Say your words out loud as you write your business presentation – but hold back on ‘Sorkin-talking’!

As HBO’s The Newsroom returns to US screens, with a UK premiere on Sky Atlantic planned for August, fans of the series will be hoping that writer Aaron Sorkin has not sustained any injuries this time. The screenwriting legend, who most famously created the West Wing, is a great advocate of the technique of saying the words out loud as he writes them. He says: ”My writing process is physical. I stand up and talk.” 

This may help to explain why the West Wing had so many scenes with the lead characters walking along corridors! During the writing of The Newsroom Season 1, however, he reportedly took the principle to a new level and sustained a broken nose as he played out the lines of his angst-ridden hero Will McAvoy.

Back in world of writing business presentations, saying your words out loud as you write them brings a number of different advantages. It helps to keep your language conversational and plain-English in style, with words that are short, easy to say and easy to take in. 

While Emailing and texting have shaken up the way we use the written word, there is still a tendency to dress our language in a ‘cloak of formality’ when we lay it out on a page and words such as ‘hereinafter’ and ‘aforementioned’ start to creep in. These are perfectly good words but you wouldn’t generally use them when having a conservation so they are going to sound stilted in a presentation.

Saying your words out loud also helps you identify any potential tongue twisters that might look perfectly harmless on the page but slap you around the mouth when you come to say them out loud. I once slipped some specially tailored material into a presentation at a late stage without saying it out loud. When I came to say ‘incongruities’ my tongue simplified refused to say the word that my brain was sending it.  And I shouldn’t have been saying it anyway; when did I last go home and say “I’ve had a really tough day, just one incongruity after another!”?  Another time I tripped up was the first time I said the words ‘Christina Aguilera’ out loud; unfortunately I was speaking live on national radio at the time! 

Finally, saying your words out loud as you write them brings the additional benefit of helping to avoid unfortunate mis-pronunciations. The fact is that when you are under pressure your brain and mouth don’t always synchronise in the way you had planned or expected. ‘Organism’ is a classic banana skin and, after a famous incident on BBC Radio 4, presenters throughout the media now dread the prospect of interviewing Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. And the more they worry about committing that particular clanger-in-waiting the more likely it is to happen. It’s difficult with a name, but if ever you are faced with such a challenge find a substitute word – you will be defusing a potential time bomb.

Extracted and adapted from Nick Fitzherbert's book 

Presentation Magic, published by Marshall Cavendish

Is your communication remaining ‘hidden in plain sight’?

The brain filters out most of the information it receives, leaving only what it considers important.

So says Rule number 4 of the ‘Rules of Magic’ that I, as a communication consultant and member of The Magic Circle, apply to coaching the business community in Presentation Skills.

Psychologists argue about how much information the brain takes in every single second – I have seen estimates ranging from 500 to as much as 11 million!  What they all agree on is that the brain can only retain a small number of those pieces of information - between about 16 and 40. Modern life has of course exacerbated this disparity, what with marketing messages bombarding us through multi-media 24 hours a day.

Think about when you have chosen a new car or perhaps changed your mobile phone. You have probably devoted careful time and consideration to your decision and may even be congratulating yourself on the select nature of your choice. And then suddenly you seem to see that model everywhere!  It’s because it has become important to you. I had exactly this experience when my car was due to its annual MOT test. The local testing centre had closed down and I cursed the fact that I would have to go in search of another and fretted over how inconvenient it would be getting to and from an alternative supplier, once I had found one. I decided to peer down some alleys near my home in case there was a test centre I had failed to spot in the past. What actually happened was that I pulled out into the main road, just around the corner from my house, and 50 metres on the right was a giant sign saying ‘MOT tests and all your motoring needs’. I had been driving past this sign for nine years – it was even on the school run - and yet it had never registered with me before, because an MOT test had not been important to me. Now that it was important to me the sign loomed large.

This is how people and objects can remain ‘hidden in plain sight’; they blend in so well

with the surroundings that they become effectively invisible. The ‘watch test’ demonstrates this very weIl. It’s an old favourite with magicians, but this version is by former president of The Magic Circle David Berglas. Known as the ‘International Man of Mystery’, David is the guru and hero to many magicians including Derren Brown, who described him as ‘One of our greatest living magical performers’.  David has done much work outside the performance arena, including training police recruits at Hendon in observation techniques.

This is exactly as he described the watch test to me; you might like to try it for yourself.

Without looking, tell me if your watch has

Roman or Arabic numerals, or maybe dashes or dots?

Incredible as it may seem, many people do not know the answer, despite the fact they are looking at their watch all day, every day. Allow them to look to see or check the answer, then ask:

How is the three / six position marked on your watch?

In spite of having just looked at their watch, many are unsure or incorrect, having failed to register that the date or other device actually fills this position. Allow them to look to see or check the answer, then ask:

Has it got a second hand?

Some people will even be unsure about this, but if they answer with great confidence ask them a further question: does it move in steps or sweep motion? Allow them to look to see or check the answer, then ask:

Finally, what time is it?

They have just looked at their watch three times and yet most people will be unable to tell you the time – it simply failed to register.  As David Berglas says: “You looked but you didn’t see”.

So, as well as making our messages clear to our audience we need to make them important to our audience. This is why the best magicians borrow items from their audience rather than simply make their own handkerchief or whatever disappear – it ensures much closer attention.  The answer to how the business presenter can achieve a similar effect is usually staring them in the face – the more you personalize your message to your audience, the more you are talking about their favourite subject and the more important your communication seems to be.  

        Extracted and adapted from Nick Fitzherbert's book
        Presentation Magic, published by Marshall Cavendish