Sequencing Information
When building a presentation, determining information order can be difficult. Should you lead with the system outage to make the fix seem more impactful, or should you open with the fix as a segue to how we need to improve system...
Presentation Flow
When students struggle with speeches, presentations, or pitches, it often stems not from research issues, lack of knowledge, or insufficient content. Frequently the opposite is true, and I hear that time honored refrain, “I don’t know where to go with this.”...
Writing a Focus Statement
I’ve written about selecting topics based on who you’re taking to and why you’re taking to them as well as focusing early in the process. Sometimes, though, it helps to have a clear “how to” on concepts like “know your audience”...
Focus Early, Focus Narrow
When developing a speech, even if a topic is provided, novice speakers often ask, “What should I talk about?” This is very common, especially when the topic is broad or little direction is given. In a previous post, I discussed selecting...
How Much Detail?
When developing a presentation, most people include far more detail than is necessary- especially novice speakers. I find there is a strong correlation between a speaker’s subject matter expertise and the amount of information they feel is needed to make their...