Saturday, September 30, 2017

Tips and icebergs

















In my previous blog post on September 28, 2017 titled Alan Alda on public speaking tips and rules of three I quoted how he didn’t much like tips. I don’t either. Tips often are so vague they are  useless – not even half truths. A comical illustration is in a YouTube video clip from Monty Python’s Flying Circus showing a mythical children’s TV program called How to Do It. John Cleese describes how to play the flute:

“Well here we are. You blow there, and you move your fingers up and down here.”

That tip just is the tip of an iceberg. There’s a lot more going on underneath the water. Both parts of an iceberg (or at least Antarctic ones) have useful jargon names. Page 48 in a 2011 book by Vijay P. Singh, Pratap Singh, and K. Haritashya titled Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers explains:

“The floating upper side of the ice, projecting over the water is termed the ‘hummock’; while the downward projection of the ice, which is hidden beneath the seawater, is termed the ‘bummock.’ These bummocks are dangerous for ships navigating in Antarctic waters.”

On February 1, 2017 I blogged about Incomplete and useful advice about recordings of your speech rehearsals. I noted that David McGimpsey had vaguely said to:

“….If you have time, record yourself (video or audio). You’ll find areas where you need to elaborate and give additional information. You’ll also find areas you can cut.”

More detailed and useful advice came from Fred E. Miller, who said you can view the video, just listen to the sound, or view the video with the sound off (to see gestures, etc.).

At her Speak Up for Success blog Jezra Kaye lists 100 Top Public Speaking Tips, each of which is a separate post with enough detail (bummock) to be useful.

The Arctic iceberg image came from Wikimedia Commons.

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