How to Speak: a great video with Patrick Henry Winston

Recently on Research Explainer I found a link to a wonderful 46-minute talk by Patrick Henry Winston on How to Speak. He’s been a professor at MIT for over forty years, and his subject is academic lecturing. However, much of what he relates applies to all public speaking. The talk is on YouTube, and it is arranged in 13 manageable segments that you can view either in sequence or individually.

Their titles are:

1. Prelude

2. Introduction

3. How to Start

4. The Big 4: heuristics

5. Time and Place

6. The Blackboard

7. Overheads

8. Props

9. Style

10. How to Stop

11. Questions: part 1

12. Questions: part 2

13. Postlude


He discusses overhead projectors by hilariously showing what not to do (and why not). Then he discusses props using the example of Ibsen’s play, Hedda Gabbler.

I also enjoyed his discussion of style. He tells an anecdote about Ingemar Stenmark, the famous Swedish skier. When Stenmark was asked if he had an idol who he copied, he said no. Instead he looked at everybody who was excellent, and then adapted what he could to create his own unique style.