Business Communication
The four general purposes of oral presentations are to inform, persuade, instruct, and entertain. The information purpose aims to provide information to the audience that may have been not known, or simply, to relate the information in a manner that is understandable and interesting for the audience. Information that is presented may concern mundane issues, or crucial ones, such as those concerning important changes in a particular group or organization. Persuasion purpose has a clearer and more established agenda than presentations that aim to inform. To persuade through presentations is to utilize information and data in such a way as to convince the audience to accept the information presented. Effectiveness of persuasion is determined through the audience's receptiveness or skepticism to the information related, respectively. Instructional purpose aims to elicit action from the audience, and this may include demonstrations or step-by-step illustrations of information so that the audience can easily understand and retain the instructions given by the presentor. Lastly, presentations are also utilized for entertainment. Instead of giving information for understanding, presentors instead provide information in order to elicit reactions and emotions from the audience, such as happiness and amusement. Entertaining presentations are mainly light in tone and usually relates humorous stories or jokes to the audience.
Through these purposes, the...
That is, identifying whether to inform, persuade, entertain, or instruct a particular set of information results to the creation of a more specific objective. From this objective, the presentor is now able to pinpoint a specific direction in which the presentation would develop: what is the information that will be relayed, materials used, and intention for relaying the message.
Common formats used in presentations are memorized, read, extemporaneous, and impromptu. A memorized presentation is a format commonly used among presentors who engage in business communications, especially when presenting a proposal to a client or superior. Other forms of memorized presentations are those given by academicians and scholars in the academe, where they present findings of their research or talk about a study to a particular kind of audience (e.g., science, arts and literature, or social science community). Read presentations, meanwhile, are given in strictly formal and procedural activities, such as legal proceedings or broadcasting news, wherein information is related verbatim for clarity. Length of information related to the audience varies and depends on the occasion. Legal proceedings may have longer read presentations, while broadcasting requires a shorter period in relating information.
Impromptu presentations are unplanned presentations, wherein…
