Importance of research skills in real world

When I teach the public speaking classes at Coker College, I nearly always start out with telling the students the class will be one of the most important they will take in their college career. I make immediate connection to their personal bottom line and how it will be enhanced if they will allow themselves to become comfortable speakers and then work themselves to become competent speakers.

A major element of speaking is your message. A good message comes in several layers and generally those layers are not accessible to the speaker without some pretty in-depth research. It was Cicero who gave us the five arts that compose the great art of Rhetoric and we hear a lot about the layers of speaking in those five arts. A more recent writer and business guru writes a lot about how people develop and use influence. I just read a short article by Mr. Dilenschneider in the quarterly publication of the Public Relations Society of America – THE STRATEGIST. His observation, I think, adds some weight to the argument for developing good public speaking skills, which include excellent message-development skills. If felt like a good idea to share his thoughts.

Here are some words from a man named Robert Dilenschneider, a major figure in the public relations business. He wrote a book recently called "Power and Influence: The Rules Have Changed." In an article in THE STRATEGIST, a public relations publication, he says:

"Specifically, anyone who wishes to be a power player must build certain strengths. One of them is the ability to do exhaustive research. Thanks to search engines, the tools are there to do what used to take days in minutes. It's truly remarkable. But, one should always remember that information, however massive and deep, does not necessarily equate to knowledge. You need to know what to do with the data you glean." Page 25, The Strategist, Spring 2008I shared this with my current public speaking class so they can see that the classroom skills are really life-journey skills. Dilenshcneider’s corporate sited is http://www.dilenschneider.com/ .