Author: Iain Ewing, published by Ewing Communications, 1994. I keep this book in the bottom drawer of my buffet-turned-bookcase.
I go back to this book regularly enough to keep it around! Ewing offers simple, clear advice on how to overcome one’s fear of public speaking, from a very different perspective than most business English books. He was working in Asia when he published it, and clearly learned a lot about how different cultures express themselves.
He provides an interesting self-reflection tool to think about what kind of speaker you are (friendly, intellectual, dominant or submissive), and whether you match your audience or not (and if it’s a mismatch, what to do about it). He uses these four categories as his anchor points for each chapter, so you have to buy into the idea that we have different (and categorizable? categorical?) approaches to communicating.
The book was written in 1994, so any technology references are useless. But if you’re interested in reading a presenter’s thoughts on communicating outside one’s culture, check it out…if you can find it used somewhere.
Here’s a sample page from the chapter on your pitch and intonation:
Strengths of the book: helpful information, and excellent guidance to develop your presentation skills
Drawback: outdated in reference to technology, but nothing you can’t adapt to new options