Successful communication is when you are able to solve problems, provide new information, or persuade others to take action. During the communication process, there is a sender, receiver(s), and the message. A sender’s choices can create understanding or confusion.
How does your communication leave your audience – ready for action, or completely baffled?
Audiences are composed of people, all of whom have different perceptions. Receivers filter and interpret information from the senses to create a meaningful picture of the world. These questions will yield a variety of answers, simply because perceptions differ:
To avoid having messages misperceived, misconstrued, or misunderstood, choose language that will be understood by most (preferably all) of your recipients. Think of your audience before you communicate with them. Ask yourself:
Use the information compiled during planning and write freely and quickly. Writers must realize that writing a document is not a one-time happening. It will undergo revisions later, so in the first stages, write down everything you want first. Like planning for a party, it’s always better to have more than less. It will be edited later.
Writing needs to be read by the writer (and others) before it is delivered to the intended audience. The same holds true with a speech. Read your document, or if it’s a speech, present it (to a small group or recorder, if possible). Check for:
Now, go back and reread, or re-present the speech. For goodness’ sake, be brief!
THEN, PROOFREAD!
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