UNIT-1

Unit-I: Concepts of Communications

Introduction: Definition and Process of Communication - Forms of Verbal and Non-verbal
Communication
Barriers of Communication: Communication barriers and overcoming communication barriers -
guidelines for effective communication.
Business Writing: Direct and Indirect Approaches to Business Writing - Five Main Stages of Writing
Business Messages.
___________________________________________________________________________
Introduction: -

 Communication is as old as human civilization. The common need for protection led to group
life. As group life developed, forms of communication also developed. Communication was in
the forms of codes, indications, signals, and expressions.
 Gradually with the increase in population, division of labor, exchange economy, etc.,
necessitated the development of language. In the present-day world, communication is a vital
need of every Step in any industrial or commercial activity.
 The term communication has been derived from the Latin word, ‘communis’, which means
common. Communication means, to tell, show, spread information, and inform. The term
communication is used to signify the process of transferring ideas or receiving them by any
means such as word of mouth, telephone, telegram, letter, message, etc. Thus, communication
stands for sharing of information, imparting or conveying ideas and knowledge.

 Meaning
The English word ‘communication’ is derived from the Latin word communis, which means common.
The term communication refers to the sharing of ideas in common. In other words, it is the
transmission and interaction of facts, ideas, opinions, feelings, or attitudes. Communication is the
essence of management. The basic function of management (planning, organizing, staffing, directing,
and controlling) cannot be performed well without effective communication.
In short, Communication is the process of passing ideas, views, facts, information, and understanding
from one person to another. This process is necessary for making the subordinates understand what the
management expects from them.
Communication cannot take place without two parties – the receiver and the sender. The information
which is sent by the sender must be understandable to the receiver.
 Definition:
Following are some of the important definitions of communication:

 Communication may be defined as “the transfer of information and understanding from one
person to another.”
  According to Koontz and O’Donnel, Communication may be understood “as the exchange of
information at least between two persons to create an understanding in the mind of the other,
whether or not it gives rise to conflict.”
 Newman and Summer- “Communication is an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions
by two or more persons.”
 ‘Communication is the sum of all things a person does when he wants to create an
understanding in the mind of another. – Louis A. Allen
 ‘It is the process of passing information and understanding from one person to another. It is
essentially a bridge of meaning between people. By using this bridge of meaning, a person can
safely cross the river of misunderstanding that separates all the people’. – Keith Davis

Objectives
The primary objective of communication in management is to convey information—instructions,
policies, procedures, decisions, etc., so the listener will hear, read, understand what is said, agree and
accept the message, and react as intended by the manager or sender of the communication.
There are many objectives of communication. They are

 Stronger Decision Making

 Increased Productivity
 Steadier Workflow
 Enhanced Professional Image
 Clearer Promotional Material
 Provide Advice
 Provide Order
  Suggestion
 Persuasion
 Education
 Warning
 Raising Morale & Motivation
 To Give & Receive information
 To Provide Counseling
 To Improve Discipline

 Communication – Characteristics
The characteristics of communication are as follows:

(i) At least two persons – Communication involves at least two persons—the sender and the receiver.
The sender sends the message and the receiver receives the message. There is an exchange of
information between two or more persons.

(ii) Two-way process – Communication is essentially a two-way process. It does not merely mean
sending and receiving messages. It is not complete unless and until the message has been understood
by the receiver in the same sense.

(iii) Form of communication – Communication may take several forms, e.g., order, instruction, report,
queries, etc. It may be verbal or written. It may be formal or informal.

(iv) Scope – Communication is present in all human relationships. It is essential in all types of
organizations and at all levels of management. It has a very wide scope.

(v) Dynamic process – Communication is influenced by the mood and thinking of the sender and
receiver. It keeps on changing depending upon the Level of understanding of the sender and receiver.

(vi) Goal-oriented – Communication is goal-oriented and is effective only when there is a congruence
of goals of the sender and the receiver.

(vii) Interdisciplinary – Communication derives knowledge from several sciences like anthropology
(the study of body language), sociology (the study of human behavior), psychology (the study of a
human), etc. The linking between these sciences makes communication effective.
 (viii) Interpersonal relations – The main purpose of communication is to influence the human behavior
which creates interpersonal relations.

(ix) Circular process – There is a circular flow of information in the communication process. After the
feedback, the receiver of the original message is required to transmit another message. The response
indicates the success of the communication.

 Elements of Communication Process:

The communication is a dynamic process that begins with the conceptualizing of ideas by the
sender who then transmits the message through a channel to the receiver, who in turn gives
the feedback in the form of some message or signal within the given time frame. Thus, there
are Seven major elements of communication process:

The communication process has the following components:

1. Sender or communicator – Sender is an employee with ideas, intentions, information, and a purpose
for communicating. He is the source or initiator of the communication. He has something with a
meaning to communicate. Communication begins when a sender identifies the need to send a
message based on certain reasons.

2. Message – The sender encodes meaning into a message that can be transmitted. The message
1. Sender:
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sound, gesture, etc. are some of the commonly used communication mediums.
5. Receiver: The receiver is the person for whom the message is intended or targeted.
 5. Receiver – The receiver is the individual whose senses perceive the sender’s message. There may be
one or many receivers. If the message does not reach the receiver, communication is not completed.

6. Decoding – Decoding is the process by which the receiver interprets the message and translates it into
meaningful information. Decoding is a two-step process – (a) the receiver must first perceive the
message, and (b) the receiver must then interpret it. The decoding process is very much affected by
some factors such as the receiver’s need, status, experience, situational factors, etc.

7. Communication noise – In communication, noise can be thought of as those factors that disturb or
distort the intended message. Noise may occur in each of the elements of communication. “Noise”
hinders communica-tion.
It includes the following factors:
(a) Factors that hinder the development of clear thought.
(b) Faulty encoding due to ambiguous symbols.
(c) Defects in the channel.
(d) Inattentive reception.
(e) Faulty decoding due to prejudices, wrong under-standing, personal outlook, the wrong meaning of
words and symbols.
Noise can result in miscommunication. Hence the important point is to realize all these possibilities of
noise and to minimize them.

8. Feedback – A feedback provides a link or channel for the communicator to know the receiver’s
response and to determine whether the message has been received and has produced the intended
change.
Feedback may come in many ways. In face-to-face communication, feedback comes through the facial
expressions of the receiver. Some indirect means of feedback are such factors as declines in
productivity, poor quality of production, lack of coordination, absenteeism, etc. Feedback may cause
the sender to modify his future communication.

 FORMS OF COMMUNICATION:

There are several types of communication in our practical life. It depends on an organizational pattern;
parties of organization involved; several workers, the pattern of activating, etc. the types of
communication are shown below in a diagram:

A. Based on parties
1. External communication: External communication is the process of exchanging information
with the people of various external or outside parties of the organization. Generally, these
parties are a stakeholder of the organization.
2. Internal communication: Internal communication is the process of exchanging information
among people of different levels or internal participants within the organization.
(i) Horizontal communication: Horizontal communication is the communication where information or
messages flows between or among the parallel or same level or statuses people of the organizational
structure.
(ii) Vertical communication: Vertical communication is the communication where information or
messages flows between or among the subordinates and superiors of the organization.
(i) Downward communication: Downward communication is the communication where information or
messages flows from the top of the organizational structure from the bottom of the organizational
structure.
(ii) Upward communication: Upward communication is the communication where information or
messages flows from the down/bottom of the organizational structure to the top of the organizational
structure.
(iii) Cross or diagonal communication: Diagonal or cross-communication occurs when information
flows between persons at different levels who have no direct reporting relationship. It is used to speed
information flow, to improve understanding to coordination etc. for the achievement of the organization.
B. Based on formality
 Formal communication: Formal communication is the process of exchanging information by
following the prescribed or official rules, procedures, systems formalities, chain of command
etc. in the organizational structure.
 Informal communication: Informal communication is the process of spontaneous exchange of
information among various people of different status in the organizational structure.
C. Based on media
 Written communication: Written communication is the process of communication in which
messages or information is exchanged or communicated within sender and receiver through
written form.
 Oral or verbal communication: Oral or verbal communication is the process of
communication in which messages or information is exchanged or communicated within
sender and receiver through using any spoken or written word.
 Non-verbal communication: Non-verbal communication is the process of communication in
which messages or information is exchanged or communicated within sender and receiver
through without using any spoken or written word.

D. Others
 Mass communication: Mass communication is a process of transmitting information,
thoughts, opinions or attitude through specific channel or media to a large number of
heterogeneous audiences.
 Personal communication: When people exchanged information related to their personal life
or personal affair is known as personal communication.
 Interpersonal communication: Interpersonal communication occurs when two individuals are
involved or exchanging information, ideas, opinions, feelings relating to the personal, social,
organizational, national and international matter who are located in the same place. It is a
process of face-to-face communication between individuals where messages may be verbal
(that is, expressed in words) or they may not involve words at all but consist of gestures, facial
expressions, and certain postures (body language).
 1. Verbal Communication: The communication happens through verbally, vocally or through
written words which express or convey the message to other is called verbal communication.
Example: Baby crying (vocal) is verbal communication which express the hungry or pain through
vocally.
Verbal communication has classified into two types:
A . Oral Communication B. Written Communication.
Apart from oral and written, verbal communication is also has following types:
a. Public Communication, c. Intrapersonal Communication
b. Small Group Communication d. Interpersonal Communication

 Types of Verbal Communication:

A. Oral Communication: A communication which happens through word of mouth, spoken
Words, conversations and also any messages or information are shared or exchanged between one
another through speech or word of mouth is called oral communication.
Example: Public speech, News reading, Television, Radio, telephone and mobile conversations.

B. Written Communication: A communication happens through any word written or often

written sign which refers the languages uses in any medium is called written communication.
Example: Simply any hand written, typed, Newspaper, printed word documents, letters, books
and magazines.

There are also other four types of verbal communication, which are listed below:

A. Public Communication: The public communication is defined as the communication of a

person with the public. It involves a massive assembly of people. For example, the Prime
Minister addressing the public about the multiple developing projects; Other examples include
elections, campaigns, public speeches, etc.
B. Small-Group Communication: The small group communication is defined as communication
within two or more people. The number of people participating in such communication is
enough to have a good interaction with each other; For example, school meetings, board
meetings, press conferences, office meetings, team meetings, family gatherings, etc.
C. Intrapersonal Communication: Intrapersonal communication is communication within us. It
is also called as internal communication. It includes self-thinking, analysis, thoughts,
assessments, etc. associated with the inner state of mind.
 The person's internal thoughts or feelings play a vital role in intrapersonal communication. It
also includes various activities, such as solo speaking, solo writing, solo dancing,
concentration, and self-awareness.
D. Interpersonal Communication: Interpersonal communication is the communication between
us and others over the channel. The communication can be online, face-to-face, video
conference on mobile, etc.
Interpersonal skills are essential, whether we are a manager, employee, or looking for work.
Such skills are also known as soft skills that determine how well a person can communicate,
behave, and relate to others.

2. Non-Verbal Communication: Any communication without word of mouth, spoken words,

Conversation and written languages are called Non-Verbal Communication. It happens through
Signs, symbols, colors, gestures, body language or any facial expressions are known as non-verbal
communication.
Examples: Traffic signals are one of the best examples for non-verbal communication.

TYPES OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

1. Kinesics
Body Movements
Gestures and Body Stance
Facial Expressions
Eyes Movements
2. Proxemics
3. Haptics
4. Chronemics
5. Paralanguage
6. Appearance
7. Artifacts
8. Environment
1. KINESICS:

a. Body language is a type of a nonverbal communication in which physical behaviors are

used to express or convey the information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body
posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space. Interpretations of human body
language. It is also known as kinesics.
b. Facial expression is a part of body language and the expression of emotions such as the
movement of the eyes, eyebrows, lips, nose and cheeks. The face displays numerous
emotions such as: Happiness, Surprise, Disgust, Anger, Sadness, etc...
c. Head and neck signals: The body language of the head should be considered in
conjunction with that of the neck. Body language conveyed by the head and neck involves
various ranges of movement. Nodding of the head is generally considered as a sign of
saying 'yes'. Shaking the head is usually interpreted as meaning 'no'.
d. Body postures: Emotions can also be detected through body postures. For example, a
person feeling angry would portray dominance over the other, and their posture would
display approach tendencies. Sitting or standing postures also indicate one's emotions. A
person sitting till the back of their chair, leans forward with their head nodding along with
the discussion implies that they are open, relaxed and generally ready to listen. On the other
hand, a person who has their legs and arms crossed with the foot kicking slightly implies
that they are feeling impatient and emotionally detached from the discussion
e. Gestures - Gestures are movements made with body parts (example hands, arms, fingers,
head, legs) and they may be voluntary or involuntary. Different hand gestures help
emphasize meanings and regulate interaction between or among participants.
For Example: Relaxed hands indicate confidence and self-assurance, while clenched
hands may be interpreted as signs of stress or anger. If a person is wringing their hands,
this demonstrates nervousness and anxiety.
f. Oculesics - Oculesics, a subcategory of body language, is the study of eye movement, eye
behavior, gaze, and eye-related nonverbal communication. Eyes are said to be the window
to the soul. - Through eye contact, one can tell if the other party is paying attention to the
speaker’s words. - It can also help in determining whether one is saying the truth or not. -
Through eye contact we can be able to know one’s emotional condition.

2. PROXEMICS-

Another notable area in the nonverbal world of body language is that of spatial
relationships, which is also known as Proxemics. Introduced by Edward T. Hall in 1966,
Proxemics is the study of measurable distances between people as they interact with one
another.
Hall also came up with four distinct zones in which most men operate:
Intimate distance for embracing, touching or whispering
Personal distance for interactions among good friends or family members
Social distance for interactions among acquaintances
Public Distance used for public speaking.

3. HAPTICS(Touch)-

It is a subcategory of Body Language, and the study of touching as such, handshakes,

holding hands, back slapping, high fives, brushing up against someone or patting someone all
have meaning. Touching is the most developed sense at birth and formulates our initial views
of the world. Touching can be used to sooth, for amusement during play, to flirt, to express
power and maintain bonds between people, such as with baby and mother.

4. CHRONEMICS(Time)–

The use of time in nonverbal communication is formally defined as chronemics. Time

perceptions include punctuality, willingness to wait, and interactions. The use of time can
 affect lifestyles, daily agendas, speed of speech, movements and how long people are
willing to listen.

5. PARALANGUAGE–

The attributes of voice like audibility, pleasantness, distinctness, and correctness in

pronunciation, flexibility, etc. help to shape the meaning in oral communication. - These
attributes help in creating meaning. - Paralanguage goes beyond the linguistic form of an
utterance.
Diction, the highness and lowness of tone, intensity, the manner of delivery, rate of
speaking, etc. create the intended meaning of an utterance. - When something is delivered
coupled with gestures and facial expressions may reflect the feeling(s) and/or emotion(s) of
the participant in a communicative situation.

6. APPEARANCE-
Personal appearance refers to the way the audiences with their expectations of
appropriateness, see and evaluate the way you look. The ways you look is all about your
outward appearance of clothing, grooming, and make-ups.
Physical appearance largely determines attractiveness and those who are attractive are more
likely to be considered as more intelligent, more persuasive, and more likeable than the
unattractive ones.
Appearances also include:
*Hairstyles
* Body cleanliness
* Clean Nails
* Shiny shoes
*No tattoos
*Being appropriately dressed

7. ARTIFACTS-
Artifacts are forms of decorative ornamentation that are chosen to represent self-
concept. They can include rings and tattoos, but may also include brand names and logos.
From clothes to cars, watches, briefcases, purses, and even eyeglasses, what we choose to
surround ourselves with communicates something about our sense of self. They may project
gender, role or position, class or status, personality, and group membership or affiliation.

8. ENVIRONMENT-
Environment involves the physical and psychological aspects of the communication
context. The perception of one’s environment influences one’s reaction to it. For example,
Google is famous for its work environment, with spaces created for physical activity and
even in-house food service around the clock. The expense is no doubt considerable, but
Google’s actions speak volumes. The results produced in the environment, designed to
facilitate creativity, interaction, and collaboration, are worth the effort.
 BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION:

The barrier of communication is such a part that you have to keep in mind during every communication.
Even after taking care of every other detail during the conversation, some misunderstandings remain
during communication. Therefore, we must keep in mind some communication barriers to eliminate
misunderstandings.

Barriers during communication can be of many types such as linguistic barriers, physical barriers,
Personal barriers, Gender barriers, Emotional barriers, Language Barriers, Status Barriers, Cultural
Barriers, Organizational Barriers, Semantic Barriers, and Inattention Barriers and many more barriers.

1. Physical Barriers: It is also caused by barrier distance. Suppose that the person sending the
message is far away from the recipient. And communication is happening between the two. The
barrier arises due to him not being heard clearly because of far distance.

2. Personal Barriers: The personal factors of both sender and receiver may exert influence on
effective communication. These factors include life experiences, emotions, attitudes, behavior that
hinders the ability of a person to communicate.

3. Gender barriers: Gender barrier is also a type of barrier, such as male and female in an
organization, people of both genders work. Societal stereotypes, assumed gender roles, and
interpersonal differences can contribute to a communication gap between the gender and there is a
rift between people due to gender. For Example: Women are focused on relationships and men are
focused on tasks.

4. Emotional Barriers: The emotional barrier changes according to our mood. Emotional barriers are
due to mental limitations created by one’s own self. Emotional Barriers are the mental walls that
keep you from openly communicating your thoughts and feeling to others.

5. Language Barriers: Language barriers are the most common communication barriers which cause
misunderstandings and misinterpretations between people. ... Not using the words that other person
understands makes the communication ineffective and prevents message from being conveyed.

6. Status Barriers: People often have difficulty navigating status differences when trying to inform
or persuade others. To many, social status is an indicator of credibility and legitimacy, and this
effects how seriously others take what one communicates. Status differences can create a bias
against those with the perceived lower status.

7. Cultural Barriers: Past experiences, perception, and cultural background greatly affect the way
people talk and behave. Culture plays an important role in shaping the style of communication. ...
 The culture in which individuals are socialized influences the way they communicate, and the way
individuals communicate can change the culture.

8. Organizational Barriers: Inside the organization, there are many things inside which a
communication barrier is created. Just like the policy of the organization, about the rule and regulation
of the organization, about the status, the facility, there are many other things which cause a lot of
barriers.
9. Semantic Barriers: Semantic barriers to communication are the symbolic obstacles that distort the
sent message in some other way than intended, making the message difficult to understand. The
meaning of words, signs and symbols might be different from one person to another and the same
word might have hundreds of meanings.
10. Inattention barriers: Sometime the persons do not pay adequate attention to the message. They
do not listen, the spoken words attentively. The communication has no impact on those who are
unwilling to listen. Inattention arises due to lack of interest, over stimulation and time pressure.

 OVERCOME BARRIERS OF COMMUNICATION

 Eliminating differences in perception: Seek clarity: if we are unclear about expectations,

assumptions, preferences or beliefs of another person in an interaction, confusion may arise. The key
to overcoming perceptual barriers is asking questions to gain a sense of clarity and ensure that you
and the other person are on the same page.
 Use of Simple Language: Use of simple and clear words should be emphasized. Use of ambiguous
words and jargons should be avoided.
 Reduction and elimination of noise levels: Noise is the main communication barrier which must be
overcome on priority basis. It is essential to identify the source of noise and then eliminate that
source.
 Active Listening: Listen attentively and carefully. There is a difference between “listening” and
“hearing”. Active listening means hearing with proper understanding of the message that is heard.
By asking questions the speaker can ensure whether his/her message is understood or not by the
receiver in the same terms as intended by the speaker.
 Emotional State: During communication one should make effective use of body language. He/she
should not show their emotions while communication as the receiver might misinterpret the message
being delivered. For example, if the conveyer of the message is in a bad mood then the receiver
might think that the information being delivered is not good.
 Simple Organizational Structure: The organizational structure should not be complex. The number
of hierarchical levels should be optimum. There should be a ideal span of control within the
organization. Simpler the organizational structure, more effective will be the communication.
 Avoid Information Overload: The managers should know how to prioritize their work. They should
not overload themselves with the work. They should spend quality time with their subordinates and
should listen to their problems and feedbacks actively.
 Give Constructive Feedback: Avoid giving negative feedback. The contents of the feedback might be
negative, but it should be delivered constructively. Constructive feedback will lead to effective
communication between the superior and subordinate.
 Proper Media Selection: The managers should properly select the medium of communication. Simple
messages should be conveyed orally, like: face to face interaction or meetings. Use of written means
of communication should be encouraged for delivering complex messages. For significant messages
reminders can be given by using written means of communication such as : Memos, Notices etc.
 Flexibility in meeting the targets: For effective communication in an organization the managers
should ensure that the individuals are meeting their targets timely without skipping the formal
channels of communication. There should not be much pressure on employees to meet their targets.
  GUIDELINES FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION:
Effective communication is a part and parcel of any successful organization. A communication should
be free from barriers so as to be effective. Communication is a two way process where the message
sent by the sender should be interpreted in the same terms by the recipient. The characteristics of
effective communication are as follows:

1. Clarity of Purpose: The message to be delivered must be clear in the mind of sender. The
person to whom it is targeted and the aim of the message should be clear in the mind of the
sender.
2. Completeness: The message delivered should not be incomplete. It should be supported by
facts and observations. It should be well planned and organized. No assumptions should be
made by the receiver.
3. Conciseness: The message should be concise. It should not include any unnecessary details. It
should be short and complete.
4. Feedback: Whether the message sent by the sender is understood in same terms by the receiver
or not can be judged by the feedback received. The feedback should be timely and in personal.
It should be specific rather than general.
5. Empathy: Empathy with the listeners is essential for effective verbal communication. The
speaker should step into the shoes of the listener and be sensitive to their needs and emotions.
This way he can understand things from their perspective and make communication more
effective.
6. Modify the message according to the audience: The information requirement by different
people in the organization differs according to their needs. What is relevant to the middle level
management might not be relevant to the top level of management. Use of jargons should be
minimized because it might lead to misunderstanding and misinterpretations. The message
should be modified according to the needs and requirements of the targeted audience.
7. Multiple Channels of communication: For effective communication multiple channels should
be used as it increases the chances of clarity of message. The message is reinforced by using
different channels and there are less chances of deformation of message.
8. Make effective use of Grapevine (informal channel of communication): The employees and
managers should not always discourage grapevine. They should make effective use of
grapevine. The managers can use grapevine to deliver formal messages and for identification of
issues which are significant for the employees. The managers can get to know the problems
faced by the employees and can work upon it.

 BUSINESS WRITING:
Business writing is a type of writing that is used in a professional setting. It is a purposeful piece of
writing that conveys relevant information to the reader in a clear, concise, and effective manner. It
includes client proposals, reports, memos, emails, and notices. Proficiency in business writing is a
critical aspect of effective communication in the workplace.

 BUSINESS MESSAGES
Business messaging is a set of channels over which companies and consumers can communicate with
each other. The most common messaging channel is SMS or text messaging.
 TYPES OF BUSINESS MESSAGES
 This division is based in accordance with the effect it has on the reader Concept

1. POSITIVE Messages: Convey good feeling Letters of appreciation, thanks giving,

expression of interest, sympathy, etc.
2. NEGATIVE Messages: Convey disappointment, disapproval, dissatisfaction Letters of
disapproval, disagreement, denial, refusal, job denials, cancellation, etc.
3. NEUTRAL Messages: Convey no feeling; contain information, necessitating action
Day-to-day messages, reports, routine letters, reminders, proposals, etc.
 2
NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
AND THE SEVEN Cs OF
COMMUNICATION
Unit Structure
2.1 Objectives
2.2 Introduction
2.3 Non-verbal Communication
2.4 Seven Cs of Communication
2.5 Summary
2.6 Exercises
2.7 References

2.1 OBJECTIVES

After reading this chapter, you will be able to understand:

• The concept of non-verbal communication
• Importance of non-verbal communication
• Forms of non-verbal communication
• Types of non-verbal communication
• Seven Cs of communication

2.2 INTRODUCTION

Dear students, in this chapter, we shall discuss in detail the concept

of non-verbal communication and the seven Cs of communication.
Communication is considered as a spine of any business association. It is
done for multiple purposes and in multiple ways. However, an ultimate
aim of any communication is to exchange data in an effective and
meaningful manner. An effective communication creates a bond between
people in the organization as well as between collaborators. Effective
communication contributes in maintaining smooth functioning of the
organization and therefore, it is highly valued in professional life.

Communication is an active process and it is done by using various

mediums. Commonly, language is used as the most convenient medium
for communication. Nonetheless, it is not the only medium of
communication. There are a large number of signs, symbols, images, etc
that are used to convey messages. We often see images like a lighted
13
cigarette with a cross mark on it; or an image of a man or a lady on
washroom entryways that clearly convey the messages: No smoking, or
which washroom is for men and which washroom is for women. It means,
without using a single word, messages can be communicated in a
meaningful way. Even your silence also conveys a significant message in
different situations.

Sometimes, we cannot convey an exact message by using words

but it may be done very well just by using a sign, a symbol or a picture.
Therefore, it is important to understand the concept of non- verbal
communication in detail. In this chapter, we will try to comprehend the
concept of non-verbal communication, its significance, its forms and
various types. Along with it, to make communication effective and
meaningful, we need to apply certain principles. They are termed as Seven
Cs of communication. We shall also discuss in details the Seven Cs of
communication.

2.3 NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION

Language is not the only medium to convey our thoughts,

messages or data. Communication is possible through various mediums. It
could be verbal or non-verbal. In our day to day life, we use maximum
time for communicating information or messages with others; however we
barely notice that a lot of it is done by using non-verbal cues. It includes
eye contact, facial expressions, body movement, tone of voice, touch, etc.
Even our outfits and physical appearance also convey some messages.

In face to face communication, if the spoken words and non-verbal

cues do not match with each other, the communication may lose its effect.
For example: If you face an interview without using any body movements
or facial expressions, you will look like a robot. In short, in our
interactions with others, we exchange wordless signals and it conveys
messages more strongly than our words. Even when you are silent, your
actual appearance, your eye to eye connection, the manner in which you
sit and how close you stand- it sends solid messages to other people and
that is called as non-verbal communication.

Non-verbal communication means transmission of messages

without using any written or spoken word. It is a communication between
at least two people by using images, pictures, signs, facial expressions,
body language, postures, gestures, etc. In simple words, we can define it
as an exchange of messages by using means other than expressed or
composed words. It may include images, pictures, signs, facial
expressions, postures, gestures, signs, and so on.

Non-verbal communication includes everything except spoken and

writer words. Its scope is very vast and it is stronger in conveying
messages. “Experts have also found that 55% of messages received and
processed by our brain are based on our body language and; less than it,
14
38% messages are processed on the basis of our tone of speech. Just 7% of
the received messages are understood based on the spoken
words.”(Mathew 2018) For example, if you say, "I'm happy", with a sad
face, nobody will believe what you said. Rather, your sad face will convey
the opposite message than the spoken words. If there is no uniformity in
verbal and non- verbal cues, the listeners certainly believe the
non-verbal cues. In short, non-verbal communication plays a vital
role in conveying messages in personal and professional life.

2.3.1 Importance of Non-verbal Communication:

For human beings, the process of communication begins with non-
verbal cues. A newborn baby cries after birth. This cry of the newborn
baby is the first attempt of communication with the people around it. At
later stages, a child learns language and shortly verbal communication
becomes the main source of sending and receiving messages. But, it
doesn’t mean that the child doesn’t use any non-verbal cues. He uses it but
hardly pays any serious attention to it. It’s only after stepping into
professional life, he realizes that he is not prepared to use appropriate
body language and to comprehend the implied meanings of non-verbal
cues.

In professional life, it is very important to know how messages are

passed on through non-verbal cues. If you pay attention to the verbal
message only, you may miss out a significant message conveyed through
non-verbal cues. It should be remembered that our words pass on strict
implications however non-verbal messages convey our emotions and
attitudes. Our true feelings are conveyed through non-verbal cues.
Developing a skill of interpreting non-verbal messages helps you get the
exact message conveyed by the person. It can also help you avoid
conveying unintentional messages by controlling your body movements.

How the message is communicated carries more importance than

what is said. Greeting your team with a pleasant smile on your face creates
a positive impression. On the other hand, greeting your team members in
an authoritative tone; or insulting someone in front of others, may create a
bad impression. So often, non-verbal cues are ignored but they are very
strong and powerful sources of communication. All professionals should
learn an appropriate use of non- verbal cues in order to succeed in
conveying messages in a meaningful and effective manner. To be a good
team leader or a manager, it is very important to know the use and
interpretation of non-verbal cues.

2.3.2 Forms of Non-verbal Communication:

Non-verbal communication includes all the impressions we receive
and interpret through our senses. Broadly speaking, there are two forms of
non-verbal communication: Conscious Non- verbal Communication and
Subconscious Non-verbal Communication

15
1.Conscious Non-verbal Communication:
In conscious non-verbal communication, the sender sends a
message with a specific intention and the receivers also know the intended
meaning of the sender. For example: In India, we fold our hands and join
the palms of both hands to welcome the guest. It symbolizes respectful
welcome of the guest. It is a conscious non-verbal communication; in
which both-sender and receiver- are aware of the general meaning of the
act. Conscious non-verbal communication can be effectively done by
using graphics, pictures, maps, diagrams, etc.

2. Subconscious Non-verbal Communication:

In subconscious non-verbal communication, messages are

communicated to the receiver unconsciously. Even, the receivers of such
messages are not consciously aware of it but they get impressions just
after looking at or listening to something. For example: an ambulance
siren conveys a message about casualty or medical emergency. After
looking at the uniform of a police man or an apron of a doctor, people
unconsciously get a message about their power and position. In short, the
transmission of messages happens unintentionally or subconsciously in
subconscious non-verbal communication.

2.3.3 Use of Non-verbal Communication:

Non-verbal messages are quickly grasped by the receiver and they

have an instant effect. It requires less time to see color, an image or to hear
a horn or alarm than understanding a word or a sentence. Non-verbal
communication doesn't need any conventional training. It is normal and
quick in nature. Because of its speed in passing on messages and getting
reaction, non-verbal cues are used to warn or give instructions. Some of
the uses of non-verbal cues can be listed as below:

1. For road safety and traffic light, various signs, colors and pictures are
used. Particularly at the traffic light, rather than composed directions,
green, amber and red lights are used to send messages to stop or to
proceed and drivers follow them undoubtedly.

2. Non-verbal signs are also used to present data in an exact manner.

Through maps, diagrams and charts, much significant data can be
presented in an exact, straightforward and short manner. A lot of
information can be presented in a minimized structure by using
diagrams and charts. Indeed, even a short table can contain data that
would require numerous pages to illustrate the message in words.

3. Pictures, sounds and colors catch our attention more rapidly than
composed or expressed words. Therefore, cover pages of books or
magazines are always designed in attractive colors or with catching
images. Indeed, even a cry of a newborn child or the silence of an
individual makes various impressions. Therefore, non-verbal cues like
16
 sounds, tones, colors and pictures are used in films and on TV
channels to make it more convincing and realistic.

4. An easiest and effective medium of information transmission for

uneducated people is non- verbal communication. The pictures of
cancer tumors on cigarette and tobacco pockets intensely convey the
message even to uneducated people. By referring to the signboards on
highways, illiterate drivers also get implied messages about road safety
and speed. In a nutshell, we can say that, by using non-verbal cues, we
can overcome language barriers and can convey or receive messages
for various purposes.

5. Non-verbal cues and codes are also used in face to face

communication to accomplish various objectives. It is used to make
impressions, control communications, to express feelings, emotions
and attitudes.

2.3.4 Mediums of Non-Verbal Communication:

In the above discussion, we understood that we do not

communicate through words alone. We use various mediums to
communicate non-verbally. Interestingly, in all other ways of non- verbal
communication, our body language plays a key role. A number of
messages are conveyed through our body movements. It is studied by the
expertes and termed this domain as Kinesics‟. Lets get some insights
about kinesics.

A. Body Language (Kinesics):

In order to make meaningful communication, we should learn to

interpret both verbal and non-verbal messages. Non-verbal communication
is done without words but it conveys messages more strongly than spoken
words. It reflects the communicator’s true feelings, attitude and intentions
through his/her facial expressions, gestures, postures etc. our kinesic acts
or body language is an important factor in face to face communication. It
includes nodding of neck, head, eye contact, shrugging of shoulder,
movements of legs, arms, lips, eyebrows, fingers, hands, etc. All these
movements can convey whether you are happy or unhappy, agree or
disagree, nervous or excited and so on.

Every movement of our body, consciously or unconsciously,

conveys our attitudes, moods, status relationships etc. Our feelings and
emotions like- anger, pity, sympathy, horror, anger, determination, and
understanding are expressed more strongly through our body language
than our oral or written words. Though it is so, if there is no proper
equation in use of verbal and non-verbal cues, there is always the
possibility of misinterpretation and misunderstanding. Nobody can believe
what you are saying if your body movement or tone of speech doesn’t
support it. Would you believe a person who says I am sad unless his face
and sound reflect it?
17
 Therefore, to be a successful communicator, one needs to learn the
skill of using verbal and non-verbal cues effectively. By developing the
ability to interpret body movements, one can easily point out the issues in
communication and can solve them immediately. Our body language
shows our status, role, authority, sense of superiority, inferiority and so on.
So, let us see how different body parts of our body communicate
differently.

1. Facial Expressions:

It is considered that the mirror of our mind and heart is our face.
Whatever we feel or think that gets reflected on our face. A number of
feelings can be expressed through our farcical expressions without uttering
a single word. In face to face communication, it is very important to read
the facial expressions of the speaker as it can reflect his attitude,
confidence, understanding, mood etc. Each change in our temperament or
mind is quickly reflected through outward appearances. Facial expressions
received in the same manner in all cultures across the globe. Facial
expressions speak louder than words. A pleasant smile on your face can
create a positive impact on others. It helps you establish rapport with
others and increases the chance of acceptance. Confidence and attention
reflected on a speaker's face shows his credibility. To be a good
communicator, one should learn to control one’s feelings and to adopt a
positive attitude in all situations.

2. Gesture:

Movements of our hands, legs, arms and head are called gestures.
Like facial expressions, our gestures also convey messages effectively.
We use gestures in formal and informal interactions. Despite the fact that
gestures can convey messages effectively, they can also create confusion.

Pointless and irrelevant gestures like touching your face or clothes

frequently can distract participants from your presentation. Generally, we
use gestures like- rolling our eyes, raising our eyebrows, frowning,
spreading our arms, etc and each of them carry a specific message in a
specific culture. The speaker should be aware of the fact that gestures are
culture specific. They are used and interpreted differently in different
cultures. For instance, “spinning your finger around your ear is considered
as ‘you are crazy’ in America but in Algeria, it means, ‘you have got a
phone call’.” (Matthew 2018). It means, it is always good to use gestures
appropriately otherwise they may create confusion or misunderstanding.

3. Posture:

Posture means a way of bearing one’s body. It’s an arrangement of

one’s body and limbs. Every position of your body imparts specific signals
about your intention, mood, thought, emotions and feeling. If you shut
your eyes frequently while listening to someone, it means you are
18
disinterested in the talk. Hands rising slightly on the chin and the first
finger on your cheek indicate that you are analyzing or evaluating
something. On the other hand, if you face your audience with stretched
hands and open palm, it indicates honesty. While communicating with
others, all precautions should be taken to control unwanted movements of
body parts. Our postures shouldn’t send wrong signals to the receivers. It
is always better to face the people confidently.

4. Head:

How do you stand or sit in face to face interaction matters a lot. A

person standing with head high is considered as a confident man. On the
other hand, a man with a bent down head is considered as polite and
respectful. Assertive or negative nodding of the neck gives positive or
negative feedback to the speaker. Along with facial expressions and eye
contact, head positioning also contributes in conveying the messages
correctly.

5. Personal Appearance:

Personal appearance is a key factor in creating an impression about

one’s personality, status, credibility and capability. Our body, height,
weight, hair style, skin color, clothes, personal hygiene, use of accessories,
footwear, etc provide the primary data to judge the person. It could be
right or wrong, but a person is judged at first on the basis of one‟s
personal appearance. Therefore, one should take care of one’s appearance.
Our physical fitness, body shape, weight, height also contribute in making
an impression. Personal appearance can be changed by using professional
outfits and accessories. Clothes reflect one's job, designation, value, etc.
Poorly dressed people are treated poorly whereas well-dressed people are
treated respectfully.

Personal appearance can change the perspective of the viewer. It

plays a vital role in business meetings. For Example: If you attend a
business meeting in unclean clothes, your client may look at you as a
casual and unprofessional person. It means, your appearance gives clues to
the viewer to form an opinion about you. To have an impressive
appearance, wear professional-looking clothes, decent accessories, have
well-combined hair, use mild perfume to cover body odor, wear well
polished shoes, etc. Avoid uncomfortable clothes, heavy jewellery, over
make-up and strong perfumes.

6. Eye Contact (Oculesics):

Eye contact is of utmost importance in face to face

communication. Subtle movements of our eyes, eyelids, eyebrows, size of
pupils also communicate our intense feelings. Eye contact is an influential
medium of communication. We can convey a number of messages through
our eyes. Use of eye contact differs in situation to situation. It plays a vital
19
role in professional communication. When you interact with your clients,
you can easily judge whether they are interested in your talk or not
through their eye contact. At the same time, your client can also judge
your confidence and credibility through your eye movements.

Eye contact can also provide or receive feedback. A speaker can

easily understand after looking in the eyes of the audience if they are
receiving him or not. If they are looking at the students, it shows their
interest in your talk and if not, that indicates their disinterest.

In face to face meetings, those who do not look directly in the

communicator's eyes, their credibility is suspected. Proper eye contact
increases the credibility of the speaker. Confident eye contact indicates
fidelity whereas shifty eye contact indicates disinterest.

Usually, those who are nervous or have lack of confidence, they avoid
eye contact. Maintaining eye contact shows respect and interest; whereas
continuous gaze may give a feeling of encroaching on another's space. It
can convey emotions or signals about when to stop or when to start. How
you look at someone matters a lot. Eye is the most accurate predictor of a
speaker’s true feelings. It communicates your honesty, interest, affection,
hostility etc.

B. Space Distancing (Proxemics):

Non-verbal communication is done through different mediums

related to our body movements, sounds and space. Space is of supreme
importance in every individual’s life. In fact, everyone finds his own safe
space around him and if it is encroached by others, the person feels
uncomfortable. Different reactions in relation to space have been studied
by experts and it is termed as ‘Proxemics’. It is a study of space around an
individual.

Space is an important factor in personal as well as professional life.

Especially in professional settings, space is used as a marker of power. It
is often seen that officers on higher positions are given excellently
furnished spaces compared to their subordinates. Even in meetings,
authorities are given a separate space to sit and subordinates are given
comparatively smaller spaces.

Space is used as a tool to create rapport with the audience.

Competent presenters make excellent use of space to convey messages
effectively. On the other hand, intimate space can be used to threaten a
person as it happens in examination hall. Space distance not only shows
power or position, it also shows intimacy. It’s an interesting area to know
more about it. Experts have divided space into four categories i.e.
Intimate, Personal, Social and Public. Let’s know more about them.

20
1. Intimate Space:

Intimate space, as the name itself suggests, is very close to one’s

body. The distance from 0-18” is considered as intimate space. Most of
our body parts move in that area. As it is very close to the speaker’s body,
only intimate friends, family members or selected people can enter in that
space. Other’s entry in that space is not welcomed. However, they can be
allowed in certain special occasions e.g. to congratulate, console or
sympathies. As it is very close distance, speakers use low voices or
whispers. It is commonly used to discuss highly confidential matters.

2. Personal Space:

Personal space starts from 18” to 4ft. It goes beyond the intimate
circle. Only friends and colleagues can get into this space. Commonly,
normal volume of speech is used. However, this space can also be used to
discuss some important issues with limited people.

3. Social Space:

The area of social space extends from 4 to 12 feet from the

speaker. It is suitable for official / formal communication. Most of the
business meetings are done in this space. The speaker, as most of the time
it is used for dealings with customers or visitors, uses formal tone with a
loud or normal speech volume in this space. In the previous two spaces,
personal matters, emotions, feelings can be discussed but in social space
mostly formal or official matters are discussed.

4. Public Space:

This space extends beyond 12 feet from the speaker. In this space,
most of the time, there is one way communication in formal settings. The
speaker has to adopt an objective approach with a formal tone and loud
voice. It is always good to use a public address system to communicate
effectively in this space. It is commonly used to address large public
gatherings.

C. Vocal Characteristics (Paralanguage):

Voice is a unique gift that we have received from nature. We can

convey multiple feelings through our voice. Through voice, we can easily
identify many things like the speaker's gender, socio-economic
background, intention, etc. Our emotions and feelings are also expressed
through our voice. We use words for verbal communication but along with
actual utterances, many other voice patterns are also used for non-verbal
communication. It is called a paralanguage. The term paralanguage is used
to describe vocal features like vocal quality, loudness, and tempo, pitch
variation, speed, pause etc. Through these vocal sounds, we can express
various feelings like happiness, sadness, anxiety, excitement, confidence,
21
enthusiasm, etc. Therefore, it is important to learn about the role of vocal
characteristics in non-verbal communication. In our day to day as well as
formal communication, we use a vast range of vocal cues. Let’s know
more about the commonly used vocal cues:

a) Volume:

The volume of a speaker determines the effectiveness of the

speech. The volume should suit the situation and the size of the audience.
It should not be too low or too high. The low volume indicates lack of
confidence of the speaker. On the other hand, very high volume suggests
the speaker has less attitude. The volume should be decided as per the
requirement of the situation. In fact, the appropriate volume increases the
effective delivery of messages and therefore the speaker should take care
of it.

b) Pitch:

Pitch variation means rise and fall of the voice. We use different
pitch variations while conveying different messages. In fact, pitch
variation attracts the audience towards your speech. A speech without
variations, rise and fall becomes monotones and that can distract the
audience from the message. The pitch of speech depends on the position
and mood of the person. It also reflects feelings like anger, excitement,
anxiety, enthusiasm etc.

c) Pace:

Many times, high speed of speech is wrongly associated with

effectiveness, but it is not true. High speed cannot convey the message
effectively. It is said that to speak 125 to 150 words per minute is an ideal
speed to make your speech understandable. There should be a proper
combination of slow and high speed while conveying simple and complex
messages. Simple things can be spoken in little high speed but it is always
good to deliver complicated concepts in a low or medium speed. If our
speed does not match with the content, it could be an unproductive
exercise.

d) Pauses:

Pause is a short gap or break that is taken during speech. Everyone

takes short pauses between sentences. The pause at the right place enables
the listener to grasp what has been said and to get ready for the next
sentence. Though it is so, the correct use of the pause is important. The
pause taken in the middle of the sentence may destroy the meaning of the
sentence. The listeners may get distracted by the wrongly taken pauses. A
pause is used to emphasize an important point or to stop and restart the
speech with a new point. “Vocalized pauses like ‘‘umm…’’ , ‘‘err..’’,
‘‘aah’’; and repetition of expressions like ‘‘ok’’, ‘‘yes’’, ‘‘is it’’, etc also
22
destroy the effect of the speech. Along with it, repeated utterances like-
‘‘oh’’, ‘‘ah’’, you know’’ also distracts the listeners.” (Mathew 2018)

e) Word Stress:

Voice modulation and proper word stress is of vital importance in

meaningful communication. Voice modulation includes volume, pitch and
tone of the voice whereas word stress is related to putting stress or
emphasis on a particular word. Voice modulation helps speakers to attract
the attention of the audience. Various emotions and sentiments can be
effectively expressed through voice modulations. On the other hand, by
using proper stress, particular meaning can be conveyed. The stress on
different words in a sentence can change the meaning of the sentence. For
example:
Have you seen my spectacles?
Have you seen my new spectacles?
Have you seen my spectacles?
Have you seen my spectacles?

The sentence is the same but the stress on different words conveys
the meaning differently. To communicate effectively, one should learn the
appropriate use of word stress. Along with word stress, proper
pronunciation of words also determines the effective delivery of messages.
Omission of sounds, use of mixed language or mumbling expressions
changes the meaning of the speech.

D) Silence:

It is not always necessary to communicate verbally. one can

remain silent to communicate his message. It is because our silence also
carries different meanings in different situations. Our conformation,
incongruity, disinterest, respect, disrespect and so on can be conveyed
through silence. It can be used to neglect someone or stop communication
with someone. On the other hand, with a short silence before the speech, a
speaker can drag the attention of the audience. Silence during the
presentation may convey the consent of the audience to proceed or silence
after asking a closed question (seeking agreement or disagreement) also
communicates disagreement. In short, silence can convey both positive
and negative messages and therefore, a skilled communicator should learn
how to use silence for both the purposes.

E) Time Language (Chronemics):

We often say, ‘time is a precious commodity’ or ‘time is money’.

It implies the value and importance of time in personal and professional
life. It is said that time management is one of the most crucial aspects in
successful business because it may generate positive or negative results.
Immediate reply shows interest, preparedness and eagerness whereas late
reply shows disinterest or lack of concern. All communication should be
23
done on time otherwise it loses the importance. The time given to the
person also shows his importance and priority. Importance of time varies
from culture to culture.

F) Haptics (Touch):

The communication that is done by using touch is called Haptic or

tactile communication. Touch is the strongest medium of non-verbal
communication. Touch can communicate your intention, attitude,
emotions, status, perception, need, etc. In informal situations, you can
communicate your affection and concern simply by holding hands or with
a warm hug. On the other hand, in a professional set up, you can
communicate your interest or attitudes with a firm handshake. A weak
handshake conveys lack of confidence and less credibility. Just a pat on
the back of an employee also communicates the positive attitude of the
boss.

Mostly, touch is an intentional act but sometimes it could be an

accident or unconscious act. However, touch can be used to guide
someone, to express sympathy and to console someone. Meanings of
touch differ from culture to culture. In India, close intimacy in public
space is not accepted while in some counties it is considered as a normal
act of expressing one’s sentiments. Therefore, one should be very
particular about use of touch in professional life. It may be a boon or a
bane.

G. Visuals:

Non-verbal communication is possible through both- visual and

auditory- mode. Visual means those that can be seen and auditory means
those that can be heard. Visuals like graphs, maps, charts, signs and
symbols are used for visual communication. On the other hand, bells,
tunes, whistles and sounds are used for auditory communication. Let’s
study them one by one:

a) Pictures, Posters, Maps, Graphs and Charts:

Pictures convey messages more strongly than written or spoken

words. They are understood universally. They do not demand any formal
education to understand the depicted message. On the contrary, posters
communicate messages through pictures and words. Usually, instructions
or processes are explained through posters and they are used for
educational or information purposes.

Graphs, maps and charts can communicate messages in a precise

form and in a limited space. Charts and graphs depict statistical
information in a pictorial manner. They communicate information in a
quick and accurate manner. Special training is required to prepare and
understand the charts and maps. All details about a particular situation can
24
be presented through charts and graphs and it can be presented in a more
accurate manner within a limited space.

H) Signs and Signals:

A sign is a mark that is used to signify something. Signs

communicate messages without words or sounds. They communicate
messages instantly and therefore they are commonly used to give
instruction about directions or procedures. Signs are used in various
disciplines like mathematics, science, geography etc. Even languages are
full of signs. Each sign carries a specific meaning. We often use signs like;
+,-,%,@,& etc. Signs convey messages faster than words therefore
they are often used on roads and highways. With the use of signs,
special language for dumb and deaf people is developed and is used very
confidently to communicate. Braille language is also a sign language.

Signals are different from signs. Signals are a set of formerly

decided actions that are used to convey messages. They can be both visual
and auditory. The signals could be hand movements, light, colored cloths,
lamps, smoke etc. Small children also use signals to get food or drink
water. It is a kind of expressive communication. We witness effective
communication through traffic signals daily. Though it is so, previous
knowledge of uses of signs and symbols is required for a person to
respond to them.

Colors:

Colors are inseparable parts of nature and of our life. Colors are
used in almost everything including cloths, toys, furniture, equipment,
food, etc. However, sometimes, they are used for specific purposes. Colors
not only increase beauty of a product but they also indicate some messages
about its use and nature. Different colors are used for classification in
industries. Even in electricity supply, wires of different colors are used to
decide the buttons and lights. In offices, files and papers with specific
colors are intentionally used for a smooth work process.

Color is an important medium of non-verbal communication.

Colors are also associated with human moods and emotions like- black is
associated with death, white with peace and purity, red with love and
danger, etc. Colors also affect our mind and eyes. Pleasant colors create a
positive atmosphere whereas dark colors may increase dullness. Colors
symbolize different messages in different cultures. A good communicator
should get knowledge about color symbolism while using it in non-native
culture.

J. Auditory Signals:

Auditory symbols are used for specific and limited

communication. Auditory signals include sirens, alarms, bell, whistles, etc.
25
Generally, auditory signals are used to warn or to direct. Sirens are used in
the army and police force to warn about emergencies. An ambulance and
fire engines also use sirens to warn about some casualty. Whistles are used
by police and army as a signal to convey a message. Whistles are used in
transport systems like trains and ships as a signal of arrival and departure.
Along with it, bells and buzzers are also used in companies and
educational offices to inform about beginning and ending of work or class.
Bells are also used in places of worship.

In a nutshell, non-verbal communication is an important area of

study for the students of communication skills. The professionals who use
appropriate codes and cues in verbal and non-verbal communication can
easily succeed in conveying as well as receiving messages in professional
and personal life. To be a successful professional, skills in non-verbal
communication substantially help a person to seek information as well as
convey messages in an effective and meaningful manner. The ultimate aim
of communication is conveying and receiving messages and it can be done
effectively by using techniques of non-verbal communication.

2.4 SEVEN CS OF COMMUNICATION

Prime objective of any communication is to convey and receive the
messages clearly. To make meaningful communication, we need to follow
certain principles of communication. They include: Completeness,
Consciousness, Consideration, Concreteness, Clarity, Courtesy and
Correctness. They are called the Seven Cs because each of the words
begins with the letter C. The seven Cs provide some important guidelines
to make communication meaningful and effective.

So, let’s understand the importance of each principle in detail.

1. Completeness:
In communication, receiver and sender may have different
backgrounds, status, needs and levels of understanding. Therefore, the
sender of the message should take into account expectations and
background of the receiver and provide all the essential details to the
receiver. In business communication, when a customer enquiries for some
product, the seller should provide all the details of the product as well as
he should send additional details like cost, payment facilities, offers etc.
Considering the expectations of the receiver, the sender should draft his
messages. Completeness can be achieved by answering the five ‘Wh’
Questions i.e. Who, What, When, Where, and Why?

Complete communication draws expected outcomes and also helps

to build good rapport with the receiver. The message answering five W’s
gives a complete message to the receiver and it creates a positive
impression. It develops a feeling of concern in receivers mind and it can
also save the receiver from claims of cheating or hiding the fact. It helps to
26
avoid misunderstandings as well. Therefore, completeness is an important
aspect of effective communication.

2. Conciseness:
Conciseness is a key aspect in effective communication. Literally,
concise means ‘brief’. In official communication, it is good to draft short
and succinct messages. It can be done by avoiding wordy, repetitive and
irrelevant expressions. A concise message highlights the key points in the
messages and it helps the reader to concentrate on it. Following strategies
can be used to achieve conciseness:
• Include only relevant details. For example: if you are asked for your
academic details, just send what is asked. Don’t send details about
family and profession.
• Focus on the purpose of the message. Avoid over elaboration.
• Unnecessary repetitions disturb the flow of thought. It makes the
message boring.
• Use abbreviations and short forms to avoid repetition.
• Don’t use fillers like ‘‘actually’’, ‘‘I mean’’, ‘‘sort of’’, ‘‘for
instance’’, ‘‘basically’’, etc.

2. Consideration:

Consideration means giving importance to the receiver’s needs. It

means drafting messages considering the requirements, desires, problems,
and background of the receiver. In short, it is a receiver centric
communication. It is handling matters from the receiver's point of view.
Consideration reflects sympathy, human touch and understanding nature
of the communicator.

To achieve consideration, following points can be useful:

(a) You Attitude:

‘You attitude’ means drafting a message stressing on how the

receiver will get benefited with the message. It shows that the receiver is
highly valued by the sender and the communication is done for the benefit
of the receiver.

Example:
I - Attitude: We accept part payment of fee.
You - Attitude: You can step in just by paying the first installment.

(b) Highlight the Benefits of the Receiver:

The second way to show consideration is to highlight the benefits

of the receiver. In business, profit is the prime expectation of both seller
and purchaser. Therefore, while communicating with customers, their
27
benefits should be highlighted. Sender can attract receivers only when he
feels that the sender is considering his situation. So for that, while
applying “You Attitude”, do highlight the benefits of the receiver. It helps
create a positive impact on the receiver.

(c) Use of Positive Vocabulary/Tone:

One can express consideration through appropriate use of positive words
and polite tone. It creates a positive impact on the receiver.

Example:
Negative: It is impossible to issue you books today.
Positive: As soon as we receive your library card, we will gladly issue you
books.

4. Clarity:

Clarity in communication decides the effectiveness of

communication. Clarity is must in every message as it gives a clear idea to
the receiver. Clarity can be added to the message by following some
techniques like:
• Framing effective sentences and paragraphs
• Adding suitable illustrations.
• Use of short, familiar and formal words:

For example:

Formal words Less Formal Words

Participate Join
Utilize Use
Interrogate Question

5. Concreteness:

Concreteness means to be specific, definite and unambiguous. A

vague and general message spoils the credibility of the sender.
Concreteness can be achieved by using accurate details, putting action in
verbs and using image building words.

a) Use specific facts and figures:

Example:
General: Company has suffered a great loss.
Specific: Company has suffered a loss of 10 crore.

b) Put action in the verb:

Use verbs to highlight the action of the subject:
Example:
Noun: They held a meeting in the office.
Verb: They met in the office.
28
c) Choose image building words:
Vivid image building words create an impression upon the reader,
Example:
He is a successful entrepreneur. (Simple word)
He is a business tycoon. (Image building word)

6. Courtesy:

The prime purpose of business communication is to seek a positive

response from the recipient. Courtesy is an important factor in conveying
concern and respect to the receiver. Courteous messages develop good
relations. It helps to build goodwill. Courteousness is expressed through
being sincere, tactful, thoughtful and appreciative. To achieve courtesy
following strategies can be used:

a) Be Tactful:
Tactful means to convey messages positively. Rude and direct replies may
hurt the receiver.
Example:
Tactless: Your speech does not make sense…..
Tactful: If I understand your words correctly, you want to say that…….

b) Avoid negative expressions:

Negative remarks and words are not liked by anyone, so avoid them. The
expressions like:
You have failed
You have no choice
You are a fool
You have no sense

c) Answer / Mail Promptly:

Your prompt response to mails or asked questions indicates your

interest and positivity. It’s always good to reply to all mails promptly. A
late reply shows your disinterest.

7. Correctness:

Correctness is very important in all communications in general and

written communication in particular. The sender should use correct
sentence structure, appropriate words, punctuations and suitable tone to
achieve correctness. It helps the sender to convey the message in the way
he/she wants to send and get expected feedback. The following points can
be helpful to achieve correctness:

a) Use correct facts:

In official correspondence clarity is given utmost importance. In
doctoral dissertations, legal documents, top-level government agreements,
29
clarity is maintained by using correct facts like correct bill no, cheque no,
correct spellings, double check totals, verify statistical data, avoid
guessing etc.

Even in formal letters, use correct facts. For example, if you are
not aware of the educational qualifications of the person, avoid using titles
like Dr, Prof, Adv, C.A. Instead of it, use formal expressions like-Mr. Mrs.
Ms. Shri. Smt.etc. Do write correct spellings of names, institutions etc.

b) Appropriate words and correct tone:

Formal writing demands clarity and it can be achieved by using

appropriate words and suitable tone. Use the words that are short, well-
known and conversational. For example:

More Formal Less Formal

Participate Join
Endeavour Try
Ascertain Find out

Along with it, use punctuation marks correctly:

Example:
Your’s Faithfully (incorrect) Yours faithfully (correct)

The appropriate tone of the write up is very important to maintain

correctness. The mood of the writer gets reflected through the tone of the
write up. Therefore, it is always good to re- read and re-edit the draft
before finalizing it.

2.4 SUMMARY

Dear students, in this chapter, we learnt that non-verbal

communication plays an important role in formal and informal
communication. Non-verbal communication is a continuous process and it
keeps on sending signals through body language, appearance, facial
expressions, eye contact, posture, gesture etc. The sender’s and receiver’s
likes, dislikes, attitude, agreement, disagreement, interest, disinterest etc
can easily be understood through non- verbal cues. Therefore, to become a
successful communicator, the person should get proper understanding of
various non-verbal cues. Along with it, the Seven Cs: Completeness,
Conciseness, Consideration, Concreteness, Clarity, Courtesy and
correctness are important principles of communication. The seven Cs
provide important guidelines to make communication meaningful and
effective.

2.5 UNIT END QUESTIONS

A. Answer the following questions:
1. Define non-verbal communication with its importance in personal and
30
 professional life.
2. Explain the term ‘‘ Kinesics’’ and write a note on six major types of
body language.
3. Outline the importance of space distancing in non-verbal
communication.
4. Write an essay on the paralinguistic aspects of effective oral
communication.
5. Write a note on the role of Chronemics, Haptics and Silence in non-
verbal communication.
6. Write a detailed note on signs, symbols and signals and their
use in non-verbal communication.
7. Explain the methods of making effective non-verbal communication.
8. Write the importance of dress, appearance and distance in non-verbal
communication.
9. Explain in detail the significance of seven Cs in professional
communication.

B. Write notes on the following:

1. Uses of non-verbal communication.
2. Forms of non-verbal communication
3. Facial expressions
4. Gestures and postures
5. Pause and word stress
6. Consideration and clarity
7. Correctness and conciseness
8. Completeness and concreteness

2.6 REFERENCES

● Mathew, S. 2018. Communication Skills. Pune: Technical

Publications, pp.3.1- 3.7.
● Murphy, H., Hildebrandt, H., and Thomas,J., 2008.Effective Business
Communication. 7th ed. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill Publishing
Company Limited,pp. 31-68
● Ober, S. 2008. Contemporary Business Communication 5th ed. New
Delhi: Biztantra, an Imprint of Dreamtech Press.pp. 46-50
● Raman, M. and Prakash, S., 2012. Business Communication. 2nd
ed. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 46-86
● Business Communication (Study Material). 2004. published by
Dr. T.P.Ghosh, Director of Studies, ICAI, Noida.pp.23-31

*****

31
 Chapter: 2
Types of communication

Presented by: Kamelia Gulam

CHAPTER OUTLINE
2.1 types of communication

2.1.1Verbal communication

2.1.2Non-verbal communication

2.1 Forms of communication

2.2.1 Interpersonal communication

2.2.2 Intrapersonal Communication

2.2.3Small Group communication

2.2.4One-to-group communication

2.2.5Mass communication
TYPES OF COMMUNICATION

Verbal Communication
1.Oral 2. Written
Non Verbal Communication
1. kinesics (Body language)
2. Haptics (Touch )
3. Proxemics (Space distancing)
4. Chronemics
5. Sign language
6. para language
 1. VERBAL COMMUNICATION
* Verbal communication is refers to the form
of communication in which message is
transmitted verbally

• Verbal communication is done by words,

mouth or a piece of writing.

 Objective of every communication is to have

people understood what we are trying to say.
A/ ORAL COMMUNICATION

 In oral communication, Spoken words are used.

 It includes face-to-face conversations, speech,

telephonic conversation, video, radio, television,
voice over internet.

 Communication is influence by volume, speed and

clarity of speaking.
 ORAL COMMUNICATION

Advantages Disadvantages
 Quickness in exchange of  Unfit for lengthy message.

Ideas.  Unfit for policy matters.

 Quick feedback  Lack of written proof.

 Flexibility.  Expensive method.

 Personal touch  Lack of clarity.

 Removal of  Misuse of time.

misunderstanding  Presence of both the
parties is necessary.
B/WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
 In written communication, written signs or symbols
are used to communicate.

 In written communication message can be

transmitted via email, letter, report, memo etc.

 In written communication, is influenced by the

vocabulary & grammar used, writing style, precision
and clarity of the language used.
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
 Suitable for lengthy  Unfit for uneducated
messages persons
 Written proof  Lack of secrecy
 Clear message  No quick feedback.
 Less expensive method
 Presence of both the
parties .
 is not necessary
 True and effective
 TYPES OF NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION

Non Verbal Communication

1. kinesics (Body language)

2. Haptics (Touch )

3. Proxemics (Space distancing)

4. Chronemics

5. Sign language

13
6. para language
1/BODY LANGUAGE
 Facial expression

 Eye contact/ gaze

 Gestures

 Postures

 Personal appearance
 Para language
Attributes of speaking which include the pitch, the tone,

the volume, tempo, rhythm, articulation, resonance, nasality and

even the accent of the speaker collectively known as paralanguage,

we can understand mood and the situation by paralanguage

expressions

23
FORMS OF COMMUNICATION
1. Interpersonal communication

2. Intrapersonal Communication

3. Small Group communication

4. One-to-group communication

5. Mass communication
ONE-TO-GROUP COMMUNICATION

 involves a speaker who seeks to inform, or motivate

an audience.

 Example is a teacher and a class of students.

SMALL GROUP COMMUNICATION
 is communication within formal or informal groups
or teams. It is group interaction that results in
decision making, problem solving and discussion
within an organization.
 Examples would be a group planning a surprise
birthday party for someone. A team working
together on a project.
INTRAPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
 is communication that occurs in your own mind. It is
the basis of your feelings, and beliefs.

 Examples are when you make any kind of

decision – what to eat or wear. When you think
about something – what you want to do on the
weekend or when you think about another
person.
• Examples are when you are talking to your friends. A
teacher and student discussing an assignment.
Thank you
 WRITTEN, ORAL & DIGITAL COMMUNICATION ABILITIES 2018-2019

Definition
Clear communication imparts messages to others, constructs knowledge, fosters understanding, and/or influences opinion. The ability to
communicate can be demonstrated in many ways, including essays, poems, narratives, dialogues, presentations, formal and informal
speaking, web pages, ePortfolios, digital stories, and other methods.

Framing Language
Written, Oral, and Digital Communication each address three dimensions of effective communication common to all forms, genres, and
media. These dimensions are Content Development, Purpose and Audience, and Control of Language. Oral Communication also can be
communicated through voice and/or body language, through either audio or video recording. Digital Communication also emphasizes
multimodal or multimedia compositions and holistic design.

Content, Organization, and Genre

For Written, Oral, and Digital Communication, content is well-organized, clear and logical. Statements, claims, and conclusions are
supported by evidence or narrative detail. Where applicable, facts are not confused with opinions, and sources are credible and relevant.
This material might consist of explanations, examples, illustrations, statistics, analogies, or quotations from relevant authorities. Through
increasingly sophisticated use of sources, student authors will develop an ability to differentiate between their ideas and the ideas of others,
including digital media.

Assessing content and organization will shift depending on genre. For example, communications such as essays, letters, oral
presentations, and digital stories exhibit organizational patterns that include an introduction, body and conclusion. Other patterns may be
chronological, problem-solution, or analysis of parts. Genres such as poetry, dialogues, and wikis may be designed differently, but still
demonstrate a student’s understanding of form and content. In addition to serving the assignment’s purpose, student work will incorporate
sources according to disciplinary and genre conventions.

Purpose and Audience

For Written, Oral, and Digital Communication, communication must be appropriate to the context, and the purpose clear. The style and use
of language are appropriate for the audience and purpose, and the conventions of the genre and/or discipline are respected. The purpose of
communicating will depend in part on its intended effect on an audience, including work that means to persuade, report, inform, problem
solve, argue, connect, or amuse.

Control of Language, Syntax, and Mechanics

Communication is clear, fluent, and appropriate for the genre and medium. Grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, and language choice are
appropriate to the audience and occasion. Errors do not interfere with comprehension. While particular communications may require some
adaptation of form, in most cases the expectation is that the author will employ the language and syntax considered to be “standard” and
appropriate to academic or professional settings. Where relevant, the articulation, tone, volume, pace, eye contact, and body language for
oral presentations are appropriate to the interaction.
 WRITTEN, ORAL & DIGITAL COMMUNICATION ABILITIES 2018-2019

For Oral Communication, consider the following elements in addition to the above dimensions of effective communication:

 Voice Command: Tone, pacing, rate of speech, articulation, volume, and vocal expressiveness enhance the effectiveness of the
dialogue or presentation. An effective speaker articulates with confidence, maintains audience awareness, uses their voice
expressively, and uses few vocal fillers ("um," "uh," "like," "you know," etc.). Voice command can apply to artifacts that are audio-
only.

 Visual Delivery and Active Listening: For video or other visual presentations, posture, body language, eye contact enhance the
presentation. Active listening is exhibited by the body language, response, and reaction of the speaker.

 Dialogues: For dialogues and interactions, it would be helpful for scoring purposes if during conversations or role-play the
students could identify the primary speaker (who in theory would actually deposit the artifact).

For Digital Communication, consider the following elements in addition to the above dimensions of effective communication:

 Multimodal/Media Composition: Digital communication employs an evolving range of digital tools and platforms for purposeful
composition, including but not limited to websites, ePortfolios, PowerPoint presentations, multimedia blogs and Tweets, and
digital stories. The capacities of these and other digital platforms create expanded opportunities for students to compose with
multimodal and/or multimedia texts, which means the creative integration of two or more forms of media together, including text,
audio, video, photography, animation, graphs, charts, and/or data visualizations. Successful digital communication will juxtapose
and integrate multimodal design using tools and platforms appropriate for the assignment. The complexity of multimodal elements
and/or volume of multiple multimodal elements is less significant than whether such elements advance and enhance the purpose of
communication.

 Holistic Design: Effective digital composition will advance the content and purpose of the communication through creative
juxtaposition of media as part of a balanced, purposeful visual design, which may also include digital features like hyperlinks (note:
the simple presence of hyperlinks or a simple hypertext document does not constitute digital communication if it’s not multimodal).
Proficient digital artifacts will develop a holistic approach to content, in which the different parts of the composition – the
sequence, pages, images, banners, etc. – work together to reinforce the overall purpose and content. For example, text, image
and visual design of a web page or ePortfolio will be intentionally deployed to more powerfully communicate a unified message
or narrative. Holistic design signals the way different parts of multimodal compositions of various sizes contribute to a coherent
whole.
 WRITTEN, ORAL & DIGITAL COMMUNICATION ABILITIES 2018-2019

Dimension Proficient - 4 Competent - 3 Developing - 2 Novice - 1

Content Content is well-organized, Content is mostly organized, Content is somewhat Content is minimally organized,
Development clear and logical. clear and logical. organized, clear and logical. clear and logical.
and
Organization Statements and/or thesis and Statements and/or thesis and Statements and/or thesis Statements and/or thesis and
conclusions are supported conclusions are mostly and conclusions are conclusions are rarely supported
by evidence or narrative supported by evidence or somewhat supported by by evidence or narrative detail.
detail. narrative detail. evidence or narrative detail.
Facts are often confused with
Facts are not confused with Facts are usually not confused Facts are occasionally opinions. Credible and relevant
opinions. Sources are with opinions. Sources are confused with opinions. sources are rarely used.
credible and relevant. usually credible and relevant. Sources are sometimes
credible and relevant.
Purpose, The purpose of The purpose of communication The purpose of communication The purpose of communication
Audience, communication is clear. is mostly clear. is somewhat clear. is unclear.
and Genre
The style and use of The style and use of language The style and use of language The style and use of language are
language are appropriate for are mostly appropriate for the are somewhat appropriate for rarely appropriate for the audience
the audience and the audience and the audience and the and the communication’s purpose.
communication’s purpose. communication’s purpose. communication’s purpose.
The conventions of the chosen
The conventions of the The conventions of the chosen The conventions of the genre and/or discipline are rarely
chosen genre and/or genre and/or discipline are chosen genre and/or respected.
discipline are respected. mostly respected. discipline are sometimes
respected.
Control of Communication is clear, Communication is mostly clear, Communication is somewhat Communication is rarely clear,
Language, fluent and appropriate for correct, fluent and appropriate clear, correct, fluent and correct, fluent or appropriate for
Syntax, and the chosen genre and for the chosen genre and appropriate for the chosen the chosen genre and medium.
Mechanics medium. medium. genre and medium.
for all Grammar, pronunciation,
Artifacts Grammar, pronunciation, Grammar, pronunciation, Grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary and language
vocabulary and language vocabulary and language vocabulary and language choice are rarely
choice are appropriate to choice are mostly choice are somewhat appropriate to the
the audience and appropriate to the appropriate to the audience audience and occasion.
occasion. audience and occasion. and occasion.
Errors consistently interfere with
Errors don’t interfere Errors minimally interfere Errors sometimes comprehension.
with comprehension. with comprehension. interfere with
comprehension.
 WRITTEN, ORAL & DIGITAL COMMUNICATION ABILITIES 2018-2019

Oral Articulation, tone, volume, Articulation, tone, volume, Articulation, tone, volume, Articulation, tone, volume,
Communication and pace are appropriate to and pace are mostly and pace are somewhat and pace are rarely
the situation. appropriate to the appropriate to the situation. appropriate to the situation.
Voice command and visual situation.
delivery for oral Where appropriate, eye Where appropriate, eye Where appropriate, eye
communication, including contact and body language Where appropriate, eye contact and body language contact and body language
active listening and are appropriate to the contact and body language are somewhat appropriate to are rarely appropriate to the
interactions in appropriate interaction. are mostly appropriate to the interaction. interaction.
situations. the interaction.
Speaker listens attentively Speaker somewhat listens Speaker rarely listens
and responds to audience Speaker mostly listens attentively and responds to attentively and rarely responds
appropriately to clarify, attentively and responds to audience somewhat to audience appropriately to
reinforce and/or summarize audience mostly appropriately to clarify, clarify, reinforce and/or
main ideas. appropriately to clarify, reinforce and/or summarize summarize main ideas.
reinforce and/or summarize main ideas.
main ideas.

Digital Digital Communication Digital Communication Digital Communication Digital Communication

Communication effectively employs mostly effectively employs somewhat effectively employs minimally employs multimodal
multimodal composition with multimodal composition with multimodal composition with composition with appropriately
Digital Communication appropriately selected digital appropriately selected digital appropriately selected digital selected digital tools and
employs multimodal tools and platforms. tools and platforms. tools and platforms. platforms.
composition with
appropriately selected Effectively employs holistic Employs mostly effective Employs somewhat effective Employs minimal elements of
digital tools and platforms. design to advance elements of holistic design elements of holistic design to holistic design to
unified content and purpose to unify content and purpose unify content and purpose of unify content and purpose of
It also employs holistic of communication. of communication. communication. communication.
design, effectively
integrating text, image,
video and other elements
to communicate unified
content and purpose.
Interview Skills
There are some easy steps that you can take that will increase your
chances of success at interviews.

First, remember that job interviews should be a process of two-way

communication. Not only are they a tool for employers to use to
evaluate you, but they are also an opportunity for you to assess the job,
the organization, and to see if there is a "fit."

The keys to a successful interview are preparation and practice. The following
suggestions will help you prepare for an interview:

Self-evaluation It is important for you to think about yourself and your past
experiences in order to be ready to articulate what you have to offer an employer.
Consider the following topics:

• How your present and past experience relate to the position

• Your current and future career goals
• What skills and expertise you have to offer
• The skills that you would like to develop or improve
• Location, salary, and lifestyle priorities
• Kinds of people and environments you prefer
• Past experiences you want to highlight such as volunteer
work, hobbies, travel

Before the Interview

Research the Company - A company's website is an excellent place to
begin. It usually gives you information on whether it is international or
domestic, what its revenues are, how many locations it has, and the
nature of its major products. Most companies are very proud of their
websites. Don't be surprised if one of the first questions interviewers
ask when you arrive is, "Have you have had a chance to look at our
website?"

Practice interviews - Write down a list of possible questions that you think may be
asked, then have a friend act as an interviewer and direct them to you in a practice
interview situation. Don't stop until you feel comfortable answering each question.
Practicing beforehand will make you feel more comfortable and relaxed during the
interview.

Dress Professionally - In today's environment, wearing a suit isn't

always necessary. Contact the HR Manager of the company or your
recruiter, and find out what the dress code is for the company at
which you are going to interview. Then dress one level above. For
instance, if it is business casual, men can wear dress pants, dress
shirt, and sport coat. Women can wear a pantsuit, dress, or a skirt and
blouse. Visual impressions are very important. Therefore, if in doubt,
always dress on the conservative side.

Arrival - Try to arrive at the interview location a little early. This

gives you time to determine where you need to go, and will give

Page 1 of 5
you a few minutes to collect your thoughts. DO NOT arrive late. Nothing destroys your
chance at impressing an employer more than arriving late and offering no explanation.
If you learn at the last minute that you are going to be arriving late at the interview, call
and let the interviewer know. Interviewers understand that things can come up
suddenly. You are never considered late if you call and make them aware of the fact.

During the Interview

First impressions - First impressions take only thirty seconds.
Establishing rapport, direct and sustained eye contact, a firm
handshake, a warm smile, good posture, and introducing yourself in
a confident manner are important ingredients. A well-groomed,
professional appearance is critical. Greet the interviewer with a firm
handshake, whether it is a woman or a man. (No one likes a weak
handshake.) Always maintain eye contact while shaking hands.

Smile - A smile denotes confidence in a candidate. Try to smile often. Also, don't be
afraid to use some hand animation while answering questions. This suggests
enthusiasm in a candidate.

Body Language - Use good posture, and look the interviewer right in the eye. Sit up
straight. Never slouch.

Speak Clearly - Don't mumble. It portrays a lack of confidence. Speak with assurance.
This indicates confidence.

Listen Before Answering - Allow the employer to begin the

interview, but be prepared with some opening statements or
questions such as, "I understand that this position involves…," or
"What are you looking for in a job candidate?" Make sure you
understand the question. If not, ask the interviewer to clarify it. Don't
be afraid to take some time to think before answering. Interviewers
are impressed with someone who thinks out an answer before
speaking.

Give Brief Answers - Make your answer concise and to the point. Rambling tends to
suggest that you really don't have the answer to the question(s) asked.

Previous Employers - Never, ever say anything negative about your present or
previous employers. No matter how much you may have disliked someone, find a way
to give your experiences a positive spin.

Be Truthful - Don't lie when asked about something you haven't done. The next
question will be "tell us about it."

Know Your Resume - Be prepared to talk about every fact that is on your resume.
Many people embellish their accomplishments on their resumes. Avoid this, since the
only point of reference an interviewer has about you is the resume you provide to
him/her beforehand.

Keep things at a professional level - Sometimes near the end of an interview, the two
parties start feeling comfortable with each other. Don't let this comfortable feeling lead

Page 2 of 5
you to telling them something about yourself that they really shouldn't know. Always
keep things at a professional level.

Look for Something in Common - This is something that has given us

an edge in the past. Try to find a common bond between yourself
and your interviewer. If you are being interviewed in an office, look
at how the office is decorated. Look for something you can identify
with. Is his/her college diploma hanging on the wall? Did you
attend a nearby school, or perhaps one in the same Division? If so,
make a quick comment about it: "Did you attend Penn State? I
attended the University of Michigan. What a great football conference."
Interviewers sometimes feel more comfortable with people with whom they have
something in common. This approach has helped several candidates obtain a position
over other qualified candidates. Above all, be sincere.

After the Interview

Back in Touch - Ask the interviewer when s/he expects to get back to you on her/his
decision.

Get Everyone's Business Card - Before you leave, be sure to get the business cards of
all of the people with whom you visited. If you cannot do that, ask a secretary for their
names and e-mail addresses.

Thank the Interviewer - Verbally thank the interviewer for taking the time
to interview you, before leaving. Within a day, send thank-you letters to
all of the interviewers with whom you spoke. This does not need to
consist of a written letter sent via snail mail; an e-mailed thank-you
works just as well.

Do not give up - Sometimes, within ten minutes of the start of an interview, you will
know that the job is not one you want to pursue. If you begin to feel this way, don't give
up on the interview. Continue to interview as if the job was the most important thing in
the world. This provides you with practice for your next interview, which may be for
your dream job! Not all interviews will lead to offers of employment, but, if you
approach every interview as if it's the most important interview you ever had, you will
come out a winner!

Additional tips
• Focus on presenting a positive, enthusiastic tone.
• If you are asked to describe a weakness, mention lessons
learned, and steer away from negative descriptions.
• Think about three or four key points that you want to make about
your personal characteristics, skills you have learned, and
relevant experiences that demonstrate that you could perform the
job well.
• Find specific, rather than general, examples from your experience that
illustrate important points about yourself.
• When answering questions, focus on experiences that demonstrate flexibility,
adaptability, responsibility, progress, achievement, creativity, initiative, and
leadership.

Page 3 of 5
 • If the employer signals the end of the interview and asks you for questions, and
you haven't discussed some key points, say: "There are a couple of points I
would like to mention."

After the interview, write a brief thank you letter. Express your appreciation for the
opportunity to interview and learn about the organization, re-confirm your interest, and
re-emphasize how your background and skills might be of interest to the organization.

Some Interview Questions

You can expect to be asked some of the following types of questions in an interview.

Case Questions are often used by consulting companies to assess analytical and
problem solving skills. The interviewer presents a situation and asks you to discuss
possible solutions. A sample case question is, "Describe a managed care company
that you think is successful and explain why. What do they do that works? What are
their potential problems? What is your outlook for their future? What suggestions do
you have for their future?"

Behavioral or situational questions are used to assess how you would behave in
different circumstances and to predict your behaviour in future, similar situations. An
interviewer may ask, "Tell me about a time when a team you were working on was
unable to proceed due to some interpersonal conflict. How did you respond, and what
role did you play on the team?"

Role-play questions entail the interviewer asking you to put yourself in another role and
decide how you would handle a specific problem.

Industry-specific questions are questions regarding the latest trends or issues in the
industry. An interviewer may ask, "If you were a CEO of Microsoft’s main competitor,
what actions would you take in the on-line services market?"

Brainteasers are quick questions where the obvious answer is not necessarily the right
answer such as, "Which would you rather receive: fifty thousand pennies or a
10x10x10 room filled with pennies?"

General questions

• Tell me about yourself.

• What are your key experiences and accomplishments?
• How would you rank your achievements?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• How would your friends describe you?
• Explain your reason for leaving your current job.
• What are the most important things to you in a job?
• What do you value in a supervisor?
• How would you describe your management style?
• What appeals to you about this job and organization?
• Describe the ideal position in our company.
• What qualities do you think make someone successful in our industry?
• What would you like me to know most that is not on your resume?

Page 4 of 5
 • Explain your understanding of the issues and trends in your specialty and
in the overall industry.
• Why are you qualified for this position?
• Give an example of a situation where you demonstrated leadership.
• Give an example of how you worked on a team.
• What questions do you have about the organization? Questions for the
interviewer are queries that usually focus on the culture or mission of the
organization, and job responsibilities. This is not the time to bring up questions
about salary, benefits, and vacation about which you can inquire after you have
been offered the job.

The Phone Interview

Due to a company's geographic location, travel costs, and divergent
schedules, a phone interview may often be your initial contact with a
prospective employer. Therefore, we're offering some phone
interview tips.

Objective - The idea behind a phone interview is to gain an invitation for a

personal interview, and to gather more information for future steps in the process.

Preparation - Have a pad, pen, and a copy of your resume near the phone. Use a
phone in a quiet area. Avoid any background noise. Also avoid using a cordless phone,
because they tend to transmit poorly.

Speaking

a. Smile and be enthusiastic. Your enthusiasm will carry

through to the interviewer.

b. Speak in a conversational manner, and be sure to speak

loudly enough to be heard. Speak with some inflection and
tone.

c. Let the interviewer do most of the talking. When s/he asks you a
question, expound upon the answer. Use the opportunity to sell your
skills and experience.

d. When the interview is over, let her/him know that you are very interested
in scheduling a personal interview at her/his place of business.

References
Altavista Careers (2001), JobsontheWeb(2001), Virtualville (2001) and MIT
Online Resources (2001)

Page 5 of 5
This is “Audience Analysis”, chapter 5 from the book Public Speaking: Practice and Ethics (index.html) (v. 1.0).

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i
 Chapter 5
Audience Analysis

What Is an Audience Analysis?

One of the consequences of the First Amendment to the

Constitution, which protects our right to speak freely, is
that we focus so much on what we want to say that we
often overlook the question of who our audience is.
Does your audience care what you as a speaker think?
Can they see how your speech applies to their lives and
interests? The act of public speaking is a shared activity
that involves interaction between speaker and audience.
© Thinkstock
In order for your speech to get a fair hearing, you need
to create a relationship with your listeners. Scholars
Sprague, Stuart, and Bodary explain, “Speakers do not
give speeches to audiences; they jointly create meaning
with audiences.”Sprague, J., Stuart, D., & Bodary, D. (2010). The speaker’s handbook
(9th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage. The success of your speech rests in large
part on how your audience receives and understands it.

Think of a time when you heard a speech that sounded “canned” or that fell flat
because the audience didn’t “get it.” Chances are that this happened because the
speaker neglected to consider that public speaking is an audience-centered1
activity. Worse, lack of consideration for one’s audience can result in the
embarrassment of alienating listeners by telling a joke they don’t appreciate, or
using language they find offensive. The best way to reduce the risk of such
situations is to conduct an audience analysis as you prepare your speech.

1. The emphasis of a speaker on Audience analysis2 is the process of gathering information about the people in
the importance of the your audience so that you can understand their needs, expectations, beliefs, values,
audience’s characteristics and
needs. attitudes, and likely opinions. In this chapter, we will first examine some reasons
why audience analysis is important. We will then describe three different types of
2. The process of gathering audience analysis and some techniques to use in conducting audience analysis.
certain kinds of information
about the people in your Finally, we will explain how you can use your audience analysis not only during the
audience and using that creation of your speech but also while you are delivering it.
information to understand the
beliefs, values, needs, attitudes,
and opinions they hold.

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Chapter 5 Audience Analysis

5.1 Why Conduct an Audience Analysis?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Understand the value of acknowledging your audience.

2. Understand how to choose a worthwhile topic.
3. Explain how to adapt your speech to your audience’s needs.
4. Explain the value of speaking with credibility.

Acknowledge the Audience

Picture yourself in front of the audience, about to

deliver your speech. This is the moment when your
relationship with your audience begins, and the quality
of this relationship will influence how receptive they
will be to your ideas, or at least how willing they’ll be to © Thinkstock
listen to what you have to say. One of the best ways to
initiate this relationship is by finding a way to
acknowledge your audience. This can be as simple as
establishing eye contact and thanking them for coming
to hear your presentation. If they’ve braved bad weather, are missing a world-class
sports event, or are putting up with an inconvenience such as a stuffy conference
room, tell them how much you appreciate their presence in spite of the
circumstances. This can go a long way toward getting them “on board” with your
message.

For a political candidate who is traveling from town to town giving what may be
perceived as the same campaign speech time and time again, a statement like “It’s
great to be here in Springfield, and I want to thank the West Valley League of
Women Voters and our hosts, the Downtown Senior Center, for the opportunity to
be with you today” lets the audience know that the candidate has at least taken the
trouble to tailor the speech to the present audience. Stephanie Coopman and James
Lull tell us that Microsoft chairman Bill Gates often adapts to his audiences by
thanking them for their participation in the computer industry or for their
preparation to participate in an electronic world. The authors say, “Even those brief
acknowledgments let audience members know that Gates had prepared his speech
with them in mind.”Coopman, S. J., & Lull, J. (2009). Public speaking: The evolving art.
Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage. We will cover audience acknowledgment further
in Chapter 10 "Creating the Body of a Speech".

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Chapter 5 Audience Analysis

Choose a Worthwhile Topic

Your selection of a topic should reflect your regard for the audience. There is no
universal list of good or bad topics, but you have an ethical responsibility to select a
topic that will be worth listening to. As a student, you are probably sensitive to how
unpleasant it would be to listen to a speech on a highly complex or technical topic
that you found impossible to understand. However, have you considered that
audiences do not want to waste their time or attention listening to a speech that is
too simple? Many students find themselves tempted to choose an easy topic, or a
topic they already know a great deal about. This is an understandable temptation; if
you are like most students, you have many commitments and the demands on your
time are considerable. Many experts encourage students to begin with something
they already know. However, our experience tells us that students often do this
simply to reduce their workload. For example, if the purpose of your speech is to
inform or persuade students in your public speaking class, a topic such as fitness,
drunk driving, the Greek system (campus fraternities and sororities), or credit card
responsibility may be easy for you to address, but it is unlikely to go very far toward
informing your audience, and in all likelihood, it will not be persuading them
either. Instead, your audience members and your professor will quickly recognize
that you were thinking of your own needs rather than those of your audience.

To avoid this trap, it behooves you to seek a topic that will be novel and interesting
both for you and for your audience. It will also be important to do some credible
research in order to ensure that even the most informed audience members will
learn something from you. There are many topics that could provide a refreshing
departure from your usual academic studies. Topics such as the Bermuda Triangle,
biopiracy, the environmental niche of sharks, the green lifestyle, and the historic
Oneida Community all provide interesting views of human and natural phenomena
not usually provided in public education. Such topics might be more likely to hold
the interest of your classroom audience than topics they’ve heard about time and
time again.

You should be aware that your audience will not have the same set of knowledge
that you do. For instance, if you are speaking about biopiracy, you should probably
define it and give a clear example. If your speech is on the green lifestyle, it would
be important to frame it as a realistic choice, not a goal so remote as to be hopeless.
In each case, you should use audience analysis to consider how your audience will
respond to you, your topic, and your message.

Clarity

Nothing is more lamentable than a rhetorical actor who endeavors to make

grandiose the impressions of others through the utilization of an elephantine albeit

5.1 Why Conduct an Audience Analysis? 108

Chapter 5 Audience Analysis

nonsensical argot3—or nothing is worse than a speaker who tries to impress the
audience with a giant vocabulary that no one understands. In the first portion of
the preceding sentence, we pulled out as many polysyllabic words as we could find.
Unfortunately, most people will just find the sentence wordy and the meaning will
pass right over their heads. As such, we as public speakers must ensure that we are
clear in what we say.

Make sure that you state your topic clearly at the outset, using words that your
audience will understand. Letting them know what to expect from your speech
shows consideration for them as listeners and lets them know that you value their
time and attention.

Throughout your speech, define your terms clearly and carefully in order to avoid
misleading or alarming people by mistake. Be careful not to use jargon or “insider”
language that will exclude listeners who aren’t “in the know.” If you approach
audience analysis in haste, you might find yourself presenting a speech with no
clear message. You might avoid making any statements outright from fear of
offending. It is much better to know to whom you’re speaking and to present a
clear, decisive message that lets listeners know what you think.

Controversial Topics Are Important and Risky

Some of the most interesting topics are controversial. They are controversial
topics4 because people have deeply felt values and beliefs on different sides of those
topics. For instance, before you choose nuclear energy as your topic, investigate the
many voices speaking out both in favor and against increasing its use. Many people
perceive nuclear energy as a clean, reliable, and much-needed source of energy.
Others say that even the mining of uranium is harmful to the environment, that we
lack satisfactory solutions for storing nuclear waste, and that nuclear power plants
are vulnerable to errors and attacks. Another group might view the issue
economically, believing that industry needs nuclear energy. Engineers might
believe that if the national grid could be modernized, we would have enough
energy, and that we should strive to use and waste less energy until modernization
is feasible. Some might feel deep concern about our reliance on foreign oil. Others
might view nuclear energy as more tried-and-true than other alternatives. The
topic is extremely controversial, and yet it is interesting and very important.

3. Specialized vocabulary or You shouldn’t avoid controversy altogether, but you should choose your topic
jargon of a particular carefully. Moreover, how you treat your audience is just as important as how you
profession or social group.
treat your topic. If your audience has widely diverse views, take the time to
4. Topics surrounded by diverse acknowledge the concerns they have. Treat them as intelligent people, even if you
and deeply felt feelings and don’t trust the completeness or the accuracy of their beliefs about your topic.
opinions.

5.1 Why Conduct an Audience Analysis? 109

Chapter 5 Audience Analysis

Adapt Your Speech to Audience Needs

When preparing a speech for a classroom audience consisting of other students and
your professor, you may feel that you know their interests and expectations fairly
well. However, we learn public speaking in order to be able to address other
audiences where we can do some good. In some cases, your audience might consist
of young children who are not ready to accept the fact that a whale is not a fish or
that the moon is always round even though it sometimes appears to be a crescent or
a half circle. In other cases, your audience might include retirees living on fixed
incomes and who therefore might not agree that raising local taxes is a vital
“investment in the future.”

Even in an audience that appears to be homogeneous—composed of people who are

very similar to one another—different listeners will understand the same ideas in
different ways. Every member of every audience has his or her own frame of
reference5—the unique set of perspectives, experience, knowledge, and values
belonging to every individual. An audience member who has been in a car accident
caused by a drunk driver might not appreciate a lighthearted joke about
barhopping. Similarly, stressing the importance of graduate school might be
discouraging to audience members who don’t know whether they can even afford to
stay in college to complete an undergraduate degree.

These examples illustrate why audience analysis—the process of learning all you
reasonably can about your audience—is so centrally important. Audience analysis
includes consideration of demographic information6, such as the gender, age
range, marital status, race, and ethnicity of the people in your audience. Another,
perhaps less obvious, demographic factor is socioeconomic status, which refers to a
combination of characteristics including income, wealth, level of education, and
occupational prestige. Each of these dimensions gives you some information about
which kinds of topics, and which aspects of various topics, will be well received.

Suppose you are preparing to give an informative speech about early childhood
health care. If your audience is a group of couples who have each recently had a
new baby and who live in an affluent suburb, you can expect that they will be young
5. An individual’s unique set of adults with high socioeconomic status; they will likely be eager to know about the
perspectives, experience, very best available health care for their children, whether they are healthy or have
knowledge, and values. various medical problems. In contrast, if your audience is a group of nurses, they
6. Information about the may differ in age, but will be similar in education and occupational prestige. They
audience’s gender, age range, will already know quite a lot about the topic, so you will want to find an aspect that
marital status, ethnicity, may be new for them, such as community health care resources for families with
socioeconomic status, and
other variables that can limited financial resources or for referring children with special needs. As another
influence their frame of example, if you are addressing a city council committee that is considering whether
reference.

5.1 Why Conduct an Audience Analysis? 110

Chapter 5 Audience Analysis

to fund a children’s health care initiative, your audience is likely to have very
mixed demographics.

Audience analysis also takes into account what market researchers call
psychographic information7, which is more personal and more difficult to predict
than demographics. Psychographic information involves the beliefs, attitudes, and
values that your audience members embrace. Respecting your audience means that
you avoid offending, excluding, or trivializing the beliefs and values they hold.
Returning to the topic of early childhood health care, you can expect new parents
to be passionate about wanting the best for their child. The psychographics of a
group of nurses would revolve around their professional competence and the need
to provide “standard of care” for their patients. In a city council committee
meeting, the topic of early childhood health care may be a highly personal and
emotional issue for some of your listeners, while for others it may be strictly a
matter of dollars and cents.

Consider Audience Diversity

Diversity is a key dimension of audience membership and, therefore, of audience

analysis. While the term “diversity” is often used to refer to racial and ethnic
minorities, it is important to realize that audiences can be diverse in many other
ways as well. Being mindful of diversity means being respectful of all people and
striving to avoid racism8, ethnocentrism9, sexism10, ageism11, elitism12, and other
assumptions. An interesting “ism” that is not often mentioned is chronocentrism, or
the assumption that people today are superior to people who lived in earlier
7. The audience’s set of beliefs, eras.Russell, J. (1991). Inventing the flat earth. History Today, 41(8), 13–19.
values, religions, and life
experiences.
Sociologists John R. Logan and Wenquan Zhang analyzed racial and ethnic diversity
8. The assumption that one race
in US cities and observed a pattern that rewrites the traditional “rules” of
is superior to another.
neighborhood change.Logan, J. R., and Zhang, C. (2010). Global neighborhoods: New
9. The belief that one’s own pathways to diversity and separation. American Journal of Sociology, 115, 1069–1109.
culture is the standard to
Whereas in our grandparents’ day a racially mixed neighborhood was one with
which other cultures should
aspire. African American and white residents, in recent decades, many more people from a
variety of Asian and Latin American countries have immigrated to the United
10. The assumption that one sex is
States. As a result, many cities have neighborhoods that are richly diverse with
weaker, less intelligent, less
competent, or less deserving Asian, Hispanic, and African American cultural influences as well as those of white
than the other. European Americans. Each cultural group consists of people from many
communities and occupations. Each cultural group came to the United States for
11. The attitude of valuing youth
and devaluing age. different reasons and came from different communities and occupations within
their original cultures. Even though it can be easy to assume that people from a
12. The practice of thinking the culture are exactly like each other, we undermine our credibility when we create
best of those with the highest
status and prestige and our message as though members of these cultures are carbon copies of each other.
treating them preferentially.

5.1 Why Conduct an Audience Analysis? 111

Chapter 5 Audience Analysis

One of the author’s classes included two students from China. During a discussion of
cultural similarity and difference, one remarked, “I thought we would have the
same tastes in food because we are both from China, but she likes different spices
and cooking techniques than I do.”

While race, ethnicity, and culture may be relatively visible aspects of diversity,
there are many other aspects that are less obvious, so your audience is often more
diverse than you might initially think. Suppose you are going to give a talk on pool
safety to residents of a very affluent suburban community—will all your audience
members be wealthy? No. There might be some who are unemployed, some who are
behind on their mortgage payments, some who live in rented rooms, not to mention
some who work as babysitters or housekeepers. Furthermore, if your listeners have
some characteristic in common, it doesn’t mean that they all think alike. For
instance, if your audience consists of people who are members of military families,
don’t assume that they all have identical beliefs about national security. If there are
many business students in your audience, don’t assume they all agree about the
relative importance of ethics and profits. Instead, recognize that a range of opinion
exists.

This is where the frame of reference we mentioned earlier becomes an important

concept. People have a wide variety of reasons for making the choices they make
and for doing the things they do. For instance, a business student, while knowing
that profitability is important, might have a strong interest in green lifestyles, low
energy use, and alternative energy sources, areas of economic development that
might require a great deal of investment before profits are realized. In fact, some
business students may want to be involved in a paradigm shift away from “business
as usual.”

These examples illustrate how important it is to use audience analysis to avoid

stereotyping—taking for granted that people with a certain characteristic in common
have the same likes, dislikes, values, and beliefs. All members of our audiences
deserve to have the same sensitivity and the same respect extended to them as
unique individuals. Respecting diversity is not merely a responsibility within public
speaking; it should be a responsibility we strive to embrace in all our human
interactions.

Avoid Offending Your Audience

It might seem obvious that speakers should use audience analysis to avoid making
offensive remarks, but even very experienced speakers sometimes forget this basic
rule. If you were an Anglo-American elected official addressing a Latino audience,
would you make a joke about a Mexican American person’s name sounding similar

5.1 Why Conduct an Audience Analysis? 112

Chapter 5 Audience Analysis

to the name of a popular brand of tequila? In fact, a state governor did just that in
June 2011. Not suprisingly, news organizations covering the event reported that the
joke fell flat.Shahid, A. (2011, June 24). Rick Perry’s Jose Cuervo joke at Latino
convention bombs in Texas, as governor mulls 2012 GOP bid. New York Daily News.
Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/06/24/
2011-06-24_rick_perrys_jose_cuervo_joke_at_latino_convention_
bombs_in_texas_as_governor_mul.html People are members of groups they didn’t
choose and can’t change. We didn’t choose our race, ethnicity, sex, age, sexual
orientation, intellectual potential, or appearance. We already know that jokes
aimed at people because of their membership in these groups are not just politically
incorrect but also ethically wrong.

It is not only insensitive humor that can offend an audience. Speakers also need to
be aware of language and nonverbal behaviors that state or imply a negative
message about people based on their various membership groups. Examples include
language that suggests that all scientists are men, that all relationships are
heterosexual, or that all ethnic minorities are unpatriotic. By the same token, we
should avoid embedding assumptions about people in our messages. Even the most
subtle suggestion may not go unnoticed. For example, if, in your speech, you
assume that elderly people are frail and expensively medicated, you may offend
people whose elder loved ones do not conform in any way to your assumptions.

Scholars Samovar and McDaniel tell us that ethical language choices require four
guidelines:

1. Be accurate; present the facts accurately.

2. Be aware of the emotional impact; make sure that you don’t
manipulate feelings.
3. Avoid hateful words; refrain from language that disparages or belittles
people.
4. Be sensitive to the audience; know how audience members prefer to be
identified (e.g., Native American instead of Indian, women instead of
girls, African American instead of black, disabled instead of
crippled).Samovar, L. A., & McDaniel, E. R. (2007). Public speaking in a
multicultural society. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury.

If you alienate your audience, they will stop listening. They will refuse to accept
your message, no matter how true or important it is. They might even become
hostile. If you fail to recognize the complexity of your audience members and if you
treat them as stereotypes, they will resent your assumptions and doubt your
credibility.

5.1 Why Conduct an Audience Analysis? 113

Chapter 5 Audience Analysis

Ethical Speaking Is Sincere Speaking

Ethos13 is the term Aristotle used to refer to what we now call credibility14: the
perception that the speaker is honest, knowledgeable, and rightly motivated. Your
ethos, or credibility, must be established as you build rapport with your listeners.
Have you put forth the effort to learn who they are and what you can offer to them
in your speech? Do you respect them as individual human beings? Do you respect
them enough to serve their needs and interests? Is your topic relevant and
appropriate for them? Is your approach honest and sensitive to their preexisting
beliefs? Your ability to answer these questions in a constructive way must be based
on the best demographic and psychographic information you can use to learn about
your listeners.

The audience needs to know they can trust the speaker’s motivations, intentions,
and knowledge. They must believe that the speaker has no hidden motives, will not
manipulate or trick them, and has their best interests at heart.

In order to convey regard and respect for the audience, you must be sincere. You
must examine the motives behind your topic choice, the true purpose of your
speech, and your willingness to do the work of making sure the content of the
speech is true and represents reality. This can be difficult for students who face
time constraints and multiple demands on their efforts. However, the attitude you
assume for this task represents, in part, the kind of professional, citizen, parent,
and human being you want to be. Even if you’ve given this issue little thought up to
now, you can examine your motives and the integrity of your research and message
construction. Ethically, you should.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Audience analysis should be conducted so you can acknowledge your

audience and their beliefs, knowledge, and attitudes.
• Audience analysis should guide your choice of a topic so that you select
a topic that is relevant and useful to them. Controversial topics can be
excellent topics, but be sure to consider your audience when selecting
your topic and deciding how to approach it.
13. Aristotle’s term for credibility; • Audience analysis requires that you adapt to the needs of your audience;
the perception that the speaker this includes considering cultural diversity, making your message clear,
is honest, knowledgeable, and avoiding offensive remarks, and speaking with sincerity.
rightly motivated.

14. The perception that the

speaker is honest,
knowledgeable, and rightly
motivated.

5.1 Why Conduct an Audience Analysis? 114

Chapter 5 Audience Analysis

EXERCISES

1. Brainstorm a list of topics for an informative or persuasive speech. By

yourself or with a partner, identify the kinds of information you need
about your audience in order to make ethical decisions about how you
approach the speech.
2. Make a list of values or opinions you have that might not conform to
popular views. Why might these be important for a speaker to know
before attempting to inform or persuade you?
3. Pretend you have been asked to give a speech about environmental
conservation in the United States. What audience beliefs, attitudes,
values, concerns, and other variables should you consider?

5.1 Why Conduct an Audience Analysis? 115

Chapter 5 Audience Analysis

5.2 Three Types of Audience Analysis

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Understand how to gather and use demographic information.

2. Understand how to gather and use psychographic information.
3. Understand how to gather and use situational information.

While audience analysis does not guarantee against

errors in judgment, it will help you make good choices
in topic, language, style of presentation, and other
aspects of your speech. The more you know about your
audience, the better you can serve their interests and
needs. There are certainly limits to what we can learn
through information collection, and we need to
acknowledge that before making assumptions, but
© Thinkstock
knowing how to gather and use information through
audience analysis is an essential skill for successful
speakers.

Demographic Analysis

As indicated earlier, demographic information includes factors such as gender, age

range, marital status, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. In your public
speaking class, you probably already know how many students are male and female,
their approximate ages, and so forth. But how can you assess the demographics of
an audience ahead of time if you have had no previous contact with them? In many
cases, you can ask the person or organization that has invited you to speak; it’s
likely that they can tell you a lot about the demographics of the people who are
expected to come to hear you.

Whatever method you use to gather demographics, exercise respect from the
outset. For instance, if you are collecting information about whether audience
members have ever been divorced, be aware that not everyone will want to answer
your questions. You can’t require them to do so, and you may not make
assumptions about their reluctance to discuss the topic. You must allow them their
privacy.

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Chapter 5 Audience Analysis

Age

There are certain things you can learn about an audience based on age. For
instance, if your audience members are first-year college students, you can assume
that they have grown up in the post-9/11 era and have limited memory of what life
was like before the “war on terror.” If your audience includes people in their forties
and fifties, it is likely they remember a time when people feared they would
contract the AIDS virus from shaking hands or using a public restroom. People who
are in their sixties today came of age during the 1960s, the era of the Vietnam War
and a time of social confrontation and experimentation. They also have frames of
reference that contribute to the way they think, but it may not be easy to predict
which side of the issues they support.

Gender

Gender can define human experience. Clearly, most women have had a different
cultural experience from that of men within the same culture. Some women have
found themselves excluded from certain careers. Some men have found themselves
blamed for the limitations imposed on women. In books such as You Just Don’t
Understand and Talking from 9 to 5, linguist Deborah Tannen has written extensively
on differences between men’s and women’s communication styles. Tannen explains,
“This is not to say that all women and all men, or all boys and girls, behave any one
way. Many factors influence our styles, including regional and ethnic backgrounds,
family experience and individual personality. But gender is a key factor, and
understanding its influence can help clarify what happens when we talk.”Tannen,
D. (1994, December 11). The talk of the sandbox: How Johnny and Suzy’s playground
chatter prepares them for life at the office. The Washington Post. Retrieved from
http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/tannend/sandbox.htm

Marriage tends to impose additional roles on both men and women and divorce
even more so, especially if there are children. Even if your audience consists of
young adults who have not yet made occupational or marital commitments, they
are still aware that gender and the choices they make about issues such as careers
and relationships will influence their experience as adults.

Culture

In past generations, Americans often used the metaphor of a “melting pot” to

symbolize the assimilation of immigrants from various countries and cultures into a
unified, harmonious “American people.” Today, we are aware of the limitations in
that metaphor, and have largely replaced it with a multiculturalist view that
describes the American fabric as a “patchwork” or a “mosaic.” We know that people
who immigrate do not abandon their cultures of origin in order to conform to a

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standard American identity. In fact, cultural continuity is now viewed as a healthy

source of identity.

We also know that subcultures and cocultures exist within and alongside larger
cultural groups. For example, while we are aware that Native American people do
not all embrace the same values, beliefs, and customs as mainstream white
Americans, we also know that members of the Navajo nation have different values,
beliefs, and customs from those of members of the Sioux or the Seneca. We know
that African American people in urban centers like Detroit and Boston do not share
the same cultural experiences as those living in rural Mississippi. Similarly, white
Americans in San Francisco may be culturally rooted in the narrative of distant
ancestors from Scotland, Italy, or Sweden or in the experience of having emigrated
much more recently from Australia, Croatia, or Poland.

Not all cultural membership is visibly obvious. For example, people in German
American and Italian American families have widely different sets of values and
practices, yet others may not be able to differentiate members of these groups.
Differences are what make each group interesting and are important sources of
knowledge, perspectives, and creativity.

Religion

There is wide variability in religion as well. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public
Life found in a nationwide survey that 84 percent of Americans identify with at
least one of a dozen major religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism,
Islam, Hinduism, and others. Within Christianity alone, there are half a dozen
categories including Roman Catholic, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Orthodox (Greek
and Russian), and a variety of Protestant denominations. Another 6 percent said
they were unaffiliated but religious, meaning that only one American in ten is
atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular.”Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
(2008, February). Summary of key findings. In U.S. religious landscape survey.
Retrieved from http://religions.pewforum.org/reports#

Even within a given denomination, a great deal of diversity can be found. For
instance, among Roman Catholics alone, there are people who are devoutly
religious, people who self-identify as Catholic but do not attend mass or engage in
other religious practices, and others who faithfully make confession and attend
mass but who openly question Papal doctrine on various issues. Catholicism among
immigrants from the Caribbean and Brazil is often blended with indigenous religion
or with religion imported from the west coast of Africa. It is very different from
Catholicism in the Vatican.

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The dimensions of diversity in the religion demographic are almost endless, and
they are not limited by denomination. Imagine conducting an audience analysis of
people belonging to an individual congregation rather than a denomination: even
there, you will most likely find a multitude of variations that involve how one was
brought up, adoption of a faith system as an adult, how strictly one observes
religious practices, and so on.

Yet, even with these multiple facets, religion is still a meaningful demographic lens.
It can be an indicator of probable patterns in family relationships, family size, and
moral attitudes.

Group Membership

In your classroom audience alone, there will be students from a variety of academic
majors. Every major has its own set of values, goals, principles, and codes of ethics.
A political science student preparing for law school might seem to have little in
common with a student of music therapy, for instance. In addition, there are other
group memberships that influence how audience members understand the world.
Fraternities and sororities, sports teams, campus organizations, political parties,
volunteerism, and cultural communities all provide people with ways of
understanding the world as it is and as we think it should be.

Because public speaking audiences are very often members of one group or
another, group membership is a useful and often easy to access facet of audience
analysis. The more you know about the associations of your audience members, the
better prepared you will be to tailor your speech to their interests, expectations,
and needs.

Education

Education is expensive, and people pursue education for many reasons. Some
people seek to become educated, while others seek to earn professional credentials.
Both are important motivations. If you know the education levels attained by
members of your audience, you might not know their motivations, but you will
know to what extent they could somehow afford the money for an education, afford
the time to get an education, and survive educational demands successfully.

The kind of education is also important. For instance, an airplane mechanic

undergoes a very different kind of education and training from that of an
accountant or a software engineer. This means that not only the attained level of
education but also the particular field is important in your understanding of your
audience.

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Occupation

People choose occupations for reasons of motivation and interest, but their
occupations also influence their perceptions and their interests. There are many
misconceptions about most occupations. For instance, many people believe that
teachers work an eight-hour day and have summers off. When you ask teachers,
however, you might be surprised to find out that they take work home with them
for evenings and weekends, and during the summer, they may teach summer school
as well as taking courses in order to keep up with new developments in their fields.
But even if you don’t know those things, you would still know that teachers have
had rigorous generalized and specialized qualifying education, that they have a
complex set of responsibilities in the classroom and the institution, and that, to
some extent, they have chosen a relatively low-paying occupation over such fields
as law, advertising, media, fine and performing arts, or medicine. If your audience
includes doctors and nurses, you know that you are speaking to people with
differing but important philosophies of health and illness. Learning about those
occupational realities is important in avoiding wrong assumptions and stereotypes.
We insist that you not assume that nurses are merely doctors “lite.” Their skills,
concerns, and responsibilities are almost entirely different, and both are crucially
necessary to effective health care.

Psychographic Analysis

Earlier, we mentioned psychographic information, which includes such things as

values, opinions, attitudes, and beliefs. Authors Grice and Skinner present a model
in which values are the basis for beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.Grice, G. L., &
Skinner, J. F. (2009). Mastering public speaking: The handbook (7th ed.). Boston, MA:
Pearson. Values are the foundation of their pyramid model. They say, “A value
expresses a judgment of what is desirable and undesirable, right and wrong, or good
and evil. Values are usually stated in the form of a word or phrase. For example,
most of us probably share the values of equality, freedom, honesty, fairness, justice,
good health, and family. These values compose the principles or standards we use
to judge and develop our beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.”

It is important to recognize that, while demographic information as discussed in

Section 5.2.1 "Demographic Analysis" is fairly straightforward and verifiable,
psychographic information is much less clear-cut. Two different people who both
say they believe in equal educational opportunity may have very different
interpretations of what “equal opportunity” means. People who say they don’t buy
junk food may have very different standards for what specific kinds of foods are
considered “junk food.”

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We also acknowledge that people inherit some values from their family upbringing,
cultural influences, and life experiences. The extent to which someone values
family loyalty and obedience to parents, thrift, humility, and work may be
determined by these influences more than by individual choice.

Psychographic analysis can reveal preexisting notions that limit your audience’s
frame of reference. By knowing about such notions ahead of time, you can address
them in your speech. Audiences are likely to have two basic kinds of preexisting
notions: those about the topic and those about the speaker.

Preexisting Notions about Your Topic

Many things are a great deal more complex than we realize. Media stereotypes
often contribute to our oversimplifications. For instance, one of your authors,
teaching public speaking in the past decade, was surprised to hear a student claim
that “the hippies meant well, but they did it wrong.” Aside from the question of the
“it” that was done wrong, there was a question about how little the student actually
knew about the diverse hippy cultures and their aspirations. The student seemed
unaware that some of “the hippies” were the forebears of such things as organic
bakeries, natural food co-ops, urban gardens, recycling, alternative energy,
wellness, and other arguably positive developments.

It’s important to know your audience in order to make a rational judgment about
how their views of your topic might be shaped. In speaking to an audience that
might have differing definitions, you should take care to define your terms in a
clear, honest way.

At the opposite end from oversimplification is the level of sophistication your

audience might embody. Your audience analysis should include factors that reveal
it. Suppose you are speaking about trends in civil rights in the United States. You
cannot pretend that advancement of civil rights is virtually complete nor can you
claim that no progress has been made. It is likely that in a college classroom, the
audience will know that although much progress has been made, there are still
pockets of prejudice, discrimination, and violence. When you speak to an audience
that is cognitively complex, your strategy must be different from one you would use
for an audience that is less educated in the topic. With a cognitively complex
audience, you must acknowledge the overall complexity while stating that your
focus will be on only one dimension. With an audience that’s uninformed about
your topic, that strategy in a persuasive speech could confuse them; they might well
prefer a black-and-white message with no gray areas. You must decide whether it is
ethical to represent your topic this way.

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When you prepare to do your audience analysis, include questions that reveal how
much your audience already knows about your topic. Try to ascertain the existence
of stereotyped, oversimplified, or prejudiced attitudes about it. This could make a
difference in your choice of topic or in your approach to the audience and topic.

Preexisting Notions about You

People form opinions readily. For instance, we know that students form
impressions of teachers the moment they walk into our classrooms on the first day.
You get an immediate impression of our age, competence, and attitude simply from
our appearance and nonverbal behavior. In addition, many have heard other
students say what they think of us.

The same is almost certainly true of you. But it’s not always easy to get others to be
honest about their impressions of you. They’re likely to tell you what they think
you want to hear. Sometimes, however, you do know what others think. They might
think of you as a jock, a suit-wearing conservative, a nature lover, and so on. Based
on these impressions, your audience might expect a boring speech, a shallow
speech, a sermon, and so on. However, your concern should still be serving your
audience’s needs and interests, not debunking their opinions of you or managing
your image. In order to help them be receptive, you address their interests directly,
and make sure they get an interesting, ethical speech.

Situational Analysis

The next type of analysis is called the situational audience analysis15 because it
focuses on characteristics related to the specific speaking situation. The situational
audience analysis can be divided into two main questions:

1. How many people came to hear my speech and why are they here?
What events, concerns, and needs motivated them to come? What is
their interest level, and what else might be competing for their
attention?
2. What is the physical environment of the speaking situation? What is
the size of the audience, layout of the room, existence of a podium or a
microphone, and availability of digital media for visual aids? Are there
any distractions, such as traffic noise?
15. Audience analysis that focuses
on situational factors such as
the size of the audience, the Audience Size
physical setting, and the
disposition of the audience
toward the topic, the speaker, In a typical class, your audience is likely to consist of twenty to thirty listeners. This
and the occasion. audience size gives you the latitude to be relatively informal within the bounds of

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good judgment. It isn’t too difficult to let each audience member feel as though
you’re speaking to him or her. However, you would not become so informal that
you allow your carefully prepared speech to lapse into shallow entertainment. With
larger audiences, it’s more difficult to reach out to each listener, and your speech
will tend to be more formal, staying more strictly within its careful outline. You will
have to work harder to prepare visual and audio material that reaches the people
sitting at the back of the room, including possibly using amplification.

Occasion

There are many occasions for speeches. Awards ceremonies, conventions and
conferences, holidays, and other celebrations are some examples. However, there
are also less joyful reasons for a speech, such as funerals, disasters, and the delivery
of bad news. As always, there are likely to be mixed reactions. For instance, award
ceremonies are good for community and institutional morale, but we wouldn’t be
surprised to find at least a little resentment from listeners who feel deserving but
were overlooked. Likewise, for a speech announcing bad news, it is likely that at
least a few listeners will be glad the bad news wasn’t even worse. If your speech is to
deliver bad news, it’s important to be honest but also to avoid traumatizing your
audience. For instance, if you are a condominium board member speaking to a
residents’ meeting after the building was damaged by a hurricane, you will need to
provide accurate data about the extent of the damage and the anticipated cost and
time required for repairs. At the same time, it would be needlessly upsetting to
launch into a graphic description of injuries suffered by people, animals, and
property in neighboring areas not connected to your condomium complex.

Some of the most successful speeches benefit from situational analysis to identify
audience concerns related to the occasion. For example, when the president of the
United States gives the annual State of the Union address, the occasion calls for
commenting on the condition of the nation and outlining the legislative agenda for
the coming year. The speech could be a formality that would interest only “policy
wonks,” or with the use of good situational audience analysis, it could be a popular
event reinforcing the connection between the president and the American people.
In January 2011, knowing that the United States’ economy was slowly recovering
and that jobless rates were still very high, President Barack Obama and his staff
knew that the focus of the speech had to be on jobs. Similarly, in January 2003,
President George W. Bush’s State of the Union speech focused on the “war on
terror” and his reasons for justifying the invasion of Iraq. If you look at the history
of State of the Union Addresses, you’ll often find that the speeches are tailored to
the political, social, and economic situations facing the United States at those times.

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Voluntariness of Audience

A voluntary audience16 gathers because they want to hear the speech, attend the
event, or participate in an event. A classroom audience, in contrast, is likely to be a
captive audience. Captive audiences17 are required to be present or feel obligated
to do so. Given the limited choices perceived, a captive audience might give only
grudging attention. Even when there’s an element of choice, the likely
consequences of nonattendance will keep audience members from leaving. The
audience’s relative perception of choice increases the importance of holding their
interest.

Whether or not the audience members chose to be present, you want them to be
interested in what you have to say. Almost any audience will be interested in a topic
that pertains directly to them. However, your audience might also be receptive to
topics that are indirectly or potentially pertinent to their lives. This means that if
you choose a topic such as advances in the treatment of spinal cord injury or
advances in green technology, you should do your best to show how these topics are
potentially relevant to their lives or careers.

However, there are some topics that appeal to audience curiosity even when it
seems there’s little chance of direct pertinence. For instance, topics such as
Blackbeard the pirate or ceremonial tattoos among the Maori might pique the
interests of various audiences. Depending on the instructions you get from your
instructor, you can consider building an interesting message about something
outside the daily foci of our attention.

Physical Setting

The physical setting can make or break even the best speeches, so it is important to
exercise as much control as you can over it. In your classroom, conditions might not
be ideal, but at least the setting is familiar. Still, you know your classroom from the
perspective of an audience member, not a speaker standing in the front—which is
why you should seek out any opporutunity to rehearse your speech during a minute
when the room is empty. If you will be giving your presentation somewhere else, it
is a good idea to visit the venue ahead of time if at all possible and make note of any
factors that will affect how you present your speech. In any case, be sure to arrive
well in advance of your speaking time so that you will have time to check that the
microphone works, to test out any visual aids, and to request any needed
16. An audience attending a
adjustments in lighting, room ventilation, or other factors to eliminate distractions
speech of their own free will. and make your audience more comfortable.

17. An audience that perceives

little or no choice about
attendance.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Demographic audience analysis focuses on group memberships of

audience members.
• Another element of audience is psychographic information, which
focuses on audience attitudes, beliefs, and values.
• Situational analysis of the occasion, physical setting, and other factors
are also critical to effective audience analysis.

EXERCISES

1. List the voluntary (political party, campus organization, etc.) and

involuntary (age, race, sex, etc.) groups to which you belong. After each
group, write a sentence or phrase about how that group influences your
experience as a student.
2. Visit http://www.claritas.com/MyBestSegments/Default.jsp and
http://homes.point2.com and report on the demographic information
found for several different towns or zip codes. How would this
information be useful in preparing an audience analysis?
3. In a short paragraph, define the term “fairness.” Compare your
definition with someone else’s definition. What factors do you think
contributed to differences in definition?
4. With a partner, identify an instance when you observed a speaker give a
poor speech due to failing to analyze the situation. What steps could the
speaker have taken to more effectively analyze the situation?

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5.3 Conducting Audience Analysis

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Learn several tools for gathering audience information.

2. Create effective tools for gathering audience information.

Now that we have described what audience analysis is

and why it is important, let’s examine some details of
how to conduct it. Exactly how can you learn about the
people who will make up your audience?

Direct Observation

One way to learn about people is to observe them. By

observing nonverbal patterns of behavior, you can learn
a great deal as long as you are careful how you interpret
the behaviors. For instance, do people greet each other
with a handshake, a hug, a smile, or a nod? Do members © Thinkstock
of opposite sexes make physical contact? Does the
setting suggest more conservative behavior? By
listening in on conversations, you can find out the
issues that concern people. Are people in the campus center talking about political
unrest in the Middle East? About concerns over future Pell Grant funding? We
suggest that you consider the ethical dimensions of eavesdropping, however. Are
you simply overhearing an open conversation, or are you prying into a highly
personal or private discussion?

Interviews and Surveys

Because your demographic analysis will be limited to your most likely audience,
18. A one-on-one exchange in your most accurate way to learn about them is to seek personal information
which you ask questions of a
through interviews and surveys. An interview18 is a one-on-one exchange in which
respondent.
you ask questions of a respondent19, whereas a survey20 is a set of questions
19. Someone who responds to a administered to several—or, preferably, many—respondents. Interviews may be
survey, questionnaire,
conducted face-to-face, by phone, or by written means, such as texting. They allow
interview, or focus group.
more in-depth discussion than surveys, and they are also more time consuming to
20. A set of written questions with conduct. Surveys are also sometimes conducted face-to-face or by phone, but online
multiple-choice questions and/
surveys are increasingly common. You may collect and tabulate survey results
or open-ended questions.

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manually, or set up an automated online survey through the free or subscription

portals of sites like Survey Monkey and Zoomerang. Using an online survey
provides the advantage of keeping responses anonymous, which may increase your
audience members’ willingness to participate and to answer personal questions.
Surveys are an efficient way to collect information quickly; however, in contrast to
interviews, they don’t allow for follow-up questions to help you understand why
your respondent gave a certain answer.

When you use interviews and surveys, there are several important things to keep in
mind:

• Make sure your interview and survey questions are directly related to
your speech topic. Do not use interviews to delve into private areas of
people’s lives. For instance, if your speech is about the debate between
creationism and evolution, limit your questions to their opinions about
that topic; do not meander into their beliefs about sexual behavior or
their personal religious practices.
• Create and use a standard set of questions. If you “ad lib” your
questions so that they are phrased differently for different
interviewees, you will be comparing “apples and oranges” when you
compare the responses you’ve obtained.
• Keep interviews and surveys short, or you could alienate your audience
long before your speech is even outlined. Tell them the purpose of the
interview or survey and make sure they understand that their
participation is voluntary.
• Don’t rely on just a few respondents to inform you about your entire
audience. In all likelihood, you have a cognitively diverse audience. In
order to accurately identify trends, you will likely need to interview or
survey at least ten to twenty people.

In addition, when you conduct interviews and surveys, keep in mind that people are
sometimes less than honest in describing their beliefs, attitudes, and behavior. This
widely recognized weakness of interviews and survey research is known as socially
desirable responding: the tendency to give responses that are considered socially
acceptable. Marketing professor Ashok Lalwani divides socially desirable
responding into two types: (1) impression management, or intentionally portraying
oneself in a favorable light and (2) self-deceptive enhancement, or exaggerating
one’s good qualities, often unconsciously.Lalwani, A. K. (2009, August). The distinct
influence of cognitive busyness and need for closure on cultural differences in
socially desirable responding. Journal of Consumer Research, 36, 305–316. Retrieved
from http://business.utsa.edu/marketing/files/phdpapers/lalwani2_2009-jcr.pdf

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You can reduce the effects of socially desirable responding by choosing your
questions carefully. As marketing consultant Terry Vavra advises, “one should
never ask what one can’t logically expect respondents to honestly reveal.”Vavra, T.
G. (2009, June 14). The truth about truth in survey research. Retrieved from
http://www.terryvavra.com/customer-research/the-truth-about-truth-in-survey-
research For example, if you want to know audience members’ attitudes about body
piercing, you are likely to get more honest answers by asking “Do you think body
piercing is attractive?” rather than “How many piercings do you have and where on
your body are they located?”

Focus Groups

A focus group21 is a small group of people who give you feedback about their
perceptions. As with interviews and surveys, in a focus group you should use a
limited list of carefully prepared questions designed to get at the information you
need to understand their beliefs, attitudes, and values specifically related to your
topic.

If you conduct a focus group, part of your task will be striking a balance between
allowing the discussion to flow freely according to what group members have to say
and keeping the group focused on the questions. It’s also your job to guide the
group in maintaining responsible and respectful behavior toward each other.

In evaluating focus group feedback, do your best to be receptive to what people had
to say, whether or not it conforms to what you expected. Your purpose in
conducting the group was to understand group members’ beliefs, attitudes, and
values about your topic, not to confirm your assumptions.

Using Existing Data about Your Audience

Occasionally, existing information will be available about your audience. For

instance, if you have a student audience, it might not be difficult to find out what
their academic majors are. You might also be able to find out their degree of
investment in their educations; for instance, you could reasonably assume that the
seniors in the audience have been successful students who have invested at least
21. A group of three to eight three years pursuing a higher education. Sophomores have at least survived their
people who meet together to first year but may not have matched the seniors in demonstrating strong values
respond to questions asked by
toward education and the work ethic necessary to earn a degree.
the researcher. A focus group
is usually an anonymous group
and their responses can be
freewheeling. With permission, In another kind of an audience, you might be able to learn other significant facts.
their discussion can be For instance, are they veterans? Are they retired teachers? Are they members of a
recorded. voluntary civic organization such as the Lions Club or Mothers Against Drunk

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Driving (MADD)? This kind of information should help you respond to their
concerns and interests.

In other cases, you may be able to use demographics collected by public and private
organizations. Demographic analysis is done by the US Census Bureau through the
American Community Survey, which is conducted every year, and through other
specialized demographic surveys.Bureau of the Census. (2011). About the American
community survey. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/acs/www/
about_the_survey/american_community_survey/; Bureau of the Census. (2011).
Demographic surveys. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/aboutus/
sur_demo.html The Census Bureau analysis generally captures information about
people in all the regions of the United States, but you can drill down in census data
to see results by state, by age group, by gender, by race, and by other factors.

Demographic information about narrower segments of the United States, down to

the level of individual zip codes, is available through private organizations such as
The Nielsen Company (http://www.claritas.com/MyBestSegments/
Default.jsp?ID=20&SubID=&pageName=ZIP%2BCode%2BLook-up), Sperling’s Best
Places (http://www.bestplaces.net), and Point2Homes (http://homes.point2.com).
Sales and marketing professionals use this data, and you may find it useful for your
audience analysis as well.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Several options exist for learning about your audience, including direct
observation, interviews, surveys, focus groups, and using existing
research about your audience.
• In order to create effective tools for audience analysis, interview and
survey questions must be clear and to the point, focus groups must be
facilitated carefully, and you must be aware of multiple interpretations
of direct observations or existing research about your audience.

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EXERCISES

1. Write a coherent set of four clear questions about a given issue, such as
campus library services, campus computer centers, or the process of
course registration. Make your questions concrete and specific in order
to address the information you seek. Do not allow opportunities for your
respondent to change the subject. Test out your questions on a
classmate.
2. Write a set of six questions about public speaking anxiety to be
answered on a Likert-type scale (strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor
disagree, disagree, and strongly disagree).
3. Create a seven-question set designed to discover your audience’s
attitudes about your speech topic. Have a partner evaluate your
questions for clarity, respect for audience privacy, and relevance to your
topic.

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5.4 Using Your Audience Analysis

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Understand how you can use your audience analysis when you prepare a
speech.
2. Recognize how your audience analysis can help you alter your speech
while speaking.

A good audience analysis takes time, thought,

preparation, implementation, and processing. If done
well, it will yield information that will help you interact
effectively with your audience. Professional speakers,
corporate executives, sales associates, and entertainers
all rely on audience analysis to connect with their
listeners. So do political candidates, whose chances of
gaining votes depend on crafting the message and mood
© Thinkstock
to appeal to each specific audience. One audience might
be preoccupied with jobs, another with property taxes,
and another with crime. Similarly, your audience
analysis should help you identify the interests of your
audience. Ultimately, a successful audience analysis can guide you in preparing the
basic content of your speech and help you adjust your speech “on the fly.”

Prepare Content with Your Audience in Mind

The first thing a good audience analysis can do is help you focus your content for
your specific audience. If you are planning on a delivering a persuasive speech on
why people should become vegans and you find out through analysis that half of
your audience are daughters and sons of cattle ranchers, you need to carefully
think through your approach to the content. Maybe you’ll need to tweak your topic
to focus on just the benefits of veganism without trying to persuade the audience
explicitly. The last thing you want to do as a speaker is stand before an audience
who is highly negative toward your topic before you ever open your mouth. While
there will always be some naysayers in any audience, if you think through your
topic with your audience in mind, you may be able to find a topic that will be both
interesting to you as a speaker and beneficial to your audience as well.

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In addition to adjusting the topic of your speech prior to the speaking event, you
can also use your audience analysis to help ensure that the content of your speech
will be as clear and understandable as humanly possible. We can use our audience
analysis to help sure that we are clear.

One area of clarity to be careful of is the use of idioms your audience may not know.
An idiom22 is a word or phrase where the meaning cannot be predicted from
normal, dictionary definitions. Many idioms are culturally or temporally based. For
example, the phrase “according to Hoyle” indicates that something is done “by the
book” or “by the rules,” as in “These measurements aren’t according to Hoyle, but
they’re close enough to give a general idea.” Most of us have no clue who Hoyle was
or what this idiom means. It refers to Edmond Hoyle, who wrote some of the most
popular card-playing rule books back in the 1700s in England. Today, card game
enthusiasts may understand the intent of “according to Hoyle,” but for most people
it no longer carries specific meaning. When thinking about your speech, be careful
not to accidentally use idioms that you find commonplace but your audience may
not.

Adjusting Your Speech Based on Your Analysis

In addition to using audience analysis to help formulate speech content, we can also
use our audience analysis to make adjustments during the actual speech. These
adjustments can pertain to the audience and to the physical setting.

The feedback you receive from your audience during your speech is a valuable
indication of ways to adjust your presentation. If you’re speaking after lunch and
notice audience members looking drowsy, you can make adjustments to liven up
the tone of your speech. You could use humor. You could raise your voice slightly.
You could pose some questions and ask for a show of hands to get your listeners
actively involved. As another example, you may notice from frowns and
headshaking that some listeners aren’t convinced by the arguments you are
presenting. In this case, you could spend more time on a specific area of your
speech and provide more evidence than you originally intended. Good speakers can
learn a lot by watching their audience while speaking and then make specific
adjustments to both the content and delivery of the speech to enhance the speech’s
ultimate impact.

The second kind of adjustment has to do with the physical setting for your speech.
For example, your situational analysis may reveal that you’ll be speaking in a large
22. A word or phrase where the auditorium when you had expected a nice, cozy conference room. If you’ve created
meaning cannot be predicted visual aids for a small, intimate environment, you may have to omit it, or tell your
from normal, dictionary
listeners that they can view it after the presentation. You may also need to account
definitions.

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for a microphone. If you’re lucky enough to have a cordless microphone, then you
won’t have to make too many adjustments to your speaking style. If, on the other
hand, the microphone is corded or is attached to an unmovable podium, you’ll have
to make adjustments to how you deliver the presentation.

In preparing a speech about wealth distribution in the United States, one of our
students had the opposite problem. Anticipating a large room, she had planned to
use a one-hundred-foot tape measure to illustrate the percentage of the nation’s
wealth owned by the top one-fifth of the population. However, when she arrived
she found that the room was only twelve by twenty feet, so that she had to walk
back and forth zigzagging the tape from end to end to stretch out one hundred feet.
Had she thought more creatively about how to adapt to the physical setting, she
could have changed her plans to use just ten feet of the tape measure to symbolize
100 percent of the wealth. We will discuss the physical setting further in Chapter 14
"Delivering the Speech".

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• You can use your audience analysis to provide you further information
about what types of content would be appropriate and meaningful for
your specific audience.
• You can use your audience analysis to help you make adjustments to
your speech in terms of both how you present the speech within a given
environment and also how you adapt your content and delivery based
on audience feedback during the speech.

EXERCISES

1. Choose a topic. Then write a different concrete thesis statement for each
of six different audiences: students, military veterans, taxpayers,
registered nurses, crime victims, and professional athletes, for instance.
2. Think of a controversial topic and list all the various perspectives about
it that you can think of or discover. If people of various perspectives
were in your audience, how might you acknowledge them during your
introduction?

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5.5 Chapter Exercises

SPEAKING ETHICALLY

You’ve got to be kidding me, Fatima thought to herself as she received the e-
mail from her boss. She reread the e-mail hoping that something would
change on the screen: “Fatima, I need you to prepare a presentation on what
our company has done in the past year for Mrs. Jorgensen. She’s old, keep it
simple. Leave out any of the complex material because it will probably just
bore her anyways.—John.”

Fatima joined R & R Consulting right after Anthony Jorgensen, the founder
and CEO, had passed away. While Penelope Jorgensen inherited the major
stake in the firm and was still listed as the firm’s CEO, the day-to-day
running of operations was given to John Preston, the chief operating officer.

Fatima stared at her screen and wondered to what extent she should follow
John’s advice and “keep it simple.” She’d only met Mrs. Jorgensen twice, but
she’d always seemed to be pretty knowledgeable about the inner workings of
the firm. Sure Mrs. Jorgensen wasn’t an expert in the field, but should she be
treated like a helpless little old lady? Not only is that sexist, it’s completely
ageist! On the other hand, John’s words may have been chosen poorly, but maybe all
Mrs. Jorgensen really wanted was a quick snapshot of what’s going on here?

Fatima sat in silence for a few minutes, opened up PowerPoint, and just
stared at her monitor trying to figure out the best way to proceed.

1. Do you think John’s e-mail to Fatima expressed unethical audience

analysis? Why or why not?
2. How do you think Fatima should proceed?

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END-OF-CHAPTER ASSESSMENT

1. George wants to persuade his audience to purchase more locally

produced foods. He decides he needs to know how his audience
members already feel about this topic and whether they know
about locally produced options. George’s audience analysis
focuses on gathering

a. demographic information
b. psychographic information
c. situational information
d. statistical information
e. religious information

2. Freya wants to give her classroom an informative speech on the

dangers of drunk driving. You suggest that this might not be a
good topic because the audience of college students probably

a. will not understand the topic

b. will not be interested in drinking
c. are not culturally diverse
d. do not believe in drinking because of their religious
background
e. already know a lot about the topic

3. Yukhi will be giving a speech at the local Elks Lodge in a few

weeks and wants to know more about her audience. She decides
to attend one of the group’s meetings so she gets a sense of what
the group does and who its members are. Yukhi is engaging in
which method of audience analysis?

a. interviews
b. focus group
c. survey
d. experiment
e. direct observation

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ANSWER KEY

1. b
2. e
3. e

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