Words Convey Two Kinds of Meaning, Not One

There is always more than one meaning of a word or a phrase. As all good writers know, terms convey two distinctly different kind of meanings simultaneously. These two kinds of meaning correspond to the intellectual-emotional duality in human thinking and behavior.
One is denotation, the cognitive meaning, and the second is connotation, the emotion or associational aspect of a term.

DENOTATION, also known as cognitive meaning, refers to the direct relationship between a term and the object, idea, or action it designates [the familiar "dictionary" meaning].

CONNOTATION, also known as affective meaning, refers to the emotive or associational aspect of a term [not available in dictionaries].
(McArthur, T. The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992)

"Skill in using the emotional appeal of connotation is essential in any writing designed to persuade, convince, anger, inspire, or soothe a reader."-- McCrimmon, J.M. Writing with a Purpose. Cambridge, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1950.

Emotional Dictionary http://www.writing.ws/

Minutes of the Meeting of Sheridan Park Club Toastmasters – July 27, 2005

Our punctual SAA Rudi at exactly 7.15pm started the Sheridan Park TM meeting, with 18 members and introduced Peter Chen as Chair of the meeting.

The theme of the meeting “I cannot live without books” everyone could see it on Clive’s T-shirt, a subtle reminder to the members that didn’t have time to check the agenda.

In his Toast, Daniel’s perseverance into finding the formula for success was emphasized by Krish & Mythili daughter personal example. Kavita, a Canadian junior national champion in all age categories, with an international superb activity, will perform this week at Rogers cup with the best players in the world. Her continual persistence and effort are powerful steps toward the achievement of success.

Alice and Yvonne settled the tone of the meeting with FUN and some creative words from Joke of the Day.

As Table Topic Master, Clive investigated our library code cracking skills. Rudi and Carol shared the Best Table Topic award because Rudi secretly likes Jim Carry, and Carols name means exposure in French.

Peter the business likes serious with a nice smile opened the floor to business meeting on time and the parliamentary procedure was used efficiently.

Carol proposed that a motion to vote for membership to be moved the next meeting.

Di as Toastmaster elegantly introduced the speakers.
Simona with her speech “It’s time for travel to Europe!” - CTM #8 - almost convinced us showing about 8K pictures and took us with her thru Europe.
Harry shared with us his hacker skills and secrets in his speech “Don’t be part of the statistics!” CTM #3.

Simona was awarded as the Best Speaker.

Mythili as GE did a superb job with her clear insights, as well as her evaluators.
Kai and Johnny the “beer specialist” did a great evaluation and complimented Harry for his nice… slim and beautiful posture, for which he got the Best Evaluator award.

Abdullah, Robert and Carol helped with Timer & Grammarian’s Reports, and Listening Quiz.

Peter awarded Daniel with Spark of the Meeting for his help to make him more nervous during the meeting and invited our Krish William Shakespeare to offer us his Thought for the Day.

We adjourned the meeting just before 9:15

Members attending: Rudi, Peter, Clive, Daniel, Mythili, Alice, Yvonne, Carol, Di, Simona, Harry, Kai, Johnny, Abdullah, Krish, Ted, Emily, Robert.

For those of you who were not able to attend, we missed you and hope to see you at future meetings.

Tips on Impromptu Speaking

"One of the best things I got from Toastasters was learning the skill to think and speak on my feet. Much to my surprise the ability to improvise is a skill that can be learned. The first time I witnessed a Toastmasters contest for impromtu speaking, (Toastmasters calls it Table Topics), I was blown away!

In this contest each contestant was allowed into the room one at at time. They were given the word for this contest. The word was 'light'. Then each in turn marched confidently to the front of the room and each delivered a three minute speech that they composed on the spot. They were entertatining, insipiring, thoughtul and funny. I thought, "I could never do that!"

From Toastmasters I learned how to do that and below are some of the techniques I learned. You can use these techniques in Table Topics or in any situation where you need to think and speak on your feet.." George Torok

1. When you first hear the topic smile. This will help you feel good and look confident.
2. Immediately decide if you strongly like it or strongly hate it. Then go in that direction. Your emotion will fuel your thoughts. Don’t sit on the fence - watching someone sit on a fence is so boring. But watching them jump into the corral and wrestle the bull - that is a lot more entertaining.
3. One approach is to state, ‘There are three things that come to mind about this topic.’, even if you can not think of three things when you start. As you speak you will be searching for three key ideas. It helps give you apparent structure. If you run out of time to list all three, announce that you will explain more another time.
4. Try the pro/con method. State the pros, then state the cons. This can be confusing to the audience about where you stand on this topic. To give your position - be stronger on one side than the other. You could even make fun of the opposite side by mocking their views. Be very careful with this because sarcasm turns people off and can turn them against you.
5. When your mind goes blank and you don’t know what to say next - smile, look at the audience and pause. They will review your last words and reflect on how profound they were. The one or few second pause is powerful and it gives you time to plan your next words.
6. If the pause and smile don’t get you going - repeat the topic or your last point in a profound way. You could even repeat it more than once. This is like revving your engine. Your thoughts collect then suddenly your mouth engages again.
7. Look for a lesson you can find in this word. Relate this word to a book you read, a TV show, a movie, the daily news, a community project, your work or your hobby.
8. Everybody has family. Bring your family into this topic. It is the universal way to relate to everyone. When you talk about family be sure to use names - it makes a stronger emotional picture for the audience.
9. Use the topic to segue to your main message. Politicians do this all the time. If you ask them about corruption in their campaign they talk about why you should vote for them and all the great things they did for the community. Make it a smooth transition and the audience will go with you.
10. Build in humor early. When the audience laughs with you, they relax and so do you. Plus that gives you a shot of confidence.

Bonus tip: Speak slowly - it gives you time to think.

Toastmaster Tips courtesy of George Torok Professional Speaker, Radio Show Host, Toastmaster
http://www.geocities.com/george_torok/TableTopics.html

© George Torok is licensed to present Power Presentations™ by Peter Urs Bender, author of the best seller 'Secrets of Power Presentations'. Torok is co-author of 'Secrets of Power Marketing' and host of the radio show Business in Motion. He delivers seminars across North America on thinking and communication skills. He can be reached at (905) 335-1997 or Coach@Torok.com For more tips visit http://www.torok.com/ and http://www.speechcoachforexecutives.com/