Effective Language Is Nondistracting
"Uh, y'know, this stuff about, y'know, how you . . . uh . . . sound seems . . . uh' a bit, y'know, overdone, like y' know what I'm saying?" Not only choice of words but the way we say them can seriously affect a presentation. Effective language does not distract listeners away from the message or cause them to make negative judgments (Figure 12-2).
Figure 12-2. Language fillers and errors focus attention the wrong way.
The "uh, y'know" problems are especially distracting. I counted them for one speaker and quit at forty-five "uhs" after only three minutes. When asked for his own estimate of the number, the ...
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