CHECKLIST FOR VISUAL DELIVERSY SKILLS

By: Maria Luisa Saministrado, PhD

DO
o Eliminate distracting behaviors. If your audience is concentrating on your movements
or habits, they have stopped listening. Substitute with positive behaviors.

o Extend eye contact. Look directly at people for a complete sentence or two. This
takes five seconds or less. In a large venue, break it into three or four sections. Start
with the corners of the room. Look at a person for five seconds, then move on to
someone in another section for five seconds Continue to do this until you have
connected with all sections of the audience.

o Expand your gestures. The lack of gestures can make the speaker look stiff. Use your
hands to point to a visual aid. Get involved in your message and your hands will move
naturally. Enthusiasm can be seen in the hands and head in the voice.

o Stand up straight. A slumping posture can create a negative impression. Increase

your presence and allow yourself to breathe properly.

o Be real. Be genuine and capitalize on your strength. Speak from the heart and tell
your own story. Embrace silence. Allow time for your words and message to sink in.

o Move with purpose. Plant your feet and put your energy into making gestures. Move
with a purpose. Look confident and dynamic.

o Be enthusiastic. Get excited about your talk. Be animated and expressive. Increase
your energy through movement and facial expression. Smile. Enthusiasm is
contagious.
DON'T

o Don't pay with a pen or pointer. This distraction means you are nervous.

o Don't turn back on the audience. We connect through the eyes. Lean to walk
backward instead of turning your back.

CHECKLIST FOR VOCAL DELIVERY SKILLS

DO

o Listen to your voice. Evaluate yourself for pace, pitch, personality, and peasantness.

o Vary your intonation. The highs and lows in your voice add color, excitement, and
interest.

o Reflect enthusiasm and passion. Get excited about your message. If you are excited,
it will come through your voice. If you don't believe what you are saying, your voice
will betray you.

o Experiment with volume.

o Project. See to it that everyone in the audience hears your voice.

o Speak with optimum pitch. The pitch you use to hum "uh huh" is your optimum or
natural pitch.

o Eliminate negative vocal qualities. Be honest. Do you squeak like Micky Mouse? Are
you raspy? Hoarse or nasal?
 o Put a smile in your voice. A happy sounding pleasant voice is engaging and warm.

o Take in enough air. Breathe deeply and parcel out enough air to finish the sentence.

DON'T
o Drink ice water. It can cause constriction of the vocal chords.
Drink alcohol, coffee, or milk products. Alcohol is depressant. The caffeine in the
coffee will make you feel jittery. Milk products create mucus which will force you to
have to clear your voice.

o Continually clear your throat. This causes damage to your vocal folds over time.
Swallow instead.

o Yell. Designate someone else to call the audience to order.

CHECKLIST FOR VERBAL DELIVERY SKILLS

DO
o Use action words. Action words convince people to do something, to create energy
and a sense of movement. Let your listeners visualize in action.

o Use specific precise language. The power to persuade lies in specific language.

o Use vivid language. Paint a picture to give color to your speech. Use metaphors.

o They transport the mind and stimulate the imagination. The brain thinks in pictures,
not words. Use words to create pictures to make your speech memorable.

o Use short simple words. Do not speak to impress. Big words alienate listeners.

o Use words that sell. Use words like new, love, save, guarantee, results, money,
improved, free, you, etc. Example: "You will love the money you save as you gain
these new results".
 o Use strong definitive words. Avoid tentative language like if, sort of , hope, maybe,
can't, have to, and trying.

o Incorporate multi-sensory words. Use these three modalities: visual, auditory, or

kinesthetic in your presentation. Examples of visual words: look, imagine, focus, big
pig picture. Examples of auditory words: rings a bell, listen, harmony, resonate.
Kinesthetic terms refer to feeling and touching - get your arms around it, gut reaction,
massage the data. Let your audience see, hear and do.

o Ask which words to avoid. Avoid negative words that offend the sensibilities of the
audience. Know your audience, their background and interests.

DON'T
o Use ethnic slurs or highly charged words. They are offensive. Examples are sacred
cows, lynch mobs, etc.

o Use speech TICs or fillers: uhmms, ahhs, you know, etc.

o Slang. Examples of slang are ain't, wanna, cop out, etc. Use formal or Standard
English when facing an audience.
o Plagiarize a person's statements. Give credit when you use the words or ideas of
another.

Reference
DeRista. (1998) Knockout Presentations, Power Punch, and Pizzazz. Worcester, Massachusetts:
Chandler House Press.