Partitioning tablespace impact on data purging

DB is Oracle Enterprise 11.2.0.3 edition

tablespace stats has multiple tables which in turn have multiple partitions.

Goal is to reclaim space on server.

I wish to drop a number of partitions from tables A,B,C, all tables reside in tablespace stats.  Other tables also reside in tablespace stats.

1. is it better to truncate the partitions to insure that the data is deleted rather than just drop the partitions?

2. do I then coalesce the tablespace to reclaim the newly freed space in stats?

Thanks,

Janet