U of S students rewarded for not using 'filler words' in presentations

Like, you know, whatever.

It sounds like a line out of the movie “Clueless,” but according to the dean of the Edwards School of Business, it’s still the way a lot of people talk.

First-year business students at the U of S tried their hardest to avoid using words such as ‘like’, ‘um’, ‘you know’ and ‘hey’ during their final presentations Friday.

The ones who succeeded were given a Golden Tongue Award. Dean Daphne Taras came up with the idea to reward students who could eradicate “crutch words” from their speeches after overhearing a frustrating conversation in the hallway of her college.

“Like, my boyfriend, like, said last night, um, you know, he said, like,” she recalled.

Out of around 500 students, only 20 Golden Tongue awards were given out. Andrew Slusar got one of them.

“For me personally, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I believe that if you know your material, those words won’t come out.”
 
Each winner was given $50 from a pool of donated cash. Taras said she wanted to address poor speaking skills with a reward rather than a punishment.
 
The end goal is to make the next generation of business professionals aware of how they communicate, she said.

“It’s just a question of polishing up one’s speech; it makes us more pleasant to listen to. It’s the first of a new wave of good speaking.”