WRT333

Oral Presentations

Syllabus | Table of Pages | Assignments | Powerpoint

Writing Before Speaking

When you speak, you and your audience are dance partners; you need to know your moves, and you need to work together for it all to succeed. Before speaking, you should write out your speech well in advance. Your main purpose in doing this is to think about your audience as you craft your messages. As you think, you slowly build a document to guide your practice and preparations, the two keys to easing your anxieties about public speaking. But will you read the speech from the document you write? Of course not! So why bother, really?

Your focus as a writer and speaker is always on the audience. The key difference between a reader and a listener is that the listener does not have a text to return to or review. Your speech will be one pass, from beginning to end, with no chance to rewind or replay (outside of a few possible questions at the end, or a chat outside of the meeting room); your audience either gets your message as it is delivered, or not at all. There are no pages to flip back through, no place to go back to look up the term or the acronym, no time to reflect, digest, filter. You know that people will drift off and loose the thread of thoughts; you have to write differently to prepare your speech.

We should acknowledge that most of us dread public speaking. Even if we do it regularly, as teachers do, we still need to organize our ideas, work out our timing, choose our words, simplify our sentences, and calm ourselves through knowing we are prepared. Writing helps us do all of this.

Woodford (1999) suggests that we plan a talk (he refers to the typical 10-minute presentation) with these aims:

In most academic settings, audience members preselect their talks because they are interested in the printed title (from a meeting agenda or talk announcement) (unless they are attending an obligatory departmental affair, in which they probably have less than optimal interest but will listen politely anyway). Woodford suggests a number of ways to get attention through a clever opening (narrative, quotation, rhetorical question, startling statement, comparison or contrast, statement of common interest), but I suspect that this need is too easily overstated. Don't go out of your way to delight yourself with your clever opener. Instead, write a clear statement of the nature and scope of your presentation. Use this as a title slide. And get on with it (your 10-minute clock is ticking...).

Woodford (1999) says that the advantage of writing out even a short talk includes that writing allows you to check your logical development, work on transitions between thoughts, write short sentences with strong verbs and lively images and phrases. He also sees writing as a means to drop inessential items, to choose familiar terms, and to balance time between sections.

Woodford would have you work from visuals or slides, i.e., your data, deciding what you want to say and building a slide presentation around this. What should the title of the slide be (add it)? (Titles let the listener in the back row, who has just nodded off for 10 seconds and snapped back awake, recover some connection to your talk, figuring out where you are now.) What is the point (and there should only be one) of this slide? Is the order of these slides logical? Woodford also suggests that you use slides only 80% of the time and for about 1 minute each (8 in 10 minutes). And, of course, you never irritate the audience by simply reading from the slide.

Beyond the short, focusing introduction, the body of the talk should simply be written well. That is, use short, clear sentences, with all the words working together well. Avoid abstract nouns, passive voice, and strings of modifiers (including noun clusters).

You shouldn't read your talk. Write it so that you can rehearse it sufficient times so that you know what is coming next. Let the slides prompt your memory. If you are extremely nervous, keep a written copy in front of you as a safety blanket, but avoid reading it unless you totally draw a blank. I usually have the first two paragraphs printed in very large font in front of me at the beginning of the talk, to cover the few minutes when I might, in a moment of paralyzing stage fright, draw a complete blank. In such an emergency, I could then merely start by reading, hoping that in a few seconds I would settle down, regain my composure, and be able to continue on without reading. I want to be able to establish eye contact (or, in a dark room, to at least appear to be aware of my audience...out there).

Rehearsal should bring assurance and confidence. Aim for effective use of emphasis, pauses to let the audience assimilate the last point, and moments to let the audience rest or to absorb the next slide as it appears. You should read out loud, checking timing, alerting yourself to tongue twisters (rewrite them), being mindful that sentences are short and clear. Speaking also makes you aware of periods with lots of talking on the same slide, or with lots of slides with too little speaking, and you need to adjust to even things out. When you have rehearsed on your own, try the talk out on a sympathetic roommate, office partner, major professor, or pet (cats and humans have a similar tendency to wander off during long talks, and this would help you to be prepared psychologically for what may actually happen...(just kidding)). If you are still anxious before the talk, make sure that you have visited the actual lecture room, if at all possible, and even checked out the stage and podium, locating any switches or projector devices that you will use. If you get to the meeting hall early in the day, you may even be allowed to tee up your talk and to check it as it will actually be projected.

Don't forget that the presentation of a talk is actually a bit of theatre. Don't be afraid to be just a tad dramatic, speaking to emphasize a particular word or phrase, pausing for effect, etc. In a large room, exaggeration may not come across as anything less than a very effective projection and delivery.

Other tips from Woodford (1999) include a long list of suggestions for the actual delivery. Dress for the occasion, slightly more formally than the audience will be dressed, as a sign of respect for the audience. Make sure you know where your slides and notes are at all times, and that they are ready to go well before you step to the st—age. Make sure the microphone is picking you up (or that your lapel mic is clipped on right). Relax, but keep your hands out of your pocket and stand up straight, feet slightly apart, pacing as little as possible. Smile and get going, delivering at long last that opening line that you have had in the back of your mind all week! Speak slowly and deliberately, pausing between main ideas (i.e., at the end of a paragraph). You may point at the screen briefly, but don't turn your back on the audience as you speak. Know that your audience is inherently sympathetic to speakers, and if you make a little mistake, pass it off, share in the brief laugh, and move on. Above all, don't apologize (and you won't have to apologize for a bad slide or for running too long, etc., if you have done your homework and prepared carefully, which you will have done, of course). And speak firmly and confidently, right through to the end of your last remarks. You may say a simple thank you at the end, but don't ask for questions; the moderator will do that for you, if there is time.

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