I spent a day recently working with a client who’s about to launch his book – the presentation we were concentrating on was the (huge!) launch event itself. The book’s good, written in a relaxed and friendly way and it reads easily (but I would say that wouldn’t I?!).
But delivered orally it’s a disaster… it sounds pretentious and inelegant.
After a short while we figured out what the problem was – some words that we use in written English don’t get used much (if at all) in spoken English. They just don’t sound right – a bit like the aural equivalent of cheap plastic flowers. Â They’re not vastly different from the real thing but they’re different enough to feel ‘tacky’.
We write ‘begin’ or ‘initiate’ but say ‘start’. Â We write “I will complete…” but say “I’ll finish…”. Â We write “We can facilitate…” but say “We can help…”. On paper it’s fine to use the more ‘flowery’ stuff, but when we speak it just sounds like we’re trying too hard to sound intelligent: you know the sort of thing from school – the kid who hadn’t really got much to say tried to cover it up by adding unnecessary words – never use a one-syllable word when half a dozen will do! Â :)
Now I’m not suggesting that the idea below is literally the case but I’m using it as a teaching-tool…..
English is largely a morphing of a number of different languages and the big divide, so to speak, is between the languages spoken by the Anglo-Saxon population and the Normans who invaded in/around 1066. Â The stuff we write is Norman/latin and the stuff we say is Saxon. Â (Yes, yes, I know, it’s not entirely like that but you get my point, I’m sure.)
Think of it this way…. when we talk about sheep we say sheep – because that’s the language of the anglo-saxons who looked after them: but when it’s cooked and presented to the Norman masters it suddenly becomes “Mutton”! :) Â Â We do similar things when we present… if we present from a script.
I’m going to check the historical accuracy with a historian friend of mine but think of Latin being a written, formal, courtly language and Saxon a more earthy, practical hands on language…. and think about which you want to use when you’re speaking.
I’m constantly amazed (yes, I know, I must be a slow learner) by the number of presenters I see/hear who use (over-use) scripts. Â The key thing is, no matter how well you write (unless you’re an experience script-writer… and not always even then!) the way you write is going to be different from how you speak… and the result is that you’re going to sound like you’re reading a script – because you are!
There’s no easy way around this, I’m afraid – if you’re going to prepare your presentation with a script, you’re making a rod for your own back, when it comes to delivering it. Â Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you shouldn’t prepare (you should!); it’s just that you shouldn’t prepare by writing a script.
Keywords are the way to go, no?
