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Ask yourself:- What do I want to say? Think about how you can best express yourself.- Should my message be in writing? Yes, if it’s to be a permanent record, or sent to many people, or it’s complicated. No, if it’s going to just one person & is easy to grasp, or it’s sensitive, or if you’re not clear on what you should say.
1. Start with a positive attitude. You may go where no one has gone before!
2. Look at the problem in a different way. Use your imagination.
3. Seek less logical routes to a solution. Make it a game. Write a poem. Brainstorm (a group process of tossing out ideas without judging them) with creative friends.
Experts aren’t always right; old solutions aren’t always correct.
Don’t make snap decisions. Don’t see people as stereotypes (a
mistaken impression that the person shares all the characteristics of similar people).
Don’t over-generalize about problems or solutions either. No two snowflakes, people, or problems are the same. There is no one-size solution that fits all.
Experts aren’t always right. Don’t ignore your intuition. Don’t think you can’t be creative. Don’t be afraid of failure. Don’t judge or criticize ideas until
you’ve really considered whether they might work. Look for ways to make ideas work.
Euphemisms are kinder, gentler words that replace harsher words, like “sanitary engineer” for “garbage collector.”
Acronyms are words formed by the first letters of a phrase. A doctor in the E.R. may see a LOL in NAD (little old lady in no apparent distress). A soldier may go AWOL (absent without leave).
Slang – informal words can be useful, but generally avoid them at work since some people may not know their meaning. Ex.: using bull to mean a detective.
Non-words or expressions that are, like, you know, useless fillers.
4. related words, such as the adverb (prettily) and noun (prettiness) forms of an adjective.
5. related phrases. “Sitting pretty” means in favorable position. If English is not your first language, be sure to check for expressions like these.
6. what the word’s parts mean. “Pre” means before; view means “see,” so “preview” means to see before others do, as in an advanced movie showing.Use your knowledge of the parts to better understand related words. A precondition is a condition that existed before.
7. For some words, their synonyms (words with similar meanings) and how the words differ.
Can’t look up a word because you don’t know how it’s spelled? Ask someone, or use an on-line dictionary or a software dictionary that will give you choices based on your best guess.
Find new words in your industry’s specialized trade publications (magazines or newspapers). Ask someone at work if the meaning isn’t clear from the article.
Listen to conference & seminar speakers. They use the latest words and phrases.
Study the words that you know cause you trouble. Get them under control.
Plan and prepare your visual aids (images & objects that let your audience use their eyes as well as their ears to get your message) such as a flip chart, a model, posters, a PowerPoint like this.
Visuals are important. They:
1. make messages more understandable.
2. help keep an audience’s attention from wandering.
Write your speech—a clear message in a logical order with credible evidence to back up your ideas or points. Then make a topic outline of your speech to use during the presentation to keep yourself from reading your speech.
Rehearse. Practice a lot using your outline so you can deliver the speech without reading it. Practice using a tape recorder & listen to yourself. Practice in front of a mirror to see your gestures.
Start with something that gets the audience’s attention in a positive way, like a humorous story.
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Then tell them what you’re going to tell them in a one- or two-sentence preview. Today I will tell you what LasikNow is, how it works, and who can benefit from it.
Spend most of the speech’s time telling them. State one main point and then back it up with facts. Use a transition from point to point like, “First,” “Next,” and “Finally.”
Then tell them what you told them by reviewing your main points.
If you want them to do something, tell them specifically what they should do.
Keep it short. People stop listening after 15 to 20 minutes.
Help your audience stay focused:- Ask them questions that call for a show of hands (“How many of you have…?)- Ask rhetorical questions to keep them thinking. - Repeat your main points after explaining them.- Don’t give them something to read while you talk.- Pepper your speech with relevant humor that’s in good taste.
Take a speech course at a college or through the Dale Carnegie Institute.
Join Toastmasters International. Pay the inexpensive dues, go to the local chapter meetings, give speeches, get pointers, and give others your feedback.
Your visuals must serve a purpose, such as:- to present charts & graphs that show trends, comparisons, or magnitudes (sizes).- to illustrate abstract concepts (ideas that apply to various things or situations and are not easy to visualize, like “freedom”).- to show pictures of things, places, people.- to illustrate something complicated like a product or process.
PowerPoint presentations--computerized images you make ahead of time that are projected from a computer onto a screen in a series of individual slides.
The Good:
Add photos, charts, graphs, drawings to your words.
Easily changed, printable slides.
Computer file easily transported.
Quiet equipment.
The Bad:
Expensive equipment & software that can be hard to learn.
Technical problems during a presentation.
Room must be darkened; people can doze through it.
Don’t:- Talk while the audience reads.- Present an entire list; instead, reveal one line at a time.- Leave the room dark for too long.- Use a visual just to show off your technological abilities.- Put up a visual before you talk about it.- Leave it up after you’ve moved on to another topic.- Talk to your visual.
Use “word pictures” too to help your audience “see” what you see.
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