Where to Stand

Learning how to position yourself with respect to the class when giving a lecture can be of the utmost importance to the effectiveness of your presentation. Tom Mucciolo (1998, paragraphs 3-6) gives these three tips regarding the position of the presenter:

speaker standing to the left of a projection screen

"1. Establish an anchor. When presenting with visual support, you need to set an anchor for the audience to watch and read. Anchor your body to the side that is the starting point for reading the language (i.e., left to right or right to left). For presentations in English (and many other languages), you must stand on the left side of the room -- that is, the left side from the audience's point of view. Because we read words from left to right in English, the eye is less distracted if it sees the presenter speaking from the left, then glances slightly to the right to read the visual (left to right) and then returns to view the speaker again.

diagram with a triangle drawn between the speaker, audience, and projection screen

2. Build a triangle. While standing at a fixed distance from your display equipment, draw an imaginary line from the eyes of the person sitting on your far right, to the screen. This becomes the long end of the triangle, an angled wall. From each end of this line, draw two lines meeting at a 90-degree angle to complete the shape behind you. This puts you inside a large triangle. Using the "angled wall" as a boundary, simply move along the wall without penetrating it. If you step through the wall, people on your right will not be able to see the screen.

diagram of the speaker positioned to face the opposite corner of the room he is lecturing in

3. Play the angles. The position of your shoulders also enhances communication. For most of your talk you should stand at a 45-degree angle to the audience. To create the angle, point your shoulders to the opposite corner of the room. This is a rest position. It establishes a non-threatening stance for the audience and opens your body to the screen when you need to gesture or move.

When you square your shoulders to the back wall of the room, you move into the power position. Moving there is a signal that the information being communicated is of greater importance. But don't stay in the power position too long or its effectiveness will be diminished."