# re: Substance vs. form @ Thursday, June 29, 2006 6:52 PM

I think that having the knowledge helps in two ways. It helps with confidence and it helps when questions are asked. Someone with a shallow knowledge base can give a great talk but fall apart when questions are asked. It also takes much more time to prepare the presentation. Someone with a deep knowledgebase can give a talk on short notice and little preperation.
On the other hand a deep knowledge base is not enough by itself. Presenting is very much a learned skill. Even those who appear born to it generally get better with practice and training. I have taken advantage of speaker training regularly since my high school days and I know that it helps. I like to think I am much better than I was even a few years ago. Yet I still go for training when it is available just as I work to keep the knowledge base fresh.

AlfredTwo

# re: Substance vs. form @ Thursday, June 29, 2006 10:45 PM

Based on my observation here at the center, most students who are tech skilled are most comfortable on the backstage; they don't like presenting it they just want to get things done. And so we gave our students 3 presentations for their Design Project: The Title Defense, Pre-Oral and Final Defense. This is where they can develop their confidence and good communication skill. And this could be the first step for them in becoming a good communicator. The scenario is also the same with professionals, and I agree with Sir AlfredTwo we could get better with practice and training.

mjpanes

# re: Substance vs. form @ Friday, June 30, 2006 12:54 AM

Both are necessary, but if I were to choose, I'd go for skill. There was this study I read about--some people were asked to attend a talk being given by some award-winning scientist. What they didn't know was that said person was actually just a charismatic actor who, before the talk, was briefed with several buzzwords, and during the talk, just faked everything. Most of those attending claimed to have learned from the talk. I wish I still had the link, but what I got from reading that was that if you're a good enough speaker, you can make students feel like they know something well, when in fact they don't.

cmarguel

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