Appendix 3. Strategies for oral presentations
1. Overcome speaker’s fright.In order to deal with such bodily symptoms of fear as dry mouth, hands perspiration, adrenalin gushes in veins, faster heart beats, contracting stomach muscles robbing a person of all interest in food you have two things to do:
- convince yourself that the challenge is not a matter of life and death, and therefore does not require that marshalling of forces which once was required for hand-to-hand combat or panic-stricken flight;
- don’t starve yourself of air by shallow breathing, as this will only intensify your body’s efforts to draw more oxygen to your muscles, thus greatly increasing your general agitation.
First, convince yourself you are going to give an ordinary speech. Don’t aim for a brilliant oration; don’t try to out-joke anybody; don’t aspire to a standing ovation. You’re a beginner, and all you’re trying to do is a satisfactory job.
Second, remember all the boring, badly constructed speeches you have listened to. That, regrettably, is the norm. All you have to do is to be slightly better than that, and your audience will be grateful – especially if you keep it brief.
Third, the worst that can happen is that you will be as boring and as disjointed as many other speakers — and that’s not something to get agitated about or to lose sleep over.
Fourth, human memory for the spoken word is extremely short-especially if the spoken word is boring and uninteresting. So even if you make a hash of things, people will have forgotten your speech within hours – certainly by the next day. It’s only remarkable speeches that are remembered. Ordinary ones are quickly forgotten.
2. Avoid reading yоur speech if at all possible.If at all possible, avoid having a prepared script. That makes you a reader, not a speaker, and you may as well be replaced by a tape recorder. On some occasions you will have to follow a script: if you are delivering a complex scientific paper to a conference; if you are setting out a legally binding arrangement; if you are presenting a politically sensitive decision or any other statement which must be adhered to word for word. There is still much you can do to liven your presentation. If you have to use script, sometimes it’s necessary to break the reading. One of the best methods of breaking the reading of a script is to point to a chart or diagram propped on an easel; or to write on the blackboard; or to display an interesting object; or to screen a picture with a slide or overhead projector.
3. Use gesture to liven your performance.Many speakers have trouble knowing what to do with their hands. Your hands are part of your on-stage personality. Use them well, and you will improve the presentation of your speech. Use them badly, and you will seem stiff and stilted.
- Stand erect, shoulders back, arms ready to move in fulsome sweeps.
- Let your left hand sweep out in a long flowing movement that involves the whole arm.
4. Use a parallel case. This two-step strategy seeks to obtain the agreement of the audience to a principle outlined in a context in which they are bound to agree with it; then to use the same principle in a context where they are less likely to agree. If you can get a Yes response in a non-threatening situation, you may be able to transfer that Yes to a parallel situation. Let’s suppose you are to give a speech against capital punishment and you suspect some of your listeners favor it. You could open with a discussion of a form of punishment still used in parts of the Middle East: severance of a hand for theft. Describe this horror in detail, and the often trivial nature of the crimes it is supposed to deter. The success of this stratagem will depend on how well you draw the analogy. If you can show your audience that the inhuman nature of the death penalty parallels punishment by amputation, you may well win them to your position.
5. Dangle a worse prospect before them.This technique works best when you spend the early part of your speech building up a ‘worse prospect’ in all its unwholesome detail, then switch to the prospect you favor, emphasizing that it is moderate and reasonable and workable. Use this device adroitly, and you will convert the most obstinate opponent to your point of view. Again, the trick is to give him good reason for abandoning his entrenched opinion.
6. Establish rapport with eye contact and facial expression.Eye contact is one of the most potent skills a speaker has. It is crucial in establishing rapport with the audience. Many speakers recall with wonderment and awe the first time they experienced the feeling of ‘holding’ the audience. As your eyes rove over the people in front of you, you suddenly realize that every one of them is gazing at you, and hanging on your next word. You may be a little puzzled at this point. If there are 200 people in the audience, how can you look at all of them? Easy: while you are speaking, let your eyes flow along the front few rows, left to right; then the next few rows, right to left; and so on to the back of the hall. Then work from the back rows to the front again. With experience, eye contact comes naturally. Every person in the audience will then have the feeling that you are speaking directly to him or her. None will feel left out (as they will if you concentrate on a knot of people directly in front of you).
The close partner of eye contact is facial expression. Frozen or twisted features, angry expression, tightly drawn lips, unsmiling eyes can all alienate an audience. Many speakers, when they become worked up, unknowingly adopt alarming expressions. It is much better if you can smile. Use a friendly smile, a tolerant smile, an exasperated smile, a wicked smile, a grim smile – but a smile. Where you want to express anger (say at the brutal killing of a child), try to let your words rather than your expression indicate your disgust. Of course, you will use ringing tones to make plain your abhorrence, but let the words express your loathing, not the fury of your features. This leads me into the perils of vehemence, of over-emphatic speaking.
7. Find funny material.This technique is essential. If you have a speech to give on (say) the need to upgrade local highways, don’t go rummaging through joke books hoping to find just the right joke listed under Highways. It won’t be there. It may be listed under Personal Insults (that is, an insult that can be adapted to describe the person who designed the present highway system). Or it may be listed under Women’s Fashions – a put-down of non-functional dress design which can be adapted for non-functional highway design. This is a fundamental lesson. When looking for humorous material, disregard the subject matter and concentrate on the point made by the joke. And when compiling your own joke file, cross reference each joke both under subject matter and under the point it makes. When you adapt a joke, you usually transfer the point of the joke to a new target. That is, you take the essential point of the joke and you re-aim it. Write down jokes that appeal to you – in a notebook, in a card index, even on scraps of paper. You will come across these especially appealing jokes when rummaging through a book of jokes, listening to TV, leafing through a magazine or chatting with friends. Immediately scribble down the gist of the joke, or at least the punchline, on any old scrap of paper. Later you can transfer these choice items to your own jokefile or jokebook – or you may just clip the scraps of paper together. The main thing is to collect funny material, think about it, rehearse it, use it, ractice adapting it to your needs.