No matter what you use to spice up your speech, remember these important principles:
n They’re called aids for a reason. The purpose of a visual aid is to assist you in your speech. Don’t let them become the center of attention; use them to further your points, then put them away.
n Don’t get distracted. Many speakers become absorbed in their own visual aids, staring at them intently while they speak, even speaking to the aid rather than to the audience. If you get distracted, so will your listeners. Pay atten-tion to the audience, not to the visual aids.
n It must be clearly visible to everyone. Make sure that your object is large enough for all to see and understand what you’re doing with it.
Check visibility of the screen from the farthest corners of the room. If you’re talking about something that someone can’t see, that person will not be listening to your words.
n Keep it relevant! Remember the first point in this list—it’s an aid to your presentation, not something to entertain the audience. Make sure you clearly explain how your visual aids relate to your topic.
–Seeing iS belieVing–
Exercise
Use this questionnaire to select and analyze your visual aids:
n What analogies or metaphors best explain my main points?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
n What media will best help me make visual pictures of these analogies?
❏ Three-dimensional objects
❏ Graphs or pie charts
❏ Words that expand on the points
n Where will I get these items?
❏ Something that I own or use on a regular basis
❏ Statistics in a spreadsheet that creates pie charts or graphs
❏ Images from the Internet
n What mechanical apparatus will I need to use these aids?
❏ Flip chart
❏ Overhead projector
❏ PowerPoint projector
n What will I say while showing these visual aids?
❏ How does each one explain my major points?
❏ What details will I need to explain on each visual aid?
n How can I simplify?
❏ Are my charts and graphs too complicated?
❏ Am I incorporating too much information?
❏ Will I become dependent on one of these aids rather than on my words?
–Seeing iS belieVing–
n any visual aid can quickly become a visual distraction. Be on guard against this.
n a visual aid is worthless if your audience can’t see it.
n speak to the audience, not to the visual aid.
n set up any mechanical devices in advance, such as an overhead projector or easel.
n Keep it simple.
n explain clearly how each visual aid applies to your overall purpose.
tips
Seeing iS belieVing
leSSon
t
hroughout our lessons, we have frequently touched upon the danger of distractions. A distraction is anything that turns your audience’s attention—or your own—away from your words toward something else. Distractions can come from the environment, as we discussed briefly in Lesson 2. They can come from your presentation, as mentioned regarding visual aids in Lesson 14. And what’s most dangerous of all, they can come directly from you!Your job as a public speaker is to help your audience learn something they can apply in their own lives. To do this, you need to be on guard against anything that will interfere with your listeners’ learning process. In a sense, you are more than a speaker; you are both a teacher and a guard. You want to teach your listeners about something that is important to you, but you also need to stand guard against outside factors that may prevent their learning.
LESSON SUMMARY
Anything that distracts your audience is working to defeat your speech—even if it’s coming from you! In this lesson, we will con—
sider how to avoid some often overlooked distractions.
By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.
—Christopher Columbus, 1451–1506
aVoiding
diStractionS
15
–aVoiding diStractionS–
um. . . ah. . . like. . . You know. . . See what i Mean?
Most speakers are not even aware of one of the most prominent sources of distraction: verbal mannerisms.
I generally find this topic the most difficult to convey to my students, yet it is so pervasive that it cannot be ignored.
Everyone has certain habits of speech that crop up continually in casual conversation. We all tend to say “well . . .” and “ah . . .” when we’re trying to find the right words. Yet even in casual conversation, this habit can become distracting. You’ve probably known some-one who says “like” constantly: “I was like walking out of the store, ya know? And she was like standing in my way, like all upset, and I like tried to walk past. . . .”
Friends will sometimes tease a person who does this, counting the number of times the filler word is used in a given sentence. This demonstrates the basic fact of such mannerisms: If your audience is counting how many times you say “like,” they are not listening to the rest of your words!
Filler words are not the only distracting element of speech. Simple intonation of one’s voice can become irritating after a while. Perhaps you’ve had a teacher who droned in monotone throughout his or her lec-tures; if so, you know how dull and distracting it can be to listen to poor intonation.
A very common problem in this area is known as upspeak. Upspeak is the habit of ending sentences—
even small phrases—in an upward intonation. To understand this, read the following sentences aloud, noticing how you sound: voice as you read the questions? That’s the sound of upspeak, ending phrases or sentences on an upward inflection as though you were asking a question, rather than stating a simple fact.
The danger of upspeak is that it conveys to your audience the notion that you are not at all sure of the truth of what you’re saying! If you state your informa-tion to sound like a quesinforma-tion, then the audience feels compelled to wonder what the answer is.
Filler words and vocal intonations convey more to your audience than the words themselves. These habits can be hard to break, but they must be broken if you hope to speak well. The best way to discover your own vocal mannerisms is to video yourself during speech practice. Pay attention to these elements, and then rehearse your speech in front of the camera again, deliberately avoiding those mannerisms. With practice, this avoidance will become a habit.