In week 7 we had a drama
class – to incorporate different techniques in our delivery of speech.
The first activity made use
of chain storytelling – where each of us continued the story one after another.
First we did it only with words, and in the second round with words and action.
It was particularly interesting to note that in the second round people seemed
to remember their lines better with the aid of actions and visuals. Perhaps
this can be taken into consideration for my future presentations – the using of
actions or visuals (even on the physical self) as a memory aid. It was also
noteworthy that the whole atmosphere of the class was relaxed – and that
everyone were not that self-conscious or reserved – because of the fact that
everyone was repeating each other’s action (no matter how dumb it seemed). We
were feeding off each other’s energies and this applies to speech as well – the
continuity and the interplay of energies.
For the subsequent part of
the activity, we were grouped together and were presented with 4 tasks, to make
use of actions, sounds, (intonation of) words and then all 3 at once. This
limitation allowed us to get our creative juices flowing – the rationale was
that isolating each aspects we’ll be able to make full use of each to tell a
story. I particularly found the sounds part challenging – as acousmatic sources
of sound sometimes cannot lead to a correct interpretation of the story the
teller was going to tell. Combining all 3 aspects, our group has to make the
difficult decision of balancing the salience of these aspects, if all 3 were
done in excess, it could cause an information overload for the audience. If one
wasn’t there, then meaning could not be conveyed as effectively. This is
important as it applies to our presentations as well.
In week 8, a group had a
presentation on “How does the audience, occasion and venue impact your
preparation and delivery of a presentation?”, and the main message I’ve taken
was to “know your audience, know the context, and know the acoustics/layout of
the place you’re speaking at”. Thereafter Claire went through a portion on the
Neethling Brain Instruments and Thinking preferences. Personally I think it is
important to know what your audience likes to listen out for, and how different
types of interaction may bring about different effects in these types.
Realistically, not everyone fits snuggly into one of the four quadrants of
Creatives, Socialisers, Organisers or Realists as people usually have
characteristics from one of the few. (Divergents! Gasp!) The main take-home
message for me was to balance out the aspects of speech – to include sequences
that grab the attention of and please these respective groups. (See figure below)
Figure 1.1 - Overall Structure (that also has the Organisers/Preservers in mind)
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