There was an interesting 15-page article in the November 2009 issue of Technical Communication magazine by Joanna K. Garner et al. on “Common Use of PowerPoint Versus the Assertion-Evidence Structure: A Cognitive Psychology Perspective.” (Vol. 56, No. 4, p. 331). I don’t think it’s out in the open on the Web, but it’s worth finding and reading.

Richard

While TM may have its own reasons for taking its stand on ‘Thank You’, to me it appears that a thank you at the end is a deserved courtesy to the audience. Should it be the last words? Need not be. Especially if you believe like MGM in a big bang approach of earthquakes and holocausts. As some commentators have pointed out, there are many ingenious ways to convey the feeling that the presenter appreciates the audience presence, attention etc.

So,

To thank or not to thank
That is not the question
but
How to thank!

I’ve contacted the researcher to ask for more details, but my understanding of the article was that PowerPoint was felt to be a major issue in lectures (as opposed to labs and computer sessions, which probably don’t use PowerPoint). It’s clear that teachers need to improve their skills overall, but since I teach presentation skills and not teaching skills, I only try to address what I know. Hopefully, someone else is talking about how to make labs and computer sessions more interesting!

Attorneys are notorious for creating and giving horrible, verbose PowerPoint presentations.

What a great topic! It’s interesting that I remember from my TM days that “Thank you” was expected to be part of my closing! Perspective is everything.

My speaking engagements have been focused on technology training venues, and I’ve always thank my students at the end. It always seemed to be well received. However, during one of my full-time training jobs (I was the only professional trainer at the company) I had developed, produced, and published a number of on-demand video tutorials training customers on using the company’s proprietary software. I had based some of my design on TechSmith’s approach to their tutorials on Camtasia Studio 6. Visit http://tinyurl.com/dexsxv to see what I’m talking about. My tutorials were all under 12 minutes long. I ended them with something like, “and thanks for watching today.” There is that “dreaded” thanks! My immediate boss initially thought they were great, then for some reason, changed his mind. His comment was that (1) considering our audience (mostly attorneys in large international law firms in the USA) and (2) he objected to what he called “Toastmasters 101″ paradigm of the ending thank you. He thought our audience (our paying clients) should be thanking us for our excellent, succinct training tutorials. I did edit some 25 tutorials to eliminate the objectionable “thanks.” He was so strongly opinionated abut this, that in the end he “served” me with a insubordination personnel action.

So this subject can be very, very emotionally charged. Despite the reprimand, I will continue to thank my customers for participating in training events I deliver! Needless to say, I am grateful I have moved on to different pastures!

Cheers,
Rich

I’ve written about the “thank you” issue on my blog as well. My opinion is that the audience is taking time away from other activities to be there listening to me speak. Without an audience, a speaker does not exist. They contribute, give value, participate, laugh, clap, and generally do their part to make the presentation work. However, I don’t believe in wasting time at the beginning with thank yous. I save it till the end, and I see nothing wrong with it being the last two words out of my mouth. I hardly think that, after everything I’ve done in a presentation, “thank you” is somehow going to give the audience a final negative impression.

The first post is here: http://coachlisab.blogspot.com/2007/03/do-you-thank-your-audience.html

And there’s a second post that was sparked by an e-mail from a Toastmaster reader of mine who struggles with the issue in his club. He had a lot of interesting things to say about the issue as well: http://coachlisab.blogspot.com/2007/09/more-about-thanking-audience.html

This is one of those “rules” that I think people follow blindly instead of doing what feels right for them and the audience.