Communication is the flow of information from the sender to the receiver through a media. For complete transfer of information, message understanding is important. Communication allows exchange of thoughts, ideas and messages. The process of effective communication involves a number of elements that allow it to happen. The key elements of communication include the sender, the receiver, the medium, noise, feedback and the message.
The source is the person that initiates or originates the message. The source is the sender of the message. The receiver is the person who receives the message and interprets it. The receiver is the person the message should reach. The message is the verbal or non-verbal information. The message must undergo encoding by the sender and the receiver decodes on the other end. When the message is undergoing transmission, it faces interferences from noise. Noise is any form of interference that tries to change the accurate expression of the message
After the receiver gets the message, decoding follows. Decoding is the process of changing the format of the message to give meaningful information that the source of the message wanted the receiver to have (Leeds-Hurwitz, 37). It is the reverse of encoding, which is the process of changing the message and making it suitable for transmission in a given media. After decoding the message, the receiver must give feedback. Feedback is the response that the receiver gives to indicate whether the reception of the message occurred in the format that the source wanted.
Hearing is among the five senses that a human being possesses. It is the ability of a person to identify sound by sensing vibrations through an organ, the ear. Listening is the technique used in the communication process. It requires the person to pay attention to the person communicating. Listening happens after the brain receives nerve impulses and interprets it and sends the feedback (Kaul, 87). Hearing occurs at all, times even when one is asleep. The ear receives the sound processes them and sends them to the brain. Listening in other terms is active listening.
Concentration is a very important part of life. It helps in focus the mind. Passive concentration occurs when one’s mind focuses on one activity. For example, when one watches an interesting movie, the person immerses all the thoughts and forgets everything that happens in the surroundings. The person forgets even the time. the conscious focusing of one`s mind and constantly bringing the mind back to the same thing like studying for exam is active concentration. Active concentration requires conscious attention and effort.
An informative speech is a speech that intends to teach and inform the audience about a particular topic. It aims at increasing the knowledge of the audience. Another goal of informative speech is to change the perception of the audience from what they knew to what they will know at the end of the speech. A good informative speech concentrates on a topic and makes it interesting (Hamilton, 249). This makes it possible to capture the attention of the audience. Informative speech enhances the understanding of a given topic.
Delivering an informative speech faces a number of challenges for example delivering an informative speech on technical subjects will require information that is more technical. This makes the audience to lose interest on the topic. The skills required for delivering the informative speech must exist in the person delivering the speech. If the skills are absent, the audience will move out of the hall without getting anything of value from the speech. Another challenge of informative speech occurs the speaker has fear. The fear may limit the person from delivering the intended speech to the end. It leads to disorientation and the speakers must develop courage to ensure effective delivery of informative speech. The speaker must prepare adequately to ensure that the speech is informative. The speaker must not overloads of information. This makes the audience to lose interest. The speaker must involve the audience because it allows the audience to remain active throughout the speech delivery.
Ethos, pathos and logos are styles used in persuasion. Logos is the appeal to reason of the audience on logic. To use logos to persuade involves citing the facts and the statistics, literal and historical analogies (Gulledge, 24). It also involves citing authorities that have excelled in the field you are talking of.
Ethos is the ethical appeal to the audience. It involves convincing the audience of the speaker through character and credibility. The speaker uses ethos to show the audience that he/she is a credible source and they should listen. Ethos is a Greek word for “character”.
Pathos is the emotional appeal of the audience through their emotions. Speakers use pathos to arouse sympathy from the audience. This makes the audience feel what the speaker wants them to feel. The common use of pathos is to draw pity from the audience. Pathos in Greek means “suffering”. In delivering my speech, I will use the combination of the three techniques to ensure that the audience remains attentive and persuaded to the ideas that I deliver to them.
Works Cited
Gulledge, Andrew K. The Art of Persuasion: A Practical Guide to Improving Your Convincing Power. New York: iUniverse, 2004. Print.
Hamilton, Cheryl. Essentials of Public Speaking. Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.
Kaul, Asha. Business Communication. New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India, 1999. Print.
Leeds-Hurwitz, Wendy. Social Approaches to Communication. New York, NY [u.a.: Guilford Press, 1995. Print.
