Presenter Coach
Ideas to improve your communication, presentations and speeches.13 October, 2006
Don't Overqualify Your Message
To paraphrase Samuel Johnston, "when you are particularly proud of a page that you have written, reread it and cross out all but the essential paragraph."
In a presentation, as in a conversation, some people never seem to get to the point. They adopt a legalistic tone, that points out all of the exceptions before stating the rule.
I have a friend who is an inspector in the mining industry. He is a technical person who has a responsibility to investigate breaches of legislation. He was explaining something to another friend, and mid way through the explanation, friend number 2 observed: "Do you realise how many relative clauses you have used so far?"
He could not make a statement without qualifying it with "unless", "notwithstanding", "except" and a number of other explanatory conjunctions.
Often, we spend so much time explaining the context in which something happened, that the main point gets lost.
I am not saying ignore the context, just don't let the point you are making get lost in a contextual maze.
One way of handling perceived exceptions to your theme is to eliminate the exceptions, one by one before you introduce your point.
An alternative is to make the point at the outset, then handle the objections. Conclude by restating your point.
In a presentation, as in a conversation, some people never seem to get to the point. They adopt a legalistic tone, that points out all of the exceptions before stating the rule.
I have a friend who is an inspector in the mining industry. He is a technical person who has a responsibility to investigate breaches of legislation. He was explaining something to another friend, and mid way through the explanation, friend number 2 observed: "Do you realise how many relative clauses you have used so far?"
He could not make a statement without qualifying it with "unless", "notwithstanding", "except" and a number of other explanatory conjunctions.
Often, we spend so much time explaining the context in which something happened, that the main point gets lost.
I am not saying ignore the context, just don't let the point you are making get lost in a contextual maze.
One way of handling perceived exceptions to your theme is to eliminate the exceptions, one by one before you introduce your point.
An alternative is to make the point at the outset, then handle the objections. Conclude by restating your point.
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