19

TALK TIME

Keep speeches and presentations short—ideally, no more than 25 minutes. Long and ongoing presentations turn into rambles. Audiences turn off and begin clock-watching.

Choose words carefully. They need to fit the audience profile. Presenters should avoid talking up and talking down to audience groups. This will happen if the audience type or group is researched, a hallmark of respect for listeners.

When speaking, make whole sentences impactful. Please don’t fade away toward the end of sentences, and don’t clip statements in a way that reduces their impact and meaning.

20

PUNCTUATE SPEECH

When speaking, insert punctuation so the audience ‘hears’ commas, semi-colons, and full stops. This is achieved through pause, which adds the emphasis that punctuation is about.

Pause is a way of emphasising essential points that have been made. To pause gives listeners a brief reflective space. In that context, ‘pause’ is a way of emphasising elements of speech.

‘Inflection’ is a way of building emphasis and highlighting points that are being made. This adds to the vibrancy of speech and triggers listening reception that helps to make points ‘stand out’ in audience comprehension.