Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Putting the same wine in a different bottle




















Yesterday my Google Alert on the phrase “public speaking” led me to a ~900-word article on the Psychology Today blog by Professor Adrian Furnham titled Dreading the Boards: The Fear of Public Speaking. When I began reading it, I got a strong sense of déjà vu. Then I looked under his name on Google, and found out why.

He’d written a very similar article, an On Your head column, titled Pace, Pitch, Pause: Master the Art of Public Speaking that had appeared on November 17, 2013 in the Sunday Times. Compare the two, and you will find identical paragraphs.  

The earlier title fits his content better than the new one. It’s an excellent article that’s worth reading. But, the new subtitle:

“What is it about public speaking that makes it the most common of all phobias?”

doesn’t really fit, since he never gets around to referencing where he got that somewhat silly claim.

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