Conquering Verbal Distractors
Many people who give oral presentations find it difficult
to remove “verbal distractors” such as “ah,” “um,” “y’know,” “okay,” and “right”
from their speech. These verbal distractors are sometimes inevitable—the mouth
sometimes works faster than the brain, and these “place-holder” sounds come out
while thought catches up with speech. A few are understandable and forgiveable
in speaking, but repetition of such distractors can annoy your audience and
deflect their attention from your message. So how do you rid your presentations
of excessive verbal distractors?
- Break it down. Study a videotape of yourself
giving an oral presentation and closely analyze where verbal distractors
occur. Do they happen between subject and verb in a sentence? At the beginning
of a new sentence? When you introduce a new idea (equivalent to starting a new
paragraph in writing)? When you go to the next PowerPoint™ slide? The first
step to conquering distractors is to understand where you use them in
speech. Make yourself a chart of where the distractors occur—in most cases,
they will be in one or two categories. It will take several viewings of your
tape to complete this close analysis, but the time spent will be worth it.
- Pin it down. Once you know where the
distractors happen, try to analyze why they occurred. Were you trying
to remember the next point you wanted to make? Were you delivering an oral
message in sentences so long you couldn’t get them out in one breath? Were you
trying to make eye contact with the audience and momentarily lost control of
the verbal flow? Again, it may take multiple viewings of the tape to analyze
the reasons why your mouth kept running while your brain paused, but that’s
okay—it’s part of learning to control the problem.
- Develop a strategy. Having determined where
and why distractors interrupt your speech, it’s time to develop a
strategy for avoiding them. For instance, if you interject a distractor before
you introduce a new point, then you’ll want to work on the transitions in your
presentation. Instead of “Uhh, next…,” you might try a sum-up statement like
“Now that we’ve covered X, the next point I want to make is …” Such a
transition statement not only lets your brain catch up but also helps the
audience follow your presentations. Sometimes speakers write these
summary/transition points on their notecards or speaking outlines so that
their eyes can keep reading while their brain organizes to approach their next
point. Whatever the problem area is, develop a strategy to approach it.
- Rehearse the problem points, out loud, separately.
If you have problems with distractors, rehearse the sentences in your
presentation where they might occur separately—not just as part of the overall
presentation. If you often put distractors after number lists (e.g. “First,
uh….Second, uh…”), then practice out loud saying “First, let’s look at the
budget projections” multiple times until your brain brings out the sentence as
a unit. That way, when you reach that point in your presentation, it’s much
more likely that your mouth will say the complete sentence instead of
interjecting an “uh” while your brain catches up.
- Finally, rehearse the entire presentation out loud
multiple times. Speaking effectively is in part a process of behavior
modification—you teach your brain to deliver the words you want to your mouth.
So the more you practice out loud, carefully articulating each sentence to
avoid distractors, the more likely you are to actually deliver the sentence
that way when you give your presentation.
No one can avoid all
distractors in a presentation—they’re a part of human speech. But they don’t
have to dominate your presentation—analyze and practice so that you control
them, instead of vice-versa.