KIDS GREEN ZONE

Using Your Voice Effectively

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:04:13 +0000

Your voice plays a major role in the effectiveness of your oral communication. Consider the following simple sentences:
I don’t believe it.
You did that.
Give me a break.
How many different meanings can you create as you speak these words, just by changing the rhythm, pace, emphasis, pitch, or inflection of your voice?
Your ethos as well as your message can be affected by the quality of your voice. A good speaking voice enhances your image in the ears of listeners. But if you sound tentative, people may think you are not very competent. If you mumble, they may think you are trying to hide something. If you are overly loud or strident, they may find you not very likable.
How you talk is also part of your identity. Someone who talks in a soft, breathy voice may be labeled “sexy”; someone who speaks in a more forceful manner, may be considered “authoritative.” For some speakers, a dialect is part of their ethnicity, a valued part of their personality.9
While you may not wish to make radical changes in your speaking voice, minor improvements can yield big dividends. As one voice specialist put it, “Though speech is a human endowment, how well we speak is an individual achievement.”10 With a little effort and practice, most of us can make positive changes. We caution, however, that simple vocal exercises will not fix serious impairments. If you have such a problem, contact the nearest speech pathology clinic for professional help.
The first step in learning to use your voice more effectively is to evaluate how you usually talk. Tape-record yourself while speaking and reading aloud. When you hear yourself, you may say, “Is that really me?” Most tape recorders will slightly distort the way you sound because they do not exactly replicate the spectrum of sounds made by the human voice. Nevertheless, a tape recording gives you an idea of how you may sound to others. As you listen, ask yourself:
1. Does my voice convey the meaning I intend?
2. Would I want to listen to me if I were in the audience?
3. Does my voice present me at my best?
If your answers are negative, you may need to work on pitch, rate, loudness, variety, articulation, enunciation, pronunciation, or dialect. Save your original tape so that you can hear yourself improve as you practice.

Handling Questions and Answers

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:59:42 +0000

If you are successful in arousing interest and stimulating thinking, your listeners may want to ask questions at the end of your speech.
First, prepare for questions. Try to anticipate what you might be asked, think about how you will answer these questions, and do the research required to answer them effectively. Practice your speech before friends and urge them to ask you tough questions.
Second, repeat or paraphrase the question. This is especially important if the question was long or complicated and your audience is large. Paraphrasing ensures that everyone in the audience hears the question. It gives you time to think of your answer, and it helps you be sure you understood the question. Paraphrasing also enables you to steer the question to the type of answer you are prepared to give.
Third, maintain eye contact with the audience as you answer. Note that we say “with the audience,” not just “with the questioner.” Look first at the questioner, then make eye contact with other audience members, returning your gaze to the questioner as you finish your answer. The purpose of a question- and-answer period should be to extend the understanding of the entire audience, not to carry on a private conversation with one person.
Fourth, defuse hostile questions. Reword emotional questions in more objective language. For example, if you are asked, “Why do you want to throw away our money on people who are too lazy to work?” you might respond with something like, “1 understand your frustration and think what you really want to know is ‘Why aren’t our current programs helping people break out of the chains of unemployment?”
Simply saying “I don’t know” can also help defuse a hostile questioner. Roger Ailes, a political media adviser for three U.S. presidents, described how former New York City Mayor Ed Koch once used this technique. Koch had spent three hundred thousand dollars putting bike lanes in Manhattan. Cars were driving in the bike lanes. Cyclists were running over pedestrians. The money seemed wasted. Soon thereafter, when Koch was running for reelection, he appeared on a “meet-the-press” type of show. This is how the questioning went:
One reporter led off with “Mayor Koch, in light of the financial difficulties in New York City, how could you possibly Iustif’ wasting three hundred thousand dollars on bike lanes?.. .“ Koch smiled and he
said, “You’re right. It was a terrible idea.” He went on. “I thought it would work. It didn’t. It was one of the worst mistakes I ever made.” And he stopped. Now nobody knew what to do. They had another
twenty-six minutes of the program left. They all had prepared questions about the bike lanes, and so the next person feebly asked, “But, Mayor Koch, how could you do this?” And Mayor Koch said, “I already told you, it was stupid. I did a dumb thing. It didn’t work.” And he stopped again. Now there were twenty-five minutes left and nothing to ask him. It was brilliant.8
Fifth, keep your answers short and direct. Don’t give another speech.
Sixth, handle non questions politely. If someone starts to give a speech rather than ask a question, wait until he or she pauses for breath and then cut in with something like, “Thank you for your comment” or “I appreciate your remarks. Your question, then, is . . .“ or “That’s an interesting perspective. Can we have another question?” Don’t get caught up in a shouting match. Stay in command of the situation.
Finally, bring the question-and-answer session to a close. Call for a final question and, as you complete the answer, summarize your message again to refocus listeners on your central points.

Responding to Feedback from Your Audience

admin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:57:25 +0000

Feedback is the message listeners send back to you as you speak. Facial expressions, gestures, or sounds of agreement or disagreement let you know how you are coming across. Since most feedback is nonverbal, you should maintain eye contact with your audience so that you can respond to these signals. Use feedback to monitor whether listeners understand you, are interested, and agree with what you are saying. Negative feedback in particular can alert you to the need to make on-the-spot adjustments.
Feedback that Signals Misunderstanding. Listeners’ puzzled expressions can signal that they don’t understand what you ire saying. You may need to define an unfamiliar word or rephrase an idea to make it simpler. You could add an example or story to make an abstract concept more concrete. It might help to compare or contrast an unfamiliar idea with something the audience already knows and understands. When you detect signs of misunderstanding, you can say, “Let me put it another way.” Then provide a clearer explanation.
Feedback that Signals Loss of Interest. Bored listeners wiggle in their seats, drum their fingers, or develop a glazed look. Remind them of the importance of your topic. Provide an example or story that makes your message come to life. Involve your listeners by asking a question that calls for a show of hands. Startle them with a bold statement. Keep in mind that enthusiasm is incendiary: Your interest can ignite theirs. Move from behind the lectern and come closer to them. Whatever happens, do not become disheartened or lose faith in your speech. In all likelihood, some people—probably more than you think—will have found the speech interesting.
Feedback that Signals Disagreement. A number of techniques can help you deal with disagreement. If you anticipate resistance, work hard to establish your ethos in the introduction of your speech. Listeners should see you as a competent, trustworthy, and likable person who has their best interests at heart.
To be perceived as competent, you must be competent. Arm yourself with a surplus of information, examples, and testimony from sources your audience will respect. Practice your presentation until it is polished. Set an example of tolerance by respecting positions different from your own.
You may find that although you differ with listeners on methods, you agree with them on goals. In such cases, stress the values that you share. Appeal to the listeners’ sense of fair play and their respect for your right to speak. You should be the model of civility in the situation. Avoid angry reactions and the use of inflammatory language. Think of these listeners as offering an opportunity for your ideas to have impact.

Extemporaneous Speaking

admin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:52:15 +0000

Extemporaneous speaking is prepared and practiced but not written out or memorized. It offers a spontaneous and natural-sounding presentation, and makes it easier to establish immediacy with an audience. The speaker is not the prisoner of a text, and each presentation will vary according to the audience, occasion, and inspiration of the moment. Another large advantage is that it encourages interaction with an audience. A Vanderbilt speaker who distributed photographs and then instructed listeners on how to view them, and another student who asked listeners to close their eyes and imagine themselves living as dwarfs, were playing up these advantages. Such interaction encourages the audience to participate in constructing the message of the speech. It becomes their creation as well, which is especially important when persuading listeners.
Extemporaneous speaking involves preparation and practice, and is therefore more polished than impromptu speaking. But it also allows you to respond to feedback and to adapt accordingly, giving it a strong advantage over manuscript and memorized presentations. Because extemporaneous speaking combines the best characteristics of these various modes of presentation, many instructors require that you use it for most classroom speeches.

Reading from a Manuscript

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:34:28 +0000

When you make a manuscript presentation, you read to an audience from either a text or a teleprompter. Manuscript presentations have many of the same problems as memorized presentations. Because speakers must look at a script, they lose eye contact with listeners. This in turn causes a loss of immediacy and inhibits adapting to feedback. Moreover, as with memorized presentations, you may have trouble writing in an oral style.
Some problems are exclusive to manuscript presentations. Most people do not read aloud well. Their presentations lack variety. Also, when people plan to read a speech, they often do not practice enough. Unless speakers are comfortable with the material, they end up glued to their manuscripts rather than communicating with listeners. Other problems may arise if your manuscript pages get out of order, or if you pick up the wrong paper or teleprompter material on your way to a presentation.
Although this last predicament may sound improbable, it can happen, as President Clinton can confirm. In September of 1993 Clinton presented a speech on health care to a joint session of Congress. He had been working on the speech for some time and finished revising it on the ride to the CapitoL
The final changes were entered onto computer disks immediately before he was to speak. Here is a report of what happened:
No one realized that a White House communications aide had already accidentally merged the new speech with an old file of the February 17 speech to Congress. . . . When Clinton took the podium minutes later, he was understandably alarmed to see a seven-month-old speech on the teleprompter’s display screens. Clinton told the news to Gore. . . . Gore summoned Stephanopoulos, who scrambled to fix the mistake, eventually downloading the correct version…. But for seven minutes, Clinton vamped with just notes.5
During the first seven minutes of iis presentation, the president was forced into an extemporaneous style—the method of presentation most communication instructors recommend. The speech was received with high acclaim:
For a man reading the wrong speech off his teleprompter, Bill Clinton spoke with persuasive passion as he addressed Congress and the nation about health care last week. Gone was the Slick Willie.. . . Suddenly Clinton looked the leader millions of Americans hoped they were voting for: decisive, forceful, even visionary.6
Manuscript presentations are most useful when the speaker seeks accuracy or eloquence, or when time constraints are severe, as in legal announcements, formal political speeches, or media presentations that must be timed within seconds. Extemporaneous presentations may also include quotations or technical information that must be read if they are to achieve their effect Because you will need to read material from time to time, we offer the following suggestions:
• Use large print to prepare your manuscript so that you can see it without straining.
• Use light pastel rather than white paper, to cut down on glare from lights.
I Double- or triple-space the manuscript.
• Mark pauses with slashes.
I Highlight material you want to emphasize.
• Practice speaking from your manuscript so that you can maintain as much eye contact as possible with your audience.

Impromptu Speaking used in public speaking presentation

admin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:24:33 +0000

Impromptu speaking is sometimes called “speaking off the cuff,” a phrase that suggests that you could put all your notes on the cuff of your shirt. Impromptu speaking is useful when you have little or no time for preparation or practice. The incident we described in Chapter 8, in which we learned during a zoning hearing that developers were proposing a helicopter port in our neighborhood, called for an impromptu speech. At work you might find yourself being asked to make a presentation “in fifteen minutes.” In meetings you may want to “say a few words” about something. You can also use impromptu speaking skills in other classes—to answer a question or comment on a point made by your professor.
When you have just a few minutes to prepare, first determine your purpose. What do you want the audience to know? Why is this important? Next, decide on your main points. Don’t try to cover too much. Limit yourself to no more than three main points. If you have access to any type of writing material—a note pad, a scrap of paper—jot down a memory-jogging word for each idea, either in order of importance or as the ideas seem to flow naturally. The skeletal outline on the following page will keep you from rambling or forgetting something that is important. Stick to the main points, enumerating them as you go: “My first point is. . . . Second, it is important to. . . . Finally, it is clear that. . . .“ Use the PREP formula: State a point, give a reason or example, then restate the point. Keep your presentation short and end with a summary of your remarks.
Point: The proposal to allow John Clark to operate a helicopter
port in the neighborhood is not sound.
Reason(s)! The noise generated by helicopters taking off and
Example(s): landing would destroy the tranquility of this quiet
residential neighborhood. It would be especially
disturbing to the residents of the nursing home one
block from the proposed facility.
Restatement
of Point: Therefore, we ask you to vote against this proposal.
An impromptu speech often is one of several such speeches as people express their ideas in meetings. The earlier speeches create the context for your presentation. If others stood at the front of the room to speak, you should do so as well. If earlier speakers remained seated, you may wish to do the same. However, you should consider whether earlier speakers have been successful. If these speakers offended listeners while making standing presentations, you may wish to remain seated to differentiate yourself from them. If seated speakers have made trivial presentations, you may wish to stand to signal that what you are going to say is important.
Fortunately, most impromptu speaking situations are relatively casual. No one expects a polished presentation on a moment’s notice. However, the ability to organize your ideas quickly and effectively and to present them confidently puts you at a great advantage. The principles of preparing speeches that you learn in this course can help you become a more effective impromptu speaker.

The Power to Awaken Feelings

admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:50:23 +0000

Language also can arouse intense feelings. It can touch our hearts and change our attitudes. This power is ethical when it supplements sound reasoning and credible evidence to involve us in the action urged by the speech. It is abused when speakers substitute appeals to feelings for evidence or reasoning. To arouse intense feelings in ethical ways, language must overcome the barriers of time, distance, and apathy.
Overcoming Time. Listeners live in the present. Therefore, it can be difficult to awaken feelings about events that lie in the remote past or distant future. Fortunately, the language of feeling has a time-machine quality. Speakers can use language skills to bring past and future events into the present and make them seem real.
Stories that recapture feelings from the past are often told at company meetings or used in advertisements to counter impressions that a business is too large and impersonal to care about its employees and customers. Such narratives can also establish a sense of corporate heritage and culture. In the following story, the speaker reminds listeners of one of the legends of Federal Express, a pioneer in overnight delivery:
You know, we take a lot for granted. It’s hard to remember that Federal Express was once just a fly-by-night dream, a crazy idea in which a few people had invested—not just their time and their money, but their lives and futures. I remember one time early on when things weren’t going so well. We were really up against it. Couldn’t even make the payroll that week. It looked like we were going to crash. Fred [Smith, founder of the company was in in a deep funk. Never saw him quite like that before or since. “What the hell,” he said, and flew off to Las Vegas. The next day he flew back and his face was shining. “We’re going to make it,” he said. He had won $27,000 at the blackjack table! And we made it. We met the payroll. And then things began to turn around, and Federal Express grew into the giant it is today.
This story enlivens the past by emphasizing the contrast of emotions—the “deep funk” versus the “shining” face. “What the hell” and “We’re going to make it” express depression and confidence. Such use of dialogue to express feelings recreates the excitement and brings the scene into the present. In using dialogue, the speaker steps back and lets Fred Smith voice his own feelings. It would have been less effective if the speaker had simply said: “Fred was depressed, but after he got back from Las Vegas he was confident.” Offering such a summary would have diluted the emotional strength of the scene.
Language can also make the future seem close at hand. Because language can transport us across the barrier of time, both tradition and a vision of tomorrow can guide us through the present.
Overcoming Distance. The closer something is to us, the easier it is for us to develop feelings about it. But what if speakers must discuss faraway people and places? Language can telescope such subjects and bring them close. Consider how one student used language to reduce the distance between her urban audience and her rural subject:
James Johnson has lived in Perry County for eighty-four years. He taught me some important things: why the mist rises on a lake at night, how to make the best wild blackberry jam you’ve ever put in your mouth, and how to take care of baby rabbits that are abandoned. Today, I want to tell you more about James—and about myself through him.
By focusing on concrete details involving the senses of sight, taste, and touch—the mist, the jam, the rabbits—the speaker conquered distance and aroused feelings about a subject that might otherwise have seemed remote.
Overcoming Apathy. We live in an age of communication overkill. Modern audiences have become jaded by an endless barrage of mass-mediated information, persuasion, and entertainment. The personal contact of public speaking, even when mediated, allows speakers to reach out and touch listeners with language. Jesse Jackson stirred the audience of the 1988 Democratic National Convention with the following message:
America’s not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth. When I was a child growing up in Greenville, South Carolina, and grandmother could not afford a blanket, she didn’t complain and we did not freeze. Instead, she took pieces of old cloth—patches, wool, silk, gabardine, crockersack on the patches—barely good enough to wipe off your shoes with.
But they didn’t stay that way very long. With sturdy hands and a strong cord, she sewed them together into a quilt, a thing of beauty and power and culture.

Now, Democrats, we must build such a quilt. Farmers, you seek fair prices and you are right, but you cannot stand alone. Your patch is
not big enough. Workers, you fight for fair wages. You are right. But your patch, labor, is not big enough. Women, you seek comparable
worth and pay equity. You are right. But your patch is not big
enough. Women, mothers, who seek Head Start and day care and pre-natal care on the front side of life, rather than jail care and
welfare on the back side of life, you’re right, but your patch is not big enough.
Students, you seek scholarships. You are right. But your patch is not big enough. Blacks and Hispanics, when we fight for civil rights, we are right, but our patch is not big enough. Gays and lesbians,
when you fight against discrimination and [forl a cure for AIDS, you
are right, but your patch is not big enough. Conservatives and progressives, when you fight for what you.believe, right-wing, left-wing,
hawk, dove—you are right, from your point of view, but your point of view is not enough.
But don’t despair. Be as wise as my grandmama. Pool the patches and the pieces together, bound by a common thread. When we form a great quilt of unity and common ground we’ll have the power to
bring about health care and housing and jobs and education and hope to our nation.6
Jackson’s references to poverty and his grandmother’s loving care aroused sympathetic feelings in many viewers. The image of a quilt—suggesting the traditional warmth of home and the ability to create things of lasting value and beauty from humble materials—gave the audience a vision to unite them. When artfully used, language can overcome the barriers of time, distance, and apathy to make us care about a subject.

People as your presentation

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 11:47:44 +0000

As a speaker, you are a presentation aid.8 Your body, grooming, actions, gestures, voice, facial expressions, and demeanor always provide an added dimension to your speech. Use these factors to help convey your message.
What you wear can function as a presentation aid. If you will be talking about camping and wilderness adventures, blue jeans and a flannel shirt might be appropriate attire. What you wear, however, should not be more interesting than what you say. Here, as in all other cases, presentation aids should enhance, not overshadow, your verbal message.
You also can use other people as presentation aids. Neomal Abyskera used two of his classmates to illustrate the lineup positions in the game of rugger as played in his native Sri Lanka. At the appropriate moment, Neomal said, “Peter and Jeffrey will show you how the opposing team members line up.” While his classmates demonstrated the arm-locked shoulder grip position, Neomal explained when and why the position was assumed. This demonstration was more understandable than if he had tried to describe the position verbally or drawn it on the chalkboard with stick figures.
If you plan to have other people act as a presentation aid, be sure that they are willing to help you. Rehearse your presentation with them until it goes smoothly. When you give your speech, have them sit in the front row so that they can come forward and then sit down again as quickly as possible when their part is completed.

Humor for Public Speaking

admin — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:41:22 +0000

Humor can enlighten an introduction and, when used appropriately, can put your audience in a receptive mood for your message. But humor may also be the most misused technique for introducing speeches. Because someone once told them that starting with a joke will assure success, beginning speakers often search through anthologies of humor to find something that will make people laugh. Unless it is carefully adapted, however, such material often sounds canned, inappropriate, or only remotely relevant to the topic or occasion. If you wish to use humor in your introduction, be certain the material is fresh and pertinent.
Be especially careful when using humor to open a speech. It can be grossly inappropriate for some topics and occasions. Also, don’t let a humorous introduction “upstage” the rest of your speech. We once heard a student open a speech with a rather risque quotation from Mae West: “Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you happy to see me?” It drew an initial gasp followed by some hearty laughter. Unfortunately, as the speech continued, one student would chuckle over the remembered joke, then the audience would start laughing all over again even when nothing funny had been said. After the speaker finished, we questioned the audience about their “inappropriate” responses. Their reply? “We kept remembering that Mae West line. We just couldn’t help it.” And to this day, neither of your authors can remember the topic of the speech, just the opening humor.

Outline to use on your speech

admin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:44:30 +0000

An outline gives you an overview of what you want to say and how you want to say it. It can sharpen the logic and improve the structure of your speech. Your working outline is a tentative plan of your speech. It helps you work out the relationships of your ideas, showing the relative importance of your points and how they fit together. As working outlines for a speech evolve, they indicate how and where you will use supporting materials. By developing working outlines, you can judge the effectiveness of your research and determine if you need additional material.
The formal outline is the final product of the research and planning phase of your speech. It follows a number of conventions, including coordination and subordination. Coordination requires that statements that are alike in importance be placed on the same level in the outline. Subordination requires that statements descend in importance and that each level logically include the level below it. As you descend through the outline, points become more specific and concrete.
The main points in a formal outline should be worded as declarative sentences. Parallel construction helps the audience remember your message. Source citations provide documentation. They show how you have integrated your research into your speech. A formal outline includes a list of works consulted.
A key-word outline can aid you in your presentation of a speech. It reduces the formal outline to a few essential words that remind you of the content and design of your speech, and sources of supporting materials during your presentation. Notes on the key-word outline can also remind you of presentation strategies.