Chapter 43 Make use of visual aids

There are several times more nerves leading from the eyes to the brain than from the ears to the brain.And science has also proved that we give 25 times more attention through the eyes than through the ears. There is an old Japanese proverb: "Seeing you once is more effective than saying it a hundred times." So, if you want your audience to have a clear idea, visualize what you're saying.Jane Patterson, founder of the National Cash Registry, has long argued for this.He wrote an article for Systems Magazine telling readers how he addressed his colleagues and employees: "I think it's very difficult to get people to understand you clearly, or to pay attention for a long time, just by speaking. We need to use some tools. Whenever possible, use pictures to show your point of view and content. Generally speaking, statistics Tables are more intuitive than words, and pictures are more convincing than statistics. The ideal method of explanation is to visualize the subject matter, and the words are only used to connect and combine those images. This is the method I have discovered through many years of contact with people. A picture is sometimes more useful than a thousand words."

If you use charts or charts, make sure they are large so everyone can see them clearly.But don't overdo it either, the barrage of charts is often tiresome.If you are explaining and drawing diagrams at the same time, you must move quickly and concisely, and don't be slow and sloppy.Audiences want easy-to-understand diagrams, not elaborate artwork.Use abbreviations as much as possible, and the text should be large and not too sloppy; you can draw and write while speaking, and turn your head to face the audience from time to time. When you use this kind of presentation speech, keep in mind the following suggestions, which will surely make you greatly attract the attention of the audience:

(1) Put away what is going to be displayed until it is time to use it. (2) Display things that everyone in the back row can see clearly. (3) Don't pass on exhibits in the middle of your speech, it will distract the audience. (4) When displaying items, hold them upright so that everyone can see them. (5) Dynamic displays are more impressive than static ones.Demonstration performances are a good way to demonstrate. (6) Don't talk while looking at the exhibits.Remember, you are communicating to your audience, not your exhibit. (7) If possible, put away exhibits as soon as they are displayed.

(8) Before using the exhibits, it may be a little "mysterious".Displays can be placed on a nearby table and covered with something to arouse curiosity and interest in the audience. Visual aids are increasingly important in enhancing the clarity of speech.If you want your audience to understand what is on your mind, it is more effective to show them than to tell them with words. There are two former presidents of the United States who are both masters of speech.They all believe that the only way to explain things clearly and coherently is to rely on continuous hard practice.Lincoln said, "We must have a zeal for definiteness."He once told Knox University President Gulliver how he pursued this "passion" as a child:

When I was a boy, it troubled me a lot when someone spoke to me and I didn't understand him.Nothing pissed me off more than this.I remember that every evening, after hearing the conversation between my neighbor and my father, when I went back to my small room alone, I couldn't sleep all night, just trying to figure out what the grown-ups were talking about.I thought and thought over some of the conversation until I could get it out in a language the average boy could understand.This is my passion for clarity, which remains undiminished today. Another distinguished president was Wood Wilson, whose words I also quote:

My father was a man of great energy, and he could not bear the slightest bit of slurred conversation.The best training I've ever had was from him.That is, from then on, I began to practice writing until 1903 when he died.My father died at the age of 81, and everything I wrote to him is still preserved today. My father often asked me to read aloud to him what I wrote, which was the most painful thing for me.Because he would often interrupt me and ask me: "What does this sentence mean?" So I had to explain the words on the paper in simpler words.My father would ask me, "Well, why didn't you write that way?" He would also say, "Don't use shotgun ammunition for shooting birds, which is ineffective and well-known in the village; use a rifle , and then one shot. The same goes for the speech."