How long should a speaker make eye contact with individuals in the audience quizlet?

The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric

2nd EditionLawrence Scanlon, Renee H. Shea, Robin Dissin Aufses

661 solutions

Edge Reading, Writing and Language: Level C

David W. Moore, Deborah Short, Michael W. Smith

304 solutions

Technical Writing for Success

3rd EditionDarlene Smith-Worthington, Sue Jefferson

468 solutions

Technical Writing for Success

3rd EditionDarlene Smith-Worthington, Sue Jefferson

468 solutions

Edge Reading, Writing and Language: Level C

David W. Moore, Deborah Short, Michael W. Smith

304 solutions

Technical Writing for Success

3rd EditionDarlene Smith-Worthington, Sue Jefferson

468 solutions

Technical Writing for Success

3rd EditionDarlene Smith-Worthington, Sue Jefferson

468 solutions

The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric

2nd EditionLawrence Scanlon, Renee H. Shea, Robin Dissin Aufses

661 solutions

- gesture refers to the movement of hands and arms during the speech as a means of emphasis.

-Many speakers are especially self-conscious about their hands and what to do with them while they speak.
- Some put their hands and what to do with them while they speak. Some put their hands into their pockets-not to create an informal, conversational tome, but just to get them out of the way. These speakers usually seem tense, as though they are tightly clenching something buried deep in their pocket.
- Other untrained speakers fidget, moving their hands and arms aimlessly as a nervous reaction. One nervous student had a tendency to rotate hid arms and hands in big circles so that he looked more like an orchestra conductor than a public speaker. Because such movements are not coordinate with the speech, they call attention to themselves and detract from the message.
- In contrast, as well-timed, purposeful gesture heightens the power of both your text and your voice. But what is such a gesture like? Centuries ago, theorists of public speaking believed that certain gestures went naturally with particular words or ideas. They wrote manuals illustrating hundreds of gestures went naturally with particular words or ideas. They wrote manuals illustrating hundreds of gestures and their matching words so that speakers could learn the gestures by rote and perform them automatically when reciting the matching text.
- Even so, not all speaker are naturally expressive with their hands. Whether you use many or few gestures does not matter; what matters is that your gestures support your message, not draw attention away from it.
- If you videotaped yourself in informal conversation, you probably would discover gestures that you are unaware of-they simply come out naturally when you talk. A few possible uses of gestures are to emphasize the importance of a point, to suggest balance or opposition ("on the one hand," "on the other hand"), and to position ideas in space and time.

- Above all, gestures used in presentation should appear natural. Achieving this is less a matter of memorizing gestures than of becoming familiar with the general rhythm of gesture.

Anticipation step - the first step of a gesture; involves bring the hands into a position from which the gesture can be made. If you are gripping the podium or handling several pages of notes, gesturing will be difficult and awkward. First you need to be in a position that lets you execute a gesture naturally.

Implementation step - the execution of a gesture, raising the hand and moving it in the intended manner.
Being ready to gesture, you next move to the implementation step-the few seconds in which you execute the movement as you intended. Typically, a speaker's gestures occurs somewhere between the waist and shoulders, an area that eases natural movement and is also visible to audience members. Perhaps most important in implementing the gesture is to follow it through. Untrained speakers often make a half-gesture, raising a hand partway without completing the movement. Such a gesture has little purpose or effect, suggesting instead that the speaker is nervous.

Relaxation step - returning the hands to a normal relaxed position at the conclusion of a gesture.
Having implemented the gesture, during the relaxation step you return your hands to their normal position, whether at your side, in front of you, or resting on the podium. Without this step, you risk being trapped in continuous gesture. Because your hands are in the visual space where gestures take place, and you haven't returned them to rest, you may find yourself gesturing repeatedly and in the same way for every word or idea. That, of course, dilutes the power of the gesture when you really do want to emphasize something.