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Keeping Listeners Engaged

Even when your audience wants to listen to your speech, it is easy for them to get distracted by other people or by their phones, or their minds can simply start to wander. To combat such obstacles, try to present information in a way that stimulates your listeners’ senses and provides new or unexpected ideas (Fiske & Taylor, 1991; Medina, 2008). When planning your organizational pattern and use of connectives, also think about ways to keep your audience engaged:

Integrate novelty. People pay attention to information that is novel (new), different, or unusual (Silvia, 2008). Look for ways to tell your audience something they don’t already know. Also, vary your supporting materials by including appropriate testimony or examples to support your points.
Use appropriate humor. A funny story or joke invites attention and is memorable. After all, most people like to laugh. But use humor sparingly, and make it relevant (Gruner, 1985). Never use humor that is obscene, racist, sexist, or insulting to any group—you’ll only offend your audience.
Tell a story. Stories engage listeners and create the sense of a shared experience. They also support your speech thesis by clarifying your main points. Stories work best when they contain descriptive language, evoke emotion, and, of course, are relevant to the points you’re making.
Integrate presentation aids. Your audience will pay the most attention to what they see (Medina, 2008). Consider how charts, graphs, images, video, animations, and other materials can be brought into your presentation to support a point. We’ll take a closer look at how to use presentation aids in Chapter 15.

Keeping your listeners engaged is important even when giving short talks, such as elevator speeches, in which you must convey a lot of information is a small amount of time. For more on how you can successfully handle such a situation, see the How to Communicate: Elevator Speeches feature on pages 356–357.