Avoid personal expression. Masks and costumes help with this

Public Books blog, Public Culture, 2013

Invited guest blog for a roundtable, "Soldier Exposures and Technical Publics," curated and edited by Zoe Wool.

Over the last 15 years or so, my major interest has been in trying to spell out in some detail, what life is like for us from within the “interactive moment,” what it is like for us to be acting dialogically, to be reacting in a spontaneous and bodily way to the expressive-responsive activities of the others and othernesses around us. Today, however, I want to focus on just one aspect of our lives within such dialogical involvements: what is life like for us as speaker-actors within them? What is going on inside us as speaker-actors within the moment of speaking and acting? How might we chart or map the ‘inner movements’ occurring within us as we give ‘shape’ to the contributions we make to the activities in which we are participating?

Studia UBB Dramatica, 2011

Speaking in public and public speaking are the two communication instances that centre our daily activity at various levels. Both are based on our idea of being present in live communication acts. The examination of old common roots of the art of the Rhetorician, the orator and that of the Actor leads to outstanding findings about the public space and the layers of staging and theatricality the act of public communication puts forward. The purpose of this paper is to make obvious how the new technologies of the information and communication brought major changes in both public speaking and the speaking in public. The thesis is that speaking not only that it became more spectacular, but that it needs always a stage and a theatrical direction to perform at its highest even in ordinary instances of everyday life.

Robert Frost, the great romantic poet avers that, “Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it”. In other words, some discourses live long while some die very quickly. If ever one makes an effort, one would know the reason for its importance and understand that the answer for this lies in the art of using language effectively. Since man is a social animal, his need for social acceptance is phenomenal and so is his ability to communicate. In an era of communication, the art of being a good communicator helps gain an edge over the others who are unable to put their actions into the right words, thus, leading them to a communication failure. History has been a witness to all great orators who have moved nations towards a mission and driven people towards an aim merely on the basis of their powerful words. However, the question remains as to why few people create magic through their words, while others are barely able to make a coherent speech? The answer is language, communication and the art of rhetoric. Language is an essential element of human life. It is not only a means of communication but a powerful tool to express one’s personality. The word ‘communicate’ comes from the Latin word ‘Communicare’ which means ‘to impart, to participate, to share or to make common’i . When language is used to persuade somebody it is called rhetoric. Rhetoric means the art of using language whether in speech or in writing to bring about a change in the behaviour of people. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines rhetoric as “the skill of using language in speech, or writing in a special way that influences or entertain people” and the world English dictionary defines it as “a speech or writing that is intended to influence people, but that is not completely honest or sincere”. Key Words: Communicator, oration, Rehearsals, Rhetori

Press Books, 2023

Style is one of the five “canons,” or categories, in classical public speaking theory. The other four canons—invention, arrangement, memory, and delivery—are dealt with in other chapters of this textbook, but this chapter covers a speaker’s use of stylized language. To do so, this chapter first defines appropriate style, then discusses the stylistic goals of having clarity and correctness in our speech. Lastly, this chapter details how to make our speeches more vivid and memorable by using figurative, rhythmic, parallel, and ironic language. Online access: https://fsw.pressbooks.pub/spc2608/chapter/stylizedlanguage/

Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2005

One of the key means by which knowledge is disseminated in the academic discourse community is the spoken presentation of papers at an academic conference. In contrast to the written research article, the spoken presentation remains relatively under-researched from a linguistic perspective, limiting the knowledge available for explicating this kind of discourse in academic language programs. In this paper, we draw on a social semiotic theory of language (Systemic Functional Linguistics) and of gesture, to frame a multi-layered exploration of interpersonal meaning in this register that incorporates attention to generic staging, to expressions of attitude, and to the coexpression of attitudinal language and gesture. The data are a set of plenary presentations at an academic conference, and the study aims to explore means by which the speakers construe a relationship of solidarity with their audiences in the introductory or 'set-up' stage of their talk. q

IJARW, 2023

Nowadays many students have to face problems in using body language in presentations. This research was conducted to find out students' difficulties in using body language in presentations at Tay Do University. The participants of this research were 40 English-majored sophomores of English class 16A and 16B at Tay Do University. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire. The findings of this research pointed out that the participants had difficulties in using body language (eyes contact, facial expression, and body postures) during the presentation. However, not many students met difficulties with hand gestures. At the end of the research, the researchers offered some solutions to improve students' use of body language in presentations.

The present study investigated the relation of self-presentation style to automobile driving behavior and behavior while meeting a stranger. Eighty-eight female and 51 male undergraduate psychology students completed a 40-item self-presentation style inventory and a 20-item Road Rage Survey. One-hundred and two of these participants were then videotaped walking into a room and introducing themselves to a confederate. Aggressive driving behavior correlated positively with the selfpresentational style of intimidation and negatively with ingratiation and exempli®cation. Nonverbal behavior when meeting a person was related to intimidation, exempli®cation, and self-promotion, with intimidation and self-promotion associated with not hesitating prior to sitting down, intimidation associated with focusing on the target, and exempli®cation associated with initiating a handshake .