
Ask HN: How to improve and measure verbal communication skills? - skr808
In 2018, I&#x27;m attempting to improve my verbal communication skills.<p>I seem to lack the ability to clearly and consistently articulate my thoughts.<p>I work with a medium sized development team (~100 ppl), and although I&#x27;m an decent developer, I sometimes struggle to verbalize my ideas clearly.<p>I&#x27;d like to improve this skill, and somehow measure it throughout the year; right now I&#x27;m shooting blind. Any ideas on optimizing this skill?
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WheelsAtLarge
Read books and actively read them by making sure you understand what you've
read and be aware of the author's sentence and paragraph structure.
Copy(write) what you read by putting it in your own words. Do it over and over
again and eventually, you'll improve your verbal skills. It's a slow process
but that's what it takes.

Taking classes is not enough. It comes down to practice, practice and
practice.

Also, keep a diary, it forces you to summarise your thoughts.

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skr808
Interesting, I like this idea, I will try this. Thanks.

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DoreenMichele
It is more comfortable to talk with people side by side than face to face. I
have had lots of good conversations with people while carpooling or walking
somewhere together.

My oldest son has output difficulties. Walking together while he does most of
the talking has helped him enormously.

Most of the time, I enjoy listening to my son. If you can similarly find
someone in your life who enjoys listening to you and doesn't mind acting as a
sounding board, just having the time to practice can really help you hone this
skill.

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vfulco
Join a community or corporate Toastmasters. The combination of prepared speech
making, impromptu speaking challenges offered in every meeting called "Table
Topics", and leadership skills development will be a cheap and efficient way
for you to experiment and grow skills quickly. Also a safe place to stumble,
fall, pick yourself back up and succeed with no career risks.

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skr808
Thanks. This is great advice. I was part of a Toastmasters and the "Table
Topics" were really challenging for me, but are exactly what I need to work
on.

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hn17
That's a great question. From my experience one way of getting better is go to
workshops. During training you get knowledge and also feedback, often you work
in groups and people are more open to giving honest feedback than in real
situations.

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jfaucett
Yes. I've been trying to improve this area for a while as well. Here's some
things I've come up with. I'd really like to hear about other people's
exercises / practices, etc. if they have any. Its hard to measure improvement
though in a non-subjective way. So anyway here's what I've come up with up to
now.

1\. Grab a random topic, record yourself explaining it. Listen back to the
recording. Try to notice anything that you don't like, for me this is awkward
pauses, saying some words repeatedly such as "right" or "uhm" and in general
not having a fluid and coherent flow of thoughts and phrasing.

2\. Take a particular situational goal: i.e. convincing someone to do
something, making a joke, acting out a scene in a film. Record yourself acting
out the situation. Listen back and see if you were able to convince yourself,
or you laughed at the joke or you could hear the emotion from the film scene.
For me the craziest of these is telling a joke. Its amazing how much
difference super slight pauses or minute changes in intonation can make. It
can completely make or break a joke.

3\. Teach classes or do presentations at meetups / group events. If you can
record yourself and listen back to it afterwards. See if you can keep your own
interest. Try to fix things you find annoying with yourself.

4\. Find other people you find really impressive. For English, I think Ben
Shapiro is one of the clearest, fast pace speakers on the planet. I also like
the precision with which Sam Harris speaks, so I listen to these two a good
bit and try to take the best from their speaking styles and incorporate it.
The key is to actively listen to what they're saying and how they are saying
it, trying to figure out the techniques.

In terms of measurement, be sure to save your recordings. Then you can listen
to yourself at the end of every quarter or half-year and see if you can notice
improvements. Also actually measure how many times you've put yourself in
situations such as giving presentations, speeches, etc. That's another way to
at least quantify your experience and whether or not you are giving yourself a
chance to improve.

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skr808
These are really good ideas, I'll give some of them a shot.

I routinely listen to Sam Harris, his explanations are amazingly clear and
concise. It's quite impressive.

