Everyone has to be a listener sometimes; at lectures, presentations, meetings, and on the telephone, we spend a lot of our time listening to others talking. We all know, then, that the average standard of spoken presentation is poor. We are often bored, irritated, even embarrassed as listeners; rarely are we captivated, or filled with new enthusiasm for a topic and with respect for the speaker. I suppose most people when they suffer an appalling presentation vow that when their turn comes they will do better.