4 Techniques to Empower Your Words When Giving a Presentation
Use them and see how you’ll stand out of the crowd
The audience will listen to you and remember what you say when your words are empowered.
Empowering your words is also important to achieve specific effects. It not only makes your presentation more interesting but also more convincing.
How Do You Empower Your Words?
Here are four techniques to empower your words in your presentation:
1. Description
A description here is to tell in detail about an object or event. By doing so, you help your audience paint a picture in their mind vividly. This will enable them to see what you saw, hear what you heard, and feel what you felt. When the audience can sense what you sensed, they are with you.
Not all parts of your presentation need to be told in detail. Your presentation is not a novel. Only some important parts need to be described in detail.
Here are some examples:
- “There was a big man, with a big beard and big mustache, standing at the door” is a lot better than just “There was a man standing at the door.”
- “The theater is quiet. The aroma of overpriced popcorn permeates the air. You settle in for the perfect family outing, and then it happens…” (from Jim Key’s winning speech “Never Too Late”)
2. Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that compares two different things using the word “like” or “as”.
A simile can help the audience understand your point more clearly with the help of the thing that you use as a comparison. You can use it particularly to explain a difficult concept or idea.
Examples:
- Corruption is like cancer. It is extremely destructive and prevents countries from developing and reaching their full potential.
- As a secretary, she is as busy as a bee every day. She arranges the boss’ schedules, receives and makes phone calls, types letters, and accompanies the boss when meeting with clients.
- Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.
As you can see from each of the examples, there is an explanation after the comparison. This is to make the audience understand how the two things you compare relate to each other. Make sure the comparison is relevant and logical.
3. Metaphor
Metaphor is similar to simile. It compares one thing to another. The only difference is it doesn’t use the word ‘like’ or ‘as’. When used in a presentation, it is as powerful as a simile.
Examples:
- She is my sunshine. Her presence brightens up my life.
- Your eyes are the window of your soul. They can reveal a lot about your inner state and emotions
4. Triad
A triad is a group of three connected things. These things can be in the form of single words, phrases, or even clauses.
In practice, however, mentioning more than three things is acceptable and, in most cases, gives more power than saying just three, as long as they are well connected.
Barack Obama is renowned for being excellent at this. Listen to his speeches and you’ll find lots of examples of triads. And it is said that this ability is one of the qualities that makes him a brilliant and effective speaker.
Examples (taken from Barack Obama’s speeches):
- We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. (Nouns).
- And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. (Nouns).
- And gradually, we made this country more just, more equal, and more free. (Adjectives).
- …regardless of what we look like, how we worship, who we love, how much money we have — or who we voted for. (Wh-questions).
Those are four techniques to empower your words when giving a presentation. Which technique will you use in your upcoming presentation?
