Most people never expect that in applying for a job they are required to talk in public or do an impromptu presentation. It is a great advantage when a person has the confidence, courage, and the ability to communicate well. It implies that a good speaker has the advantage to land a good job than others who are not. Particularly, in a critical phase of the interview, an applicant has to compete in terms of his or her oral communication skill. In a workplace, informing and persuading are the employees’ challenges and a constant practice is the key to improving the skills in informing and persuading. Through a proper practice, an employee will become an asset of the company. Informing is presenting the significant facts and speaks with informative purposes. It is an act of providing information objectively. Persuading is the ability of a speaker to present the credibility of the information provided. An excellent leadership is associated with an effective communication skill, to inform and to persuade effectively.
Leaders have the guidelines to follow for an effective presentation; a formal presentation and opportunity presentation. A traditional setting is a formal presentation while the less traditional setting is an opportunity presentation. The difference between the two types of presentation is clearly minimal. In a formal presentation, a speaker or team leader presents the sales and progress report at a distinct meeting in the company. An opportunity is similar to a formal presentation; however, it differs on how the presentation flows. Some organization has the so-called huddles wherein the employees are required to talk closely in a meeting. A team leader facilitates in the meeting with professional excellence utilized in each opportunity.
The general purpose in the presentation is to inform and persuade the people; the skill to determine the main purpose. A speaker provides the informative facts with an informative purpose like a teacher does. Conversely, a speaker with a persuasive purpose serves as an advocate or delivering the arguments necessary. In persuading others, a speaker has the ability to agree or disagree on different ideas or to do a passive agreement. In addition, a speaker or leader can take an action or to do the active agreement known as the call to action strategy. Some would say that in determining a purpose in a presentation is easy. However, a good speaker would say that it requires a professional excellence to determine the main purpose carefully.
When the general purpose is determined, the specific purpose is formulated. In comparison, a specific purpose is to an oral communication and a thesis statement is to an essay. It implies that a specific purpose is to declare a comprehensible presentation for the audience to understand and to convince them that your presentation is true and valid. A well-designed presentation is a fluid process and not a linear process. It means that, at first, a speaker developed a tentative specific purpose and changed after a thorough analysis and research accordingly.
An informing is a presentation of facts with objectives while persuading is an appeal of persuasions such as ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos refers to the speaker’s credibility; logos refers to the presentation of words in the presentation with the organizational structure context and information that supports on it, and pathos refers speaker’s emotional appeal. An effective persuasive speech follows some types of reasoning such as inductive, causal, deductive, analogical, and cognitive dissonance. Inductive reasoning is an argument building that utilized pieces of information, examples, or cases to create a general conclusion. A causal reasoning is known as a cause and effect relationship or an inductive reasoning, as well. It implies that an event is demonstrated and with a result in the end. When a speaker takes general information and draws a conclusion, it is a deductive reasoning. An analogical reasoning is reasoning from an analogy and comparing two cases. A cognitive dissonance is not one of the standard reasoning; however, it is a useful tool to persuade an audience.
The key excellence in a professional presentation is associated with some strategies in informing and persuading with excellence. It started with determining the general purpose to develop a specific purpose. A speaker can analyze the audience with its context thoroughly. It is important to develop a clear introduction, conclusion, and to create easy-to-follow organizational structures. Speakers or leaders should follow all the rules in effective communication to have a professional excellence presentation delivery.
Bibliography
Quintanilla, Kelly M., and Shawn T. Wahl. Business and Professional Communication. 2nd.
Washington, DC: Sage Publication Inc, 2013.
