转载文章，一切CREDIT属于原作者。
发信人: Highly (Highly), 信区: Faculty
标 题: 再谈谈如何做好 Public Speaking 的个人感想
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Wed May 28 17:31:19 2014, 美东)
自从发表了关于如何写paper的感想，每天都有不少人来我的博客，深受鼓舞。想再写
一篇和大家共同探讨。
On Public Speaking
If you ask me to offer some advice to all the WSNs, I would tell them: to me
, the biggest problem with you lot is not your sloppy clothes, or untidy
hair, or your awkward English. Not even the stinky smell. (Ugh!) The first
thing you need to learn is stand straight. Don’t droop your shoulders or
tilt your head or bend a leg. If you don’t believe me, go watch a video of
any political leader in the world. They may be tall or short, lean or brawny
, dressed in different styles, but they always keep their bodies upright.
The same goes for public speaking. The moment you step onto a stage, before
you have a chance to open your mouth, people will begin judging you. Unless
you wear inappropriate clothes, their first impression will be determined by
your spirit, and not standing straight is never associated with passion or
self-respect. Some of you may worry about being too stiff or serious on an
informal occasion, but relaxation should come as a result of your friendly
speech or warm smiles. A slack posture doesn’t win you favors.
1. It’s all about the atmosphere.
We sometimes hear people say, “I’ll just give the same speech again.” You
can never give the same speech again when the audience changes. Below is
how William Safire, author of Lend Me Your Ears --- Great Speeches in
History, defines a speech (my review of the book can be found here:
http://fionarawsontile.blogspot.com/2014/05/book-review-lend-me-your-ears-great.html).
“When did a speech become a speech---when it was drafted or when it was
given? … What makes a draft speech a real speech is the speaking of it; but
without that articulation, without the strong presence of the deliver,
without the audience to be aroused or moved, all you have is a polemic on a
page. A speech is an event.”
Recently I gave two research talks within a couple of months. The first was
to a group of forty faculty and students, the second to a lab of six members
. During the latter presentation, I was shocked by how differently I
organized the phrases and explained the science, with the same Powerpoint
presentation. Speech is a type of communication. It should be interactive.
Even though the audience remains silent during most part of your talk, you
need to have an expectation about how your speech is likely to be received,
constantly monitor their reactions (mostly reflected by their body languages
), and adjust your loudness, tone, speed, but most importantly, the content.
You may have to give more basic background or skip certain things if the
audience look confused. Kill the question you’ve planned to ask if they don
’t appear enthusiastic, or add one if you believe you will succeed.
Sometimes it’s impossible to see actual faces of your audience. The worst
scenario is to give a speech to a camera, while knowing that thousands of
people might be watching it now or later. Still, your speech is affected by
the occasion. The size of the auditorium, the echoes of the microphone, the
gravity added by the camera, everything will make your talk different from
the rehearsals at home. Some suggest creating a few imaginary listeners in
those situations. When you can’t have eye contacts with individuals, you
don’t want to stare at a fixed point in the air or sway your gaze too
frequently. Novice speakers tend to make the second mistake, thinking that
they’ve got everybody “covered”. Have a steady gaze, and occasionally
looked in different directions.
I never read. I’ve been giving public speeches since I entered elementary
school. Some of them required memorizations of long stories. I know many
politicians have a few cards to remind themselves of possible topics they
may want to cover, depending on the time and atmosphere. (Queen Elizabeth II
has been criticized for reading prepared drafts, but considering how many
speeches she has to give in her entire life, we can’t be too hard on her.)
Imagine that one of your colleagues comes to your office and before you say
anything, pulls out a piece of paper and starts reading to you. That’s not
communication! Besides, how could you speak one sentence in the perfect
manner without knowing what will come next. You may argue, “I do know. I
wrote the whole thing.” Well, you don’t; otherwise why would you need to
see the draft? Have everything written in your mind. Let it grow itself like
a fruit so that you have to deliver it when it’s time. Or it’ll fall.
I know it’s hard to remember every word of a long speech, but this should
be treated as an advantage. Many politicians intentionally add pauses and
uncertainties to their well-rehearsed speeches, to give the audience an
illusion that they are thinking on the go. In that sense, it’s better not
to recite. Yet I bet you’ll remember the exact phrasing of your crucial
points. If not, maybe they aren’t as crucial as you’ve thought.
2. Aim low to achieve high.
Believe it or not, it’s hard to speak slowly. Most people naturally speed
up when they are nervous. A few of them do this to achieve the effect of
fluency. If you can, record your performance and examine it later, because
you always speak faster than you’ve thought. Remember this: whether it’s
in China or western countries, talking too fast with no pauses is usually a
sign of low social status. It reflects the lack of confidence, i.e., the
fear that the listeners may lose their interests at any moment. We’ve seen
TV programs in which everybody talks fast, either due to a time limit, or as
a result of “diluted content” with which you have to talk a lot before a
meaningful point is reached. The speeches we normally give should never be
rushed. Ideally, every word you say should be clear to most of the audience.
What’s the point of saying something that’s not intended to be heard? You
may skim through certain words like articles or conjunctions, but the
audience should be able to fill the gaps easily. You don’t want them to
wonder, “Ur, did I just miss something important?” After each critical
message, pause for a few seconds to let the words sink in.
I’ve always heard people complaining about the difficulty of providing
sufficient background information without sacrificing the “fancy” stuff.
My philosophy is, whenever you try to explain something, explain it well.
Make it thoroughly understandable. You may not be able to cover all the
great stuff you’ve done, but that shouldn’t be the aim of any speech. Pick
the important ones, and however abstruse the science is, there should be a
way to make it conceivable. “If you can't explain it simply, you don't
understand it well enough.” (Albert Einstein)
3. Draw them right in.
I began this article with a message to WSNs. Alternatively, I could’ve
presented you with the definition of speech by William Safire. The fact that
you’ve read it this far indicates that I’ve succeeded in hooking you up.
I know, especially for scientific talk, sometimes we have to go with the
traditional way, but giving an example related to our daily life, creating
suspense, or throwing in a quick joke in the early stage of the talk can
usually bring up spirit and attention, which sometimes would last for the
duration of your talk.
Now I’ll say a little more about jokes. When people experience a
catastrophic event, they often remember the details both before and after it
. The same with jokes. If you make your audience laugh hard, they are more
likely to remember the science, and they’ll do better not to fall asleep.
Many believe jokes that work best in a talk are self-deprecating. They can
instantly abridge the distance between the speaker and the audience. This
works particularly well when the speaker is an authority (“So he isn’t
that formidable!”) or is from a different culture (“I didn’t know Chinese
got humor.”). I still remember the joke given by a professor in our
department when he introduced a more senior woman professor at a seminar, “
Although her judgments were usually right, she did make one notable mistake
during the three decades she worked here, which is the decision to hire XXX
(his own name).”
I heard in the “gold old days”, you didn’t have to start a grant proposal
with the Significance. It’s hard to convince people that you are doing
something fascinating without first telling them what it is. But we live in
a practical world nowadays, and there is a good reason why we should start
with the significance. I’ve been through talks that went like---we did this
, we found this, and we’ll do this in the future. Who cares? Whenever you
introduce a new concept, say something about why it matters. Better still,
bring up the problem you aim to solve before introducing the concept.
4. Kill the fourth tone.
I don’t have a scientific explanation for this, but based on experience I
think we Chinese use too many “downward” tones than we should’ve. Below
is an example. Try to read every word in the fourth tone that has a
preceding asterisk.
“I *think this *is the best we could *find, but I could be *wrong.”
To me, a speech has to be rousing. Yes, that includes research talks.
Otherwise, why don’t we just sit there and read papers together? A speech
is like a novel. When well delivered, it can be quite convincing, persuasive
, and intriguing. A monotone or a series of downward tones are just not that
rousing. If I am to speak the above sentence, I’ll only have the fourth
tone with the very last word, “wrong”. For the word “find”, I’ll use
the second or the third tone.
And there are other habits you have to work hard to get rid of. I once had a
colleague who didn’t know he frequently touched his chin with a hand until
he saw it in the videotape. I say too many interjections in between
meaningful sentences. Can’t help it. The worst I’ve seen was a student in
a public-speaking summer class. We all knew he was a Christian because he
would make several Signs of the Cross during a speech that lasted a minute.
5. Walk around the question.
What’s the strategy to deal with tough questions for which you don’t have
an immediate answer? If it’s completely out of your knowledge, just admit
it. If you need time to think about it without creating awkward silence,
some people suggest repeating or rephrasing the question. I don’t think it
’s a bad idea, except that when you repeat a question, people know what you
are doing. Another way to handle the situation is to walk around the
question and bring up relevant things that, even if in the end you fail to
come up with an answer, may still provide the audience with some insights on
the topic.
I once talked to the professor I mentioned above before going to a campus
interview. He said our ability to carry out a conversation during job
interviews is often overlooked. We are advised to be prepared, but we
shouldn’t be too prepared. That is, few people want to hire a colleague who
considers going through a list of prewritten questions as the sole purpose
of a one-on-one meeting. You may have some vague ideas about what you want
to discuss with the person, but the execution really depends on how your
conversation goes, and you may end up not mentioning your ideas at all. He
suggested that I watch some of the popular TV shows and study how the host
and the guest managed an engaging conversation for half an hour with a topic
that was far from being meaningful?
So I studied a few Late Night with Seth Meyers on Youtube (since my son was
born six years ago, cartoons are the only programs we see on the TV), and
that’s how I came up with this walk-around-the-question idea. Let me make
up an example here. If you ask me, “How do you like Mitbbs?” I’ll say, “
It’s a fun website and I visit it often.” So that’s it! The conversation
is done in a few seconds. What would be Meyers’s way of expanding the
question?
“We’re really glad to have you here, Fiona. You look fabulous.” “Thanks.
I was on maternity leave when you last saw me.” “That’s right.
Congratulations by the way. So my question is related to Mitbbs, an online
forum based in the US for users who can at least read in Chinese. We know
there are a few major websites like this, each having its own established
culture and readership. To me, this website is notable for being
constructive and informative and it seems to have developed a self-censoring
mechanism that can effectively subdue the occasionally-observed profanity,
personal attack, etc. My question for you is, I know as a writer and
scientist you’ve been participating in a few learning communities and
constantly thinking about issues related to public education. So, in your
view, what would be the influences on this website as Mainland China keeps
adjusting its educational philosophies and sending fresh blood to the US?
During the clash of two major cultures, what should we do to thrive as a
whole without scarifying individuality?”
Well, that’s the walk-around way of making up a question, but I think the
same principle apples when you’re trying to answer a question. You start
with something remotely relevant (not the maternity leave, though). You walk
around it, trying to tackle the problem through different perspectives. As
you close up the distance, you yourself may have gained a better
understanding of the topic. Remember, to address a question you don’t have
to solve a problem. Can you come up with an experiment that has the
potential to provide us with an answer? Can you make a prediction of the
possible outcomes? A logical elaboration is usually enough to satisfy your
audience.
6. There are no informal speeches.
In my department we have a Friday-morning seminar series. I used to treat it
as an informal gathering of students and faculty for exchanging preliminary
ideas, until one day I saw a senior faculty canceling her student’s talk,
because she wasn’t sure about the conclusions the student was going to make
. In academia, there is no such thing as an informal speech. People judge
you based on what they see. Their memory of your presentation at an
international conference may not be stronger than what they get from a
casual conversation with you, or one of your students. To me, informality
always has the risk of being mistaken as carelessness in research. Given
that our colleagues are the ones who have the biggest impact on our careers-
--they decide on our tenures and write support letters for our awards, I
would always show them my best side.
John W. Gardner said, "Life is the art of drawing without an eraser."
Anything that has been said cannot be taken back. So, practice before you
give your speech. You may say something wrong, but you don’t want to say
anything you are uncertain of. After months or years of hard work, this is
the time to “live out loud”.
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