Kien Nguyen
Communicate Ideas
Having ideas developed in your mind but not having the ability to transfer that idea out for other people is painful.
This is a problem that I have always have, but hasn't taken the time to really sit down and think of a solution for it.
Although thoughout the decades of speaking and writing, I just did it with my instinc and not really distill a way of conveying ideas out of my head.
This makes me communicate slowly most of the time, and not giving out much points at the end of it.
I have been more interested in improving this aspect of myself recently.
I've searched for communication books to read, but the books that I've found about this topic don't go into the process of turning thoughts into vocals or written words like what I've been trying to find.
This have let me to do this study by myself.
I then having a closer look in conversations and speeches that I can find online, and notice their speaking patterns.
I saw that there are three ways that points are form in conversations and speeches, I call them "progressive", "listing", and "comparative".
A point, or an argument, can be formed by giving a series of progressive points, starting from one spot to arrive to the conclusion, which is the point the speaker are trying to make.
I imagine this way of expressing a point like a journey.
The speaker start at a location where their beliefs are one way, and after going through different scenarios or supporting points, arriving at the final point they're trying to convey.
A point can also be expressed through a list of small supporting points, which act as ingredients to produce the big point at the end.
Finally, a point can also be expressed by not one series of small points, but as as a comparison, where a series of small points are put into one side of the argument is compared by another series of points on the other side.
When trying to give out a point, the speaker can switch in between these three ways. The speaker can start out their point, or "paragraph", by choosing one of the three ways described above. The supporting points of that "paragraph" can then be further explained using a small section of a different form of expression, then return to the main progress, list, or comparison that they have initially started with.
It's also worth noting that in during a conversation, sometimes a point isn't arrived after a person's turn of speaking, and the conversation is sidetracked into another subject.
This is totally fine in a conversation, as there are also values in the supporting ideas that the speaker have given in their turn, even though they aren't accumulated into a full point at the end.
Being able to notice these three ways that ideas are being conveyed can help you better understand what others are trying to convey, and help you practice putting your thoughts into a more cohesive order so that other people can have an easier time understanding what you're trying make them understand.