"In writing, punctuation plays the role of body language. It helps readers hear you the way you want to be heard."
— Russell Baker
The great Russell Baker was a journalist and essayist who wrote the wildly popular and witty "Observer" column for The New York Times for 36 years. I met him one day when we were both walking on the same side of the sidewalk—the only two people on the block—in Greenwich Village. He was amazed that I recognized him, since he was a writer and not a television or film personality. (This was before he started hosting "Masterpiece Theater" on public television.)
You'll find hundreds of quotes online from Russell Baker. I particularly like the one above, which helps us to understand how to "be heard the way you want to be heard." I'd like to go a little deeper into that concept here, in terms of how it applies in public speaking.
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Why Audiences Need (and Deserve) to Hear YOU
You can deliver the information in your pitches, speeches, presentations, and as you participate in meetings as nothing but unadorned content. The fact that proves this assertion is that many speakers think of their content as their speech itself. Uh-uh. It's only what you say—and only part of it, at that.
You should be conveying more than the information on your slide deck or in your notes. And in addition to that, you should be saying much more. Why is that word italicized? Because it refers to what you are really communicating to listeners, who are also, of course, viewers. In another words, your vocal expressiveness and physical expressiveness such as body language help audiences to understand the essence of what you're trying to get across, over and above the bare content.
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We must never forget the inescapable fact about public speaking: that it embodies much more than the information being delivered. (For instance, to say it's "embodied" means it includes body language.) You are the sum of what's being given to your listeners/viewers. That's why your performance is so important. If that weren't the case, one of us would need to be there at all. We could get the necessary information in another boring memo.
Without You, Your Data Is, Well, Just Data
You have infinitely more to offer audiences than the data that would be in that memo. First, the force of your personality itself—your liveliness, intelligence, passions, sense of humor, and the face you present to the world. Then there's your experience and expertise in the topic. How, for instance, would you convey that to listeners through what's on a few slides?
Finally, there are the more immediate aspects of your skill and weightiness in giving this speech. Among these factors are your power of advocacy, your commitment to your ideas and the personal vision those ideas represent. And, as important as anything else, we gain from you a sense of immediacy of what you're talking about, and why it should matter to us. Satisfying our "what's in it for me" mentality is one of the ways of knowing how to connect with audiences for lasting influence.
In the end, I believe that equals much more than the ways in which punctuation affects a reader's understanding. But things that we learn from disciplines that are different from our own—in this case, Russell Baker's keenness of mind and skill as a writer—can only help us improve at the skills we display in our own endeavors.
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Gary Genard is an actor, author, and expert in public speaking and overcoming speaking fear. His company, The Genard Method offers live 1:1 Zoom executive coaching and corporate group training worldwide. He is the author of the Amazon Best-Seller How to Give a Speech. His second book, Fearless Speaking, was named in 2019 as “One of the 100 Best Confidence Books of All Time.” For nine consecutive years, he was ranked by Global Gurus as one of The World’s Top 30 Communication Professionals, and he has been named as one of America's Top 5 Speech Coaches. His handbook for presenting in videoconferences, Speaking Virtually offers techniques for developing virtual presence. He is also the author of Speak for Leadership: An Executive Speech Coach's Secrets for Developing Leadership Presence. His latest book is The Confidence Book: 75 Ways to Reduce Your Anxiety, Let Go of Your Fears, Change Your Negative Thinking, and Perform At Your Professional Best. He is also the creator of The Dr. William Scarlet psychic mysteries. Contact Gary here.
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