Art Of Great Speaking

Here is a quick post on using poems in public speaking and why use facts, and a problem with them when you are trying to persuade your audience.

A poem is another type of quotation which may be helpful when used rarely and in small doses by a speaker. Only down-to-earth poetry should be used. Listeners simply haven’t the time or patience to interpret a poetic puzzle.
Using four to eight lines of poetry at one time is sufficient. Longer poems may be accepted near the end of a speech. But even there brevity is appreciated. Over-using poetry in a speech becomes a flowery, tiresome practice. Once or twice within any speech is usually enough.
No speech should be made top-heavy with either prose or poetic quotations. The choice and arrangement of speech material should reflect a speaker’s originality. The speech is his. And using too many quotations may cause an audience to wonder, “Who is making this speech anyway?” Furthermore, what people say is usually not as interesting or convincing as what they  do.
Let the core and much of the. web in your speech be illustrations. Highly effective speakers have been great story tellers. Jesus, for example, told stories to illustrate his points. He pictured poverty by telling of a boy who ate with pigs, forgiveness by showing a father with open arms, and a merry banquet with servings of •choice beef. His talks were full of stories, parables, human interest pictures of life.
Lincoln was famous as a story teller. And there are at least twenty illustrations in Russel H. Conwell’s speech, Acres of Diamonds, for which people paid about seven million dollars to hear over a period of years. Numerous speakers who have been unusually successful have filled their speeches with interesting stories.
Do likewise.
Also a persuasive speech, especially at the conviction step, should be studded with facts.
Facts add “weight” to a talk. Listeners can deny illustrations, argue with opinions, but facts speak an exact language that defies contradiction. “Just give us the facts!” Detectives, lawyers, judges cry for them. Facts convince.
The difficulty is, facts may be dull. An average mind cannot receive many of them in raw form without screaming for rest. But usually, when facts are dull, they do not touch listeners’ feelings or create vivid mental pictures. “Cold” is a term used to describe uninteresting facts, or those verbal ghosts which are so hard to see and understand For instance can you picture mentally $798,436,975,459? Or a million times that many insects?

In my next post I’ll talk about how to make fact more interesting and engaging in public speaking. Being confident and more effective in public speaking is something we all can aspire to. If you are looking for more help, check out our free 7 day e-course on public speaking by typing your email address and name in the box to the right.

So what makes a good quotation to use in public speaking to build credibility and convey your message?

Answering the following questions may help a speaker choose suitable quotations:
1.    Will most of the people in my audience know by reputation the person I quote?
2.    Will they accept him as an expert or an authority on my subject?
3.    Is the quotation I plan to use closely related to my subject? Does it really support my point?
4.    Is the quotation reasonably short? Does it make good sense? Easy to understand?
5.    Is this quotation too well-known; has it been used so often -it has become  trite?   (Examples:   “Birds of a feather flock together — Honesty is the best policy,” etc.)
6.    Are these the most effective quotations I can find? With a little more effort could I find better ones?
Usually the most useful quotations are statements made by authorities on a subject. At the best, a quotation is merely an opinion, and to be most effective it should be expert opinion.
Willie Jones, the “juke-box kid,” may know as much about dancing as Arthur Murray. But a quotation from Murray on that subject would probably be more impressive than one from Willie.
A local pastor, William Smith, may know as much about dy¬namic preaching as Billy Graham. But a quotation from Graham would probably be more effective.
When a speaker does quote an unknown or little-known per¬son he should tell the audience briefly why this person’s state¬ments should be accepted. For example: Jim Evans, who, by actual count, caught five times more fish last year than anyone else in town, says . . . Or, Lowell Abbott, who has just completed his fortieth year as a banker, says . . .
A quotation may have the wisdom of a sage or the beauty of a symphony, yet if it is not accepted by the audience it has no value for that group. Prejudice, immaturity, or closed minds may cause an audience to reject authoritative statements. Many peo¬ple are especially touchy, even unreasonable, when listening to speeches about politics, religion, or social customs. “If he said that I wouldn’t believe it, even if it is true!” springs from a closed mind. But a wise speaker will understand his audiences, and will quote from authorities who will cause his listeners to nod yes instead of no.
Quotations should be reasonably short and to the point. Long ones tire an audience. Besides short statements are more easily remembered.

Quotations are a powerful way to persuade your audience when used effectively. If you are want to be a more effective speaker at work or in public enter your details in the box to the right and receive our free e-course over 7 days to help you achieve that goal.

Abraham Lincoln had a view on persuasion that is very pertinent to public speaking

Any speaker who hopes to achieve his purpose in speaking must present a cause or plan which his audience considers sensible and helpful to their interests. Abraham Lincoln said no amount of persuasion could get a man to sit in church with his wife’s hat on his head. People will not accept and act upon ideas which will make them appear foolish.
So logical material, containing plenty of good “horse sense,” should be used to convince people. The mind of a listener must be won before he will give much desired action.
In addition to illustrations, two other valuable types of supporting material can be tried when appealing persuasively to listeners’ minds. These two forms of evidence are quotations and facts.
A quotation is the exact words someone has written or said. In a speech, Conquer Your Fear, a student speaker quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”
On nearly every subject one or more important people have contributed opinions. Many of these opinions have been re¬corded in dictionaries of quotations. One dictionary, selected at random, contains two hundred seventy quotations about love. Shakespeare, Lamb, Milton, Irving, Victor Hugo, Longfellow, Walt Whitman, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and many others have left ideas about this subject.
Of course many subjects receive less attention-,.but some such as education and religion, get more. Quotations are frequently found in books or magazine articles on various subjects. One copy of a readers’ guide, which covered a period of six years, listed the titles of about twenty-five thousand articles on airplanes and closely related subjects, two hundred ninety-five on family life, two hundred twenty-four on accidents, seventy-six on love, sixty-three about attitudes, forty-five on faith, forty-two on mice, thirty-three on cheese, twenty-four on monkeys, and twenty-six on Marilyn Monroe.
The most effective quotations to use in a speech are those made by recognized authorities. For instance, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (and others) on philosophy. Einstein on science. Emily Post on etiquette, the Mayo brothers on surgery, Caruso on singing, Emerson and Shakespeare on almost anything.
These people, and many others, have earned reputations in their fields. They are well-known as experts. And their words are convincing. They help people believe. People are inclined to think, if such a wise man as Einstein, Emerson, or Plato said it, it must be true!
There are certain things to consider when looking to use quotation in public speaking – check out my next post to find out what they are. In the meantime if you are wanting to become a better presenter at work or public speaker check out our free 7 day e-course on speaking with confidence to any size audience by entering your email into the box to the right.

Here is a brief introduction into how to make your public speaking more persuasive.

Yesterday a new bride gave her husband a burnt offering — the first cake she had ever baked!
Baking a cake is a skill. So is making a speech. Of course the taste of a cake will be determined largely by the materials that are mixed into it. And the effectiveness of a speech will depend greatly upon the materials a speaker puts into it.
All material used in a persuasive speech should stimulate one or more of the following natural elements of persuasion:
1.    ATTENTION
2.    INTEREST
3.    CONVICTION
4.    DESIRE
5.    ACTION
At the beginning of a speech, a human interest story, thought-provoking question, startling statement, a bit of humor, suspense, a novel or unusual visual aid is used to get immediate attention.
Of course constant or continued attention is necessary before a state of interest can prevail. And interest is more surely stimulated as soon as an audience realizes the speech they are hearing has special value for them.
Naturally, no sensible audience wants to hear a speech which will be a waste of their time. So, soon after grasping an audience’s attention, a wise speaker frankly tells his listeners how the speech will help them or why they will be interested in it.
One speaker (whose theme was “develop more determination”) did this by beginning with a strong human interest story, then saying, “At some time or another everyone here tonight has said to himself, ‘I wish I’d had the courage to say no to that plan, or had the determination to stand up for what I knew was right.’ So tonight we’ll see how people much like ourselves developed more of this excellent personality trait called determination. Perhaps the principles they used will help us.”
This type of statement is also an interesting way to show the purpose of a talk. Some speakers, however, err by starting their talks with a dull outline of what they intend to accomplish with the speech. Such statements should always be brief and come af¬ter a human interest beginning. A speaker should make the purpose of his address clear, but very little time is required for that. His big job is to go ahead and do what he says he will.

How determined are you to become a more persuasive public speaker or more confident in your public speaking. If you want to build on your desire to be a better public speaking, enter your details into the box on the right and receive our free 7 day e-course becoming a more confident and effective public speaker.

Following on from previous here are some more examples of personality in public speaking and impact it can have on your ability to persuade.

Another character, Clyde S. impresses people with another personality weakness. He is not quite as crooked as an S. Per­haps he has never been in jail, but listeners feel he must have been on the border line a few times.

S for shady. That tags Clyde well. He has shifty eyes of a fishy color, a smooth tongue, an oily nature. He is deceptive, and when he speaks,  listeners feel he always has at least a little

hatchet to grind. Vaguely they wonder if their hats, and coats are
safe in the hall.                 ,                                                    ”

He lacks the honest-to-goodaess frankness and straight for­wardness of Uncle Hank or Cousin Sue. His manner, and charac­ter, causes listeners to feel they should not open their minds and hearts to him.

Harry M. is a dynamic speaker. But he thinks he has a strangle hold on all knowledge. He struts when he speaks, casts arched eyebrows at the common-herd.- “I love me, Oh, so very, very much!” is the impression he makes. His extreme egotism is not a persuasive force because it makes listeners think less of themselves. On the other hand, honest -humility in a speaker is persuasive because it helps listeners feel more adequate. Usually , a speaker can be more persuasive by playing himself down a bit rather than up.

Habitual negativism is not a persuasive element. For instance, Glen T. was as negative as a blue minus sign. Doom rose and set in his vocal tones. He painted the world black, and everyone in it cross-eyed. When he talked he was unable to be persuasive because only a few morbid people appreciate constant gloom.

Contrasting directly with Glen was Walter A., a happy-go-lucky, back-slapping, hand-pumping, sidewalk comedian.

Walt agreed with everything and everybody. He never had a serious thought. He would laugh at a funeral. A carefree, “I don’t give a hoot!” was his constant philosophy of life. He was al­ways too busy dealing out corny wit ever to present a serious idea. Nobody would have expected one from him anyway. Of course he could not persuade.

Surely no one should attempt to cast anybody into a per­sonality mold, while saying, “You should be this way, or like him, or like somebody else.” Imitations do not persuade. “Be yourself,” is excellent advice. But the self a person, develops is patterned largely by his attitudes and habits. When those atti­tudes and habits, embodied within a personality, incite favorable responses from listeners, persuasion is at work. When the response is negative there can be little or no persuasion. Able character will not always assure persuasive results, but it usually carries a speaker far in that direction.

If you want to know more about how to develop your personality for public speaking, check out our free e course by entering your details on the right.