Question

Identify and provide examples of at least five of the nine basic cognate strategies in communication.

Answer 1

The nine basic cognate strategies in communication are:

1. Tone
2. Emphasis
3. Engagement
4. Clarity
5. Conciseness
6. Arrangement
7. Credibility
8. Expectations
9. Reference

Credibility refers to the cognate strategy that is related to ethics. Credibility requires skills, abilities, or the power to arouse the public’s belief in the individual’s character.

Example: If an individual presents a persuasive speech about the safety of drivers, starting the speech with a short story about how the speaker has helped his organization to implement a “ Driver safety program” helps the audience to understand the relationship with the message that in turn shapes a positive perception of the credibility.

Expectations refer to the implied norms, roles, and results of the speaker and the speech. The audience will have expectations inherent in themselves and to the individual based on the rhetoric situation.

Example: If an individual gives a speech after dinner to a meeting where audience members have had plenty to eat and drink, most of the audience expects the speech to be humor and fun in the rhetorical situation. On the other hand, If the same individual approaches a set of school students to talk about the importance of obtaining a high school diploma and go to college, the expectations are to be informational.

Emphasis refers to the emotional appeal while presenting a speech to a particular audience. It is necessary to consider how the individual links the ideas through transitions, how it is rephrased, and the points are ordered to determine the strategy of focus in the presentation.

Example: If an individual is using a visual aid to support the speech about preventing the skin cancer in which the slides in the presentation has a visually arresting image (like two people wearing very little clothing). The image can capture attention by clearly focusing on the skin which can be more of a distraction than attention.

Conciseness is another important strategy as it simply points out key elements that one needs to focus on, that means brief and straight to the points avoiding unnecessary words. Concision refers to be brief and to the visual and verbal delivery of your message, and avoiding unnecessary complexity.

Example: If an individual has only five to seven minutes to talk about blood donation, it is necessary to manage the time by focussing on the message clearly based on the what is blood donation, positives, the need for blood donation, etc., instead of having unnecessary and complex information in the speech like the history of blood donation, statistics in graphs, etc.,

Engagement occurs when the speaker forms a relationship with the audience members. Eye contact can be engaging an aspect of this strategy and can help form a connection to engage with the individual audience members.

Example: When presenting a speech, looking at the floor or ceiling does not display interest to the public which also exhibits that the speaker is less confident. Instead, it is better to engage with the public by considering words, visuals, and other relevant elements to engage the audience.