Research Proposal Seminar: SHOW TIME

Meeting 5

Subject : G-1342 Research SeminarYear : 2008/2009

ELEMENTS OF PHYSICAL DELIVERY

1. Appearance2. Posture3. Facial Expression4. Eye Contact5. Movement6. Gestures

APPEARANCE• Definition: A speaker’s/presenter’s physical

features, including dress and grooming.• Guidelines:

– Consider the Occasion: formality or informality of your clothing is dictated in part by the speaking occasion.

– Consider Your Audience: In any audience, there is a range of attire (clothing). Dress at the top of that range.

– Consider Your Topic: Your topic may also affect your choice of clothes.

– Consider Your Image: The image you want to create as a presenter should shape your selection of clothes.

POSTURE• Definition:

the position or bearing of a speaker’s body while delivering a speech or presentation.

• Guidelines: Avoid rigidity and sloppiness. Remember that before your delivery can reinforce your message, it must be free of annoying mannerisms.

FACIAL EXPRESSION• Definition: the tension and movement of various parts of a

speaker’s face.• Guidelines:

– Human face is capable of 250,000 different facial expressions; this is a vast amount of communication potential!

– Your facial expression must match what you are saying;– Your face should register the thoughts and feelings that

motivate your words;– Concentrate as much as possible on the ideas you

present and the way your audience receives and responds to them.

EYE CONTACT• Definition: gaze behavior in which a speaker looks at

listeners’ eyes.• Guidelines:

– “Look me in the eyes and say that.”– Eye contact carry many other messages: confidence, concern,

sincerity, interest, and enthusiasm.– Lack of eye contact may signal: deceit, disinterest, or

insecurity.– Make eye contact with as much of the audience as much of the

time as possible; take in your entire audience, from front to back and from left to right.

– Make eye contact specially with those individuals who seem to be listening carefully and responding positively to your message.

MOVEMENT• Definition: a presenter’s/speaker’s motion from

place to place during presentation/speech delivery.• Guidelines:

– Effective movement benefits you the presenter, you audience, and your presentation.

– Place-to-place movement can actually help you relax.– From the audience’s perspective, movement adds visual

variety to your presentation and can arouse or rekindle the listener’s interest.

– It serves you presentation by guiding the audience’s attention.

– Through it, you can underscore key ideas, mark major transitions, or intensify an appeal for belief or action.

– Select you movement; avoid random pacing.

GESTURES• Definition: movements of a speaker’s hands and

arms while delivering a presentation.• Guidelines:

– They are important adjuncts to our verbal messages;– They, at times, can even replace words altogether.– You can use them to draw a picture of an object, to

indicate the size of objects or the relationships between them, to recreate some bodily motion, to emphasize or underscore key ideas, to point to things such as visual aids, or to trace the flow of your ideas.

– Natural and spontaneous gestures are well worth whatever time you spend practicing them;

– They reinforce your ideas and make you seem more confidents and dynamic, also help you relax.

SHOW TIME• How to speak effectively:

– Make your presentation conversational;– Avoid the use of jargon or terms that may be unfamiliar to

the audience;– Watch the audience for nonverbal clues about their

response;– Breathe. It helps you relax and reduces filter language such

as “um” and “er”;– Keep your tone natural and conversational;– Speak loudly enough for everyone;– Avoid rapid-fire or drawn-out-speech or presentation;– Be expressive; don’t speak in a monotone; raise and lower

your voice to make your point.– Enunciate and pronounce words clearly.

How to project a positive image:• Project confidence through your dress

and presence;• Make sure you facial expressions

convey interest in the audience. If you are too nervous to look at the entire audience, focus on individual instead;

• Make and maintain eye contact with audience members.

How to keep your audience engaged:

• Change what you’re ding—for example, make a sudden pause or change your vocal tone.

• Ask for a show of hands: “Just out of curiosity, how many of you believe that your friends are satisfied with our English mastery? Let’s see a show of hands.”

• Add humor. A little comic relief in a serious presentation is welcomed by audiences and capture their attention.

• Provide analogies and vivid examples.• Introduce personal stories.• Employ compelling statistics and expert testimony.• Use visuals, such as illustrations, charts, and graphs, to good

effect.• Ask a question: “So what does that last point mean for you

and your study/research/presentation?”

AFTER-ACTION REVIEW• Like other activities, a presentation is the result

of a process that converts inputs (your ideas, information, and arguments) to outputs (what your audience sees and hears). And like every other process, it can be improved.

• For improvement, do two things:1. Find the root causes of problems;2. Use a video to help you assess your performance.