Best Public Speaking Articles: Weekly Review [2008-11-08]

On Saturdays, we survey the best public speaking articles from throughout the public speaking blogosphere. Topics featured include:

• book reviews;
• writing a eulogy;
• lectern issues;
• Q&A sessions;
• bad PowerPoint slides;
• speaking with a lavaliere microphone; and
• Toastmasters in a down economy.

Week in Review: Six Minutes

The feature article this week was the latest in a series of speech critiques which help you analyze and learn from excellent speeches:

• How can you inspire your audience?
  Ask 10-year-old Dalton Sherman.
  See how a fifth-grade student inspires a crowd of 20,000 at a teacher’s conference in Dallas.

Week in Review: Public Speaking Blogosphere

Speaker Resources

We open this week with six book reviews — great books recommended by my fellow public speaking bloggers:

• The Confident Leader by Larina Kase — review by Ian Griffin.
• White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters by Robert Schlesinger — review by Ian Griffin.
• Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition by Guy Kawasaki — review by Garr Reynolds.
• Be Heard Now! Tap Into Your Inner Speaker and Communicate with Ease by Lee Glickstein — review by Craig Senior.
• You’ve Got to be Believed to be Heard by Bert Decker — review by Nancy Duarte.
• Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina — review by James Feudo.

But, it’s not all about book reviews…

• Garr Reynolds posts a review of the Sony VPLCX21 LCD Projector.

It’s just around $1000 and for that price it’s very bright (2100 lumens) and crisp. It has a native XGA Resolution of 1024 x 768 which is all I need. It’s only 4.2 pounds and fits easily into my bag along with one or two MacBook Pros. Even if the venue says they will provide the projector, I carry this along now just as a backup.

Speechwriting

• Olivia Mitchell gives a guide to writing a eulogy.

1. You don’t have to provide an outline of their entire life.
2. You don’t have to do a ton of research or talk to lots of other people.
3. You don’t have to lie.
4. You don’t have to make people laugh.
5. You don’t have to get it exactly right.
6. You don’t have to have a complicated structure.
7. Rehearsal is critical.
8. Have two sets of notes.
9. Have a back-up.
10. Think of your audience in concentric circles.
11. Think small.

Delivery Techniques

• Nick R Thomas weighs in with his perspectives on lecterns.

Lecterns may be a good focal point and, in the case of eulogies and religious readings, they can add the required dignity to the occasion but for other types of speaking […] you must be bigger than the lectern: in other words, be lively and animated in your delivery and don’t bury your face in your written materials…

• John Windsor focuses attention on the importance of planning your Q&A session. [This article complements an earlier Six Minutes article: Leading the Perfect Q&A.] Just a few of John’s tips:

1. Think through what your audience is likely to ask.
2. Answer their specific questions.
3. Ask for clarification.
4. Ask questions.
5. Don’t let [the Q&A session] just peter out.

Visual Aids

• Jeff Bailey recaps a slide makeover he did to improve some training slides for a programming course heavy with computer code.
• Gavin Meikle illustrates how not to design PowerPoint slides with a particularly busy set of slides from Morgan Stanley.

I came across this presentation from an Analyst at Morgan Stanley and it epitomises everything that is wrong with the way most people use PowerPoint. Honestly! it doesn’t have to be like this. Don’t deluge your audience with data. These slides are so busy that after a couple you just want to give up.

Speaker Habits

• Steve Larose provides tips on what not to wear when speaking with a lavaliere microphone.

The best place to place the lavaliere microphone is about 4 inches under the chin, clipped onto the presenters shirt or blouse. […]

Gentlemen presenters [should] wear a shirt that has a buttoned collar […]

[L]adies, even though it looks sexy, low cut blouses don’t work for using lavaliere microphones. When you clip the mic to the center, it is 10+ inches from the source of the audio […]

Toastmasters Articles

• Chris Elliott argues that Toastmasters makes sense in a down economy.

In the 1970’s, Warren Buffet was buying stocks when others were predicting the end of stock markets and trying to sell out. […]

How does this relate to Toastmasters? As the people around you spend less on their education, spend less becoming better speakers, you can be spending the money now, so when the economy improves, you have the skill set to be successful.