Speaking tutorials are by appointment only. They can be scheduled for either 60 or 90 minutes, depending on the length of the presentation. Longer sessions can also be arranged for group presentations. Speakers can have up to two appointments per week (no more than one appointment per day). Please contact us at 314-935-4981 or writing@wustl.edu.
If you schedule an appointment and aren’t able to make it, please let us know as soon as possible, preferably 24 hours in advance. That will allow us to make that time available to other speakers.
What Happens in a Tutorial
There’s no typical Speaking Studio tutorial, because our tutors will work with you at any stage of the process. Bring in your assignment, and we can help with brainstorming ideas or developing organization strategies. We can help you better connect with your listeners by revising to clarify and strengthen your ideas. You can also bring in a completed script and use The Speaking Studio to practice your presentation, with one of our trained tutors serving as your audience. Tutorials focus first on the larger issues like intention and audience, argument and evidence, organization and speaking style. We also help with overcoming speaking anxiety, modulating volume and projecting confidence, developing greater physical and vocal awareness, as well as developing and designing effective visual aids.
We can also video record the presentation and review it with you. If you like, we can make a copy of the presentation for you on DVD. Video recording, however, is an optional feature of our tutorials. Many speakers find it helps to see themselves as the audience will see them. But, of course, the tutoring process does not depend on the technology, and whether we record or not is always up to the individual speaker.