Score level criteria

Excellent: relevant to assigned phonostylistic peculiarities.

Good: mostly relevant but articulation and volume.

Fair: inadequate rate and volume, lack of expressiveness, weak articulation skills.

Poor: not enough to evaluate

Score Mark

20-19 – 5

18-16 – 4

15-12 – 3

11-… - 2

Module 3

Making business presentations

I. Input materials

1.1. Rhetoric strategy.

Nowadays special attention is given to business communication. Today’s businesses thrive on the exchange of information. Information is the fuel that keeps business and industry moving and growing. Executives, managers, supervisors and other employees all need to receive information in order to make decisions, plan objectives and develop strategies. And all these people need to send information if they want their decisions to be carried out.

Speeches and presentations are the most mishandled form of communication. Too often they are boring, too long, disorganized and hard to follow. They needn’t be. They shouldn’t be. A good speech or presentation can enhance your image, while a bad or poorly delivered speech can damage that image and is an opportunity wasted.

A good speech is an excellent way to deliver a message, to make the points you want, and to leave the message you want to leave. It’s an opportunity to sell yourself, your ideas and issues, your products and services, your company or organization, and your industry.

No matter what the reason for the presentation, it should always be remembered that what you are consistently seeking is the promotion of better standards of presentation and the commitment to greater awareness of the needs of others.

The way you use your voice can help to put across a controlled, interesting, rational and comprehensive message.

The first aim of any speaker is to be heard, so adapt the loudness of your voice to the size of the audience, the size and acoustic qualities of the room and the emphasis you wish to use on certain words. You do not have to shout to be understood, but speaking up allows you to communicate more clearly.

Speaking in a monotone is very boring to the listener. You can use your tone for emphasis, effect and to signal a break or link. When you raise your voice slightly, you appear to be increasing the intensity of feeling that you put into those particular words. Speaking more softly will tend to increase audience concentration.

The purposes for making presentations are many, but can be grouped in the following way:

1. to demonstrate: a service, product, system;

2. to create: an image, strategy;

3. to entertain: colleagues, outside people;

4. to sell: a concept, product;

5. to represent: a group, idea, company;

6. to promote: an attitude, a way of working;

7. to suggest: a solution, a new concept.

1.2. Style forming factors

• The purpose of communication – to represent, demonstrate, promote, meeting the needs of others

• The speaker’s attitude – enthusiastic, sincere, straightforward

• The form of communication – a monologue

• The degree of formality – formal

• The degree of spontaneity – prepared in advance

Changing the pitch of your voice often indicates to the audience that you have finished with one particular point and that you are about to go on to the next. Pitch change can also give a dramatic effect.

Speaking at one constant speed can be as off-putting as talking in a monotone. You will need to practice speeding up and slowing down as you speak. It is better if you can begin your presentation slowly because you will speed up as you get into your presentation. A pause can be used to good effect because it can create anticipation and encourage attention. The summaries should be done slowly, remembering that for most of the people the information is new and therefore they need time to absorb it.

1.3. Invariant phonostylistic peculiarities

P itch patterns (tunes)	(pre-head) + High level one peak Head + mid Fall complete + (Fall-Rise divided)
	(pre-head) + Gradually Descending Stepping Head + Fall mid incomplete
	(pre-head) + Fall-Rise divided (undivided)
	(pre-head) + low level Head + Fall-Rise (Low Fall incomplete)
	(high pre-head) + (Pitch Drop + Fall high level complete, low Rise)
	(pre-head) + (High level one peak Head) + emphatic Fall high level complete (High Fall with the initial rise)
	(pre-head) + emphatic Fall-Rise
Rhythm –	characterized by regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables
Rate (tempo) –	slow at the beginning of the delivery with gradual speeding up as one gets into presentation; the summaries are slow
Pauses –	mostly “unit” in the length within utterances; they are used to good effect and create anticipation and encourage attention
Loudness (voice volume) –	characterized by stability, a little bit increased through the delivery; it is adapted to the size of the audience and the emphasis you wish to use on certain words