Page 330 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

Chapter 11 Delivery: Engaging Your Audience 297

Exhibit 11.2
Zone of Interaction in
the Traditional Room
Setting
Where people are seated
in rows and the speaker
is stationary, eye contact
between speaker and
audience is limited to
the shaded area. The
speaker must turn to
make eye contact with
those outside the shaded
area.

Lectern
Stationary
speaker

perhaps an overhead projector or keyboard immediately to their side, and an
elevated stage from which to speak. Speakers who are much less formal in their
style of delivery may want the room to be arranged so that they can move from
side to side or even up and down its length.
Both the traditional and informal styles of delivery can be equally effective.
However, the room layout consistent with the traditional style is more restrictive
than its counterpart in two ways. The fi rst way concerns the zone of interac-
zone of interaction
tion, the area in which speakers can easily make eye contact with audience
Area of an audience in
members (Exhibit 11.2). The second way concerns the amount of space physi- which speaker and audi-
cally separating speakers from their audience. ence members can make
The zone of interaction is limited to the range of your peripheral vision. The eye contact.
immediate zone of interaction between speakers and their audience diminishes
as a room gets larger. To compensate for this fact, speakers have two choices.
Either they can shift the zone of interaction by looking from side to side, or they
can physically move from one point to another when they deliver their speeches.
This latter choice is illustrated in Exhibit 11.3. Obviously, in a very large room
the traditional style of delivery limits us to looking from side to side in the at-
tempt to shift the zone of interaction. This means that we cannot help but ignore
part of our audience part of the time.
The traditional style of delivery also allows less fl exibility in manipulating the
physical distance separating speakers from their audiences. Whereas a speaker
who moves about the room can reduce or increase distance physically as well as
psychologically, a relatively stationary speaker is restricted to the latter. Thus,
for those who prefer this style of delivery, eye contact becomes their primary
agent for managing how immediate they are perceived to be by their audience, a
point which we discuss shortly.
To summarize, the relationship of the speaking environment to delivery is a
signifi cant one. Not only does it infl uence our style of delivery, it also infl uences