As a presentation design agency, we talk a lot about getting rid of visual clutter on slides. For example, check out our recent blog on 5 tips for better slide design. But today, we want to shift our focus a little. Instead of talking about how to reduce visual clutter, we want to talk about how to reduce verbal clutter. More specifically, metadiscourse.
Metadiscourse (which for now we’ll define as talking about talking) is something that plagues speakers and presenters of all levels. Why? Because it’s sneaky. We often doing it without realizing we are. A carefully prepared and practiced presentation that initially packs a punch can lose impact when peppered with metadiscourse during delivery. So let’s define it, look at an example, and talk about how to get rid of this sneaky presentation killer.
What is metadiscourse?
We said earlier that metadiscourse is talking about talking. But that doesn’t give you the full picture. Ken Hyland, Chair Professor of Applied Linguistics and Director of the Centre for Applied English Studies at the University of Hong Kong, says this: “language not only refers to the world, concerned with exchanging information of various kinds, but also to itself: with material which helps readers to organize, interpret and evaluate what is being said.” If I begin my presentation with the words, “I want to start with a story…”, that is metadiscourse. Those words don’t really give you any information in and of themselves. Instead, they tell you how to process and organize the words they are referring to, the story. The hashtag is a popular form of social media metadiscourse. It doesn’t necessarily tell you anything other than how to frame or file the information. Which isn’t all bad, right?
Metadiscourse makes sense sometimes. In fact, jump back to the beginning of this blog. The first paragraph is mainly metadiscourse (don’t worry, I did that on purpose). I could have started with the second paragraph, and you wouldn’t have lost any crucial content. So how do we know when we should and shouldn’t use it?
Imagine you cultivate a lovely vegetable garden in your backyard, and you label each plant carefully with a sign. A couple of signs here and there will help you distinguish the heirloom tomatoes from the cucumbers. But if you keep adding signs to the soil, you risk shifting your attention from the actual plants to the signs, and you risk cutting through root systems as you drive more and more signs into the soil. Metadiscourse works in a similar fashion. We need a few, good signs, but that’s all.
Let’s look at an example of metadiscourse.
The metadiscourse: “I want to tell you quickly before I begin my first point something that happened to me just last week as I was driving to work.”
The problems: This statement tells us that the speaker is about to launch into a story. It provides the time (last week, morning commute) and the setting (the car). While those details are important, they would be more effective worked into the actual narrative. In addition, the speaker says “quickly before I begin my first point.” The reader can interpret that in a few ways: this story is unplanned, it’s not important enough to spend full time on, the speaker is off script, the good stuff is yet to come.
The revision: Last week as I was driving to work … (and the story continues).
How can we get rid of metadiscourse in our presentations?
- Recognize it. Good news, you’ve already tackled the first step. Now that you know what metadiscourse is, you are apt to see it more often. Hint: check your introduction. Experts tell us that’s where metadiscourse pops up most often.
- Decide whether it’s helpful. Think about those garden signs. Not everything in your presentation needs a sign. You don’t need to say, “I want to start with a story.” Why? 1. If those are the first words you say, the audience already knows and understands that you are starting. 2. When you launch into a narrative, the audience gets it. We know what stories sound like, and we love them. So you don’t have to bait the hook or add a sign in this case.
- Save words. As you write your message, challenge yourself to get rid of as many words as you can. When you are focused on simplifying your language and your sentence structure, metadiscourse will often be the first to go.
- Be patient as you learn to edit it out. Getting rid unnecessary metadiscourse in writing is one thing. Getting rid of it as you speak is another. As much as I’ve studied metadiscourse, it still pops up in my speaking more often than I’d like. Even when I have carefully edited it out of my speaker’s notes. That’s because it’s a natural part of the way we speak to each other in everyday conversation (“Can I tell you something?…”, “In my opinion…”, “First off…”). So don’t be surprised if it still pops up at times despite your efforts to reduce it.
We are passionate about helping you take your presentations to the next level. One of the ways to do that is reduce the verbal clutter that metadiscourse brings.
For more ways to elevate your presentation delivery or to collaborate with us on presentation design, get in touch with us now.
