One of the downsides of being involved in the high school debate world since I was a freshman in high school is that I pretty much know everything about Policy Debate. The reason that it is a downside is that I tend to assume that the freshman students I am teaching will understand what I am talking about quickly.
The problem is that a lot of times the students DON'T understand what I am saying. Luckily in my classrooms, the students are allowed to interrupt me and ask me questions to help clarify things. That way, if they don't know something they can ask questions right away. This allows the students the opportunity to make sure they do understand it - if they actually ask questions.
The problem with most speeches that people give is that they don't allow any questioning until the end of their speeches when it will be too late. If people don't understand something, they are going to be lost when listening to your speech. If this happens, they can't hold up their hands and ask you to clarify it or they will feel stupid making you stop to clarify something.
What you have to do as a speaker is make sure that you don't talk over your audience. Just because you know something doesn't mean that the audience is going to know what you are talking about. This is especially important when you are talking about a technical issue or something that is new to a lot of people. A word of caution on this: don't talk under the audience as well. There is nothing that irritates me more than when someone talks to me like I'm a 6 year old. So don't treat people like they don't know anything either.
So when preparing your next speech or presentation, take a look at what you are going to talk about. Are you covering any key terms or technical aspects that the audience may need to know to understand your speech? Are you ensuring that everyone is going to be able to follow you along? Making sure that you answer these questions will ensure that your speech and presentation will be a success.
Travis
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