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 for their minds to 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:

Keeping your listeners engaged is important even when giving short talks, such as elevator speeches, in which you must convey a lot of information in 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 362–363.

Jimmy Fallon’s infectious energy and humorous spin on current events and pop culture are two reasons for his popularity as a host and a comedian. Though his banter and comments are meant for entertainment, how might you use similar methods in your own speeches to make them memorable and relevant?

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