Words are the fuel of courtship. Other species win their mates through a series of escalating dances, but humans use conversation. Geoffrey Miller, an American evolutionary psychologist, notes that most adults have a vocabulary of about sixty thousand words. And… Read More »Presenting is Seducing
Harvard and Google got married (NY Times article, Fri Dec 17) and have given birth to a database containing all the words in all the books published between 1500 and 2008 in English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese and Russian. You—yes… Read More »Counting the words that count in high stakes presentations
It begins with an agonizing silence–The Duke of York standing at a microphone in Wembley Stadium trying to bring the world’s greatest exposition to a dignified conclusion for the entire British Empire listening on the radio. His stammering and stage… Read More »Movie Review: The King’s Speech
The famed defense attorney, F. Lee Bailey, was once asked what the key was to a successful case. People expected him to say a spellbinding closing statement or a good jury selection process or an impressive cross-examination of a crucial… Read More »Facts Make the Speech Writer
You may be familiar with the prayer-like song that Bob Dylan wrote in which he wishes that someone, or all of us, can “stay forever young.” May you always be courageous Stand upright and be strong And may you stay…… Read More »Forever young and distrusted: The five languages young professionals need to know
And you thought your job was to stick to the facts! Here are the Heath brothers, Chip and Dan, making a strong point about making a point in their wonderful book Made to Stick. Nora Ephron is a screenwriter whose… Read More »Public Speaking Training: Figuring out the point