Rated
Aug 27 2006
•
1 review
•
self improvement, language
• public-speaking.org
And a rather decent article on public speaking:
From the page:
"Malaprops can be used for fun or to grab attention while making a serious point. Take for example Sam Goldwyn's classic, 'A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.' I don't know if Sam said this one on purpose or not. I wasn't around in the 1940s to ask him. I do know that the message is clear and has stood the test of time. If he had simply said, 'Contracts should be in writing' who would remember?
"Use malaprops in your presentation, but make sure the malapropism is obvious, or your audience may think you are not too bright. If you do get caught in an accidental misusage, you MUST acknowledge your blunder. If you don't, you will absolutely lose your audience who will be thinking about the blunder for several minutes after the fact. They will also note that you are trying to be an absolutely perfect robot that couldn't possibly make a mistake. This will turn them off and make communication extremely difficult.
"All you have to do to acknowledge the blunder is to refer to a quotation from Mark Twain and turn it on yourself. Say a self-effacing humorous prepared ad-lib:
'If Mark Twain can spell a word in more than one way, I should be able to say a wrong
word at the right time.'"
