Essay on 3 US Presidents' Effective Communication Skills: George W. Bush, Obama, Re

Introduction

Effective communication skills are significant elements in enhancing a proper flow of the source to target parties. Therefore effective communicators articulate vital parameters in their speech that underpin coherence and fluency in passing the intended message. This article focuses on identifying essential and effective communication skills displayed by three United States of America's presidents in their speeches. They are President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama and President Reagan.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

President Barrack Hussein Obama's Speech

President Barrack Obama presents a courteous trait of an effective communicator while delivering his speech in Chicago, Illinois. Throughout his speech, he displays his polite nature by thanking the United States of American people for voting him in as their president. He acknowledges the voters and the campaign team, terming them as the most excellent team he has ever seen in the history of politics in the United States of America (YouTube, n.d.). Furthermore, he promises them that his victory is theirs through upholding democracy on the government of the people, for the people and by the people. He talks about his step of reaching out to his presidential competitor and informs the audience that he will work hand-in-hand with his competitors towards achieving the dreams of the United States. Hence courteous is a dominant communication skill element in his speech.

Concreteness is another communication skill element of effective communication depicted in Barrack Obama's speech. Through the use of his political slogan "Yes We Can!" he manages to concentrate all his concrete points to revolve around this slogan hence making the audience remain attentive throughout his speech. He expresses his points with the support of his slogan "Yes We Can!" therefore making the points greatly stick in the minds of the American people in attendance as the large number of the audience seem joyful and pleased with the presentation. Through his speech, he traversed all points making each point understood by the audience since he stresses and uses the phrases that directly describe his points (YouTube, n.d.). Thus, this effective communicator tool played a significant role in maintaining the attention of the audience throughout his speech.

President Barrack Obama utilized the nonverbal element in his speech. He moved around the stage while waving and talking to people hence making the audience create more interest to listen and hear more about him. He uses body language in stressing items and making explanations, which enables the audience to develop curiosity and urge to listen to his speech. The audience at some point could chant yes we can slogan, therefore, indicating that they were very attentive and keenly following the president's speech. Eye contact is another element that he regularly employed in his speech as he takes glances on the audience and could sometimes focus on some of them with an eye contact situation; he delivered his speech successfully.

President George W. Bush's Speech

President George W. Bush in his speech after the 911 attack, he depicts coherence that makes him an effective communicator while addressing the Members of the Congress. He is very consistent and logical in his points with minimum interference of the flow of his points. He utilized the use of connectors across his speech, which makes his points flow and logical. He describes the strength of the unity of the United States of America after the attack and allows the Member of Congress to react on his remarks by taking a commercial moment of silence. The ability of the latter to develop coherence in his speech makes his points highly understandable and synthesizable by the members of the congress who are the main audience of his speech (YouTube, n.d.). Therefore, he achieves to pass his message to the audience mainly through his coherence across his speech.

Subsequently, President George W. Bush engages the audience by allowing them inter-speech reactions. As he explains the unfolding of the 911 attacks and how the United States of America will bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice, he engages the Members of the Congress to clap and applaud to his remarks (YouTube, n.d.). Through this trait, he captures the absolutely full attention of the audience, where he later explained the whole incidence to the audience, who are very quiet and highly attentive. He makes it clear that he is reading from the same script with all the audience by use of this audience engagement tool that enhanced a harmonized environment for him to deliver his speech despite the audience being of political traits.

George W. Bush further uses a situational choice of word. He uses specific words and terminologies related to the situation at hand without swaying out of his topic. Since he is addressing the issues of 911 attacks on twin towers located in the American soil, he sticks to terrorism and related items and how the United States of America will respond to the attack. With the strict use of this situational choice of word, he manages to contain the Members of the Congress with minimum objections from them despite the fact that the high tensions in the nation. He condemns terrorism and any country that might fall as sympathizers of the terrorists and terrorist acts. Situational choice of word is the crucial element in his speech since the situation by that moment called selective use of specific terms that suits the prevailing circumstances.

President Reagan's Speech

President Regan depicts a wide range of effective communicator traits in his "Berlin Wall" Speech. He displays an element of precision in his speech as he addresses the audience. Straight to the points, he goes by mentioning the reason why he is in berlin and how significant Germany is to the United States of America. He uses very brief and clear descriptions of explaining various items hence getting the full attention of the audience who regularly compliment his points through clapping and applauding. Through the reaction of the audience, it is explicitly evident that their points put across by President Reagan are coherent, precises, and easily understandable (YouTube, n.d.). Therefore, his speech depicts a significant communication skill element of precision.

Moreover, President Reagan presents the element of composure in his speech. He handles all the points in a composed and sober manner by allowing a turn-taking situation. He mentions his two predecessor presidents of the United States of America who had initially visited the country, and then it was his turn. Through his speech, he looks composed and full of points to pour to the audience as he explains each point he makes. The composure is evident in his flow of pint with short commercial pauses that allow the audience to contribute through complementing and waving of the United States of America's flags (YouTube, n.d.). Through this element, the effective communicator characteristic is clearly pronounced, and it allows the audience to siphon all the information.

Conciseness is yet another element vivid in President Reagan's speech. He uses the very short period to deliver his speech to the audience, which indicates that he instilled high information processing in his speech. He only focuses on the relevant items which are straight to delivering the intended purpose (YouTube, n.d.). The audience seemed to be focusing on President Reagan's speech keenly through their contribution in the process by paying attention and only take turns when the speaker introduces a short open forum. He utilizes a short time to deliver only the key items in his speech, which is one of the main traits of an effective communicator while addressing the audience. Hence President Reagan, in his speech, explicitly displayed conciseness in his speech and made his speech a success.

References

YouTube [Video]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wPuY5hI96U&t=22s

The President Reagan Presidential Library YouTube [Video]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MDFX-dNtsM&t=40s

NCB News YouTube [Video]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnvUUauFJ98