Oral-Com

Definition: Communication is the act of transferring information from a sender to a receiver; it requires successful transmission, not just sending information.
Five functions of communication:
- Regulation/Control: to control behavior and activities.
- Social Interaction: to develop bonds and express needs or information.
- Motivation: to persuade or encourage change in attitude/behavior.
- Information: to convey or obtain information.
- Emotional Expression: to express feelings (e.g., love, joy, fear).
Process of communication (basic steps): 1) Speaker develops an idea; 2) Speaker encodes idea into words/actions; 3) Speaker transmits via a channel; 4) Receiver decodes the message; 5) Receiver provides feedback;
- Noise may occur at any step and hinder the process.
Elements of the process:
- Sender, Message, Encoding, Channel, Receiver, Decoding, Feedback, Noise.
Noise types (barriers): physical, physiological, psychological.
Short takeaway: Effective communication requires successful encoding/decoding and feedback with minimal noise.

Purpose: Describe how messages are created, transmitted, and interpreted.
Key models:
- Aristotle’s Model: Speaker-centered; emphasis on public speaking; speaker drives message to audience.
- Schramm’s Model: Sender and receiver exchange roles; focus on encoding/decoding and overlap of their fields of experience.
- Shannon–Weaver Model: Linear message transmission with six elements: Source, Encoder, Channel, Noise, Decoder, Receiver; highlights noise as a barrier.
- White’s Model: Circular, continuous process with eight stages; introduces feedback and monitoring; emphasis on the loop.
- Berlo’s SMCR Model: Elements are Source, Message, Channel, Receiver; expands on skills, attitudes, knowledge, social system, culture; adds emphasis on the sender/receiver attributes.
- Helical Model: Time-based, growth-driven, dynamic; communication becomes richer as experience grows.
- Transactional Model: Interdependent, two-way exchange where both participants encode/decode and influence each other; continual and contextual.
Quick contrast points:
- Linear vs circular vs interactive.
- Role of feedback and shared experience.
- Emphasis on sender/receiver attributes and context.

What is communication breakdown? Failure in transmission due to barriers across sender, message, channel, or receiver.
Verbal vs non-verbal communication: Both contribute to meaning; breakdown can occur if cues are misaligned.
Non-verbal cue categories (nine types):
- Gestures (emblems, illustrators, regulators, etc.)
- Facial expressions
- Colors (language of colors)
- Flowers (language of flowers)
- Proxemics (space)
- Chronemics (time)
- Haptics (touch)
- Paralanguage (tone, pitch, rhythm)
- Posture and body orientation
Barriers to communication (typical culprits): language differences, cultural norms, gender expectations, topic clarity, audience knowledge, noise, and misaligned verbal/non-verbal cues.
Strategies to avoid breakdown (high level): adapt language to the audience, align verbal and non-verbal cues, minimize noise, clarify topic and purpose, check for mutual understanding, and use feedback to adjust.

Focus: Apply the five functions of communication through sample activities.
Emphasizes use of verbal and non-verbal cues to achieve communication goals.
Includes practice with identifying function, purpose, and cues in sample dialogues.
Encourages evaluating effectiveness of oral communication activities and understanding strategies used by speakers.

Five main speech purposes: Informative, Persuasive, Inspirational, Entertainment (and sometimes Demonstrative as a subtype within informative).
Informative speeches: aim to educate; main types include defined, descriptive, explanatory, and demonstrative.
Persuasive speeches: aim to convince audience to adopt a belief or take action; build a strong position and address opposing views.
Inspirational (motivational) speeches: aim to elevate and encourage audiences to overcome challenges or pursue goals.
Entertainment speeches: aim to amuse, delight, or engage; common forms include after-dinner and ceremonial speeches; frequently combine humor with positive messages.

Speech act theory: an utterance performs a function beyond its literal meaning; consists of three levels:
- Locutionary act: the actual utterance and its surface meaning.
- Illocutionary act: the speaker’s intention (what the speaker is doing by saying it).
- Perlocutionary act: the effect on the listener (response, attitude change, action).
John Searle’s categories of illocutionary acts:
- Assertive: expresses belief about the truth of a proposition (e.g., stating, concluding).
- Directive: tries to get the addressee to perform an action (e.g., requesting, commanding).
- Commissive: commits the speaker to a future action (e.g., promising, vowing).
- Expressive: expresses the speaker’s feelings or attitudes (e.g., thanking, apologizing).
- Declarative: brings about a change in the external situation by the utterance (e.g., declaring, blessing).
Practical takeaway: Identify whether a line is an illocutionary act and which category it belongs to; consider the perceptible effect (perlocution) on the listener.

Sender, Receiver, Message, Encoding, Decoding, Channel, Feedback, Noise
Verbal vs Non-verbal communication; Paralanguage, Proxemics, Chronemics, Haptics
SMCR model, Arousal of feedback, Field of Experience, Noise as barrier
Locutionary, Illocutionary, Perlocutionary acts
Assertive, Directive, Commissive, Expressive, Declarative acts

If you’re unsure about a speaker’s purpose, check the cues: is there a request, a plan, a feeling, or an information share?
To avoid breakdown, align what you say with how you say it (verbal with non-verbal cues) and solicit feedback to confirm understanding.
When analyzing a model, identify the core element (e.g., Shannon–Weaver emphasizes noise; Berlo emphasizes sender/receiver traits; Schramm emphasizes field of experience).
For speech writing, choose the appropriate type based on the goal (inform, persuade, inspire, entertain) and structure accordingly.

End of brief notes from the provided transcript.