Summary and Response

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Summary of Laurence Zuckerman 's

Words Go Right to the Brain , but can they Stir the Heart

Zuckerman 's Words Go Right to the Brain deals with the issues raised by critics and business men alike regarding speeches delivered with PowerPoint presentations . Some argue that PowerPoint presentations demean the level of public speaking to , in Zuckerman 's words , the level of an elementary school filmstrip (Zuckerman , Words Go Right to the Brain ) while others believe that PowerPoint presentation has greatly helped public speakers and

audiences alike

According to some critics of PowerPoint , the software degrades expression of speech . To them PowerPoint presentations are only appropriate for corporate and sales pitches . Even for someone like Steven Johnson who uses PowerPoint himself in his speeches said that PowerPoint . is brain numbing (Zuckerman , Words Go Right to the Brain

Due to this increasingly popular belief , many business executives banned the use of PowerPoint presentations . Although the ban was not enforced in Sun Microsystems , Scott McNealy , the chief executive of Sun theless announced that Sun 's 25 ,000 employees is forbidden to use PowerPoint . Some conferences even forbid their public speakers to use slides and PowerPoint because they think it puts too much emphasis on the sales pitch at the expense of content (Zuckerman , Words Go Right to the Brain

Although many believe the contribution of PowerPoint presentations and slides to the debasement of public speaking , many still believe the opposite - that these types of visual aids has elevated the general level of discourse (Zuckerman , Words Go Right to the Brain PowerPoint presentations help speakers to organize their thoughts as well as show their audiences visually what they are talking about Steven Pinker , a psychology professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology , explains that this is because human beings are visual creatures (Zuckerman , Words Go Right to the Brain . Audiences have a visual source of information ' to which they can turn to when they have spaced out for a moment

Zuckerman illustrated both the positive and negative side of PowerPoint presentations . It is in our hands whether we use it to the benefit of the public speakers and audiences or otherwise . In short , use it wisely

Work Cited

Zuckerman , Laurence "Words Go Right to the Brain , But Can They Stir the Heart ? Some Say Popular Software Debases Public Speaking " New York Times 17 April 1999

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Professor

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Response on Laurence Zuckerman 's

Words Go Right to the Brain , but can they Stir the Heart

Zuckerman 's Words Go Right to the Brain deals with issues raised by critics and business executives regarding PowerPoint 's effects on public speaking . Some believe that PowerPoint demean the level of public speaking while others think the opposite

Throughout the speech , it is noticeable how he used direct passages from some experts to illustrate each argument . And whenever he quotes them , he mentions not just the names of each expert but also their credentials . In this way , audience would not think that these experts...