To close out week 1 we had our first set of presentations, and whilst everyone was comfortable with cleaning data, there was one issue - we hadn't spent any time learning how to present. Naturally, I was concerned with the quality of my speech but I was able to draw on some of the things that I learned whilst taking part in public speaking competitions in Tamil. I'm by no means an expert but I'd like to provide some advice to help with talking in public.
Pause for the thought
Artists refer to negative space as the blank space around objects and in speech we’ll think of the pauses between speaking in a similar way. First, consider that pauses in speech are for more than just taking a breath. For the listener, a break in speech gives them time to process what has just been said and to form their own opinions. A simple tip here is to take a moment after saying something informative. Another benefit is that a pause will buy time to think about the next thing that you want to say. Often when speaking quickly without breaks, you can find yourself stumbling over your words or getting stuck on one idea. Your mind and mouth are working at the same rate - while it’s easy to think of ideas, it’s harder to say them while maintaining a smooth train of speech. Taking a break while transitioning from one idea to the next will allow you to think of how you want to start off a sentence. The rest should all follow from there.
Don’t be tone-deaf?
The subtitle looks a bit weird right? When reading this you can tell that the punctuation is off? It’s easy to see that sentences that aren’t questions shouldn’t end in question marks - the same applies when speaking. Upspeak is when a speaker has a rise in inflection at the end of a definitive statement, making a normal sentence sound like a question. There are two major causes for this: 1) a method of overcompensating for monotonous speech and 2) a result of being nervous when speaking. Dealing with cause 1, one tip is to read things out loud (this can be books, newspapers and hopefully more of my blogs). When doing this, try and listen to the way you read, as you are more likely to read with a varied tone of voice. If you do find yourself reading differently to how you speak, try to mimic your reading voice when speaking. With cause 2) there isn’t much great advice other than practice, practice, and practice but the more you can take opportunities to speak publicly, the faster you'll improve.
Axing accents
This one is an especially big problem for me. Being a Londoner I’m used to speaking in slang and, whilst fine for general conversation, it isn’t the greatest in a boardroom. I first noticed this problem during interviews where I’d catch myself not enunciating the t in data. Another common example of this is pronouncing the letter g (i.e. runnin instead of running). As far as help goes, this one is contextual. The best thing to do is to again listen to yourself when speaking whilst trying to pick up on mishaps like these and fix them. If I come up with a better tip, I’ll be sure to make a follow up post!