Security, charisma, leadership and trust are four concepts that can seem very generic, but can also be synonymous with good communication.  This is what Isabel Villanueva transmitted to law students on 4 April in a special session on oral and physical expression. 

“The difference between communicating and communicating with others is the feedback you receive”.  A session in which Villanueva analysed the main problems when presenting a topic in public and the strong points that need to be taken into account in order to guarantee good communication both at a personal and a professional level. 

This lecturer from the Faculty of Communication underlined the fact that “you should never start at the beginning without defining the final concept and starting from there” and also underlined the fact that “a presentation hasn’t been worked on if it hasn’t been rehearsed beforehand”.  She also advised students not to memorise speeches.  She suggested that they work on the key ideas and based on these create arguments, also leaving room for improvisation.  

On the other hand, she provided a few pieces of advice about how to successfully work on any type of content in general: 

1. If I don’t understand something I don’t say so

2. Express one well-developed idea per minute  

3. Avoid repetitions and learn how to say things using synonyms

4. Avoid excessive originality and excessive perfectionism. Aim to above all be natural and comfortable 

As a final piece of advice, Villanueva recommended taking clothing and the environment into account when presenting, reiterating the idea of feeling comfortable both when moving around the space and giving a presentation.  Finally, she underlined the fact that “staging is 80% of what we want to communicate” therefore it has an impact both on the content, but also on the way in which we communicate.