Speaker's Briefing

Use presentation handouts to make a lasting impression
Handouts leave a lasting impression after your spoken presentation. They can be the cement that holds your message in place after your audience departs. Quite literally, they’re the message your listeners take home with them.

Hip-hop dictionary: A short guide to ‘street speak’ for avoiding embarrassing bloopers
Few things are more aggravating than listening to a middle-aged, middle-class speaker—or, for that matter, an affluent, educated college student—trying to sound streetwise. Still, the language is constantly changing, and because there will be times when you must reach out to new listeners by speaking their lingo. So, here’s a concise glossary of hip-hop terms to help you.

How to keep your panel group on focus
One of the most frustrating parts of moderating a panel group is keeping your audience and participants on target. Unless you do, even the most important meeting or program can degenerate into a series of long, unrelated monologues. Use these tips to keep your next panel on the mark:

Gramatically speaking: Don't let fear of political correctness make you sound silly
In today’s politically correct world, language has taken a beating, particularly with the use of so-called “sexist” terms. Here’s a guide to help you negotiate current sensitivities without sounding ridiculous—by using such awful words as “waitperson” for “waiter” or “waitress,” or “chair” instead of “chairman.” After all, a chair is a piece of furniture, not a human being.

Grading the Presidents: A master communicator reviews Oval Office oratory
When Paul Bedard of the White House Weekly interviewed Jack Valenti about his recent book, Speak Up With Confidence, the former aide to President Lyndon Johnson and longtime Motion Picture Association of America president delivered some master “speech analysis” on the men who have occupied the White House during his lifetime. Although Valenti talked about presidents past and present, he gave many useful insights into effective speech preparation and delivery. Here’s how he graded some of the most memorable Oval Office orators:

Scholars measure presidential-speech word power
Just as Jack Valenti noted President George W. Bush’s progressive improvement as a speaker, a study of Bush speeches delivered before and after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks found an increasingly effective choice of words and terms—rhetorical style that exuded more leadership and generated a shared sense of common purpose with his audience.