Do you use highlighters when you study or read? Why? I know for me, the bright and transparent ink helps me focus on and save valuable information that I will want to reference in the future. Public speeches often involve specific data to support the speakers points. This is especially true in industry-specific presentations.
But when you have that key data, how do you present that information in a way that makes the key points stand out? And is it always necessary to do so? Maybe, and maybe not.
Go Easy on the Verbal Highlighter
It’s fairly common knowledge in speaking that using your voice to create emphasis involves adjustments to your volume, pace, and pitch. Lowering your volume might create a dramatic tone. Slowing your pace may create anticipation. And raising your pitch might create shock or surprise, etc. There are many, many ways to utilize these basic principles.
Certainly, simply reading a key piece of data and assuming the point is obvious to everyone would be a mistake. On the other hand, over-emphasizing everything can drown out the point you want your audience to remember. Additionally, it can leave your audience feeling exhausted.
So, now you may be thinking “Jeeze Jeremy, one second I’m supposed to add emphasis, and now you’re saying it’s too much?! How am I supposed to know?”
Often data is relevant to provide credibility to one of your main points. In those situations, you may lower your volume and pitch while reading a slide to build anticipation for the main point, or the takeaway.
Ask yourself: What is the key point in this slide or in my speech that is most important for the audience to take away? What am I trying to get my audience to do?
I need to make a video for this, and I will probably come back and add it to this article, but let’s try to demonstrate this with font size for now.
Imagine that you’re giving a speech on the risks and benefits of smartphone usage. You make a setup statement, provide the evidence, and emphasize your takeaway- which is to persuade people to avoid using social media apps 3 days a week.
Setup:
Are smartphones really making you smarter because you have so much access to information?
(Louder and faster) Did you know your attention span could be suffering to a point that it could be considered brain damage!
Evidence:
(Lower, slower)
A recent study showed that prolonged smartphone usage, specifically usage related to social media applications resulted in attention span drops below that of (new slide) a Goldfish. (pause, scan room)
Takeaway:
(louder, faster) But by simply reducing your social media usage by 3 days a week, you can protect your brain from being outpaced by a tiny fish! (points to slide of fish in a bowl)
(Of course, if you’re using your smartphone, you already fact-checked me and you know this is a false statement. Your attention span is much better than a goldfish. You are still reading this article after all!)
This change in emphasis set up your main point, making it effortlessly memorable for the audience.
What if some data is irrelevant to the main point, but is necessary to the premise of your presentation? In those cases, you’re not concerned with whether or not the audience remembers the data, only that it is verifiable.
For instance, in the case of the goldfish attention myth, it could be given only a quick, passing reference before moving on to an honest takeaway: Smartphone users are much more adept at multi-tasking than non-smartphone users.
How to Use Your Verbal Highlighters
All we’re talking about is stressing words or phrases to make the right things stand out. But the magic is knowing when to use it. If overused, it can exhaust the audience and portray a manic and unpredictable speaker. If underused, the main points of the speech can be lost. In order to identify your points of emphasis, compare these points to your speech outline:
- What is the main thesis statement of my speech? (This isn’t always the title, but it is the message you want to convey) Highlight it.
- What are the main supporting points for that thesis? (It’s not necessarily the data, but the takeaways from it) Highlight it.
- How am I trying to influence my audience? (Motivate, Persuade, Humor, Inform, Shock?) This will influence your tone.
- What information is necessary, but less important that I do not need to put emotion into? Take note of those.
Once you’ve identified the various part of your outline and the purpose they serve, you can begin making decisions about how you want to highlight them using your pitch, pace, and volume.
For me, this is always the best part of speech preparation, because it means that I’m done writing the majority of the speech and can get into the art of the presenting.
