It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It

Joan Detz stresses the importance of successful communications. She recommends steps that people should consider in their communications. These considerations include determining what the other party desires to learn, avoiding providing them what they already know unless you may correct misconceptions, weighing what means others wish to receive your communication, and figuring out how your communication will be superior to anyone else's. She recommends noting useful tips such as: people remember less from larger communications, one should avoid vague and weak opening communications, simplify boring data and make data relevant to other parties, people react better to communications that are offered with confidence, and if one forgets what they are stating to avoid trying attention to the lapse while recalling one's thoughts.

If you want to improve your communications skills, then you need this book. It is loaded with great counsel whether you are addressing a large arena full of people or you are making a presentation to your colleagues at work. Joan Detz has put together a powerhouse of information in this title.

This extremely practical, highly focused book goes through the hands-on details of preparing a presentation or speech. Some of the instructions seem self-evident, but only because author Joan Detz is extremely thorough and recognizes that it is easy to forget these "obvious" tips under pressure. She provides a vast amount of practical information, far more than anyone could absorb at once, but her tips are worth reading again and again. She also includes good self-assessment forms and questionnaires. Many of these venerable public-speaking concepts date back to the Sermon on the Mount, but Detz adds her own spin by emphasizing that the focus should be on the speaker, not on slides or props (downplay the loaves and fishes). The book's power resides in its completeness; Detz seems to have thought of everything, and that is reassuring. We [...] recommend this book to anyone who must make presentations in public, under any circumstances.

Extremely easy to read. Every point is supported by real life examples or funny bloopers. Because of its simplicity, it sticks and you are more likely to apply it to your next presentation, speech, delivering a status to the boss. It is worth having in the bookshelf as a business reference or for personal situations.