Um and His Cousin Er I hate speech coaches who don’t let you say “Um!” I listen to a lot of speakers, and a few “Uhms” don’t bother me. They make the speaker seem normal and conversational. On the other… Read More »Speech Training: Speech Disfluencies
Back in the days before Gutenberg, it took months or years for a few dedicated scribes to create a single copy of a single book. A literate medieval person, provided he or she was not interrupted by the Inquistion or… Read More »Effective Speaking: Keeping Attention
Trying to master a mental task? Acting it out can help. In a study reported in Cognition, when kids were told to use gestures as they learned to do a type of math problem, the lesson stuck. Embodiment gives you–literally–another… Read More »Speaking Anxiety: Gestures Help You Think
Many of us are familiar with the work of Dr. Albert Mehrabian of Stanford University, who demonstrated in his research that 85% of emotion is communicated through voice tone and body language. Many of us have read Blink, by Malcolm… Read More »Voice Projection: The Power of Voice Tone
Dan Heath looks like a buttoned up sportscaster as he sits in front of the New York skyline at a broad cherry desk. His brother Chip sits next to him, looking gleefully wonkish, with wire-rimmed glasses and a broom of fine… Read More »Presentation Tips: Super Glue Presentations