Friday, April 18, 2014

Spouting Nonsense: A sandy Spoutly for Division E and L of Toastmasters District 79
















A few days ago I ran across a web page from March 15, 2014 on Fear of public speaking (Glossophobia) for the annual conference (to be held April 18, 2014) from Division E and L of Toastmasters District 79 (Saudi Arabia).

I was appalled to find it included a red and pink bar chart (minus the top caption) from my July 3, 2011 blog post directly above text claiming that:

“The Book Of Lists has the fear of public speaking at number 1 of all human fears.”

















The original bar chart is shown above. That post was titled More Americans fear public speaking than getting fat, and death tied for third. It was about a 1996 Roper survey reported in American Demographics in 1997 and had absolutely nothing to do with the 1977 Book of Lists. They didn’t bother to ask me before misusing my chart. 

Toastmasters International has a Club Leadership Handbook that contains A Toastmasters Promise, the last line of which says:

“To maintain honest and highly ethical standards during the conduct of all Toastmasters activities.”

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