listening

    The Art of Listening

    Listening is the active process of receiving audio message, constructing meaning from it and responding to both verbal and non-verbal communications.

    Definitions

    Oxford dictionary defines listening as paying attention to somebody or something that you can hear.

    Listening is the interpretative action taken by someone in order to understand and potentially make meaningful response to the message heard. (Roland Bathes)

    Listening is the active process of receiving audio stimuli (De Vito, 1987).

    Definition: Listening is a voluntary process that goes beyond simply reacting to sounds but includes understanding, analysing, evaluating and responding to audio messages.

    Listening is an active deliberate, selective process by which a message is received, critically interpreted and acted upon by a purposeful listener.

    There is always a big difference between hearing and listening. We should never mistaken between the two. It is possible to hear without listening but you cannot listen without hearing.

    Oxford dictionary describes hearing as being ware of the sounds with your ears.

    In hearing you may not be analysing or evaluating anything about what you are hearing. It is possible for your ears to be detecting sound without understanding or you responding to it.

    Unlike listening, hearing is a passive automatic process of simply perceiving sounds.

    Listening involves both verbal and non-verbal communication. Listening involves both verbal and non-verbal communications in that response to presented messages is influenced by a factors like presenters gestures, body movements, eye contacts , dress code,cultural background, venue, expectation of listeners and other physical phenomenons.

    Bathe in his paper ‘Listening’ says that hearing is a physiological phenomenon; hearing is a psychological act.

    Whereas hearing can be involuntary, listening must be deliberate and it is difficult for it to happen without us putting effort to listen.

    Difference between hearing and listening

    • hearing happens automatically where listening requires our effort
    • hearing can happen subconsciously, but listening requires decision to do it.
    • hearing is a physical function of the body but listening is an action we must choose to do
    • Hearing needs our ears only, listening needs both ears and our mind.

    Every good conversation starts with good listening and poor listening can cost us important things in life like jobs, customers in business, relationships etc.

    A doctor who does not listen can cause loss of lives. Imagine a plane operator who does not listen communications with the pilot. poor listening can be costly and even bring disastrous results

    Effective listening takes time and effort and sometimes may require training of mind. It costs time and energy to listen but profits of listening are worthy the efforts.

    Listening is very important in professional world, a judge need to listen carefully to both the prosecution team and the defense team in a law court if he has to make sound judgement. Similarly, a lawyer must listen to his/her clients carefully if he/she will represent their case effectively. students must listen to a teacher carefully if they have to benefit from a lecture. A customer care who does not listen to customers will cause future loss of business to the company.

    Active listening is a hard work because it requires concentration on the speaker’s communication yet our minds have tendency of wondering as it is easily distracted by physical or imaginary things . We must practice a discipline in listening but our natural inclination does not favor listening most of the time.

    Effective Listening will involves consciously dealing with things that are external or internal to us that interferes with our understanding of audio messages. For example if you have an issue disturbing you in personal life, you may find yourself thinking about it most of the time amidst a lecture and so you find yourself missing out on most of what is spoken.

    Levels of listening

    Listening is more than just a simple activity and happens in varying levels of concentration that are determine by factors like:

    • purpose of listening e.g whether to understand a thing or just an entertainment.
    • physical state
    • psychological state
    • physiological state e.g hungry person may not listen effectively
    • your background knowledge on what is being spoken
    • content of what is spoken etc.

    stages of Listening

    According to Joseph De Vito, listening occurs in five stages that includes receiving, understanding, remembering, evaluating and responding.

    1. Receiving

    Also called sensing. It is the intentional on hearing a speaker’s message by filtering out other sources of communication so that we isolate the message from the speaker and avoid distractive stimuli from other sources. This is a stage we only hear what is being spoken.

    You must hear the message as the first step towards other stages of listening.

    2. Understanding

    This is a stage where we attempts to learn the meaning a message we have heard.If a speaker does not enunciate the message clearly, it becomes understand the message.

    Our brain is the main tool needed to help us understand the message . Our cultural backgrounds and personal experiences influences the kind of meaning to the words we hear so that the way understand is influenced by our own perception and experiences. When listening, we should be on the look out for areas of communication where our perception may differ from those intended by the speaker.

    3. Remembering

    Remembering is being able to bring back to mind what you have heard some few minutes after hearing it. Remembering is committing to memory what you have heard and it is an indication of listening. If you cannot remember what you heard,then your listening is not effective.

    The most common reason for not remembering a spoken message is because it was not really learned in the first place(Wolvin & Coakley,1996. Distractions during listening reduces greatly our ability to remember.

    4. Evaluating

    This involves making some judgement about the message heard to determine whether it is valuable to us, it is making sense or whether is wrong. Evaluation of the same message can vary widely from one person to another because of our perception, culture and experiences.The communication skills of the speaker will have a great role on how listeners will evaluate the message.One should avoid making skewed judgement on a message beacuse of personal prejudice on the speaker.

    5. Feedback

    It is when a listener indicates his/her involvement by reacting in a manner that can be detected by the speaker. For example students in class gives feedback to the teacher by making notes. Another feedback is when listeners looks for clarification by asking questions on what was said.

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