Personal anecdotes

Antidepressants—Anecdotes. 2. Depressed persons— Anecdotes. 3. Depression, Mental—Chemotherapy-Anecdotes. I. Title. 

Sowden was also highly regarded as a teacher. He first presented his course in carbohydrate chemistry at Washington University during the Fall semester of 1948. One of his students has mentioned that he lectured without reference to notes and that his efforts were received by an appreciative group of organic and biochemistry students, many of whom were already engaged in carbohydrate research. On numerous occasions, his lectures were attended by members of the faculty, and they particularly appreciated the clarity of his presentations, his sense of history, and the personal anecdotes he used in order to make his lectures come alive. 

When you start to speak, connect to the audience. For example, if you haven t been introduced, briefly introduce yourself. Tell a humorous personal story that illustrates your humanity. Say hello to someone you know in the audience. Share a relevant personal anecdote. If I was talking to elementary teachers, I would mention Miss Blaha, the elementary school teacher that introduced me to geography and history. You might share a favorite quote, refer to a relevant current event, tell a joke, show a short video, play a brief audio, or share a startling number (Jaffe 2001). Distribute your handout, or part of it, or indicate that it will be available immediately after the presentation and perhaps before the question and answer (Q A) session. 

Telling a personal anecdote to illustrate a point is often a good way to demonstrate commitment for something. And when this commitment is consistent with the theme of your speech or written presentation, your credibility increases. The audience has reason to trust your intentions to give accurate and useful information. 

Use pneumonic devices, slogans, catch-all phrases, but explain acronym jargon. Use personal anecdotes, newspaper clippings or WWW stories as examples. 

Throughout this book, I include personal anecdotes to supplement the rationale of a principle or the description of a technique or process. I would like to end this preface with one such anecdote. In August 1994, the Hercules Portland Plant stopped chemical production for two consecutive days so all 64 employees at the facility could receive a two-day workshop on the psychology of safety. 

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