(from uwaterloo.ca)
[Ed: How one delivers information can determine reception even more than the content. Dr. Shaver shares his expertise here about how to do that well. It is beyond sad then to report that Ron suddenly passed away since our last contact just two days ago. He was looking forward to our publishing this today, and so we shall. Our prayers and best wishes go to his family now.]
As a health care professional with an interest and expertise in firearms and the Second Amendment, you may be called upon to discuss those issues in public. You could be asked to write an article, critique a book or article, lead a discussion, be interviewed by the media, teach a class or give a lecture to a group. Speaking in public can be frustrating, anxiety producing or rewarding based on a number of factors.
The main points to consider when being asked to speak in public are to be prepared, know your audience, be ready to have to argue your point, be reasonable, always be willing to answer questions and never be afraid to say you don’t know the answer to a question. Either refer them to someone who does know or promise to get back to them with an answer and deliver on that promise if you don’t have an immediate answer
If you are asked to review or discuss a book, read it completely through. If it has serious flaws for any reason, be able to give examples from other works of its flaws and be able to recommend a better written or more scientific replacement. At the end of the interchange, hopefully you will have made the author a better writer or researcher or both and will have come across as the voice of reason. Writing a book is a major undertaking for most of us mortals so compliment the author on their accomplishment while you chip away at the science or logic of their book.
If your book is going to be discussed, know your book well and have additional references to back up your assertions. Also be familiar with some of the references in your book and use them liberally to back up your conclusions or assertions. A lot of books, even of scholarly content, have filler for references to make them look more professional. The APA Publication Guide is often a reference in a scholarly work but contributes little to any research discussion.
Understand your audience. Is your audience hostile to your position on whatever topic you are there to discuss? Are they supportive? Are they interested parties that want to come away informed rather than observe a playground level name calling contest? This is more difficult to determine in a canned interview for later broadcast than it is in a classroom or lecture hall regardless of the audience.
If the interaction is set up as a debate or some type of give and take interchange, don’t interrupt your opponent no matter how rude they are to you and don’t make comments to the audience as if your opponent is not in the room. If you are given a time limit, stick to it and don’t waste precious moments complaining that you didn’t get enough time. Summarize and leave them with something easy to remember. If someone is asking you a question as time runs out, stay put and answer the question even if the mike is off. They took the time to attend so you should take the time to attend to them. In summary, be polite and concise.
Don’t bring a long, prepared script. If you are looked at as the expert or informed speaker, most of that information should be in your head, not on a piece of paper and death by PowerPoint’s ancestor was death by canned speech. Audiences don’t like it when the speaker talks at a level over their head nor do they like to be talked down to so be familiar with your audience. As DRGO’s founder aptly said, John 3:16 says an enormous amount in a statement that anyone can remember and only takes about 10 seconds to voice.
If possible, have something they can take away with them that summarizes an important point or introduces something unique. Long handouts quoting statistics end up in the circular file and those trees will have died in vain.
When teaching or talking in public, the counseling technique of reframing is particularly helpful. It involves redefining something to make it more understandable. Here is a personal example.
When teaching a women’s hybrid basic pistol/home defense class, I put a hammer, a Kabar and a Colt .45 auto on the table and asked what they were. The responses were for the most part, a hammer, a knife and a gun. I then asked what else they might be and the answers were a tool, a kitchen tool and a firearm. I then asked what they all had in common and no one got the right answer: tools. We then discussed the fact that the handgun was the only tool that required a license to possess it. I then asked which were dangerous and got various answers. We then discussed the fact that more people are killed every year with knives and blunt objects than with guns but that it doesn’t make the news nor does the use of firearms to save lives. This got buy in from the class members who committed to paying attention to learn how to protect their home and families. I learned this little mental trick when I got tasked to teach firearms use to the members of an Army MASH unit. They saw themselves as helpers rather than warriors. It’s all in how you perceive the information you have access to. When the medical personnel realized that they were protecting their patients, everyone fired expert.
If you choose to supplement your talk or article with photographs, there is a firearms courtesy protocol for how those photographs should look. On a range, no one should ever see the muzzle of a firearm because that firearm should always be cased, holstered or facing downrange. If an individual is holding a firearm, their finger should not be on the trigger and they should be viewed from the side or behind, never from the front so that the viewer is looking down the barrel. If the gun is in some type of static display.The magazine or clip should be removed and the bolt should be locked open so that the viewer can see that the chamber is empty. I realize this is not as exciting as many of the photographs of firearms we have seen, but it is the most appropriate way to display the firearm.
Finally, you have to realize that not everyone has to agree with you. An acceptable outcome is simply to have been treated with respect. If you feel you got your point across, you have achieved a positive outcome. If your presentation is being recorded, remember that it will be available to be viewed for some time to come so your presentation can reach multiple audiences. No one really wants to look bad in what amounts to media perpetuity. The reverse of that is when you prepare something of quality, feel you did a good job, and then find out that it was never broadcast. Look at it as practice not a failed opportunity. The bottom line is be prepared and be yourself.
— Ron Shaver had an EdD in psychology, with experience reviewing scientific publications, having taught statistics and research design. As this discussion shows, he was an effective and well-practiced advocate as well as an expert reviewer. He was generous to offer help to DRGO in critiquing research and, with this article, to begin writing for us.