CMST 2061 MIDTERM

Chapter 1

Effective communication is one of the most important skills for

professional success
Communication is more than simply talking. Communication is a complex and
challenging process because:
o Communicators vary in their skills and comfort
o Communication can cause misunderstanding and conflict
o Communication problems can be pronounced in business settings
The basic communication process is illustrated by the linear model. In this
model:
o A sender encodes a message by translating thoughts and feelings into
symbols
o The sender then transmits the message through a channel to a
receiver
o The receiver attends to message, perceives it, and then decodes it
A more sophisticated model of communication is the simultaneous trans
actions model. In this model:
o Feedback flows between the sender and receiver continuously
o Senders and receivers both encode and decode messages
simultaneously
o Their communication is influenced by a number of factors (ex: culture
and experience)
An important predictor of communication effectiveness is communication
competence
o Communication competence is your ability to choose an appropriate
communication behavior to reach your goals during an exchange
In the business and professional context, competent communicators know
whats appropriate in a communication situation, cultivate their
communication skills, and are motivated to communicate
Common barriers to effective business communication are:
o mindless messaging
o ethical dilemmas
o self-interest
o communication apprehension
o incompetence
o ineffective use of new media
Challenges to business communication in the digital age are:
o knowing when face-to-face communication is best
o being interculturally sensitive
o managing stress, burn-out, and information overload
Common forms of business and professional communication are:
o Interviews
o Relationship communication
o Mediated communication
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Presentational speaking
Group discussions and meetings
Written documents
Consulting and training

Communication is a complex and challenging process

o Human communication is a complex, but fascinating, activity that
routinely presents some challenge
Communicators vary in their communication skills and comfort
o In business situations involving quiet people, problems tend to be
solved less quickly and their decision-making process is often difficult
o Although there is no relationship between quietness and intelligence,
quieter employees are often viewed as less competent than their more
verbal counterparts
Linear Model of Communication
o Stage 1: Deciding on the message
o Stage 2: Encoding the intended message
o Stage 3: Transmitting the messages as information
o Stage 4: Perceiving the information as a message
o Stage 5: Decoding and interpreting the message
The Receiver Perceives the Information as a Message
o When a receiver perceives something, she is using her senses to see,
hear, or feel a stimulus, and she then identifies the stimulus based on
her knowledge and her cultural experience

Chapter 2

Presentation of self from the verbal and nonverbal messages you send,
others form impressions of you
Impression management you can influence the initial impressions your
co-workers and supervisors have of you
To present yourself effectively in the workplace, select the impression you
want to make and then make a plan
An effective plan includes these steps:
o Carefully assess the person you are presenting yourself to
o Be honest about who you are
o Consider the physical setting or context of the encounter
o Use all available communication channels to get your positive qualities
across
o Look closely for subtle feedback messages
Make the effort to change another persons negative impression of you if you
feel the benefits of doing so outweigh the difficulty of the process
There are several verbal strategies you can use to encourage others to form a
good impression of you:
o Speak to be understood by speaking simply, avoiding unnecessary
jargon and acronyms, and using clear and specific language
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Speak to show strength by using power language, animated and

intense language, concrete examples, and the active voice
Speak to include rather than exclude by using bias-free language.
Use the terms others use to identify themselves, dont mention group
membership unnecessarily, use parallel labels, and avoid masculine
terms as generics
Speak to stimulate others interest in you by using verbal
immediacy strategies to encourage positive feelings and perceptions of
closeness and inclusion

Chapter 3

Listening is one of the most important skills for professional success

Listening serves four key purposes:
1. To acquire information
2. To screen and evaluate what you hear
3. To simply enjoy or relax
4. To get along with others
Good listeners use two effective listening behaviors routinely
o They make an effort to listen actively (Active listening is the process
of making a conscious effort to pay full attention to and comprehend
what is being communicated)
o They look like theyre listening by focusing their full concentration on
the communicator, using their bodies to communicate openness and
receptivity, and using facial expressions to communicate interest
Poor listeners rely on several ineffective listening behaviors:
o They listen passively, receiving messages without exerting much effort
and without concern for what is being communicated
o They are distracted, and they multitask instead of focusing on the
communicator, use their bodies to close off exchanges, look away from
the communicator, and appear bored, unhappy, or preoccupied
Your self-concept and self-esteem influence your self-talk
o Self-talk the internal dialogue you engage in continuously
o Can be positive or negative, and it influences how you listen and
perceive what others say and do
Steps of Sound Listening Plan
1. Be mindful of your self-talk
2. Mentally prepare to listen
3. Concentrate and commit to listen
4. Look like youre ready to listen
5. Encourage the other to talk
6. Search actively for meaning
7. Make an effort to keep listening actively
8. Suspend judgement

Senders Responsibility
Know what content they want to
communicate before they say it
Carefully consider the way the message
should be communicated
Ensure that the message is appropriate
for the context or occasion
Design the message with the particular
receivers in mind
Be mindful about the possible
implications of the message

Receivers Responsibility
Make an effort to listen
Consider the physical and social context
of the message
Give the sender a fair hearing
Provide the sender with feedback
Manage their response to the message
being communicated

Chapter 4

The employment interview is critical to an organization for a number of

reasons:
o Interviews supply organizations with a competent workforce
o Interviews screen applicants in order to assemble the best possible list
of finalists for the position
o Interviews match people with organizations, ensuring a good fit
o Interviews provide people data about applicants (ex: verbal and
nonverbal skills)
o Interviews minimize employee turnover rates by assessing a
candidates suitability for the job and the organization
The best interview requires that BOTH the interviewer and the interviewee
are well prepared
Effective interviewers facilitate friendly conversations with the candidates
Effective interviewers conclude the interview on a positive note, leaving the
candidate with a positive impression of both the interviewer and the company
During the interview, effective candidates:
o Pay attention to the basics, such as arriving on time and dressing
appropriately
o Make a good first impression
o Sell themselves, helping the interviewer understand why theyre the
best candidate for the job
o Evaluate whether the company and job will be a good fit for them
o End the interview professionally
Effective candidates follow up after the interview by assessing their
performance during the interview and by sending a thank-you letter to the
interviewer
Anticipating and answering questions is the key to all interviews. Because
most questions are typical, common, and predictable; candidates can plan
ahead, strategically managing the impression they want to make
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Effective interviewers prepare by:

Developing a profile of the ideal
candidate for the job
Generating a list of reliable, valid, openended, and legal questions to ask
during every interview for the job

Effective interviewees prepare by:

Developing both personal and
professional profiles of themselves
Researching the company

Becoming familiar with each

interviewees file by studying the
resume and reading and evaluating
letters of recommendation and other
supporting materials

Chapter 7

Delivering a business presentation as good story helps you excite, involve,

and captivate your audience
o Delivering a speech as a story reflects the fact that interactive media
impact what todays audiences prefer and expect from speakers (ex:
interaction, personal expression, and collaboration)
o Compelling stories are also persuasive because audiences tend to
respond to narratives that resonate with their own experiences
In the business and professional context, good stories have several
characteristic:
o Realistic
o Relevant and have value for audiences
o Coherent
o Interactive
o Have memorable take-away lessons
Having a clear understanding of the general purpose for a presentation helps
you select appropriate content, meet your audiences expectations,
and appropriately inform, influence, or entertain your listeners
A helpful strategy for identifying a general purpose is identifying the type of
presentation that will best meet your needs and goals
Most common types of business presentations:
o Sales presentations and proposals
o Briefings
o Team presentations, such as symposiums and panel discussions
o Special occasion speeches
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A critical step in speech preparation is audience analysis the systematic

gathering of information about an intended audience
You must also evaluate your speaking environment, including the size of the
audience, physical setting for a presentation, and so on
Build support for you and your ideas by using evidence that is credible,
appropriate, and tailored to your audience
o Establish your own credibility as a speaker
o Consider the different types of support (ex: facts and data, stories, and
examples)
o Select only the best supporting material, ensuring that it is relevant,
recent, and credible
Organize your presentation appropriately so that you remember your ideas,
deliver your presentations coherently, and help audiences follow the logic of
your information and arguments
Select the organizing framework that best suits your presentation and your
audiences needs and goals
There are two common organizational frameworks speakers use to make
sense of information:
o Linear Framework
Clear and fact-based approach to organizing a speech that
follows a straightforward pattern: preview main points, discuss
one point at a time, and summarize each point
o Configuring Framework
An approach to organizing a speech that is relatively indirect,
relies on speaker self-disclosure, allows the audience to engage
with the speaker, and asks audience members to impose their
own structure and meaning onto the presentation

Chapter 8

Informative presentations provide new and unfamiliar information,

extend what the audience may already know, update information
about a topic, or help the audience view an issue in a different way
Begin all presentations by determining not only your general purpose but also
your specific purpose and thesis statement:
o A specific purpose is clear, concrete one-statement sentence that
identifies what you want your audience to know, believe, or do
o A thesis statement is a concise summary of the central message of
your speech, stating your speechs most essential points
The basic format of an informative speech is to tell em what youre going to
tell them, tell em, and then tell em what you just told them
All effective presentations begin with an introduction. The purpose of the
introduction is to:
o Establish and demonstrate your credibility with your topic

Compel your audience to listen actively by using devices such as

personal stories, emotional appeals, humor, repetition, famous
quotations, and startling facts and statistics
o Preview your story with one simple statement that lists your main
points
Effective presentations end with a conclusion. The purpose of the
conclusion is to:
o Signal the end of your story and summarize your points
o Compel your audience to remember you and your message
There are several strategies you can use to help your audience understand
and remember your main points
o Keep it simple
o Keep it concrete
o Be repetitive and redundant
o Elicit active responses
o Use familiar and relevant examples
o Use transitions and signposts
o

Chapter 9

In a persuasive presentation, a speakers primary purpose is to advocate

some sort of change in attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors
Persuasive presentations often provide new information to help influence
others, but persuasive speaking differs from informative speaking in that the
purpose of informing is to teach, and the purpose of persuading is to
advocate
The first step in persuasion is to decide whether you want to influence
attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors
o To change attitudes, a speaker must influence others to feel more
positive or negative about an issue
o To change beliefs, a speaker must influence others to think or believe
something is true or not true
o To change behaviors, a speaker must motivate others to take or
commit it to some kind of action
Deciding whether you want to influence your audiences attitudes, beliefs, or
behaviors also helps you determine your specific purpose and thesis
statement for your persuasive presentation
The next step in persuasion is to assess your audiences willingness to
change
o Because all people want the freedom to control how they think, feel,
and behave, they may be motivated to rebel when their established
beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors are threatened by persuasion. This
resistance to change is known as psychological reactance
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Speakers can counteract psychological reactance by using

preventative strategies to address three different kinds of audiences:
those who agree with your position, those who disagree with your
position, and those who are neutral or undecided about your position
o The preventative strategies used for each type of audience focus on
convincing the audience there is something wrong with the way things
are, and change will meet an existing need
An effective organizational pattern for persuasive speeches is Monroes
motivated sequence, because it takes into consideration potential audience
resistance.
Monroes Motivated Sequence
1. Gain the audiences attention
2. Identify unfulfilled needs
3. Propose a solution that satisfies those needs
4. Visualize what satisfaction will mean
5. Identify specific actions
o

Chapter 10

In the past, visual aids were the gold standard for business presentations, but
contemporary business audiences demand an expanded repertoire of sounds,
images, objects, and experiences that appeal to multiple senses
A new way of thinking of visual support is as sensory support.
Sensory aids are supporting devices that appeal to one or more of the five
senses and highlight or enhance the content of a presentation
Used improperly, sensory aids can limit speaker effectiveness. Answering five
questions about your presentation can help you decide when it would be
helpful to use sensory aids:
1. Will one or more sensory aids clarify something critical to my
presentation?
2. Will sensory aids make the presentation more interesting or engaging?
3. Will sensory aids increase audience retention?
4. Will sensory aids save time?
5. Will sensory aids help explain the topic?
As presentation software like PowerPoint and Keynote have become more
widely used, theyve become more widely abused. But there are steps you
can take to create effective digital slides:
o Start by preparing your presentation outline so that you can organize
the introduction, main points, and conclusion of your speech
o Create brief, simple headlines for your slides that correspond with your
main points
o Create a storyboard from your outline to evaluate the flow of your
ideas and to determine whether your story is cohesive
o Once your headlines are in place, develop the content for each slide,
making sure that your slideshow doesnt simply repeat everything in
your presentation
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There are several guidelines speakers can follow to use sensory aids properly
for maximum impact:
o Dont overuse sensory aids. Use them only to enhance your
presentation by high-lighting and clarifying important points, adding
interest, and increasing information retention, and the like
o Remove sensory aids from sight when you no longer need them
o Never turn your back to your audience; always maintain eye contact.
Dont read your speech from your sensory aids
o Thoroughly rehearse with your sensory aids
o Be prepared for technical difficulties