Put yourself in Professor Val’s shoes. What would you do if you signed a contract to speak for one hour and have been paid, yet the audience got tired after 35 minutes? Would you hastily conclude your presentation to please the audience and face possible refund, or would you bore the audience to sleep to […]
As promised in the first article in this series, we shall begin to examine Professor Val’s errors and learn how to avoid them. Recall that we observed last time that our dear Professor worked perfectly by the book. That was not a bad thing in itself, only that we must learn the exceptions to the […]
Professor Val got an invitation to be one of the lead paper presenters at an international conference. He had been working on a research formula for a while and he had received several awards and international recognition; therefore, he believed the audience would be excited to listen to his presentation. He negotiated his fee with […]
We can always help people listen to us by doing the following: 1. Start by highlighting our points: not only does this simplify learning, it also helps the audience to follow our presentation. Scholars and professionals have agreed that human beings assign importance to numbers. What this means is that anytime a speaker makes a […]
“The beginning is the most important part of the work”, says Plato. Plato is considered an essential figure in the development of philosophy. Not only did he found the Academy in Athens, which was reportedly the first institution of higher learning in the Western world, he was taught by Socrates and he had Aristotle as […]
Public speaking involves a series of exchanges. As the speaker gives out information to the audience, members of the audience show their interest or lack of interest through their feedback. While the process is not really about who dominates or who is submissive, we still should not downplay the role of the speaker in setting […]
Betty was excited that her husband had returned from work. She had a lot to tell him, ranging from the broken kitchen knife to the plumbing problem. Unfortunately, Fred wasn’t in the mood for any of that. He had a tough day and needed to free his mind from everything by watching a game of […]
This article is not necessarily about using time effectively, though this is obvious from the story in Part 1. Our focus here is on the seed. A seed is not supernatural, yet it determines your harvest. It is only what you plant that you reap, not what you are getting ready to plant. It doesn’t […]
Once upon a time, there lived three supernatural beings and their names were Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Each of them had special powers to control certain aspects of time. For instance, anything that had to do with memories or history was within the domain of Yesterday; Today was the lord of actions and execution of […]
Welcome to your column on public speaking. Last week, we explored the importance of looking within us and bring out the hidden treasures. I shared with you the story of Leslie Calvin “Les” Brown who was born on the floor in an abandoned building and was later labeled educably mentally retarded. Les listened to the […]