One of my father’s dear friends used to say, “in actual fact,” a lot. In actual fact, he would say, in actual fact probably every paragraph, more in actual fact. He confessed himself that he felt unable, in actual fact, to stop saying it. Sadly he died a few years ago and at his funeral, a dear friend stood to give the eulogy. “In actual fact,” he began and everyone smiled, fondly remembering John.
We say filling words when we are nervous. The commonest place to be nervous, in actual fact, is whilst presenting (p3). The audience recognise that the words themselves, in actual fact, are not integral to the story but they do distract, in actual fact, from the clarity of the presentation (p cubed). In actual fact they do this by adding to the “noise” of the presentation and this distracts from the signal, in actual fact.
One of the first steps is recognising that we have our own filling words; um, ah, err, like, okay, you know, obviously, going forward, basically, etc, in actual fact. The difficulty however, in actual fact, is that we are often not aware of them. It takes gentle but effective feedback from a supportive colleague for this to become clear, in actual fact. The best means then of reduction is to quantify, in actual fact, just how many times you use those filling words within a time frame or practice presentation. Once you are aware that, in actual fact you have said that sixteen times some far, you can begin to address the problem. In actual fact (17) it then becomes a personal irritant that you hear yourself doing it and you will improve. When you need to say it, just don’t. Your presentation won’t lose anything, it will improve.