1. Informal Oral Communication

2. You will spend more time than writing in business. Most of your oral communication will be informal. But some of it will be formal, as in meeting, telephone cells, dictation, speeches, and oral reports. This and the following chapter cover these types of oral communication.

3. Informal Talking We often take talking for granted and overlook the need for improving our talking ability. We need to be aware of its nature and qualities, in order to improve it. We need to assess our abilities and work to overcome our shortcomings.

4. Definition of Talking Think about having no words to speak. If you try to express yourself, you probably become frustrated. Words enable one to communicate with others more exactly and relate better to the world about you and to some extent to control it.  The definition would be derived as: Talking is the oral expression of knowledge, viewpoints, and emotions through words.  Also we can see that talking replaces many of the body movements we made before we were able to talk.

5. As a first step in improving your talking ability, think about the quality you like ina good talker. 1. One with whom you would enjoy talking in ordinary conversation. Then think about the opposite. 2. The worst conversationalist you can imagine. Now you will have a good picture of the characteristics of good talking. The mental picture includes good voice quality, excellence in talking style, accuracy of word choice, and adaptation.

6. Elements of Good Talking The techniques of good talking may be summarized by four basic elements: (1) Voice quality (2) Style (3) Word choice (4) Adaptation

7. Voice Quality By voice quality we mean the vocal sounds one hears when another speaks. Good voice quality helps one communicate. It involves pitch, delivery speed, and volume. Study the quality of your voice and compare it with what experience tells you is good. Fit what you hear into impressions you have gained from your life experiences. Then do what you can to improve. It will take conscious effort.

8. Style Style is the blending of pitch, speed. And volume to form unique talking personality. A self-analysis of your talking should show you your talking style and the image it projects. Word Choice Choose words in your listener’s vocabulary. Select those that appropriately convey the morality and courtesy you intend and respect the listener’s knowledge.

9. Adaptation Adaptation is fitting the message to the listener. It includes word selection, but here we refer to the combined effect of words, voice, and style. Courtesy in Talking Good talkers are courteous. They don’t attempt to dominate. They are aggressive, but they treat others as they want to be treated.

10. CONDUCTING AND PARTICIPATING IN MEETINGS Meeting involve oral communication. These meeting range from extreme formalities to extreme informality. In a meeting you will be either a leader or a participant.

11. Techniques of Conducting Meetings To lead some formal meetings, you should know generally accepted rules of conduct called parliamentary procedure. Keep in mind that every meeting has goals and that such departures should never hinder you from reaching them. Plan the Meeting Develop and arrange an agenda by selecting the items that need to be covered to achieve the goals of the meeting.

12. Follow the plan Follow the plan item by item, new item may tend to come up. Keep the discussion track. The new items should be taken up at the end or postpone them to a future meeting. Move the Discussion Along The agenda should be in control and proceeded item by item. The goal is to permit complete discussion and to avoid repetition, excessive details, and useless comments on the others.

13. Control Those Who Talk Too Much A few people tends to dominate and talk too much, your task is to control them as a leader. Encourage Participation from Those Who talk Too little As a leader your job is to encourage the people who talk less and are at lower than those of other group members.

14. Control Time You should know that how much time will be needed to cover each item, if time is limited. Summarize at Appropriate Places After an item is discussed it should be summarize that what the group has covered and concluded.

15. Techniques for participating in a Meeting As a participant in a meeting you should: (1) Follow the agenda (2) Participate (3) Do Not Talk Too Much (4) Cooperate (5) Be Courteous

16. USING THE TELEPHONE Many business People are discourteous and inefficient in telephone communication. Need for favorable Voice Quality Telephone conversation is a unique form of oral communication. Because only sound is involved, friendly voices are important. So one should talk as if you were in a face-to-face conversation.

17. Techniques of Courtesy Be courteous When calling, immediately introduce yourself and ask for the person you want or explain your purpose. When receiving a call, identify your company or office; then offer assistance. Assistants should avoid offending callers by asking misleading questions, by making misleading comments. Being inconsiderate in placing caller on bold. Let the callers choose, and check on te hold status continually. Assistants often screen calls. They should do this courtesy and honestly.

18. Effective Telephone Procedures When calling, state your purpose early. Then cover your points systematically. Plan important calls. Be considerate, listen and do not dominate. Use time efficiently. Courteous procedure is much the same in a telephone conversation as in a face-to- face conversation. You listen when the other person is talking.

19. Effective Voice Mail Techniques Voice mail is becoming common in business. Use it much as you would any other telephone call. Wireless Telephones and Their Courteous Use Wireless telephones are widely used But there use can be annoying. You can reduce these annoyances by following these suggestions.

20. DICTATING MESSAGES AND REPORTS Dictation is an underutilized input method. Today’s software make this process easy and inexpensive. Techniques of Dictating (1)Gather the facts (2)Plan the Message (3)Make the words Flow (4)Speak Clearly (5)Give paragraphing, Punctuation, and

21. Other Instructions as Needed (6) Play Back Intelligently (7) Proofread for a Accuracy Illustration

22. LISTENING Poor listening is a major cause of miscommunication. The Nature of Listening Listening involves sensing, filtering, and remembering. Sensing Our sense of sensing spoken words is determined by: (1) Our ability to sense sounds (2) Our attentiveness

23. Filtering Filtering is the process of giving symbols meaning through the unique contents of each person’s mind. Remembering Remembering what we hear is a part of listening. According to the authorities, we even quickly forget most of the message in formal oral communication.

24. Improving Your Listening Ability To improve your listening, you must want to improve it. Be alert. Force yourself to pay attention. Concentrate on improving your mental filtering. Think from the speaker’s viewpoint. In addition, follow these practical guidelines: 1. Stop talking 2. Put the talker at ease 3. Show the talker you want to listen 4. Remove distraction

25. 5. Empathize with the talker 6. Be patient 7. Hold your temper 8. Go easy on argument and criticism 9. Ask questions 10. Stop talking THE REINFORCING ROLE OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION Nonverbal communication accounts for more of a total message than words do. The nature of nonverbal communication and some types of it.

26. Nature of Nonverbal Communication Nonverbal communication means all communication without words. It is board and imprecise. Cross-cultural aspects give many meanings to nonverbal communication. Be sensitive to intended nonverbal meanings. Go beyond the obvious. Realize that nonverbal symbols can have many meanings.

27. Types of Nonverbal Communication We will look at the four common types of Nonverbal Communication: (1) Body language (2) Space (3) Time (4) Paralanguage

28. Body Language Our bodies send nonword message through arms, fingers, expressions, posture, and so on. The face and eyes are the most important. Gestures (physical movements) send nonword messages. Physical appearance- clothing, hair, jewelry. Cosmetics, and so on- also communicates. Remember that appearance is an important part of the body message that are sent and received in oral communication.

29. Space Space is another type of nonverbal language. There are four further types of Space 1. Intimate 2. Personal 3.Social 4.Public Communication behavior differs in each. Communication behaviors are learned from cultures.

30. Time There is also a time language. Time orientations are not always the same especially in the cross-cultural arena but they do communicate. Monochronic people tend to view time as linear and always moving ahead. Polychronic people has more indefinite view of time.

31. Paralanguage Paralanguage meaning “like language”. It is the closest to communication with word symbols. You can change the meaning of spoken sentences by accenting different words in each. Paralanguage creates meanings because of speed, pitch, volume, and connection of words. Degrees of consistency between what and how someone says something convey meaning.

32. Expectancies about background, appearance, and personality are part of paralanguage. Other Types of Nonverbal Communication Two other nonverbal types exist, but they are minor. One is color. Another is physical context-Office, carpeting, decorations, and such.

33. End