Much fun was made of Donald Trump's speaking during the 2016 campaign and presidential debates. Rightly so. He was crude; his nonverbal behavior was distracting, and he snorted a lot. Awful. His delivery, however, contributed to his success, and for reasons that any speech textbook will explain.
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| Donald J. Trump by Gage Skidmore |
As Herbert Wichelns pointed out almost a century ago, speech is not about beauty, but effect. To win the election, Trump did not need to speak beautifully. He needed to speak with effect. Some of the things that he did during his speeches and debates, such as mangling facts and threatening his opponent, were reprehensible. The sniffling, scowling, and growling were irritating. Trump rambled incoherently. If I had graded his speeches in my public speaking class, I would have trouble finding any excuse to pass him.
At the same time--Trump's speech delivery was:
- Enthusiastic
- Varied in pitch, volume, tone, and rate of speech
- Full of eye contact
- Loud and easy to hear
- Relaxed
- Conversational (most of the time)
In contrast, although Hillary Clinton was much classier, and far better prepared, she sometimes seemed a bit remote. A little stiff. Why did this matter? Did her delivery actually hurt her a little bit? Maybe. I'll talk about that in a future post.
Lesson for public speakers: enthusiasm, vocal variety, eye contact, vocal projection, and a conversational manner, as public speaking textbooks recommend, actually work. Remember that.
Photo by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49561185
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