Oral Communication
8h
Class hours
7
Topics
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0/7 done
Why This Unit Matters
From a two-minute phone call to a formal board presentation, oral communication is the channel where careers are made or broken. This unit covers every professional speaking scenario you will encounter.
Professional Telephone Etiquette
A phone call is often the first real-time professional impression you make. Unlike face-to-face communication, you have only your voice — no body language to back you up.
Making Calls — The 3-Point Introduction
- Name the person you are calling
- Identify yourself and your affiliation
- State the reason briefly
Example: "Good morning, may I speak to Mr. Sharma? This is Rina Karki from Sunrise IT. I'm calling about the server upgrade proposal."
Receiving Calls
- Identify immediately: "IT Department, [Name] speaking. How may I help you?"
- The "I Don't Know" rule: Never say "I don't know." Say "That's a good question; let me investigate."
- Write messages down immediately; repeat spelling of names and numbers
The 3-Part Checklist: Before · During · After
Before
- Choose the right time
- Check the number
- Plan your call (list points)
- Gather files/papers
- Avoid interruptions
During
- Be courteous, establish rapport
- Put a smile in your voice
- Check your notes
- Obtain feedback
- Close positively
After
- Make notes of the call
- Place notes in the appropriate file
- Take immediate action on follow-ups
The 3-Part Checklist (Before/During/After) is a classic 5-mark exam question. Know all points for each phase.
Public Speaking & Presentations
"You become the message." — Roger Ailes. Delivery is not separate from content; the audience judges ideas through the speaker.
Monologue
One-way speech. Suitable for large, formal audiences (conferences, ceremonies). Limited engagement.
Guided Discussion
Speaker presents with audience interaction. Speaker controls direction and time. More participatory.
Interactive
High audience involvement — feels like a conversation. Common in sales, training, workshops.
Delivery Do's
- Know your audience — tailor vocabulary
- Structure clearly — use signposting ("First…", "To conclude…")
- Maintain open posture and eye contact
- Vary tone, use strategic pauses
- Support claims with evidence and data
- Practice aloud, timed
Delivery Don'ts
- Don't read slides — destroys credibility
- Don't overload jargon
- Don't use fillers: "um", "uh", "like"
- Don't speak too fast (nervousness) or slow
- Don't turn your back to the audience
- Don't cram too many ideas — value depth
4 Methods of Presentation
Manuscript
Read word-for-word from a script. Accurate but sounds monotonous. Use only when precision is legally required.
Memorised
Delivered entirely from memory. Sounds artificial; increases stage fright. Only memorise key facts/statistics.
Impromptu
Unplanned, spontaneous. Organise: Intro → Body → Conclusion. Accept the opportunity confidently; don't apologise.
Extemporaneous
Planned and rehearsed but NOT memorised word-for-word. Sounds natural. The BEST method for most professional settings.
Know all 4 presentation methods and when to use each. Extemporaneous is almost always the correct answer for "best method."
Meetings, Agenda & Minutes
A meeting is only as useful as its record. Minutes are the permanent document that transforms spoken decisions into written accountability.
Agenda
- Programme/outline of business to be conducted
- Prepared by the Secretary
- Distributed 3–4 days before the meeting
- Accompanies the meeting notice
Standard Agenda Format
- Apologies for absence
- Minutes of last meeting
- Matters arising
- Chairperson's report
- Agenda topics (with speaker names)
- Any other business (AOB)
- Date of next meeting
Minutes of Meeting — 3 Styles
Verbatim
Word-for-word record. Used in court reporting and legal settings.
Narration
Includes key discussions and important details. Considered a legal document.
Resolution
Records only the actual words of passed resolutions. Starts with "RESOLVED THAT..."
Body of Minutes Must Include
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Agenda & Minutes
- Writing minutes in first person ("I discussed…") — always use third person, past tense ("The Chair discussed…")
- Recording every word spoken instead of summarising decisions and actions clearly
- Forgetting the ACTION items — every decision needs a named person + deadline
- Omitting "Apologies for Absence" — absentees must always be recorded
- Distributing the agenda on the day of the meeting — it should go out 3–4 days in advance
Know the 3 styles of minutes (Verbatim, Narration, Resolution) and be able to write minutes in reported speech, past tense, impersonal tone. The agenda always has "AOB" and "Date of Next Meeting" as the final items.
The Elevator Pitch
An elevator pitch is a quick, persuasive summary of yourself or your idea — delivered in ~30 seconds, the length of an elevator ride. It creates a connection that can be developed later.
The 5-Step Pitch Template
1. Hook
Open with a question or a surprising statement
2. Who
State who you are and your role/background
3. What
What you do or what your idea solves
4. Value
The specific benefit or outcome you deliver
5. CTA
A clear next step ("I'd love 15 minutes to discuss this")
4 Pitfalls to Avoid
- Rambling — exceeding 30 seconds loses interest
- Industry Jargon — technical terms confuse or alienate
- Lack of Personalisation — one-size-fits-all rarely works
- Missing CTA — ending without a next step leaves the listener unsure
The 5 steps of the elevator pitch and its contexts (job interviews, networking, business) are standard short-answer material.
Professional Interviewing
An interview is a formal, structured conversation with a specific objective. Both interviewer and interviewee have distinct roles in each of its three stages.
The Opening (First 60 sec)
- Build rapport — use common ground (weather, shared environment)
- Interviewer explains what will happen
- Set ground rules: purpose, how info is used, time length
The Body
- Interviewer: keep focused on agenda; use probing questions to clarify vague answers
- Interviewee: give precise answers; actively listen; ensure key qualifications are mentioned
- Both: focus on the respondent, not just the next question
The Closing
- Summarise main points of the conversation
- Establish a clear timeline for next steps
- End with sincere appreciation and professional well-wishes
Professional Idioms & Expressions
Idioms are fixed phrases whose meaning cannot be deduced word-by-word. Professional English is saturated with them. Misunderstanding or misusing idioms marks you as outside the professional community.
| Idiom | Meaning | Professional example |
|---|---|---|
| Touch base | Briefly communicate / check in | "Let's touch base after the demo to align on next steps." |
| On the same page | Have the same understanding | "Before we begin, I want to make sure we're all on the same page about the timeline." |
| Take the lead | Be the one to direct or manage | "Could you take the lead on client communication this week?" |
| Move the needle | Produce meaningful change/progress | "This feature won't move the needle — it doesn't address user pain points." |
| Low-hanging fruit | Easy task that delivers quick results | "Fix the login bug first — it's low-hanging fruit and blocks all other users." |
| Circle back | Return to a topic later | "We're out of time — let's circle back on item 5 next meeting." |
| Bandwidth | Capacity to take on more work | "I don't have the bandwidth for this project right now — I'm already on three deadlines." |
| Hit the ground running | Start a task with immediate full effort | "We need someone who can hit the ground running — no onboarding time available." |
| Going forward | From now on / in the future | "Going forward, all deployment changes must be approved by the team lead." |
| Deliverable | A specific, tangible output with a deadline | "The deliverables for this sprint are the login module and user dashboard." |
| Stakeholder | Anyone with an interest in the project's outcome | "We need to align stakeholders before the launch — legal, finance, and the client." |
| Pain point | A specific problem experienced by the user | "The primary pain point is slow load time on mobile — users abandon after 3 seconds." |
Idioms are tested in fill-in-the-blank and sentence-completion questions. Know the meaning AND a professional context for each. "Bandwidth" (capacity) and "deliverable" (output with deadline) are especially common in IT contexts.
Reported Speech (Indirect Speech)
Minutes of meetings are always written in reported speech. So are interview summaries, incident reports, and case notes. This is one of the most practical grammar skills in professional writing — and one of the most commonly tested.
What is Reported Speech?
Direct speech reports the exact words spoken, in quotation marks.
Reported speech conveys the same meaning without quotation marks, often with tense, pronoun, and time expression changes.
Rule 1 — Tense Back-Shift
| Direct (original tense) | Reported (back-shifted tense) | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Simple Present | Simple Past | "I work here" → She said she worked there. |
| Present Continuous | Past Continuous | "I am working" → He said he was working. |
| Present Perfect | Past Perfect | "I have finished" → She said she had finished. |
| Simple Past | Past Perfect | "I sent the email" → He said he had sent the email. |
| will | would | "I will attend" → She said she would attend. |
| can | could | "I can do this" → He said he could do it. |
| may | might | "I may be late" → She said she might be late. |
Rule 2 — Pronoun Changes
I → he/she
"I am ready" → She said she was ready.
we → they
"We need this" → They said they needed it.
my → his/her
"This is my report" → He said it was his report.
you → I/he/she
"You should attend" → She told me I should attend.
our → their
"Our plan is ready" → They said their plan was ready.
Rule 3 — Time Expression Changes
Reported Questions
Use if/whether for yes/no questions. Use question word for WH-questions. Change to statement word order (no inversion).
"Are you coming?" → She asked if I was coming.
"Where do you work?" → He asked where I worked.
Reported Commands
Use told + object + infinitive for commands. Use asked + object + infinitive for requests.
"Submit the report" → She told him to submit the report.
"Please wait" → He asked me to wait.
Reported Speech in Meeting Minutes
Spoken (Direct)
Minutes (Reported)
"I will present the Q1 report." — Priya
Ms Shrestha stated that she would present the Q1 report.
"We need to reduce the budget by 5%." — Anil
Mr Gurung informed the meeting that the budget needed to be reduced by 5%.
"Are all the action items from last time completed?" — Chair
The Chair asked whether all the action items from the previous meeting had been completed.
"Please send the agenda by Monday." — Secretary
The Secretary requested that the agenda be sent by the following Monday.
Reported speech is tested as direct-to-reported conversion exercises. Know the three rules: tense back-shift, pronoun change, time expression change. Minutes are always in reported speech, past tense, impersonal third person.
Model Scripts: Call, Interview & Elevator Pitch
Seeing complete examples is more useful than rules alone. These model scripts show each genre in action — annotated to explain why each line works.
Script 1 — Making a Professional Phone Call
Context: BCA intern calling a company to confirm an interview appointment.
Script 2 — BCA Job Interview (Excerpt)
Context: Sujata Thapa in a junior software developer interview at Sunrise IT. The body stage of the three-part interview structure.
Script 3 — Elevator Pitch for a BCA Graduate
Context: Networking event. Delivering a 30-second pitch to a tech professional. Annotated against the 5-step template.
Model scripts are used in practical exam questions ("Write a dialogue for..." or "Roleplay a phone call..."). The STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) for interview answers is a direct application of the 7 Cs — Clarity, Completeness, and Concreteness.
Readings: Maria Ressa & "Death by PowerPoint"
Commencement Speech
Maria Ressa
Harvard University, 2024
Genre: Political speech / Journalism
"Our World on Fire Needs You"
Maria Ressa is the founder of Rappler, an independent Filipino news organisation, and the co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for her work safeguarding freedom of expression. She has been arrested or charged over 10 times by the Philippine government. Delivered to Harvard's Class of 2024 when democratic backsliding was accelerating globally, this speech argues that information warfare — not armies — is how democracies fall.
Full Summary
Ressa opens with a stark diagnosis: democracy is not being destroyed by bullets but by the slow poisoning of the information ecosystem. Social media platforms were designed to maximise engagement, and their internal research confirmed what their algorithms already knew — outrage, fear, and hatred drive more engagement than calm, factual content. Facebook's own studies showed hateful content gets six times more interaction than neutral posts. The result is a world where citizens cannot agree on basic facts, and without shared facts, democracy cannot function.
She presents her central argument as a logical chain: without facts there is no truth; without truth there is no trust; without trust there is no shared reality; without shared reality there is no democracy; and without democracy there is no freedom. This chain — which she calls the collapse of the information ecosystem — is not a metaphor. She lived it personally. Rappler was bombarded with coordinated harassment campaigns; she received hundreds of rape and death threats daily, organised by bots and amplified by algorithms. She was arrested multiple times, but each arrest generated more subscribers and more international attention. "Crises are how you find out who you are."
Her three lessons to graduates address this challenge personally. First: choose your best self before you face a crisis. Under pressure, people reveal who they already decided to be. Pre-commit to your values when you are calm, not when you are cornered. Second: turn crisis into opportunity — every attack Rappler survived became a demonstration of why independent journalism matters. Third: embrace Ubuntu, the African philosophy captured in the phrase "I am because we are." The Western model of individual success is a trap; connection and community are not weakness but the source of resilience. Individualism isolates you when crises arrive.
The speech ends with a call to action. Graduates are entering a world in which every platform they use, every product they build, and every choice they make will either feed the fire or fight it. "The most dangerous thing we can do is nothing." Individual action, she insists, is not naive — it is the only option left.
Key Quotes
"If you don't have facts, you don't have truth. If you don't have truth, you don't have trust. And democracy needs all three."
▸ This is the speech's structural spine — the Truth Chain. It frames information not as a resource but as the foundation of civic life. If the chain breaks at any link, democratic participation becomes impossible.
"Online violence is real-world violence."
▸ Ressa pushes back against the idea that harassment online is harmless because it is digital. Coordinated harassment campaigns cause real psychological harm, silence real voices, and have real consequences — journalists are imprisoned, activists are killed after online targeting.
"The most dangerous thing we can do is nothing."
▸ A direct rejection of the bystander position. Inaction in the face of information warfare is not neutrality — it is complicity. The speech is a call to engagement, not complacency.
Themes
Democracy & Information
Democratic participation requires shared factual reality — without it, civic discourse collapses.
Algorithm-Driven Polarisation
Platforms profit from outrage, creating structural incentives that actively damage the information ecosystem.
Journalistic Courage
Ressa models perseverance under state persecution — demonstrating that truth-telling has personal costs.
Individual Responsibility
Each person's digital behaviour either sustains or degrades the information commons.
Ubuntu / Collective Resilience
Community is strength, not weakness. The individual cannot survive information warfare alone.
Analytical Questions
Essay
Angela Garber
Small Business Computing, 2001
Genre: Business communication
"Death by PowerPoint"
Angela Garber's essay became one of the most widely reprinted articles about presentation design. The title was coined humorously — "death by PowerPoint" names the slow torture of being subjected to poorly designed presentations. Published in 2001, the essay identified patterns of failure that remain entirely relevant today, despite 20+ years of supposedly improving presentation software.
Full Summary — The 6 Presentation Killers
Garber's central argument is that technology should enhance communication, not replace the communicator. Every one of her six identified mistakes flows from the same root error: treating the slide deck as the presentation rather than as a visual support for the presenter.
1. The Data Dump
The presenter overloads slides with every fact they know. Fix: the Six-by-Six Rule — maximum 6 bullets per slide, 6 words per bullet. Slides give a headline, not the full report.
2. The Wrong Speech
The presenter hasn't analysed who the audience is. A technical presentation for executives fails as badly as a business presentation for engineers. Fix: profile your audience first.
3. Slide Slavery
The presenter reads directly from the screen, back to audience, no eye contact. Fix: YOU are the presentation. Slides are visual support. If you could be replaced by a PDF, you should be.
4. The Handout Handoff
Distributing handouts at the start means the audience reads ahead and stops listening. Fix: distribute at the end, or hand out face-down with instructions to open at specific moments.
5. The Dimmer Dilemma
Turning lights off completely to show slides causes the audience to disengage, feel sleepy, and lose attention. Fix: partial lighting maintains energy and connection.
6. The Unprepared
Not testing equipment, not knowing the room, arriving without a backup. Fix: arrive 30 minutes early, test every cable, have a Plan B — printed copies if the projector fails.
The essay's core principle: the presenter is the message. Every piece of advice flows from this. The audience came to hear you think — not to watch you read a list of bullet points. A slide that can stand alone without a speaker has already failed its purpose.
Key Quotes
"Never use a slide as a crutch."
▸ A crutch is used because you cannot stand on your own. Garber's point is that presenters who depend on their slides have stopped being communicators and become narrators of someone else's document.
"Your slides should be a visual guide — not a transcript of your speech."
▸ The slide exists to complement spoken words, not repeat them. If every word you say is on the screen, the audience has no reason to listen to you — they can read faster than you speak.
"The presenter is the presentation."
▸ Garber's central thesis in its most condensed form. The technology is secondary. The human being in the room — their credibility, knowledge, energy, and connection to the audience — is the actual communication event.
Themes
Speaker vs Tool
The tool exists to serve the speaker — when the relationship inverts, communication dies.
Audience Analysis
Effective communication starts with profiling who you are speaking to, not what you want to say.
Technology Dependence
Software designed to help can become a crutch that prevents the skill it was meant to support.
The Speaker as Content
Your knowledge, credibility, and presence are the actual content — slides are packaging.
Preparation vs Performance
Most presenters spend more time on slides than on delivery — a fundamental misallocation.
Analytical Questions
Practice & Quiz
Active Recall Questions
Meeting agenda, speech delivery methods, and telephone etiquette are frequently examined.
What is the 3-Part Introduction for telephone calls? What should you do before, during, and after a call?
What are the 4 methods of speech delivery? Compare their advantages and disadvantages.
What are the 3 styles of meeting minutes? When is each appropriate?
What are the 5 steps of an effective elevator pitch?
What are the 3 stages of a professional interview? What happens at each stage?
Exam-Style Questions
Practice writing full answers in the CACS 109 exam format.
Write a sample agenda for a formal business meeting. Explain the purpose of each component. [5 marks]
5 marksWhat are the common mistakes identified as "Death by PowerPoint"? How can they be avoided? [5 marks]
5 marksExplain the 5-step elevator pitch with an example for a tech startup. [3 marks]
3 marksQuick Revision
How to Remember
How to Remember Unit 2
Unit 2 covers everything spoken: telephone etiquette, public speaking delivery methods, meeting agendas, elevator pitches, and professional interviewing. These tricks help you recall structured processes under exam pressure.
Mnemonics
4 Speech Delivery Methods
M-M-I-E
Elevator Pitch — 5 Steps
HWWVC
Meeting Minutes — 3 Styles
VNR
Interview — 3 Stages
BDA
Memory Tricks
Telephone Intro — The 3-Point Formula
Picture a greeting card with 3 lines. Line 1: Time of day ('Good morning'). Line 2: Your organization. Line 3: Your name + offer. Always answer before the 3rd ring and never say 'hold on' without explaining why.
Extemporaneous vs Impromptu — The Chef Analogy
Extemporaneous = a chef who knows their menu and recipes but cooks fresh without a script. Impromptu = a chef asked to cook with mystery ingredients right now. Extemporaneous is prepared but not scripted; impromptu is truly on-the-spot.
Meeting Agenda — The 9-Point Template
Remember: Call → Welcome → Minutes → Reports → Main → New → AOB → Next Date → Adjourn. Every formal meeting follows this skeleton. If asked to write an agenda, these 9 items never fail.
Death by PowerPoint — 6 Mistakes
Think of presenting to a bored audience: too much Data, reading the Wrong speech, being a Slide slave (no eye contact), giving Handouts early, Dimming lights, being Unprepared. DWSHDU — Don't Waste Slides Having Dim Un-readiness.
Elevator Pitch — The Time Constraint
The name is literal: your pitch must fit in an elevator ride. 30-60 seconds. If the elevator reaches the floor and you haven't finished your call to action, you've already lost. Practice out loud until it feels natural, not memorised.
Interview STAR Method
When answering behavioral questions ('Tell me about a time when...'), use STAR: Situation → Task → Action → Result. This gives your answer structure without rambling. Prepare 3-5 STAR stories before any interview.
Before the Exam: Unit 2 Checklist