3 Big Lies That Public Speakers Tell and Why Journalists Should Care

By: Roy Peter Clark | Poynter

Three lies told over and over again by public speakers of all kinds – including me — are: “You can interrupt me at any time.” “I want this to be a conversation.” “There will be plenty of time at the end for questions.

What follows typically is 30 or 60 or 90 minutes of nonstop bloviation, leavened only by predictable PowerPoint slides, usually dense with text that encourage even more talking. Why?  Because the speaker wants to “get through the material.