Communicating Your Results
You've got some great information --- here are some tips for how to share.
Butte College Library
Online Workshop Series
Communicating Your Results
- You've done the research.
- You heard the latest news.
- You've had a great idea.
Now it's time to think about ways to communicate what you know!
This tutorial will help you think about some of the ways people communicate and give you tips for picking and using effective communication tools.
Ways of Communicating
People communicate in many different ways:
- verbal/audio
- visual (images & text)
- physical/tactile
- kinetic
There are many reasons for communicating, and many ways of communicating. We communicate verbally with words and inflections, physically with actions and touch, and visually via imagery and the written word. We communicate in person and by using technology (phones, text messages, e-mail, video or audio recordings, etc.)
Three Questions
Questions to ask yourself when choosing which method of communication to use include:
- Why are you communicating?
- What are you communicating -- what are the subjects and formats of the information?
- Who is your audience -- to whom are you communicating?
In order to determine the best methods for communicating a given idea, concept, or piece of information, you may want to ask yourself a few questions. Why are you communicating? What are you communicating? Some of the formats you use to communicate may be dictated by the situation -- if you are assigned to write a paper for a class, then a phone call won't do the trick! Finally, the methods you use to communicate will also depend on who you are communicating with - your intended audience. In the next few sections, we'll take a closer look at some of the possible answers to these questions.
Why are you communicating?
Reasons for communication vary and might include:
- Sending a quick or informal message to a friend
- Sharing information informally with a group of people, including peers
- Writing a formal paper for a class assignment
- Giving a presentation to a class or group
- Publishing information for a wide audience
- Scheduling a meeting or event
Why are you communicating?
Goals of communicating might also include:
- Socializing
- Informing one or more people about significant events
- Persuading one or more people to adopt a point of view
- Sharing information on a subject of common interest
- Requesting information or assistance
- Creating a reminder for yourself or others
Who is your audience?
- You may only need a phone call, e-mail or text message to a friend.
- A college assignment for an instructor usually requires a formal paper or project.
- A multimedia presentation (such as PowerPoint) may be useful to convey your point of view at a classroom presentation or a formal meeting
- Blogs, web pages, and social network sites can help you connect with people with similar interests
- ALSO REMEMBER: What technological and physical capabilities might your audience have?
Most of our day to day communication is informal. We communicate casually or quickly with friends, peers, and people with similar interests face to face, via telephones, cell phones, text messages, note cards, blogs, tags, and social network sites such as MySpace and Tribe.
hardware, software, access
- What technology does your audience have? It doesn't do much good to use technology to speed communication if your audience doesn't have the tools to receive what you sent.
- Ask yourself:
- What kind of hardware and access can you reasonably expect your recipient to have?
- -- when in doubt, go for small files and most accessible
- What kinds of software can you assume your audience will have?
- -- when in doubt, use text (txt) or rich text format (rtf)
- -- include links to Adobe Reader, PowerPoint reader, etc.
Choosing the best communication method also involves thinking about what kinds of technology your audience may have. Things to consider include access, hardware, and software. Some people may not have cell phone plans with lots of text messaging capabilities, or cell phones with text messaging or video capability Some people do not have new powerful computers with high speed internet connections, or have no or limited personal access to the internet at all! Sending someone in these situations an e-mail full of large graphics or a long .txt message, .mpg, or video clip would not be efficient.
Software
Not everyone can afford proprietary software programs like Microsoft Office's Word, Publisher, Excel & Powerpoint.
If you are creating a document to share in Word, Excel or Publisher, you may wish to provide a link to free open source software, like OpenOffice:
Another consideration is software. A person may not have the right software, or the latest version of software needed to open attached files. Proprietary (licensed and commercial) software programs like Microsoft Office can be very expensive and not every one may be able to afford them. One option to be on the safe side if you are unsure is to "save as" plain text (.txt) or rich text format (.rtf).
Software: Powerpoint
If you are creating a presentation to share in PowerPoint, you may wish to provide a link to PowerPoint Viewer (www.microsoft.com/downloads/), OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org ) or other open source software to allow someone who doesn't have PowerPoint to read your presentation.
Is Your Audience "Techno-Savvy" ?
Even people with new technology may not know how to use all of the capabilities.
They may have:
- Outdated skills
- A preference not to use a certain technology.
In addition, older generations or people who do not have an ongoing need to use or keep up with technology may be less familiar with the latest trends (social networking, blogs, wikis, Web 2.0)
Even people with new technology may not know how to use all of the capabilities. Many people actually do have great computers or the latest cell phones, but their skill at using them may not be up-to-date. Some people simply prefer not to use certain types of tools, or to learn new technologies. (For example, the librarian who created this tutorial is perfectly capable of sending and receiving text messages, but actively doesn't like them.) Older generations or people with less access to emerging technologies may not be familiar or comfortable with the latest social networking tools, including blogs, wikis, tagged lists, and so on.
Ask "How?"
You will also need to know "three hows" of communicating your information:
- How Much?
- What is the amount of detail needed?
- How Soon?
- How quickly does the information need to be delivered -- is it urgent, or is time less of an issue?
- How to Deliver?
- What methods can you use to transfer the information to your audience?
How Much?
Is the communication for a class assignment? Some parameters may already be fixed (word count, number of pages).
Is the information to be communicated lengthy, detailed, and in-depth, or is it a short summary?
Does the communication require inclusion of any additional information (prior drafts, messages, concepts, correspondence or conversations) to be easily understood?
First, how much information do you need to send? For a classroom assignment, this may be pre-determined by the assignment you have been given. You can get more information on analyzing and developing term paper assignments in the Library's drop-in and online workshops, or by asking a librarian. Is the information to be communicated lengthy, detailed, and in-depth or is it a short summary? For example, it is not ideal to use a text message or a voice message to send a lengthy explanation or in-depth analysis. Does the topic of your communication require inclusion of additional information to be easily understood? In some cases, such as an ongoing dialog or group project, it is helpful to include prior drafts or conversations with the latest communication. In this case, e-mail, social network tools such as tagged lists or joint authoring tools can be useful communication media.
How Soon?
- Immediate: face to face, telephone, video conference - "real time"
- Quickly: e-mail, fax, text message
- No urgency: "snail mail," document delivery service, courier, etc.
- Long term, indefinite, ongoing: print, web pages, video or audio formats
The format and method of your communication also depends on how soon the communication needs to occur. The fastest type of communication is "real time"-- frequently either via telephone, video conference, or face to face. Instant messaging, text messaging, and fax may also occur so quickly as to be almost in "real time" but there is no guarantee that the person(s) with whom you are communicating will be available in 'real time' without prior arrangement. Nonetheless, these methods of communicating are still usually much faster than "snail mail" or document delivery. Finally, you may have something to communicate on an ongoing basis -- research, or shared information on hobbies or skills, for example. You might choose print, audio/video, or a web page as your communication method for this type of information.
How to deliver?
Methods of delivery: modes of communication
- Evaluate all of your factors
- What options are available to you?
- Real time or asynchronous?
- Should you use more than one delivery method?
As we have seen, the methods you choose to deliver your information will depend on a number of factors, including what you are communicating, your audience, the available technology, and how quickly you need to effect the communication. As you weigh all these factors and consider the options available to you, you may determine that you actually want or need to use more than one mode of communication to achieve your goal. If you are collaborating on a large project, periodic quick phone calls and some fast text messages or e-mails may need to be interspersed with followed up slower methods of delivering documents. All of these factors will also play a part in one other aspect of "how to deliver" your communication -- and that is the style of the presentation.
How to deliver: style
Methods of delivery: style of presentation
- Formal or informal
- To pun or not to pun
You may need to adopt a range of tones that vary from extremely formal to highly informal. In addition, most people appreciate a certain amount of levity, or gentle humor in communication, but this may not always be appropriate. Use of humor can also notoriously misfire sometimes, or be misunderstood in very negative ways.
Putting It All Together
- There are many factors in finding the most effective ways to communicate.
- People communicate and learn in many ways including verbal, visual & physical.
- Consider why you are communicating, what you are communicating, and who is your intended audience.
- You also need to know how much detail is needed and how soon the information needs to be received
- All of these factors will also tell you how to deliver your information in an effective way.
As we have seen, there are many factors to take in consideration when finding the most effective ways to communicate. Some of these will be decided for you already, but some may not be as apparent.
If you would like additional information on communication skills or using communication technology, Butte College offers great classes in public speaking, using Microsoft PowerPoint and other presentation and communication tools. In addition, you can learn more about any of these subjects by finding books, e-Books and periodical and journal articles in the Library's collections. Just ask us how!
Congratulations!
You've reached the end of the "Communicating Your Results" library tutorial.
Interested in more information on communication skills? Check out the Library's books and article databases or ask a librarian!
Good luck, and happy communicating!
