Don't Look, Listen!

For me, the hardest part of being a grammarian, ah counter, or timer is getting too engrossed in the speaker and forgetting my primary task.

In order to avoid getting caught up, I do NOT look at the speaker. I look down. I close my eyes. I don't pay attention to the speech or the speaker; I just pay attention to the words.

As ah counter, I can focus on the specific words and listen for the tell-tale ahs, ums, and run-on sentences. I am amazed sometimes at how subtle they can be. I also try to listen for other possible crutches, such as "y'know", "bascially", and "ya see" so I can call those out. Even more interesting are tongue clicks or lip smacks.

As timer, I look at the stopwatch. At a regular club meeting, I will hold the stopwatch up so I can see it while still looking at the speaker. When I am timing at a contest, though, I absolutely do not attempt to listen to the speech at all. I watch at the very beginning so I can know when to start timing, and then I spend the rest of the time looking only at the stopwatch and waiting for the timing signal opportunities and for the speech to end.

I have noticed that a lot of Toastmasters are good using timing lights when they are available. However, when colored cards are being used instead, many have a tendency to hold the card up for a few seconds and then lay it down. That is not good for the speaker, though, since he or she might not be looking right at the timer during those few seconds! Whether using lights or cards, they should be displayed constantly until it is time to display the next signal. For a 5-7 minute speech, the green light or card should be displayed constantly from 5:00 to 6:00, the yellow/amber light or card should be displayed constantly from 6:00 to 7:00, and the red light or card should be displayed constantly from 7:00 until the speech is complete.  (If an audible signal is being used, it does not need to be constant since it can be assumed the speaker heard the sound regardless of where he or she might have been looking -- but don't be late with the signal!!)

As grammarian, the toughest part of the job is listening for ways to improve grammar. It's easy to write down the cute and funny things people say; those are memorable and are easily noticed. It takes a lot more effort to catch subject/verb mismatches ("things is" instead of "things are"), improper word choice ("lie" vs. "lay", one of the favorites of one tough grammarian I have known), or my own favorite the English future subjunctive ("if I were", not "if I was"!). It also helps to listen for heavy use of pronouns or generic nouns (like "things" or "stuff"), overused adjectives and adverbs (like "great" and "very") which happens a lot in evaluations, and especially trite clichés ("without further ado", "with that said", and "last but not least"). If you can point these out and give specific examples in the short time allotted for your report, then you will significantly help everyone improve their communication skills.

The key for me has been to stop looking and to start listening.