Engaging the audience by working the room.

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From the course by University of Washington

Speaking to persuade: Motivating audiences with solid arguments and moving language

60 ratings

University of Washington

Speaking to persuade: Motivating audiences with solid arguments and moving language

60 ratings

Course 3 of 4 in the Specialization Dynamic Public Speaking

In the professional realm, we need to be able to argue without being argumentative. Whether you are fundraising for a nonprofit, pitching a business proposal, or suggesting a change to company policy, you are making arguments. In making the case for your topic, you often want to raise awareness, identify a pressing problem, discuss appropriate solutions, and outline specific steps for the audience. To be persuasive, you must be clear (the audience may have little to no existing knowledge), you must be convincing (you are trying to sway the audience that your argument is valid), and you must be compelling (you are trying to motivate the audience enough so that they want to take specific actions). Persuasive speaking thus requires clarity, strategy, topic mastery, plus a sense of style and presence. By the end of this course, you should be able to design persuasive speeches that address problems and solutions and that motivate audience members. You should be able to use rhetorical style strategically and deliver passionate and compelling speeches. Learners will record speeches, providing and receiving peer feedback.

From the lesson

Compelling delivery

In this module, we’ll finish our work on persuasive speaking. We'll talk about the dreaded "UM", a bane of speakers and an issue that merits study. We'll also go over some tips for reducing these sorts of disfluencies. We'll spend a bit of time thinking about some good delivery practices. Finally, we'll explore some models of imitation. By the end of the week, you will have a couple of speaking techniques to make every speech you give sound more confident and moving. If you want some feedback, you’ll be able to upload a practice persuasive speech for peer review.

Dressing for a successful speech.3:30

Preparing your speaking space.3:08

Engaging the audience by working the room.4:37

Making good eye contact.3:52

Meet the Instructors

Dr. Matt McGarrity
Principal Lecturer
UW Department of Communication

I feel like I perform my comfort in a room, and

I usually want to deliberately convey a sense of energy.

Now this would be entirely [LAUGH] different if I was doing a eulogy.

Right there I'm aiming more for sort of a somber ethos.

But for most talks, I want to perform my investment in the topic.

So how can we do this?

Well first, I think you should try to fill the space.

I want to have movement and energy appropriate to the room.

Small rooms with big movement can feel off.

Big rooms with small movement are also off, so I want to be moving in a way that

looks like I am covering a fair bit of the allocated space.

Now most of my action is going to be side to side,

right,maybe some of it's going to be coming in and stepping out.

None of it's going to be doing up and down, but

how can you remind yourself to fill this space?

Well, I think, one way is to identify a basic movement zone.

So I typically like to have an anchor spot, right?

So this is my home base, maybe this is where I keep most of my notes.

Now, I try to balance out that natural anchor point in the room.

So if there's a podium on one side,

I think I can reasonably go about the same distance to the other side, right.

And I can maybe go a little bit further than that but

that's a reasonable marker there, right.

That's sort of the natural span of the stage.

So in a bigger room like this, the lateral movement is going to be wider but

the basic principle in't going to change.

I still want to make sure that I'm hitting all parts of that room.

Relatedly, I want to interact with most parts of the room, spread the love, right.

I want to make sure that I'm connecting with most parts of the room.

Now, generally, I think of audiences in terms of thirds.

So I've got each basic section, and

I want to make sure that wherever I am I can throw my hands up.

So if I'm over here I can throw my hands up, and

I can capture about 90% of the audience.

Even if I went over here, right, I would want to be able to stand here and

capture most of the audience.

I want them to be able to see me.

But if I move to a new section, I kind of post up,

right, I can make sure I can be seen by most of the people, and I continue on.

And the room your in changes that.

So I'm not really one for running around, but in a bigger room like this,

I might go ahead and drift up the sides.

Now I don't want to do that too much,

I don't these people to have to constantly turn around and look at me.

But if it's a bigger room I'm going to have to do something a little bit

different to fill that space.

Now, this movement should be motivated.

So here's a clip from a man who is running for a local political office, all right.

So he was asking to be the Republican candidate for the Clark County Treasurers.

So Clark County is in the State of Ohio, anyway, so

he wanted to convey his passion for this post but here's what he did.

>> Ladies and gentlemen of the Star County Republican Party,

executive committee good evening.

And thank you not only for your attendance, but for

allowing me the opportunity to speak.

My name is Phil Davidson, and I am speaking our party's

nomination for the position of Star County Treasurer,

on November 10th, November of 2010, excuse me.

In terms of my background, I am from the village of Minerva.

Where I'm serving my 13th year of elected service as a Minerva Council member.

In terms of education, I have a bachelor's degree in sociology,

a bachelor's degree in history, a master's degree is public administration.

And a masters degree in communication.

>> That's bananas, right, his tone, his gestures, his movements,

they are unhinged.

Now, it should come as no great surprise that he was unable to secure

the nomination, but he did have some YouTube fame, so there's that.

His movement is so intense, it's too big for that space.

And also, you don't get to make up gestures, right.

This, whatever he did there, this [LAUGH] is not the accepted form of 13,

it's just not.

You don't get to make that up on the spot.

In general, I want to convey a sense of energy in the space, and

it's harder to do if I'm stuck in the corner.

Don't put baby in a corner.

If possible, I want to work the room, conveying a sense of enthusiasm and

energy.

[MUSIC]

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