conversation

Examples of conversation in the following topics:

• Differences Between Public Speaking and Conversation

  • Speeches and public addresses are far more organized than everyday conversation.
  • Conversations can wander and meander without ever coming to a point.
  • Speeches are deliberately structured and organized, whereas conversations are not.
  • You hear the phrase "strike up a conversation" more than you hear "strike up a speech" because conversations are far more spontaneous than public speeches.
  • Conversations can spring up anywhere.

• Causes of Poor Listening

  • Just as lack of attention to detail in a conversation can lead to ineffective listening, so can focusing too much attention on the least important information.
  • When listening to a speaker's message, it is common to sometimes overlook aspects of the conversation or make judgments before all of the information is presented.
  • Listeners often engage in confirmation bias, which is the tendency to isolate aspects of a conversation to support one's own preexisting beliefs and values.
  • Whether anger, frustration, or anything else, this emotion could have a profound impact on the listener's perception of the rest of the conversation.
  • When observing an event in person, an observer is automatically drawn toward the sensational, vivid or memorable aspects of a conversation or speech.

• The Remembering Stage

  • If, for example, you forgot everything that you heard immediately after you heard it, you would not be able to follow along with what a speaker says, and conversations would be impossible.
  • Moreover, a friend who expresses fear about a dog she sees on the sidewalk ahead can help you recall that the friend began the conversation with her childhood memory of being attacked by a dog.
  • Conversely, retention is lessened when we engage in mindless listening, and little effort is made to understand a speaker's message.

• Choosing Your Method of Delivery

  • Extemporaneous is the most natural of all methods of prepared delivery where you can successfully achieve a more natural conversation with the audience.
  • Here are some important considerations for developing a natural, conversational persona for speech delivery.
  • Speaking in a natural, conversational style means that the speaker does not imitate the speaking style of other great speakers but may reflect their style or approach as it suits the speaker's personality.
  • For example, shows British rapper Speech Debelle who has developed her own sincere, conversational delivery style in her 2012 album, Freedom of Speech.
  • Remember that speaking is a perfectly normal act, which does not call for strange, artificial methods, but only for an extension and development of the familiar act of conversation.

• Culture

  • These kinds of cultural differences include speakers' accents and vocabulary, as well as assumptions about shared information and the roles of listeners and speakers in conversation.
  • Without meaning to, we may bring assumptions or judgments into a conversation that don't actually align with the thoughts or beliefs of our conversational partner, and this can create a barrier to effective communication.

• Gender

  • As such, men and women often interpret the same conversation differently.
  • When the goal is connection, members of a speech community are likely to engage in the following six strategies–equity, support, conversational "maintenance work," responsiveness, a personal style, and tentativeness.
  • When the goal is independence, on the other hand, members of this speech community are likely to communicate in ways that exhibit knowledge, refrain from personal disclosure, are abstract, are focused on instrumentality, demonstrate conversational command, are direct and assertive, and are less responsive.

• Situational and Environmental Context

  • Consider for a moment when you hear just the tail end of a conversation in passing.
  • What you're missing, in this instance, is the context of that conversation.
  • Just as you need it to understand the conversation you just missed, both you and your audience need to be on the same page about the context of your speech.

• Be an Open-Minded Listener: Suspend Judgment and Exercise Empathy

  • People who listen with an open mind avoid anticipating what they think their conversational partners are going to say.
  • This kind of judgmental listening prevents the listener from fully engaging with the speaker on his or her own terms, and therefore limits the scope of the conversation.
  • Carrying pre-conceived notions about the speaker or the content of a speech into a conversation further limits effective listening.

• Defining a Successful Delivery

  • In general, audiences in North America seem to respond more favorably to public speaking which is modeled as a natural, but magnified conversation.
  • Public speaking is a conversation with the audience.
  • Today, the conversational speaker, unlike the old school elocutionist who focused more on technique than substance, strives for natural gestures, which develop out of what is being said.
  • As a conversational speaker you do not want to use planned or fixed gestures for dramatic effect.
  • Conversational speaking or dialog with the audience does not mean that you are always informal or use casual speech.

• The Responding Stage

  • Responding verbally might involve asking a question, requesting additional information, redirecting or changing the focus of a conversation, cutting off a speaker, or repeating what a speaker has said back to her in order to verify that the received message matches the intended message.