1

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

Department BS English
Subject Communication and Presentation Skills

Semester 3rd
Course Instructor Mahnoor Fatima
 2

1: Introduction

Communication

The English word ‘communication’ has been derived from the Latin word, ‘is
derived from the root ‘Communis’ which means to make common or to share.
Definition

1. Communication is the active process of exchanging information and ideas.

Communication involves both understanding and expression. Forms of
expression may include personalized movements, gestures, objects,
vocalizations, verbalizations, signs, pictures, symbols, printed words, and
output from augmentative and alternative devices.

2. The oxford dictionary define communication “as action conveying or

exchanging information and ideas”

3. Peter Little defines communication as “the process by which information is

transmitted between individuals and or organizations so that an
understanding response results.”

Types of Communication

Communication can be separated into many different categories or ‘types’. verbal,

nonverbal, written, and visual.

1. Verbal Communication

Verbal communication is any form of communication that occurs through spoken

word. Its key strength is that it tends to be perceived as a trusted and
authentic form of communication.

It is one of the most common types, often used during presentations, video
conferences, phone calls, meetings, and one-on-one conversations. Verbal
communication is important because it is efficient. It can be helpful to support
verbal communication with both nonverbal and written communication.
 3

Here are a few steps you can take to develop your verbal communication

 Use a strong, confident speaking voice.

(Clarity of messages, such as tone of voice and pitch)
 Use active listening.
 Avoid filler words. (umm, yeah)

2. Nonverbal Communication

In nonverbal communication is use of body language, gestures, and facial

expressions to convey information to others. It can be used both intentionally and
unintentionally. For example, you might smile unintentionally when you hear a
pleasing or enjoyable idea or piece of information. Nonverbal communication is
helpful when trying to understand others’ thoughts and feelings.

 Facial expressions: Smiling, frowning, raising eyebrows, furrowing brow,

rolling eyes, etc.
 Gestures: Hand gestures, head nods, shrugging shoulders, pointing, etc.
 Posture: Standing tall, slouching, leaning forward or backward, crossing
arms, etc.
 Eye contact: Direct eye contact, avoiding eye contact, staring, glancing, etc.
 Touch: Handshakes, hugs, pats on the back, etc.

3. Visual Communication

Visual communication means the transfer of information to a person in a format

that can be read or viewed. Such formats include physical objects and models,
charts, cards, tables, photos, videos, drawings, and diagrams

 Slide Presentations: Conveying information, ideas, or concepts through a

combination of text, images, and design elements in a slideshow format,
often during meetings or conferences.
 Graphs and Charts: Visualizing data, trends, or comparisons through
various graphical representations such as bar charts, pie charts, line graphs,
and flowcharts.
 4

 Videos and Animations: Using moving images, graphics, and visual

storytelling techniques to convey a message. TV adds
 Graphic Design and Branding: Employing design elements like logos,
color schemes, for a product, company, or organization like banner, bill
boards.

4. Written Communication

Written communication involves the use of words, sentences, and paragraphs

encoded in text in order to communicate. It is helpful because it provides a record
of information for reference

 Emails and Letters: Exchanging information, ideas, or requests through

written messages in a formal or informal tone, sent electronically or through
postal services.
 Reports and Documents
 Blog Posts and Articles: Sharing knowledge, opinions, or experiences on a
specific topic through written content published on websites, newspapers, or
magazines.
 Books and eBooks: Conveying narratives, ideas, or educational content in a
longer written format, distributed in print or digitally for readers to consume
and engage with.
 Academic Writing: This is used to present facts and evidence in the form of
essays, research papers, and other publications. Academic writing is often
used in the fields of higher education and research

Formal Communication and Informal Communication

Formal Communication

 Information is reached through proper channels and routes. The flow of

information is controlled and needs to be properly communicated. It’s also
known as official communication.
 Formal communication follows a hierarchical structure and chain of
command.
 Employees are bound to follow formal communication channels while
performing their duties.
 5

 There is more reliability of the information in formal communication

Types of Formal Communication

 Horizontal Communication: This kind of communication takes place

among the peers of the same or different departments.

 Diagonal Communication: This kind of communication takes place among

the subordinates working on different levels. For instance, a graphic
designer communicating with the sales manager.
 6

 Upward Communication: In this kind of communication, the information

is transmitted from lower to a higher level
 Downward Communication: In this kind of communication, the
information is transferred from higher to the lower level. Downward
communication is an effective way of communication

Other ways of formal communication

 Memo
 Meetings
 Conferences
 Formal One-on-Ones
 Bulletin Boards
 Handouts
 Letters
 Presentations
 Speeches
 Notice Boards
 Organizational blogs
 Emails from managers and leaders

Informal Communication
 7

 Informal communication is defined as the communication which takes place

unofficially between two or more people.
 There are no rigid rules or regulation in informal communication
 The other name of informal communication is 'grapevine communication.
 There is less reliability of the information

Types of Informal Communication

 Single Chain: In this type of communication, person A passes information

to person B and, person B passes it to person C. This is how the single-chain
moves in informal communication.
 Gossip Chain: In this kind of communication, a person passes information
to several people. Those people pass it on to several others. This is how the
gossip chain works.
 Cluster Chain: A cluster chain works when two or three people start a trend
which is followed by others. Social media is the common example of a
cluster chain wherein one person begins the trend/ challenge, and others
follow it.

Stages of Communication Process

 Sender: The sender initiates the communication process by spoken words,

written text or any other medium. The sender’s goal is to convey information
or share an idea with the receiver.
 Encoding: The process of converting the message into a format that is
suitable for transmission.

 Message: The message is the actual content being communicated. The

sender must carefully craft the message to ensure clarity and coherence.
 Channel: The medium or platform used to convey the message (e.g., speech,
email, text
 8

 Receiver: The receiver is the individual or group for whom the message is
intended.

 Decoding: Decoding is the reverse process of encoding, wherein the

receiver interprets and understands the message. The receiver decodes the
message by extracting meaning from the words, images, or non-verbal cues
used by the sender

 Feedback: Feedback is the response or reaction received from the receiver.

It helps to validate whether the receiver understood the message or not.

The 7 C's of Communication

1. Clarity: The message should be clear and easy to understand.

2. Correctness: The message should be accurate and free of errors.

3. Completeness: The message should provide all the necessary information.

 9

4. Conciseness: The message should be brief and to the point.

5. Consideration: The message should be respectful and considerate of the

recipient's feelings.

6. Concreteness: The message should be specific and concrete.

7. Courtesy: The message should be polite and courteous

2: Purpose of Communication:

Communication serves five major purposes: to inform, to express feelings, to

imagine, to influence, and to meet social expectations.

 To convey information:

Informative communication aims to educate, inform, or update others about a

particular topic, issue, or subject. Its primary purpose is to convey information,
facts, or data to help others understand, learn, or make informed decisions.

 To express feelings (AFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION)

Affective communication is the process through which people

express feelings about things, themselves, and others. Expressions of positive
and negative feelings about places, objects, events, policies, and ideas are called
opinions.

 To imagine (IMAGINATIVE COMMUNICATION)

This uses creativity, imagination, and innovation to convey messages, tell

stories, or express ideas. It engages the audience's emotions, imagination, and
creativity, making the communication more memorable, impactful, and
enjoyable.

 To influence (Persuasive communication)

 10

This defined as the process through which people attempt to influence the
beliefs or actions of others. In many cases persuasive communication involves
people who are important to each other parents influence children, children
influence parents, and friends influence each other.

 To meet social expectations

It involves conveying messages, expressing ourselves, and responding to others

in ways that are socially acceptable, respectful, and appropriate.

 Building relationships:
 Gaining acceptance
 Avoiding conflict
 Maintaining social norm

Importance of communication

 To create awareness
 To give expertise and skills
 Flow of information
 Preparing People to Accept Change
 Developing Good Human Relations

3- Presentation skills
A presentation is a form of communication where a speaker shares information,
ideas, or messages with an audience through a structured and organized format. It
involves conveying a message, telling a story, or showcasing a product or service
to engage, inform, or persuade the audience.
 11

Types of Presentation

Three types of presentation might be identified:

1. Information-giving. This is predominantly descriptive, giving or summarising

information. You may be asked to do this as part of a mini-teaching session,
sharing theoretical or factual information. Here the point is to see what you have
understood and how you have extracted the main facts from your reading and to
relay these to the group. You will need to make decisions about what information
to include.

2. Discursive. Here you will need to debate the strengths and limitations of an
approach or develop an argument, exploring and weighing up different
perspectives, challenging your audience to accept a different viewpoint. For this,
you will need to decide your ‘angle’ – are you for or against it, weight pro and
cons? Pull your audience in, challenge and confidently debate.

3. Demonstrative. This type of presentation tends to be used in the context of

training: for example, when demonstrating your ability to illustrate your
understanding of a technique or teaching a practical skill to others. (Craig, C.,
2009)

STRUCTURE

Whether the audience can understand what you are trying to communicate will be
determined by how you structure your presentation. You should focus on the
development of a clear structure that will help to map out and guide you in your
preparations and in your final delivery.

An introduction, outlining the aim of your presentation and the areas your talk will
focus on

• The main body, containing the substance of your talk and developing the ideas
outlined in the introduction

• A conclusion, drawing together the main points and containing the ‘take home
message’ for the audience

INTRODUCTION
 12

It is of key importance to get a good beginning. Apart from introducing yourself

and subject of your presentation, you should plan carefully about what point of
entry will stimulate your audience and at the same time, form a springboard into
the main topics of your delivery. When thinking about your openings, keep your
audience and their ‘needs’ very firmly in mind. A good beginning can make the
presentation; a poor, inappropriate one can seriously undermine it. Many people
tend to fail to have a proper introduction that contextualizes the topic. Once the
ground rules have been established, you then need to outline the main points that
you will be covering during your presentation.

Instead of starting with a series of statements about what is coming next, you could
consider stimulating more interest by posing a question, presenting a puzzle or a
conundrum, showing a picture, or telling a story.

MAIN PRESENTATION

This will be influenced by the general context and aim of your presentation and
the expected audience. You may need to decide between a big picture approach
and one that selects a smaller area with more detail. As you develop your
knowledge of the topic, you will feel more confident about what to include and
what to exclude. Identify the key messages. Three or four main points are normally
sufficient for a presentation of up to a half-hour. For a longer presentation, do not
exceed seven main points in order to avoid overloading your audience. Rember,
less is almost always more. You should also decide what is best covered through
speech, text, images and what could be given in a handout rather than used as
presentation content. Support your key ideas by choosing clarifying examples.

CONCLUSION

Because of the relief of having made it through, otherwise excellent presentations

often suffer from an uninspiring, hurried ending. Do not let the pace and energy of
your presentation drop at the end. This is the ‘tell them what you have said’
section. You need to summaries your points, again using visual aids to reinforce
them if possible. Always leave your audience with something memorable, say a
powerful visual or a convincing conclusion, with a key idea, a central theme to
take away and want to reflect on later. It is also good practice to thank the audience
for their patience and to invite questions or discussion.
 13

Preparation for presentation

Master Your Presentation

Knowing the ins and outs of your presentation will help build your confidence.
You should know what each slide on your presentation says, and you should also
know what you're going to say about each slide. You don't want to read off of your
slides. Instead, do your best to learn your presentation's subject matter by heart.
Your accompanying PowerPoint presentation is just a visual aid.

Practice, Practice, Practice

As the popular saying goes, practice makes perfect. While you don't have to aim
for 'perfect,' delivering a presentation that actually meets your goals should be at
the top of your list.

Know Your Audience

Knowing who you're speaking to will help you deliver a presentation that will
resonate with your audience. Find something that's common with your audience
and mention that in your presentation

Be on time

Think Positively

Thinking positively can go a long way in helping you overcome presentation fear.
If you think your presentation's going to be a disaster, then it is going to be a
disaster. However, if you think it's going to be a smashing success, then you're
going to do your absolute best to make sure that happens

FORM OF LANGUAGE

Make Eye Contact No one wants to sit through a presentation where the
presenter is fixated on his or her shoes, his computer screen, or anywhere
else but the audience. The truth is most of us would think the presenter is
being disrespectful.

Have a Sense of Humor

 14

Having a sense of humor is great. Learning how to put that to good use in
your presentations is even better.

Be Flexible

Knowing your presentation's subject matter by heart is more important than

writing a speech word-for-word. When you've got an entire speech laid out
in front of you, you can easily fall into the trap of reading it out loud.

Be Confident

Don't Be Afraid To Pause Every Now And Then

Engage With Your Audience

Final Words

OBJECTIVES:

• To develop your skills to communicate clearly, effectively and confidently with a

range of audiences in a range of different contexts

• To improve your research and design skills, and strengthen your delivery
techniques

• To enhance your use of different support electronic and other visual tools

• To reinforce your performance skills (verbal and non-verbal)

• To increase your confidence level in interacting with audience and control your
nervousness

• To promote critical and reflective thinking by dealing with feedback on your

presentation skills.

TIMING

In most presentations, it is usually better to deliver less content at a reasonable

pace, than too much content at a faster pace that may leave the audience feeling
overwhelmed and confused. You should fit the topic into the allotted time and plan
time for breaks, asides, questions. This means you should think clearly about what
to include and exclude from the final version of your presentation.
 15

DELIVERY (FULL SCRIPT VERSUS NOTES)

Inexperienced presenters attempt to write down the whole speech, even including
‘Good morning ladies and gentlemen’. They prepare a closely drafted text, each
line filled, with very little space left. Experienced presenters have their own style
of notes, but never fill the page with text. You can organize your speech notes in
many ways and it is very much a personal preference.

ENVIRONMENT (EQUIPMENT, FACILITIES)

You should find out when your presentation will take place. Another important
aspect of planning concerns the location of your presentation. This can have
significant implications for how you plan your content and organize yourself. Go
to see the room in which you will be presenting in advance of arriving for the
actual presentation

VISUAL AIDS / MATERIAL FOR DISTRIBUTION

If you use more pictures and diagrams than text, you will possibly help the
audience to understand better what you are saying. This is because after three days
an audience will have retained 7% of what they read (bullet points, or other notes
on the screen), but 55% of what they saw pictorially (charts, pictures, diagrams).
You should be aware that visual aids are complementary to the presentation and
you should not focus too narrowly on visual aids because you will lose the key
point of presentation. If you use more pictures and diagrams than text, you will
possibly help the audience to understand better what you are saying. This is
because after three days an audience will have retained 7% of what they read
(bullet points, or other notes on the screen), but 55% of what they saw pictorially
(charts, pictures, diagrams). You should be aware that visual aids are complementary
to the presentation and you should not focus too narrowly on visual aids because
you will lose the key point of presentation.

 Use images for interest.

 Use images to save time
 Use images to improve understanding

Tips for PowerPoint presentations:

 16

1. Avoid clutter slides at all costs

2. Select a clear font such as Arial or Helvetica.

3. Use bold rather than underline and avoid italics;

4. A dark background (deep blue or black) and light coloured text (white or
yellow) for contrast will make your words stand out (Use of colour that detracts
from the main content of the slide, or that makes reading the text difficult.)

5. Use a font size of 20 or over: use a 36 point for titles and a 28 point for body
text

6. Spelling and /or grammar mistakes

7. Use pictures and icons and beware of the special effects, e.g. spinning words or
sound effects

8. Keep the presentation consistent, e.g. background and style. Do not suddenly
switch fonts half way through. You may not notice but your audience will

9. Less than 30 words per slide, 5–6 words for headings a maximum of five bullet
points per slide

10. Keep the number of slides down to one per minute or even one per 40 seconds
(Malthouse, R., Roffey-Barentsen, J., 2010), (Craig, C., 2009)

NON-VERBAL (EYE-CONTACT, BODY LANGUAGE, HAND

GESTURES)

Eye contact:

Eyes are one of your best tools for involving the audience in what you are saying.
Good posture, movement and gestures will be of little use if you fail to support
them with appropriate eye contact. Great presenters understand that eye contact is
critical to building trust, credibility, and rapport. It is advisable to maintain eye
contact with your audience at least 90% of the time. It is appropriate to glance at
your notes or slides from time to time, but only as a reminder of where to go next.
You are speaking for the benefit of your audience. Speak to them, not the slides.

Body language:
 17

You will also need to think how you communicate using body language. Body
language can distract people from what you are saying or even irritate. People can
bite their nails, twiddle with things, and sniff and so on. If you have distracting
habits, find a way of controlling them. Hold your hands behind your back or hold a
sheet of paper so you can’t fiddle.

Gestures:

Using your hands can help in the same way that whole body movements can: to
relax, stimulate and illustrate. If you find it hard to use your hands naturally, then
the best policy is to hold them by your sides.

Try not to:

• Clasp hands behind the back. This looks much too formal.

• Fold them in front. This is usually interpreted as a very defensive posture.

• Keep them stuck in your pockets throughout the presentation. This can look
either casual or nervous.

• Scratch, poke or stroke yourself. As you have probably observed, this is quite a
common nervous reaction amongst stressed presenters.

• Wring your hands together. This can look dishonest or slightly peculiar.

• Fiddle with keys, pens, pencils, coins, lucky charms, worry beads, etc. You will
just look nervous