Objective Communication by Leonard Peikoff & Barry Wood

Author:Leonard Peikoff & Barry Wood [Peikoff, Leonard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101609989
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-09-02T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

PRINCIPLES OF SPEAKING

IN THIS CHAPTER we are going to focus on oral presentation—that is, the presentation of ideas in spoken form, as against written. You will see that everything that we have learned so far about communication in general applies equally to oral communication, but the form is often different.

By “oral presentation,” I mean extemporaneous delivery, as against taking a completely written-out statement or talk and simply reading it aloud. That is oral, in the sense that it is spoken rather than written, but it is kind of halfway between writing and speaking. I will say a few words about it at the end of this chapter, but our main topic is extemporaneous delivery. In this type of presentation, it is all right to have some brief notes or keywords as an aid or a jog to your memory, and I will say something subsequently about the kind of notes that would be helpful or appropriate. But you have nothing approaching written-out sentences. Essentially, in extemporaneous delivery, you are putting your ideas into words on the spot before the audience, rather than reading what you have prepared at home.

What is the value of extemporaneous presentation? There are several good features to it. For one thing, it is excellent practice in your own intellectual development and growth. It is equally excellent practice for writing, because it is practice in one crucial skill, namely putting your thoughts into words as clearly as possible. The essence of communication, if you break it down into steps, is that you first have an idea, but in an inchoate, undefined, unverbalized way; it is, in effect, like a prenatal idea, an idea that has not yet been born, which is experienced almost as a mental pressure in your head—you know something, but you have not yet found the words to state it. Then you grope, you struggle, you hesitate, you pick out a word focusing on your idea, until you finally express it exactly. That is involved in all communication, in any form. And that is exactly what extemporaneous presentation consists of. It is the pure process of finding words for your ideas. In this type of delivery, you have no time to concentrate on higher subtleties, such as style, editing, or polishing. That is out of the question in an extemporaneous delivery. You have just one basic imperative: “There are people sitting there, and somehow I have got to put this mental pressure into coherent words that they can grasp; I have to translate my thoughts into language.” When you develop an ease or facility in this, you will find that it is helpful in all communication, including writing, because then, when you sit down, the writing of your rough draft becomes, in effect, like doing an extemporaneous talk. If you have developed the skill properly, the words will pour out of you (other things being equal), and then you can apply the later skill of editing. So it is very helpful to have practice in having to put your ideas into words without knowing the formulation in advance.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.