In a high school, a teacher asked the class just give me a definition of NET. This put all the students on wrong footing as they were awry in defining a simple word Net. However, a student from backbenches gave this definition: The number of holes tied by a chord/rope is called a Net. Even the teacher was pleasantly surprised by this perfect definition.
Communication skills have been and would always be a sure path of success in every walk of life, whether you are a writer, a leader addressing gatherings, or a sr./jr. executive in an organization and making presentation on some project. Even it is equally important for marketing people, teachers, lecturers, and professors. Some successful persons have natural and inborn talents of communication. But not all these successful persons were born artistic. They acquired the skills through watching other successful persons' style, and presentation of their points. In other words, if you lack in this art, no worries, you can acquire more than them, only if you analyze and alter yourself by following the basic principles laid down in here.
Since communication skill is the most important thing in life, a lot have been written on this sensitive issue in regard to improve the skill. I would broadly classify this skill into two categories: 1) written and 2) verbal.
Writing skills: If you are writing a novella or a short story, it is necessary that you have the main theme or plot first, just like an artist outlines the picture before painting it in the styles and contrasts he deems best. Your start should be very impressive to arrest the interest of reader. Avoid heavy and Shakespearean style, use simple choosy sentences and arrange in so beautiful a way that flotation of each segment is interwoven with each other. Try that your write doesn't have jerks or hiccups. This can only be avoided when you simplify your narration and decorate it with best possible words. Use some punch lines and wisecracks for the interest of readers but they should never be juxtaposition in the script. Same rules apply to articles and other writes. Give a break before finalizing your work, and keep revising your work. May be, in between, you strike some new ideas to make your write more impressive, on one hand, and on the other hand this will help you eliminate the clumsy and not so very impressive pieces from the script.
If you are making a presentation of any project in the Company's Board Room or a university room, first jot down roughly all the points that you are to explain about the project. Then, make segments of different issues. Decide and serially arrange segments of your script for deliverance. Prepare important points prcis that highlight the salient features of your project and make transparency. This is widely used in presentation and is tremendously effective. More so, these projector stills save a lot of explanation and time. Remember a brief explanation that hits the deck is more effective. However, describing the things you are presenting with the help of charts and points through projector is of utmost importance that I have taken up in the verbal part of this article.
Verbal: You must have observed that, sometimes, not all of the conversation by a person gets in your head and you find difficulty in keeping pace with their conversation because you are entangled in understanding them. This, among other factors, is mainly because they don't have the clear pronunciation. If you critically examine your own style and reach an unbiased conclusion that you also have this deficiency, alter your style. Observe the styles of conversation possessed by your favorite personalities. Let it be clear in mind that you don't have to copy-paste their style. Different persons have different styles. Loud and clear is the keyword. Other causes include inability of a person how to explain a thing they want to. Wrong choice of words and including other unnecessary issues with the main issue causes this. When you do this, you end up nowhere and nobody understands your point fully. Although, you talked at length you missed the communication. To make you conscious of some key point for conversation improvement, here are some guidelines:
- Develop your voice. A monotonous high-pitched voice doesn't make a good impression on the listeners. Soft but clear voice communicates fully. Your voice should be dynamic to attract the attention. Talk in a soft clear voice but raise your pitch when you want to impress upon a point.
- Pronunciation: This has been explained above.
- Use the right words. This will save unnecessary extra explanation.
- Eye contact. When addressing a gathering make eye contacts during the speech. After a few seconds change your eye contact with another person and so on, such that every body feels they are special to you. Also, this act enhances your confidence, the vital necessity in this field.
- During your address don't hesitate to give smiling gestures at appropriate times. Smiles are free of cost but they make a big difference.
- Answering a question: During question/answer session, listen the question attentively, pause a while, this will give you necessary time to armor yourself with correct and best answer. It is not unnecessary to say here that before presentation you chalk out the possible questions you are going to be asked on the subject and form suitable answers in your mind. This will save you from any awkward situation.
Reference:
http://hwebbjr.typepad.com/openloops/2005/05/ten_way s_to_imp.html http://www.jobbankusa.com/CareerArticles/Career_Advi ce/ca4607c.html