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Molly Epstein
The art of podium persuasion
As they shuffled into the classroom and took their seats, Cem Bahadir, from his position at the podium, knew this would be a tough audience: an eager group of Emory University business undergrads. Sure enough, after Bahadir, a third-year student in Goizueta’s marketing PhD program, made a presentation to them as if he were teaching a course in marketing, the undergrads responded with useful, though not entirely favorable, feedback.
It was just the kind of commentary the professor-in-training craved. “If you are familiar with a subject matter, you make so many assumptions about what other people already know,” explains Bahadir, who is working on his dissertation in marketing. “You have to be very clear and able to get your point across to your audience when you are making a presentation.”
Bahadir’s revelations were all in a day’s work for Molly Epstein, team leader and assistant professor in the practice of management communication at Goizueta. Bahadir was one of sixteen students who attended Epstein’s intensive two-day, university-wide mini-course, Persuasive Academic Presentations: Presenting and Defending Theories and Dissertations in August. Students received immediate presentation critiques, and learned, through lectures, how to strategize and structure presentations and deliver them effectively.
While the mission of the course, for which Epstein received a teaching grant, was to prepare doctoral students in all of Emory’s PhD programs to present and defend theories in the academic setting, Epstein stresses that improved verbal and written communication skills at the PhD level is grander in scope. “In corporate America and academia in general, there is a renewed emphasis on communication skills,” notes Epstein. “The marketplace for PhDs demands good communication skills. Once they get into their positions, their communication skills determine how quickly or if they advance in their careers.”
—Diana Drake