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Showing posts from October, 2009

Public speaking tips

Prepare . I don’t write out a talk word-for-word, but I use a lot of notes, and I practice it word for word, many times. That works for me. Some people do better with a more ad-lib approach. But either way, the more prepared you feel, the more relaxed you’ll feel.  Mental practice . It sounds odd, but mentally rehearsing and imagining yourelf giving a relaxed, accomplished performance really does help prepare you. In order to make that mental rehearsal as close to the real situation as possible… rehearse - avoid memorising your presentation. Never learn by rote rather visualise pictures that represent various items in your content, and then create a memory stack. Try to visit the scene . Checking out the room where you’ll be presenting will make you feel far more comfortable. Pay special attention to amplification devices: will you be wired up? use a stationary mike attached to a podium? Hold a wireless mike? Earlier that day: Don’t do anything unusual . Don’t take a nap if you don

Girls expelled from school for getting pregnant

Notice the passive voice of that sentence. I didn't know that girls could get pregnant by themselves! Redi Direko put it beautifully. "How can you expel the girls, treat girls like criminals and the guys get away with it and are sluts too." Direko was expressing her disgust that people were sending SMSes and emails to her show saying that pregnant girls are sluts and they don't want sluts around their children. Source: 702

8 rules for writing short stories

Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water. Every sentence must do one of two things--reveal character or advance the action. Start as close to the end as possible. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them--in order that the reader may see what they are made of. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages. Source: Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction , by Kurt Vonnegut