The flip side of this is that it helps to speak in a way that’s almost repetitive to make sure someone who zoned out can catch back up.
For example, frequently once the subject/object of a sentence is known, people refer to the subject/object with pronouns instead of repeating the subject/object. If someone misses the initial definition, they are immediately lost.
(This also applies somewhat to writing — above, I’m repeating “subject/object” instead of “it”. People also zone out during reading, and this repetition saves them from having to scroll back up and figure out what a pronoun is referencing.)
Using repetitive speech can also cause people to zone out, irritate them, or make them think you’re being forgetful.
Repetitive speech and other simplification tactics can also backfire. For example, if you try to oversimplify your presentation so that ‘everyone can understand,’ not realizing that a small core of fellow experts wanted and could have handled much more detail, while the majority weren’t going to follow you (or care) no matter how much you simplified. If people then see you do this (performing pedagogy rather than inter-expert discourse), it can be seen as a misjudgment about the purpose of the event and the desires of the audience.
Repetitive speech has its uses, but it’s important to be thoughtful about context, your goals, and the goals of your audience.
The flip side of this is that it helps to speak in a way that’s almost repetitive to make sure someone who zoned out can catch back up.
For example, frequently once the subject/object of a sentence is known, people refer to the subject/object with pronouns instead of repeating the subject/object. If someone misses the initial definition, they are immediately lost.
(This also applies somewhat to writing — above, I’m repeating “subject/object” instead of “it”. People also zone out during reading, and this repetition saves them from having to scroll back up and figure out what a pronoun is referencing.)
Using repetitive speech can also cause people to zone out, irritate them, or make them think you’re being forgetful.
Repetitive speech and other simplification tactics can also backfire. For example, if you try to oversimplify your presentation so that ‘everyone can understand,’ not realizing that a small core of fellow experts wanted and could have handled much more detail, while the majority weren’t going to follow you (or care) no matter how much you simplified. If people then see you do this (performing pedagogy rather than inter-expert discourse), it can be seen as a misjudgment about the purpose of the event and the desires of the audience.
Repetitive speech has its uses, but it’s important to be thoughtful about context, your goals, and the goals of your audience.