I had a disagreement with a fellow businessperson this week. I’m a writing coach, he’s a leadership coach. We both taught in the Summer Seminar Series put on by the Central Florida Christian Chamber of Commerce. On Tuesday, he attended my article-writing seminar, where I passed out handouts containing my major talking points. On Thursday, I attended his leadership seminar, where he handed out ruled paper with his logo on top. “I’m not giving you bullet points,” he said, “because you’ll retain the information better if you put it in your own words.”
Photo by Kristja • stock.xchng
While his statement is true, I still disagreed with his omission of the handouts. The problem, as I see it, is that if I’m writing down what you said a minute ago, I’m not paying attention to what you’re saying now.
Where I felt the absence of handouts most keenly was at the end of his talk, when he showed us a PowerPoint slide with a list of books he suggested we read. So we had to copy the titles from the slide. Not, in my opinion, an effective use of people’s time.
Here are the things I think belong on seminar handouts:
- Key points you want people to remember.
- Direct quotes from others that you cite in your talk.
- Resources students can consult for further information.
- Action steps you encourage students to take later.
- Your e-mail address.
I’m not a fan of fill-in-the-blank seminar handouts, though some speakers I respect use them. You know the kind of handout I mean. They include something like this:
There’s no ____ like the _______.
Where you’re supposed to fill in “time” and “present.” Does that really help you retain? I don’t think so.
I like to design my handouts with wide margins, so people have space to add their own thoughts. This, I feel, is the primary purpose of note-taking. Not to copy down the speaker’s words, but to capture your own ideas about them.
I feel the purpose of the handout is to give listeners a visual anchor to accompany my spoken words. Not that the handout is a transcript of the talk. Just the highlights. But if you see a phrase like “Envision your readers, and write as if sending them a letter” while you’re listening to me talk about identifying your target market, I believe you’ll remember the message more clearly, regardless of whether you’re primarily a visual or auditory learner.
This puts me in opposition to another school of thought. That’s the one that advises giving handouts, but only after the talk is over. Proponents of this method believe that if I have the handout first, I’ll be reading about what you’re going to say a minute from now instead of paying attention to what you’re saying right now.
I’ll concede that possibility, but I think it’s outweighed by the problem that I may spend an hour frantically trying to take dictation of your brilliant sayings, only to learn at the end that you have your wisdom all neatly typed out for me. Also, if you’re going to use this method, don’t say things like, “I recommend that you read Man’s Rise To Civilization As Shown By The Indians Of North America From Primeval Times To The Coming Of The Industrial State by Peter Farb” without informing your listeners that they needn’t write down the title because it will be on the handout.
When you study, do you find handouts a blessing or a curse? When you teach, how do you use handouts? Or do you not use them? Feel free to disagree with me. I’m not quite so cocky as to believe I’m always right. At least, not anymore.
I’ve always appreciated handouts. There was this one psychology professor that I wish had given us handouts every session, because unless I frantically scribbled everything he said down and memorized it all, I never guessed correctly what he was going to test on. The things he emphasized in class were NOT the things he put on the test.
I’ve run into a few preachers since, who were impossible to follow with note-taking, too.
So I’m always grateful for the handouts!
Ah-ha! See, I never would have thought of “highlight for your students what will be on the test,” because I don’t ever teach in places where testing would be appropriate. Thanks for contributing that point, Krysti!
Excellent post! I can see myself being in a position where I’m leading a workshop or something and I’ve never thought about the creation of the handouts, yet. I like handouts that are clear and follow the speakers flow of notes. I recently went to a workshop and this guy had great points, but his handout was all over the place. I was confused, trying to figure it out while I’m missing some information he shared. I’ve seen the fill in the blank ones and…I’d probably be guilty of using them, but I find them distracting because I’m waiting for that exact topic to come up so I can fill in the blanks. kind of little like OCD, I can’t have those blanks staring at me! ha! When handouts have key notes and quotes, then I add other stuff that the speaker is saying and then when I look over it, it all makes better sense verses if I’m trying to write everything down, I miss so much, my notes are hard to read, and then later, I’m like, why did I write that?
Good point, Jennette. If the handout doesn’t follow the outline of the talk — or if the instructor deviates from the outline — the speaker needs to give the listeners a heads up. Doesn’t help to have a handout if it only confuses people.
I’m on the same page. I do retain better if I’m writing it for myself, and I have a tendency to paraphrase the general idea rather than write word-for-word. I don’t mind fill-in-the-blanks in a couple specific instances like for bullet points or section headings, but I like being able to write down my own notes and thoughts. And I don’t like notes that give me too much. I had a professor who typed out his entire lecture and then gave it as a hand-out and read it to us. That wasn’t helpful to me at all. I was just reading along rather than listening and interpreting, and it left NO room for discussion.
So, what I’m saying is, I like hand-outs that give a general overview and highlights and resources, but still have plenty of room for me to jot down my own notes.
Ack! Yeah, full text of lecture on handout = really bad idea.