Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Never admit fear. Never apologize or suggest you are incapable of making a talk.
If an audience did not want to speak or felt no confidence in you, you would not
have been invited.
The person who wills to do, can do. Confidence is a state of mind. Be sure of
yourself. Be mentally determined to be the best of whatever you do.
Never stand up to say something. Always have something to say and then
stand up.
Always seek a definite response from your particular audience and select
material, which will obtain that response.
Your material must be vital, concrete, valid, novel and within the scope of the
audiences experience. It must be logical and acceptable.
Read, listen and study to obtain material. Observe, ponder and have a healthy
curiosity about things in order to get the best material for any speech.
Always select your speech material with a view to finding an answer to the
question: What can this audience do about it?
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HANDOUT
Reduce the basic reasons for giving your speech into main issues. These may
be:
- Need
- Practicality
- Benefits
- Is there a better plan?
- Moral obligation
Use the outline method of preparation. This will allow you to organize main
issues with subordinate divisions of examples, illustrations, statistics, notions of
authorities, etc.
There are three sides to every possible question: your side, the opposite side
and somewhere in between, usually the truth. Organize your speech material to
seek the truth of the issue being discussed.
Try to avoid notes. The exception is when using complicated facts and figures
which must be absolutely correct.
If you do write a speech and attempt to memorize it, do not forget what you have
memorized. (Remember the written memorized speech and the written speech
which is read are weak).
Never take for granted that your audience is interested in you and your subject.
Always create that interest through the organization of your speech material.
attention.
Improving Voice and Vocabulary
Use voice control. Speak more quickly than normal at the start to unfreeze your
panic and communication. Pause . . . to add emphasis. Dropping a soft voice in
places add authority. Stop completely for 5 seconds before you make your most
important statements.
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HANDOUT
Open your mouth when you talk. Relax your jaws. Use your tongue and lips in
the making of speech sounds. Create the idea that your voice manner is careful,
easy and spontaneous.
Never allow tight-lipped flatness of tone. Avoid stilted speech. Make your voice
alive, pleasant and agreeable. Your speech personality will depend to a large
degree on the pleasantness of your voice.
Never let your voice indicate doubt, apology or lack of confidence. Have an
enthusiastic tone and sincere manner.
Avoid er, ah, uh and similar interruptive noises in your speech presentation.
If your own voice does not appeal to you, why not change it? Listen to a voice
you enjoy hearing. Mentally compare your tones with those of the other person.
Try to change.
Increase your working vocabulary. Remember that average business person has
a working vocabulary of less than 4,000 words. Add five new words every day.
Study your dictionary.
Remember the ancient Greek saying that a beautiful thought basically expressed
is worth far more than any jewel.
Use audio visuals as they appeal to both sides of the brain. While the left brain
processes your logic, the right brain admires your pictures and sounds. Keep
text visuals simple but dont make them dominate.
Platform Conduct
Be direct. Look at your group, not at the floor, ceiling or walls. Looking at their
shoulders or ears is less challenging but still appear personal.
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HANDOUT
Use body language carefully. Never have unnecessary action. Control yourself
physically. Avoid unnecessary head movement.
Slow, open gestures, palms towards audience, open arms, open hands! Yes!
they say, Trust me.
Be careful about finger movements. Avoid brisk, jabbing gestures or closed fists.
Circular sharing, open-armed movements? Yes! They say we are all in this
together.
Have a good position, one which allows you to be at ease and which avoids all
distracting mannerisms.
Do not play with rings or pencils while you are speaking. Do not play with your
hands while speaking.
Never unleash your personal feelings. The average audience resents this.
Recognize occurrences that take place in the audience or outside which might
distract your audience or interrupt your speech.
Do not bore your listeners. If they read, look at watches, yawn or fall asleep
while you are speaking, it is time for you to go home.
Create the idea that you are having a good time making speech.
Never thank an audience with a mechanical thank you at the end of your
speech. Express thanks graciously. What you say is only half as important as
how you say it.
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HANDOUT
auditorium lights. If removing glasses would cause nervous headache, eye strain
or difficulty reading notes, wear them or switch to contact lens.
Do not try to talk if someone is walking down the aisle. Wait until he or she has
been seated before continuing.
Walk to the platform in a manner in keeping with the spirit of the occasion.
Use humor as a means of relaxing the audience. A funny story, in good taste, will
help. It may be the thing which will arouse audience interest.
For most speeches, get right to the point usually with three sentences of the
start.
Do not disclose your entire speech at the start. Develop one point at a time.
Use suspense to hold attention and have a strong climax to each element of
suspense.
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HANDOUT
Use charts and diagrams to make your material clearer as an aid in getting
attention.
Pause after making an important point. When the point has sunk in, clinch it,
just as an actor clinches a scene.
Always talk so that you can be heard easily by all people in the audience.
Use figurative language the simile, the metaphor, the analogy, personification,
the parable, the allegory.
exclamations.
Use the elements of oral expression intelligently, varying your pace, force and
quality.
Always create the conviction in your audience that your selection of the particular
speech is the result of in-depth consideration on your part.
Remember the definition of public speaking: The oral expression of an idea for
the purpose of eliciting a desired response from a given analyzed audience.
And the 102nd advise for someone who wants to be an effective speaker
whatever occasion practice your speech until you have perfected it! Good luck
and may you gain confidence in any public speaking you may find yourself in. `
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