Speech Communication

In my role as a supervisor, I am called upon to make presentations to groups. In some cases, the groups are patients and those close to patients who may be using the hospital services. In those cases, my goal is to educate the group on the services that are offered by our department, and what the participants can expect when they undergo a particular type of test. In other cases, I have spoken about the way that our department is organized to others in my field. In this situation, I have sought to explain our philosophy and operating procedures. In still other instances, I have presented my budget to supervisors and decision makers. Here, my goal has been to persuade the audience members that the funding for my group is vital to the continued success of the organization.

Whenever I give a presentation, I have sought to first establish who my audience is and what message I am trying to communicate (Graham, 1998, p. 7). Because most of my presentations have been short (under one hour), I have focused on keeping the message simple and covering only a few points, but doing so in detail. Understanding the make-up of the audience is important because it determines the type of language that I will use. When I am speaking to patients and their families, I tend to use plain English and explain any acronyms that might be appropriate. Since these people will be dealing with the medical establishment on an ongoing basis, I try to educate them about the ja

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or of employee teams, are perceived as radically progressive and liberal in their organizational approach. Yet this status quo has existed for little more than 100 years and is a result of the Industrial Revolution ("A Chat," 1991, p. 40). The Industrial Revolution is largely responsible for the change in the American culture which took place at the end of the last century. The machines introduced by the Industrial Revolution made it possible to produce more goods with a product uniformity which had previously been impossible. At the same time, the increased numbers of people in the workforce ensured that there was a market for those goods as wages were paid to workers who previously were not earning an income. The United States underwent significant changes during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Women and children entered the work force in large numbers as the political power and economic force of the independent farmer began to decline. It was possible for these relatively unskilled and often uneducated workers to enter the workforce because of the standardization that the Industrial Revolution brought to the workplace ("A Chat," 1991, p. 41). My profession, nursing, is characterized by large numbers of women

Category: Psychology - S