PUBLIC SPEAKING

 Public speaking is important in education, business, and the public arena. There are many benefits to speaking in public whether you're an individual or as a part of business.

What is public speaking? 

Public speaking is a presentation that's given live before an audience. 

Public speeches can cover a wide variety of different topics. The goal of the speech may be to educate, entertain, or influence the listeners. Often, visual aids in the form of an electronic slideshow are used to supplement the speech. This makes it more interesting to the listeners.

A public speaking presentation is different from an online presentation. An online presentation is available any time. A public speech is typically limited to a specific time or place. Online presentations often use slideshows. Or they use pre-recorded videos of a speaker. This includes recordings of a live public speaking presentation.

If you ask most people, they'll probably say they don't like public speech. They may even admit to being afraid of it since fear of public speaking is a very common fear. Or they may just be shy or introverted. For those reasons, many people avoid speaking in public if they can. However, if you learn how and practice you too can be a public speaker.

Importance of Public Speaking
Over the years, public speaking in communication has played a major role in education, government, and business. Words have the power to inform, persuade, educate, and even entertain. And the spoken word can be even more powerful than the written word in the hands of the right speaker.
Whether you're a small business owner,  or a student, you'll benefit from improving your public speaking skills. 

Some benefits to speaking in public include:

• improves confidence 
• better research skills
• stronger deductive skills
• ability to advocate for causes
• and more

Speaking in public is especially important for businesses to market their offers. This allows them to get their message in front of potential customers. Sales people and executives are often expected to have good public speaking skills. 

To help you become better at giving public speeches, we'll take a look at these five areas:

1. writing the speech
2. overcoming a fear of speaking
3. practicing the speech
4. preparing your presentation slide designs
5. giving the speech

1. Writing the speech: The first thing you'll want to do is work on writing a well-organized, engaging speech. Because even a great speaking voice or a great deal of charisma isn't enough if your material isn't any good.

2. Overcoming a fear of speaking: Fear of public speaking is very real and can hold you back if you let it. If you don't feel confident when giving your speech, your listeners may pick up on that. This can make your presentation less effective. Fortunately, there are some techniques to help manage the fear of speaking in public. They also help you become more confident.

3. Practicing the speech: Even if you're not afraid of speaking in public, practice helps you give a more effective speech. If you're in a rush, you may be tempted to skip practicing your speech to save time. While skipping practice may seem like a good idea, it's really not.Practicing your speech improves your public presentation skills. It also increases your familiarity with the presentation. As a result, your speech will go smoothly.

4. Preparing your presentation: Make sure your presentation slides look presentable and easy to read. 

5. Giving the speech: You've written a good speech. You feel more confident about giving a speech in public, and you've practiced. You're ready to actually give the speech. 

VOICE MODULATION IN COMMUNICATION

 Some people are confident speakers while others get nervous when they have to speak before audiences.

In public speaking, when delivering a speech, your confidence is one of the most important things. And a reflection of your confidence is seen through your voice.

To give a successful and worth remembering speech, voice modulation can work wonders. It may be a difficult task but with practice, practice and more practice, you can master it and bring the best out of your speech.

Voice modulation means to control or adjust your voice according to the requirement of your speech. Your pitch, your pace everything should vary according to the requirement of the sentence you speak. If you are happy or sad, one should be able to make it out from your voice else your speech would become dull.

WHY IS VOICE MODULATION IMPORTANT?

We all happen to get a chance to speak at a family event, in a presentation at office or on the stage sooner or later, so we should be aware of voice modulation techniques.

Voice modulation makes your speech more engaging and interesting for the audience.

An enthusiastic voice depicts your confidence. It helps you convince the people of your point of view. It helps in delivering an effective and impactful message. If you are good at voice modulation, it can open the doors to many professions like marketing, customer relations etc.

If you want to become a master of public speaking, then learning this art is extremely important.

TIPS ON VOICE MODULATION

In voice modulation, a technique namely 4 P’s that is Pitch, Power, Pace and Pauses is quite popular. 

Pitch- Your pitch can play a very important role while you deliver your speech. Females usually have a higher pitch as compared to men. When you are delivering your speech, keep your pitch a little low to avoid the shieling voice due to the microphone. Learn how to use a microphone in public speaking.

Power- Speak powerfully, loudly, and clearly but strictly no shouting. It would be even better if you can practice your speech with a microphone before delivering it on the final day. Also, take care of the sound of your breath. It should not suppress your voice.

Pace- Keeping your pace slow will make your talk more understandable and easier to grasp. Your message would be clearer to the audience.

Pauses – Use adequate pauses at appropriate times. Too many or too long pauses may bore the audience. They should be just enough for solving the purpose they are being used for. Pausing will help you catch the attention of your audience. 

Powerful words should be stressed- Try stressing on some powerful words in your speech to make it more impactful. This would draw the immediate attention of the audience towards you and your message would get straight into their mind.

See and learn from others- Watch your favorite public speaker, politician, orator, celebrity, etc. who influences you in public speaking. Watch them again and again and try to grasp what you like best in them. Learn how they do voice modulation and then keep practicing.

In public speaking, your voice is an important tool. Once you master the art of voice modulation, you can connect and convey your message to your audience in a better way. This will give you confidence in yourself and the audience will also have confidence in you.

When practicing your speech, you may record it and listen to it to find out the areas that need to be improved. Keep repeating this till you are satisfied with the voice modulation in it.

LISTENING - ADVANTAGES / DISADVANTAGES & EFFECTIVE LISTENING

 What are the responsibilities of a good listener? OR Explain consideration before starting listening?

Ans: There are following responsibilities of good listeners;

1. Preparation for listening:- A listener should prepare himself to listen. This preparation includes following point:

(i) No talking:- A listener must not talk when he is going to listen otherwise, the idea may not be received or it may be interrupted.

(ii) Avoiding distraction:- The listener should not distract his attention from the speaker to some other object. Shuffling papers or doing any other thing may disturb the person of receiving ideas.

(iii) Good environmental condition:- The listeners should arrange a suitable condition before listening. Noise of traffic, poor ventilation, extraordinary warmness or coldness and many other such things cause problems in listening.

2. Concentration on message:- A listener is required to concentrate on verbal and non-verbal message. For having good concentration, following points are to be considered:

(i) Controlling emotion and feelings:- Sometimes it happens that speaker’s words hurt the feelings of listeners. In this situation the listeners should control his/her emotion and feeling because if he loses temperament, he cannot get the message.

(ii) Avoiding evaluation:- The listener should concentrate only on listening and avoid jumping to conclusion or evaluating the message.

(iii) Showing interest:- The listener should show his interest to the topic so that the speaker can be motivated to convey his ideas in a better way.

What are the faults/pitfalls of listening?

Ans: Listening is a very important aspect of oral communication. If there is any lacking or fault in listening, it might cause failure to communication process. So, people should be well aware of faults in listening so as to improve the overall communication ability. These faults are enumerated as under:

(1) Prejudice against the speaker.

(2) External Distraction.

(3) Thinking speed.

(4) Premature evaluation.

(5) Semantic stereotype.

(6) Delivery of speech.

(7) Language.

(8) Sluggishness.

The explanation of above mentioned points is as under:

1. Prejudice against the speaker:- Sometimes the speaker conflicts with our attitude. The summary of these conflicts is as follows:

(i) Personality of the Speaker:- If the speaker is not liked by the listener, the listener may not pay attention to listening. For example a business person might not listen to his rival because he is biased with the personality of that rival.

(ii) Thoughts of speaker:- If the thoughts of speaker are in contrast with the listener’s thoughts the listening process could be damaged.

2. External Distraction:- External environment affects listening a lot. Noisy fans, poor light, distracting background music, overheated or cold room, poor ventilation and many other things distract a listener’s attention from the speaker’s message.

3. Thinking speed:- On average, most of us speak between 80 and 160 words per minute. Whereas, people have the ability to think at the rate of up to 800 words per minute. Despite this fact, the listener may have slower thinking process due to the following reasons:

(i) Competition of concentration:- The listener could not concentrate on the message because he has many things to think besides listening to the message.

(ii) Doing some other activity:- The listener might be involved in doing some other activity.

4. Premature evaluation::- When the listener starts evaluating the message during the process of listening, he/she is not attentive enough to the message. This is another fault of listening.

5. Semantic stereotype:- There are many topics to which the listener has emotional and psychological belongingness. So, the topic and issues which hurt his feelings are not absorbed by him easily.

6. Delivery of speech:- A monotone can easily put the listener to sleep or cause him to lose the interest.

7. Language:- Another fault of listening is the language. If the speaker using such words, idioms, or structure of language with which the listener is not familiar, the speaker will face difficulties in conveying his message.

8. Sluggishness:- If the listener is mentally or physically tired, or habitually lazy, he would feel difficulty in listening to the message.

What are the guide lines to effective listening? OR How can good listening habits be developed?

Ans: Listening is very important aspect of communication. Around 20% of overall communication is listening. Therefore, one should strive for adopting good listening habit. There are following guidelines for good listening:

(1) Preparation before listening.

(2) Listening to understand, not to refute.

(3) Focusing the attention.

(4) Concentration on context.

(5) Taking notes.

(6) Curbing the impulse to interrupt.

(7) Asking questions.

(8) Summary & evaluation.

The details of each point are as follows:

1. Preparation before listening:- As already mentioned that listening plays important role in communication. So one should prepare himself before starting listening. In preparation, there are following guidelines:

(i) Stop talking:- Human brain can perform one activity efficiently at a time, so during listening there should be no talking by the listener.

(ii) Remove distraction:- Noisy fan, traffic noise, entrance of unauthorized persons may interrupt the listening process. All these barriers should be removed.

(iii) Good environmental conditions:- There should not be extraordinary cold or warm environment and ventilations should be proper.

2. Listening to understand, not to refute:- There could be many topics to which the listener has reservations. Apart form these reservations, the listener should try his best to understand the message.

3. Focusing the attention:- There may be many objects on which the listener should construct a mental outline of where the speaker is going in his speech.

4. Concentration on context:- The listener should keep in mind the background and theme of speech. This thing enables him to absorb the material quickly and efficiently.

5. Taking notes:- Listener should keep on taking notes. Hence, he should jot down ideas rather than sentences. In this way, he/she could make the message safe for a long time.

6. Curbing the impulse to interrupt:- One should avoid interrupting the speech until the speaker invites questions. This habit puts the speaker and listener both at ease.

7. Asking questions:- Asking right question on right time is quite different form interruption. Listener should have an idea to know right time to ask questions.

8. Summary & evaluation:- The listener should summarize and speech but not during listening process.

Why should a business communicator know about listening? OR Discuss advantages of good listening: OR What is the purpose of listening? Discuss;

Ans: Listening is an important aspect of business communication. It stands third after writing and speaking. A business communicator has to listen to various customer, employees, officer, suppliers, financiers etc. Obviously, it is an unavoidable task for a business person. This important reason as to why a business communicator should known about listening is enumerated as under.

(1) To gain new information and ideas.

(2) To question and test evidence and assumptions.

(3) To be inspired and motivated.

(4) To improve overall communication.

The explanation of these points is as under:

1. To gain new information and ideas:- A business person has to get new information and ideas from various parties. For example He gets the information from customers regarding the product. He takes various ideas from the employees inside the organization. He receives order or instruction forms his superiors. He gets training form his instructor. All these activities require him to be a good listener.

2. To question test evidence and assumptions:- Any activity, particularly business, activity requires good analytical skill to survive in the environment. A good listener does not feel much difficulty in doing so. The message of speaker mostly consists of facts (Verifiable data) or opinions (inferences). Good listeners test those facts and opinions against assumptions and then question the speaker. In this way he is able to analyze the massage and treat it on its merit.

3. To be inspired a motivated:- A dynamic business man wants to be motivated again and again. Good listening enables him to take inspiration from the message and brings about enthusiasm in his attitude.

4. To improve overall communication:- A business person needs strong communication skills to survive in the market. And to face a high degree of competition. This can only be achieved by having strength in all areas of communicating i.e. writing, reading, speaking and particularly listening.

What do you mean by good listening and bad listening? Discuss,

Ans: Good listening means a person’s ability to understand the message effectively and efficiently. It results in improved communication and quick feedback.

ADVANTAGES OF GOOD LISTENING:

Listening is not just heart. It is respectively that permits understanding of what is heard and makes the listener a sharer in communication. Listening is a skill that requires parlance and lact. There are certain advantages of good listening

1. It leads to helpful positive attitudes.

2. It permits the speaker and listener to improve communication.

3. It provides a feed-back to the speaker who can adjust to the situation and helps his/her give better presentation.

4. It creates better understanding of the two parties.

Bad listening:-

It means a person’s disability to understand the message partially or completely. It results in 

(i) Poor hearing (ii) Poor understanding (iii) Poor interpretation,

It can be overcome by following the guidelines of listening.

VERBAL AND NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION

 Explain in detail verbal and non verbal communication?

Ans: VERBAL COMMUNICATION: 

Verbal communication means such a communication that takes place by means of a language or words”. It includes the following contents.

a. Oral communication (Speaking & listening)

b. Written communication (writing & reading)

1. Speaking:-

In order to send message in business, speaking plays a vital role. Giving instruction, conducting interviews, attending meetings, sending orders through telephone calls are very common in today’s business.

2. Writing:-

It is used when a complex message is sent. Placing order through letters, informing employees through circulars, sending reports and memos, filling different government forms, keeping records in writing are some examples of this aspect of verbal communication.

3. Listening:-

People in business spend more time in obtaining information then transmitting it. Listening is the most important way to receive information: information regarding order of employers, instruction, rules and regulation, customer trend etc, are obtained through listening. But in listening, people generally forget 75% of the message after few days.

4. Reading:-

Reading reports, memos, policies, circulars, and different business statements are essential for an organization: Reading involves understanding and interpreting the material.

NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION: It means communication without the use of language or words. It includes appearance, body language, silence, etc. Its explanation is as follows;

1. Facial Expressions:-

Face and eyes are helpful means of nonverbal communication. They reveal hidden emotions such as anger, confusion, enthusiasm, fear, joy etc.

2. Gestures, postures & movement:-

Postures means the language primarily composed of hand and fingers. Communication of deaf people and signal given by traffic constable are the example of posture. Gestures and body movement also indicate many things. Shaking hand with firmness indicates a warm relationship, moving back and forth reveals nervousness.

Enumerate the different categories of non-verbal communication and state their importance in communication process with suitable examples.

Ans: NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION:

Communication may be verbal – by written or spoken symbols (usually words) or it may be non-verbal – without words. Non-verbal messages are sometimes more clear, accurate and effective as compared to verbal communication, because they are internationally used and understood. Non-verbal communication may be divided into the following three categories:

1. Appearance

2. Body Language

3. Silence, Time and Sounds

1. APPEARANCE:

Appearance affects the quality of written and spoken messages as follows:

i.Written Messages:

The envelope’s overall appearance size, colour, weight, postage and the letter’s overall appearance length stationary, enclosures, layout, etc. may convey significant information and impressions.

ii.Spoken Messages:

Personal appearance of the speaker-clothing, jewelry, hair-style, neatness, etc. may tell about the age, sex occupation, nationality, social, economic and job status. Similarly, appearance of the surroundings room-size, location, furnishings, lighting, etc. may tell a lot about the message.

2. BODY LANGUAGE:

Facial expressions, gestures, posture, smell, touch, voice etc are included in body language

i. Facial Expression:

The eyes and face may express the hidden emotions e.g. anger, fear, joy, love, surprise, sorrow, interest etc.

ii. Posture and Gestures:

The message can effectively be communicated by actions. Deaf people and traffic constables make use of actions. In our daily life clenched fists may indicate anger, leaning forward to the speaker may reveal interest and repeatedly glancing at the watch may be a sign of being bored.

iii. Smell:

Good or bad smell often expresses the situation e.g. smell because of oil or gas leakage warns the danger. Similarly, fragrance and perfume convey emotions and feelings better than spoken or written words.

IV Touch:

Touching people in different ways (and places) can silently communicate friendship, love, approval, anger or other feelings.

3. Silence, Time and Sounds

i. Silence:

Silence is an effective medium of expressing serious feelings and emotions e.g. death of relative or loss in business. A mistake may be admitted by silence. Silence may also confirm a statement.

ii. Time:

Time communicates in many ways, e.g. waiting for a long time may indicate interest or love and giving a short notice means urgency.

iv. Sounds and Para-language:

The style of speaking and the volume of voice (Intonations and Modulations) of voice may produce variations between what is said and what is meant, e.g. the words “how prompt you are”may criticize a person arriving too late.

Discuss the IMPORTANCE OF NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION:

1. Reliability:-

Non verbal communication is more reliable then verbal communication. Words can be controlled more easily but it’s difficult to hide facial expressions like sadness, gladness, joy etc. So non-verbal communication is regarded as a more reliable means for transmitting message.

2. Support to verbal communication:-

Body language and appearance support the verbal communication. A wave of hand, smile, etc might be very useful to explain and understand a particular point of view.

3. Quickness:-

A denial or acceptance expressed by moving head saves lot of time. So, it is important in this respect that non-verbal communication transmits the message quickly.

FUNCTION OF NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION:

There are following six functions of it.

(1) To provide information either consciously or unconsciously.

(2) To regulate the flow of conversation.

(3) To express emotion

(4) To qualify, complement, contradict or expand verbal message.

(5) To control or influence others.

(6) To facilitates specific tasks, such as teaching a person.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS I SYLLABUS | UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

 1. The concept of communication 

Communication, its concepts, process Importance of Communication in Media; Differences between Technical and General Communication; Barriers to Communication; Measures to Overcome the Barriers to Communication. 

2. Types of Communication 

Types of Communication; Verbal Communication-Importance of verbal communication- Advantages of verbal communication- Advantages of written communication; Significance of Non-verbal Communication. 

3. Oral communication and media 

Anchoring, voice modulation, interview, public speaking, skits/ plays, story telling, panel discussions, voice over, elocution, debates and group discussion  

4. Listening Skills 

Listening Process; Classification of Listening; Purpose of Listening; Common Barriers to the Listening Process; Measures to Improve Listening; Listening as an Important Skill in Workplace. 

 Reading -English, Hindi or Marathi 

1.Types of Reading -skimming and scanning Reading -examples Newspaper / Magazine article, TV, feature and documentary, radio features, commentary, bulletins, advertising copy, press release in English, Hindi OR Marathi. Recognizing aspects of language particularly in media. Importance of spelling. 

2.Various aspects of Language Recognizing various aspects of language particularly related to media , Vocabulary 100 media words 

3.Grammar & Usage Grammatical structure – spelling, structure of sentences, Active / Passive voice, tenses, Idioms , Phrases, proper usage of homophones,  homonyms etc. (Kindly provide practice session- Test , Quiz etc) 

Thinking and Presentation

1.Thinking Types of thinking (rational ,logical, critical, lateral etc) Errors in thinking ,Partialism, Time scale, Egocentricity Prejudices ,Adversary Thinking 

2 .Presentation - its importance , Steps in Making a Presentation; Delivering a Presentation 

Translation

1.Introduction To Translation 

Concept, importance, need for translation, challenges in translation, problems and importance of Information and Technology in translation. 

2.Interpretation 

Interpretation: Meaning, Difference between interpretation and translation  

3. Role of a translator Translator and his role in media, Qualities, Importance of Translator, Challenges faced by Translator