Transcript Competent Communication

COMPETENT
COMMUNICATION
Accuracy and Impact
in Public Communication
Language Involves Symbols
• We communicate only to the extent that the referent for
those symbols is shared
• Often, it is not…
• Denotative meaning is the “dictionary definition”
• Connotative meaning is the “personal and unique” meaning
associated with symbols
Speak with the listener in mind
Speak with the listener in mind
Are you speaking to communicate or to impress?
Speak with the listener in mind
Are you speaking to communicate or to impress?
Do you understand your audience?
Speak with the listener in mind
Are you speaking to communicate or to impress?
Do you understand your audience?
*audience analysis
a. demographic
b. purposive
*audience adaptation
Eliminate Ambiguity
(using terms that can be
interpreted in multiple ways)
Eat Here and Get Gas
(Sign displayed at a nearby Truck Stop)
TCU - City Zoo
Texas state sign on Interstate 30 advising travelers of
what they will find if they exit to University Boulevard.
Some classified ads:
• For sale: 1995 Cadillac Hearse. Body in good condition.
• For sale: Large Great Dane. Registered pedigree. Will eat
anything. Especially fond of children.
Do You Know What Hell Is?
Come hear our new organist.
(Sign outside a church announcing the title of a
forthcoming sermon.)
Bypassing
• Occurs when one assumes that others are interpreting
language the same way that I am.
• Fallacy 1: Words have specific meaning (Meaning is in
people, not in words, p. 291, Haney)
• Fallacy 2: Others will interpret my words exactly as I
intend
• Arguments often occur about what we mean by our
phrases, rather than who is right. This type of activity is
called meta-communication, or “communicating about
communication”
Deliberate bypassing
• Used to avoid lying
• Used to avoid responsibility (as in corporate
gobbledygook)
• Used to impress others with technical jargon, $10 words,
etc.
Correctives
• Be person-minded, not word minded
• Employ the PTA: pre-transmission audit (in other words,
become more “mindful” before you speak)
• Be sensitive to context: verbal, situational, and nonverbal
context provides the clues by which listeners interpret
meaning