Articles by Andrew Dlugan:

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.

That’s my favorite quotation from one of the most famous speeches of all time: Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream“. I love not only the line’s message, but also the alliteration of the “k” sound: color, skin, content, character.

This week marks the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.

See our previously published speech analysis where you can watch the video, study the speech transcript, and learn five lessons in speechwriting.

For decades, popular opinion pegged Bill Gates as a mediocre presenter.

That all changed on February 5, 2009, when he unleashed one of the most memorable props ever on his audience: live mosquitos.

In this article, we discuss:

• key benefits of props,
• how to choose a prop, and
• how to use it effectively in a speech.

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If you give a great speech, but nobody can hear you, does it really count?

Before your message can transform your audience, the sound of your voice must be heard by your audience. It sounds really simple, but I’m shocked by how often I have to strain to hear a presenter.

In this article, we examine strategies for being heard and varying speech volume to improve your effectiveness.

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Do you ever find yourself wishing that your audience understood you better? Do you have difficulty conveying your great ideas clearly?

One of the most important writing techniques I ever learned was parallelism. Parallelism leads to clear writing, and clear writing leads to clear speaking.

In this article, we define parallelism, study numerous examples, and discuss how you can incorporate it into your speeches.

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Your eye contact impacts your ability to connect with your audience and, by extension, your effectiveness as a speaker. In this article, we offer simple strategies for producing more eye contact and better eye contact.

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Telling Ain’t Training is an outstanding book for trainers and educators on how to develop effective training. Published by the American Society for Training & Development, this is the best book that I’ve found in this speaking niche.

Our Six Minutes survey last fall indicated that a third of our readers are teachers, instructors, professors, or corporate trainers. If you are one of them, or if you would like to start delivering effective training sessions, you should read this book.

This article is one of a series of public speaking book reviews from Six Minutes.

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When I was in high school, every teacher used an overhead projector regularly. Many years later, I can’t recall the last time I saw one used as meeting rooms are increasing equipped with digital projectors to display PowerPoint and Keynote slides. This is a clear technology upgrade, and I don’t miss the overhead projector at all.

Similarly, the flip chart is another device my teachers used often; sadly, it also gathers dust often in dark, neglected corners of meeting rooms. But flip charts are more than just relics; they remain one of the most versatile tools readily available to speakers.

In this article, we list the core benefits of using flip charts, and give several tips that will help you use this wonderful tool effectively.

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Reading about audience analysis and talking about audience analysis is great… in theory.

But it’s much better if you are doing audience analysis, instead.

To help you make audience analysis a positive habit, I’m sharing a free audience analysis worksheet.

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The first two articles in this audience analysis series have defined what audience analysis is (what questions to ask) and given strategies for how to conduct audience analysis (how to get those answers).

This begs the question — how do you capitalize on your audience analysis? That is, how do you reap the benefits to offset the time that you invested?

In this article, we examine how to improve your presentation based on your audience analysis.

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The previous article in this audience analysis series defined what audience analysis is, and the types of questions that you should ask about your audience.

Unfortunately, finding the answers to these questions is not as easy as searching Google or browsing Wikipedia. Where can you find these answers?

In this article, we review nine strategies to conduct audience analysis which will lead you to the answers you seek.

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Update: The server upgrade is complete. Thanks for your patience.

This weekend (December 21-22), Six Minutes is getting a gift from Santa — a new web server!

While the update is taking place, Six Minutes will be unavailable (hopefully less than 24 hours). I apologize for any inconvenience, but I hope you are all attending holiday parties instead!

When the maintenance is complete, the new server should be both faster and more reliable. This is necessary to continue to provide the very best public speaking and presentation skills resources to you.

Happy holidays to you and your families and friends!