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Communicating at Work: Principles and Practices for Business and Professions, 7/e
Ronald B. Adler
Jeanne Marquardt Elmhorst

Informative and Persuasive Presentations

Chapter Overview

Informative presentations fall into one of four categories: reports, briefings, explanations, and training. In addition to following the guidelines for effective presentational speaking described earlier in this book, an informative speaker can benefit by using several techniques described in this chapter.

Covering only necessary information ensures that the audience cannot be distracted by extraneous material. Linking the topic to the interests and concerns of the audience offers listeners a reason to heed the presentation. Linking new or unfamiliar concepts to ideas that are familiar to the audience makes the material easier to understand. Finally, involving the audience is a way to keep attention high and increase understanding.

Following several organizational principles can increase comprehension. Beginning the presentation with an overall picture of the ideas to be covered gives listeners a frame of reference. Emphasizing important points helps achieve the speaking goal. Numbering items, signposting, using repetition and redundancy, and including internal summaries and previews are all ways to add emphasis. Using multiple channels to convey a message increases understanding.

Persuasion is the act of motivating an audience, through communication, to voluntarily change a particular belief, attitude, or behavior. Unlike coercion on the one hand or manipulation on the other, it presents a message to an audience and allows the members to choose whether to accept it. Persuasive presentations are common in business and professional settings. Most take the form of sales presentations, proposals, motivational speeches, or goodwill speeches.

Four organizational plans are well suited to persuasive presentations: problem-solution, comparative advantages, criteria satisfaction, and motivated sequence. The choice of which organizational plan to use should be governed by the nature of the message and the attitudes of the audience toward the idea being proposed as well as by whether listeners are aware of and inclined to support opposing ideas.

A variety of strategies maximize the chances of achieving a persuasive goal. Focusing the message on a key audience segment and defining a realistic goal are important. Demonstrating how the message can meet the needs of the audience is essential. Choosing the optimal placement for the thesis and deciding whether to discuss opposing ideas are important considerations. Citing ample evidence to support claims can make the message both persuasive and memorable, especially to audiences trained in the Euro-American tradition. In different cultures, other types of persuasive appeals may be more effective.

Speakers can enhance their credibility by demonstrating their competence, trustworthiness, and sincerity. Credibility is also enhanced when the speaker establishes common ground with the audience and when the audience views the speaker as personally attractive.