This sixth chapter in Eble’s book is entitled “the Lecture as Discourse” and within, our author writes about using the concept of the lecture as a learning tool — pointing out both the positive and negative sides of its defense. Beginning with its legitimate justification, Eble states that “the book lacks what television lacks: face-to-face confrontation with other talking, gesturing, thinking, feeling humans. Thus, the live lecture, despite its shortcomings, has reason for its continued use.” There is much to be learned from outside research, course readings, and homework assignments, but during a designated class time, there must be an orderly method of relaying the subject matter. This reading has brought to light and revealed the fact that the lecture “guarantees a stated amount of academic credit if the student will but sit still so many hours a week for so many weeks and do such work as required.” This is a formidable method of teaching, but lecturing is about more than simply reciting a speech.

Eble brings up a few pointers for preparing a lecture. He states that “the best general advice to the teacher who would lecture well is … for most of teaching, to think in terms of discourse – talk, conversation – rather than lecture.” I can recall several “lectures” held as discussions, and I must admit those are the “lectures” that stuck. One should approach this method of learning with an open mind to holding open conversations between professor and student.

A mistake often seen during student presentations, but which must be avoided as a lecturer, regards reading a speech. Eble warns us that “a written script intended to be read is the worst possible preparation. Reducing the text to a timed outline or sketch is probably the best general practice.” This plays right into the idea of discussion as lecture, as it brings up points and topics that may then be openly discussed. This is equally true in today’s environment of presentation decks: we should not be presenting walls of text, but rather points and supportive media. Make the students active in their learning — don’t simply talk at a wall of blank faces for two and a half hours! Eble sums it up by stating that “speech is a basic tool, the chief means by which teachers attempt to reach students, and command of voice is as serviceable a part of professional competence as command of subject matter … Almost all instructors take their speech for granted and few college teachers evaluate the effectiveness of their speaking voices or actively work to improve them.”

Lecturing can most certainly be called an art or a craft. Realize it or not, the lecture is a form of public speaking – akin to a motivational speaker, a comedian, or a VP of communications. Eble states that “teachers should back off from saying ‘I’m no comedian,’ and recognize that a teacher’s verbal art shares the basic necessities of catching and holding a listener’s attention, of providing emphasis and direction, and of leading up to a key moment and striking home. Teachers I have observed strike me as often being too static, or too little aware of the impact that gestures and other movements of face and body can have.” Summed up, one should be aware of their speaking voices and the gestures they use during discourse. It's possible that a poor lecturer cannot instruct a successful class even if the content was all there.

How a lecture is organized and presented can make all the difference in the world. Even a quality such as when the lecture was conceived can have a lasting effect on the presentation or its content. Eble has a great suggestion, offering that “often the best time to prepare a lecture is immediately after a class. The realities of a class are most apparent right when it’s over, realities far different from a lecture on paper or even a tape-recorded lecture played back later.” He continues that “once begun, the lecture must have a body. The human body will do as an analogy to describe its proper kind. It should have a variety of parts both independent of, and dependent upon, other parts; much substance; density and lightness; its own pulse and rhythm; warmth – all the parts and attributes constituting a distinctive whole.” The lecture is a living, breathing organism – at least it has the potential to be. By paying close care, one can craft a successful lecture by keeping these guidelines in mind.

I came across an interesting, 6 word sentence that sums up a great deal of the professor’s role during the lecture. Eble states, to the professor, that “you are both host and guest.” Unlike grade-school, professors generally don’t have an assigned, decorated classroom from which they instruct. The professor has just as much claim over the territory as the students do.

Eble ends his chapter with a few words of advice, concerning – of course – the lecture. He reminds us to “restrict your aim to less than a handful of primary topics … Seek hard and unrelentingly for precise examples and illustrations … Allude to the personal or to the world outside … Develop an ability to improvise and to sustain an improvisational quality even in a carefully structured presentation and … Provide the audience with frequent breathing spaces and opportunities for questions.” All-in-all: good advice.