Writing is a very important skill to learn. From emails, to writing letters to a boss, a significant other, or writing a cover letter for a job, writing, like verbal language is a way to communicate. However, a presentation is a combination of both verbal language and writing, because usually one prepares a lot in advance and writes what their presentation will be before delivering it. This gives an added advantage, since in normal conversation there is not usually the ability to prepare in advance. However, it does not necessarily mean that one’s audience will be attentive. It depends all on what is happening in the backchannel.
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According to Todays Meet, the backchannel is “everything going on in the room that isn’t coming from the presenter.” The backchannel includes the umms and the ahs, it includes comments and questions directed to the presenter, and also the many types of distractions that people who are not paying attention to the presenter might add to the room. Ideally, a presenter wants to avoid having too pronounced and distracting a back channel. This can be accomplished by presenting in an engaging way that causes people to have great interest in the information that is being presented.
One can tap into the back channel by not being so immersd in one’s presentation that they fail to listen to what is being said, correct distracted audience members, and encourage a healthy back channel of participating. From coughs, to people checking their phones, or doing things on the internet, the backchannel should be considered an element of a normal presentation rather than something that is in competition with it. The difference is whether it is a positive or negative back channel.
Work Cited:
"TodaysMeet." The Backchannel. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2013. <https://todaysmeet.com/about/backchannel>.
