Professionally Speaking...

Presentation Tip: Carve Every Word

Speak clearly if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

When making a presentation, the clarity of your diction, or lack of it, affects how you're perceived. Slurred consonants, words tumbling on top of each other and endings dropped off words all compromise your credibility and likely make you difficult to understand.

WHAT IS POOR DICTION?

Poor diction is not enunciating all the appropriate letters in a word [think Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady] or mashing them together in a way that deviates from the proper pronunciation of the word. Examples include:

~~ doin instead of doing

~~ probly instead of probably

~~ gonna instead of going to

~~ wanna instead of want to

~~ shoulda instead of should have

Unfortunately it isn't just the novice or occasional presenter who makes these mistakes. Listen to public figures -- athletes, movie stars, politicians -- and you'll hear many of them make the same errors.

WHAT CAUSES THESE SHORT CUTS IN OUR SPEECH?

Mostly it's laziness and getting into the habit of not being articulate. And then we don't even think about it. Other things that compromise clear diction are speaking fast; the familiarity that comes with giving a presentation or talk over and over [which can cause us to speed up our rate of speech, thus impacting our diction]; and certain regional patterns of speech which tend to be less crisp and more casual.

HOW DO WE CORRECT THIS PROBLEM OF SLOPPY DICTION?

Luckily there are some simple things which can improve enunciation:

• Become aware of how clearly you articulate your words by recording yourself speaking [a regular conversation or reading from a newspaper or practicing a presentation] and then listen objectively for words that are sloppily spoken. Awareness is the most critical step in making a change.
  

• Practice opening your mouth wider as you read something outloud and focus on crisply ending each word [pronouncing the ng or t or d at the end] before beginning the next word. Record yourself and see if you can notice a difference from the first recording. If you are having trouble assessing yourself, ask someone else to listen.

• Try some tongue twisters to loosen up your mouth and jaw. Listen to yourself reciting tongue twisters and it will be very evident if your words are running together.

Hold the image in your mind of carving each word, as if you had a sharp knife, before you let that word fall from your lips. Because if you can't be heard and understood, if your speaking runs together sloppily, you won't be able to communicate your ideas effectively. And isn't that what a presentation is all about?

 

Photo Credit:
flickr/Initials Carved Into a Tree  C.C.2.0

Repetition in Your Presentation

Repetition has long been heralded in advertising, politics and public speaking as a device which can add emphasis and impact to key thoughts and phrases. But too much repetition in a presentation becomes annoying rather than powerful.

I recently attended a webinar given by a well-known author – whose name you would recognize – and he repeated so much of his presentation I felt I was hearing it all twice. In some cases he repeated phrases three times AND the same words were showing on the slide. His presentations to live audiences follow a similar pattern.

What has happened to this author is that repeating much of what he says has become a crutch for him. It's become another form of filler words, similar to ‘um’, ‘you know’, ‘like’, et al. Rather than pausing to gather his thoughts and formulate what he is going to say next, this repetition has become a habit to bridge from one thought to the next. It has become so ingrained, he likely doesn’t even hear himself repeat things two or three times.

For repetition to be effective, it must be intentional. As a speaker you must consciously decide where you can lend more emphasis and importance to a word or phrase by repeating it. You can repeat the word(s) exactly, with a pause before the repetition to give the audience a moment to absorb the impact. Or, you can explore a rhetorical device, such as anaphora, which is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases. Repetition used in this way not only creates emphasis but also moves the thought/message forward.

Take a look at these examples to see how powerful repetition can be when used with intention:

"To raise a happy, healthy, and hopeful child, it takes a family; it takes teachers; it takes clergy; it takes business people; it takes community leaders; it takes those who protect our health and safety. It takes all of us."  [Hillary Clinton, 1996 Democratic National Convention Address]

"What we need in the United States is not division. What we need in the United States is not hatred. What we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness; but is love and wisdom and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country whether they be white or whether they be black."  [Robert F. Kennedy, On the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.]

Photo Credit:
flickr/Repetition  C.C. 2.0

Strengthen Your Presentation with Word Pictures

As presenters, we should always be searching for ways to make our presentations more memorable, more impactful, more sticky.

Word pictures are an excellent way to accomplish this.

The term 'word picture' sounds like a dichotomy or a contradiction. Is it a word? Or is it a picture? 

In fact, it is using words to create an image for the listener that is as powerful as a visual or picture would be. 

And what makes the image powerful is finding a descriptive example [which may be part story, part analogy] that your listeners can identify with and that expands their understanding.

Consider this example:

The average kindergarten student has watched more than 5,000 hours of TV. That's more than it takes to earn a college degree.

In this case, the comparison provides depth to the initial piece of information [the number of hours the student watches TV]  and provides a provocative reference point to put the information in context.

Another example:

"Imagine seven Boeing 747s filled mostly with children crashing into Mount Kilimanjaro each day, and you begin to get an idea of malaria's horrifying toll."  [Tanzanian researcher, Wen Kilama, cited in Howard W. French's book, A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa]

Here the word picture, distressing though it is, is hauntingly memorable. Anyone listening to this description can visualize the airplanes and feel the horror of the outcome.

What makes word pictures work is not so much constructing complex or poetic words, rather it is putting everyday words together to describe something in a way the listener can see and feel. It's allowing your listener to "experience" the words, not just hear them.

For your next presentation, think about the key points you want your audience to remember. Then get out your verbal paint brush and start painting.

Above Illustration:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rohdesign/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

THE POWER OF LANGUAGE, PART III

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind."

Rudyard Kipling

 

Words are the primary mechanism we use to transmit ideas. Words encourage, challenge, persuade, teach and transform. Yet many business presenters speak without adequate knowledge of, or attention to, the tools that can hone their craft.

I highlighted some of these tools in Part I and Part II of The Power of Language. Here are some additional rhetorical devices that can be effectively integrated into your presentations to make your message come alive and connect with the audience. Also check out the Successful Speeches Blog for ways to make your presentations more memorable.

[Click on the speaker's name below to go to an audio and text version of the speech.]

Antithesis

Antithesis gives balance to a sentence or clause by intentionally juxtaposing contrasting ideas. The juxtaposition adds emphasis to both concepts.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.  

 Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream

Symploce

A technique where the first and last word or words of one phrase are repeated in one or more successive phrases. This is another way of structuring repetition, which is always a powerful tool.

"Let us let our own children know that we will stand against the forces of fear. When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it."  

  William Jefferson Clinton, Oklahoma Bombing Memorial Prayer Service Address

Rhetorical Question

A question in which the answer is obvious or implied and therefore, no answer is expected. Because it is human nature to answer a question in our heads, even if we don't do so out loud, this is a very effective device to force the audience to react, expand their thinking and get them to consider possibilities. It is frequently phrased as "What if...."

"How can we allow the rich and powerful, not only to rip off people as consumers, but to continue to rip them off as taxpayers?"

 Ralph Nader, 2000 NAACP Convention Address

Rhetorical devices add so much richness to your presentation or speech: they make your message and ideas more memorable; they expand the understanding of the listener; they build a powerful connection with the audience. Why not start using them in your next presentation?

BANISH CLICHES

I've been blogging recently on the power of language, focusing on the elegance and impact of certain types of words and sentence construction. One hundred and eighty degrees from this elegance are hackneyed cliches that don't communicate anything meaningful. I just came across this post at Harvard Business on 10 Business Words To Ban and I had to share it. I laughed out loud at some of the commentary from David Silverman.

All our business communication...including presentations...would definitely benefit if we eliminated these words. What other corporate-speak words do you think we should banish?

THE POWER OF LANGUAGE, PART II

"You measure the impact of your words, not on the beauty or the emotion of the moment, but on whether you change the way people not only think but the way they feel."

                                                                                   Bill Clinton

Rhetoric is the art of using language as a means to persuade. Popularized in ancient Greece circa 600 B.C. by a school of philosophers and teachers known as Sophists, rhetoric evolved as an important skill for aspiring orators. Although the formal study of rhetoric has waxed and waned over the centuries, this classic art offers many powerful techniques which we can use to enhance the impact of our speech. (Thanks to my colleague, Halelly Azulay, at TalentGrow, for passing along this BBC article on The Art of Oratory).

One of the foundational areas in the study of rhetoric is the rhetorical device, a technique used to evoke an emotional response in the audience.

Here are a few of the rhetorical devices that you can easily incorporate into your presentations. Click on the speaker's name to go to both a printed and an audio version of the speech.

Alliteration 

Repetition of the same sound through the use of initial consonant letters in two or more different words across different sentences or phrases.

• "And our nation itself is testimony to the love our veterans have had for it and for us. All for which America stands is safe today because brave men and women have been ready to face the fire at freedom's front."      Ronald Reagan, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Address    

Epistrophe

The repetition of a word or words at the end of two or more successive clauses or sentences.

• "...and that government of the people, for the people, by the people shall not perish from the earth."     Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

Antimetabole

Where the words in one phrase or clause are repeated, exactly or closely, for emphasis, in reverse grammatical order in the next phrase or clause.

• "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."    John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address

Although the names of these devices may sound a bit esoteric, the flexibility they give you to capitalize on the impact of words and sentence construction is a powerful tool for your presentation toolkit.

Next time, we'll look at some more rhetorical devices to help you change how your audiences think and feel.

(Here is Part I of The Power of Language)

 

THE POWER OF LANGUAGE, PART I

"Language exerts hidden power, like a moon on the tides."

Rita Mae Brown, American writer

 

Language...something we use everyday; something we take for granted; yet something that has enormous power in helping us effectively and persuasively communicate our ideas.

According to the dictionary publisher, Merriam-Webster, there are roughly one million words in the English language and we have access to pretty well all of them when we create a presentation. Too often, however, we use the same tired phrases repeatedly, not truly tapping into the abundance of options available to express our thoughts and ideas.

Impact does not necessarily come from how "big" or complicated the words are but rather how they're organized and how descriptive they are. Choosing words that evoke a picture or a sensation or an emotional response in the listener will resonate strongly and make your message more memorable.

Consider one of Winston Churchill's famous declarations:

"You ask what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."

He could have said, "We need to win or we won't survive." But contrast that factual, concise statement with the eloquence of Churchill's words. Which one do you find more spine-tingling and persuasive?

WHAT MADE IT SO GOOD?

• There are only two words in Churchill's statement (victory and survival) that have more than two syllables.
• "Victory" is a much stronger word than "win". 
• He repeats victory five times, for emphasis, in four sentences. 
• He asks and answers his own question.
• In the three phrases, all starting with the word "victory", he employs the rhetorical device, "the rule of threes", to create impact through repetition.

Churchill was a powerful orator who developed his skills through the study of rhetoric and many long hours of practice. He has much to teach us about the power language has to persuade, soothe, incite and inspire.  

Here are some resources for increasing your vocabulary and your exposure to the breadth and depth of the English language:

• Thesaurus.com
• Dictionary.com
• World Wide Words
• American Rhetoric