What's the problem with metaphors?

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來自 National Research Tomsk State University 的課程

Presentation skills: Speechwriting and Storytelling

106 個評分

National Research Tomsk State University

Presentation skills: Speechwriting and Storytelling

106 個評分

課程 1（共 4 門，Specialization Presentation Skills: Speechwriting, Slides and Delivery）

“99% presentations suck!”, — said Apple former evangelist Guy Kawasaki in 2005. Up to now the situation hasn’t improved yet. Why? Most public speaking courses focus on “how” instead of “what & why”. How to stand, walk and talk during delivery with little attention paid to “what” — the quality of storytelling itself. Thereby a usual result is a looking slightly confident speaker with mesmerizing voice delivering an obscure mess of facts, figures and claims. In this course we take a more systematic approach, focusing on the content. How to structure your ideas, facts and data into a logical convincing story using a narrative structure. This course covers fundamentals of scriptwriting, packing, argumentation and language. This course is not about how to fabricate a catching tale, but rather how to structure your ideas, facts and data into an interesting story you are going to tell during your presentation.

從本節課中

Part 4: The middle

This week is about organizing the middle part of your presentation. Too often it becomes too complex, too long, too unstructured. So we are going to talk about appropriate number of sub-parts in your middle part , ways of organizing your data using LATCH method, using metaphors and analogies to make your messages vivid and easy to grasp for the audience.

What is an analogy and how do you find a good analogy?7:01

What's a false analogy?3:24

What's the problem with metaphors?3:50

Not spinning the issue8:38

Organize the middle5:37

與講師見面

Alexei Kapterev
Lomonosov MSU BS

So, what is the problem with metaphors?

Well, actually there are two.

Thing number one, they are vague and informal.

They make your language less precise.

So you won't see many metaphors in reports,

and legal documents and instructional guides.

So if you're doing something really really serious avoid metaphors. Sad thing.

Although I once see an instructional guide for a tank which was like a battle tank,

which was full of metaphor and it was hilarious.

Scientists often say that well,

science is no place for a metaphor.

But I think they have all sorts of metaphors on their own.

OK. String theory might be an analogy but,The Big Bang Theory.

Come on, it's a metaphor.

It was no bang.

I think scientists just love this no association big bang.

Wow, and it's a way to make science more attractive.

So why use metaphors?

Yes. They make your language vivid and colorful but you sacrifice clarity.

And therefore it's a trade off.

Do you strive for clarity in this particular instance

or do you want more you know, excitement?

And if the latter is the case,

go ahead and use metaphors.

Metaphor is a transformation of a sort.

It's a way to transform the situation to however you look from a different viewpoint.

Metaphors have emotional impact.

They are poetic.

And of course, metaphors can become 'dead' metaphors from we overuse.

''Thinking out of the box'' at the moment is a dead metaphor.

It's not very creative to say,

''think out of the box.''

So if you allow me thinking out of the box is not very out of the box thinking.

Never use a metaphor,

simile or any other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

So go beyond the first page on google image search.

If you search for strategy you will see lots and lots of chess look for something else.

Chess is a poor metaphor for strategy precisely because it's so widely used.

So here are three core uses of metaphors.

Use them for an emotional impact,

to make your story more memorable.

Use them as a whole marketing packaging for

your presentation like in presentationzen or death by PowerPoint.

You may use metaphors for explaining,

conveying potentially abstract notion you know in

more concrete terms but I think analogies work much better for this.

And finally, use metaphors for reframing,

for changing your audience's frame of mind and how to do this,

we're going to talk in the next module.

So how do you find a good metaphor?

I don't know.

Aristotle used to think that the use of

metaphor can not be learned from anyone else. And I agree.

You see metaphorical thinking is the same as creative thinking.

You teleport your thinking from one frame of mind to another.

And how do you do this? Well I know.

If you try to make an algorithm out of this.

It's not creativity anymore.

It's algorithmic of thinking.

Therefore I think you have to try and do your own mistakes

and test your metaphors with your target audience.

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