Art Of Great Speaking

You’ve filled your speech with facts, illustrations and anecdotes etc, but there is still one more thing to do to convince your audience to act.

After a speaker has given an audience enough illustrations, quotations, and facts to convince a moron or a Philadelphia lawyer that his ideas are reasonable and sensible, that they should be accepted, to persuade he must make his listeners want to act upon his ideas. He should stimulate desire for the plan he has offered.
Hearts as well as minds must be won. But the method is somewhat different.
Perhaps the best way to stimulate desire is to picture the joy, comfort, security, satisfaction, or any other great benefit which will come as a result of doing the very things a speaker proposes. Desire is usually stimulated when a speaker looks in¬to the near future and paints vivid pictures of satisfaction. These pictures must, of course, be believeable but they should be painted brightly and with much positive spirit. They are most effective when listeners can actually feel in spirit, along with the speaker, the events happening.
Here, for example, is some “desire” from a speech called
Try Enthusiasm. It was prepared for an audience of young am¬bitious businessmen:
When you were unenthusiastic you’d creep out of bed hi the morning with a face like a dark cloud, frown your way to the window, peek around the shade and groan, “Good Lordl — morning.”
But you have become enthusiastic! You jump out of bed as if it were on fire, hustle to the window, throw up the shade, grin from ear to ear, pound your chest like Tarzan and shout, “Good morning, Lord!”
You whistle your way into the bathroom, sing in the tub, and grin at the big lug in the mirror.
You smell the bacon sizzling and the coffee perking. Mmmm, good! You know your sweet little wife is on the job.
Your voice is loaded with good cheer when you call, “Good morning, Dear! How are you?”
She may be too shocked to answer. But you don’t mind. You hum as you reach for the after shaving lotion.
This is not like the old you. Your wife, wide-eyed, peeks in the door and looks suspiciously. But she sees only a bottle of shaving lotion.
Your smile is about a foot wide and your voice is like bells as you say, “Are you looking forward to a good day, Honey? Gee, it’s great to be alive, isn’t it?”
The steaming coffee and prize bacon is waiting.
“Darling, this bacon is just right!” you exclaim. “I told the boys at the office yesterday what a wonderful cook you are. Here, have some toast!”
Yes, you are Mr. Enthusiasm, himself.
It’s time for you to go to work, so you kiss the little woman good-by. You see a new light in her eyes. Her arms cling tighter. And her kiss now, instead of being a dutiful wifely peck, is a lover’s good-by. Mmmmmm!
You walk as if you own the town, and you grab more than your share of God’s good air.
At the elevator you call to the boy, “Hi, Charley!” And you beam, while you work.
You know people are saying, “What’s come over the guy?”
But you don’t mind, because you know. You’ve simply be¬come enthusiastic about living and you don’t care who knows it.
A few weeks pass. And the Big Boss calls you into his office. He’s almost smiling.
“A raise? For me? Oh, boy!”
You hustle home and whisper the good news into your little wife’s pretty ear.
“Oh, Mr. Wonderful!” she cries. And we’ll have to censor that kiss.
That evening you take the family out again for dinner.
A few days later you drive home in a big new car. You toot the horn and the family rushes out.
“Why, what’s this?” falters your wife.
“Our new car!”    ’
“But Dear, do you think we can afford it?”
“Afford it, Honey?. This is just a beginning!”
You  are sure because you feel and know the power of real ‘ enthusiasm. Yes, Mr. Wonderful, you know because your nature is charged with the dynamite of enthusiasm.
This approach, for a casual reader or for someone who had not heard the preceding material of that speech, may seem to be too extreme but it was well-suited and effective for the young businessmen.

Let me know what you think about this? Do you think hearts do indeed need to be won?

As in conversation, there are different styles of public speaking. It is getting the balance right that is most important between them.
A conversation may be stiff and formal. Or it may be relaxed and informal. This latter condition is more effective in a public speaking situation.
A speaker who holds himself aloof, or “buttons himself up” from an audience does not communicate freely with his listeners. They feel he is holding back, not sharing his complete self. An atmosphere of restraint and reserve builds at least a partial barrier between audience and speaker. Persuasion is delayed, often it is impossible, when a speaker puts up such a barrier.
The very nature of effective persuasion necessitates a close, friendly feeling between listener and speaker. How can a listener get close to a speaker who isolates himself with extreme formality or indifference?
A style of speaking may reveal a precise manner which causes listeners to feel the speaker really despises the “common herd,” and that speaking to them is a trial for him. Any tendency to talk down to an audience or evidence that a speaker feels he is superior to other people detracts from his persuasiveness. An extremely particular person who must be sure that every hair on his head is just so-so before he speaks may cause listeners to wish
they could mess up his hair.
On the other hand, an extremely careless or sloppy person will probably not create a persuasive influence. Informality need never go to seed. But a speaker who leans in that direction probably will be more interesting, popular, and persuasive, than one whose manner dares listeners to come near him.

As with much to do with public speaking the above is only general guidance because it depends on the audience. You also need to consider what will work best in the situation and with your audience to help determine the most effective public speaking style.

What is the best way to make a good impression in public speaking? Is it how you dress or how you act?

Listeners start forming opinions, at least, subconsciously, the very second they see a speaker. When he comes out briskly and starts his speech immediately curiosity (about him) alone will grab an audience’s attention. Then he is a fresh exhibit. But when a speaker sits on a platform in view of an audience for a period of time before he speaks the novelty is gone. And he may have to undo many erroneous ideas listeners have already formed about him.
When a speaker walks out in a lively manner and evidently happy because he is going to speak, the impression he makes is usually favorable. Obviously people expect him to be well-dressed, suitable for the occasion. Neither ornate nor seedy appearance is appreciated. Above all, a speaker should avoid anything about his or her dress that would attract undue attention to itself. Otherwise the effect will be distracting.
A woman, for instance, in a public speaking course for business and professional people, delivered a speech while wearing a huge, jet-black floppy-brimmed straw hat. She was slender which emphasized the size of the hat all the more. As if the hat were not ornate enough, she wore, attached to it, a red rose about the size of a boxer’s fist. Her habit of nodding her head as she spoke kept the hat brims flopping and the rose taking bows. Could anyone be expected to remember what she said?
Speakers who are not sure they know harmonious color combinations for clothing should check with somebody who does know. Obviously clothing should fit well and be of good, although not necessarily the most expensive, quality.
Proper clothing will make favorable impressions. Clothes along with the face and figure constitute the appearance. And a speaker’s appearance is important. But not nearly so important as a college senior rated it recently in a speech comprehensive examination. He rated it as a speaker’s most persuasive quality.
Nonsense! A speaker’s attitude, his love for people, his animated, enthusiastic spirit are far more persuasive than his personal appearance. Consider, for instance, a few highly persuasive speakers such as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi, or Jesus. Was their persuasiveness a result of band-box grooming or elaborate clothing?

In my next post I’ll discuss some distractions that can get in the way of persuasive public speaking and what to do about them.

What does it take to be able to be persuasive in public speaking. Do you need to be swallowed by a whale or struck by lightning to be interesting?

Perhaps only two people in the world —Jonah and James Bartly — should have chosen to talk about “Being swallowed by a whale,” because only they have had that experience. The story of Jonah is well-known. And authentic government records in great Britain reveal that James Bartly was swallowed by a whale after the big fish upset his boat, east of the Falkland Islands, in the South Atlantic, in February, 1891. After living in the whale’s stomach about fifteen hours he was rescued by fellow workers.
He lived for fifteen years to tell about the event.
Fortunately a person does not have to be struck by lightning or be swallowed by a whale in order to have a suitable theme for a speech. By taking inventory of his experiences almost any-one can find at least a few subjects upon which he has earned the right to speak. Hobbies, special interests, likes, dislikes, pet peeves, ambitions, fascinating places, or admirable people often suggest suitable topics.
Although a speaker need not know everything about his subject he should know as much as possible. At least he should know more than the average person in his audience will know about it. Knowing his subject well, let him then give his entire self to expressing it with conviction and feeling.
William Jennings Bryan frequently told his daughter to think what she was going to say, then to “say it with feeling!” Quintilian, a master teacher of speaking said, “It is the heart and energy of soul which makes speakers eloquent.” Effective speaking is not a namby-pamby, mumble-jumble, lukewarm affair. It is a sincere sharing of a portion of life with other thinking and feeling people.
To have this earnest attitude toward sharing ideas a speaker must truly feel that everything he says is really worth sharing. “Impress yourself with the truth and importance of what you expect to say,” said William Norwood Brigance, a modern authority on public speaking.
Realizing that when people listen to a speech they are contributing a portion of their lives should motivate a speaker to say something really worthwhile.
One student speaker said, “When I step onto a platform to make a speech I imagine I am a fighter in the ring and that I must make every second count.” Another serious student said, “I speak as though I had only one minute to live.”
When a speaker sincerely feels he has serious, but pleasant and congenial business with an audience, his manner commands respect and attention from that audience. As he continues eager-ly sharing his entire self, this respect and attention becomes deeper. Audiences are strongly inclined to think and feel with him. Persuasion is at work.

Would thinking about public speaking in this way help you to be more persuasive?

What do liquor, the electric chair and being struck by lightning have to do with persuasive speaking in public? It might not be what you think.

Why could Carrie Nation speak so effectively against liquor? Ait Harvard University students sang in a teasing manner, “We’re glad you’re here, Carrie!” They intended to heckle her to such. an extent she could not speak. But she was so enthusiastic about her subject and so eager to share her ideas the students listened attentively regardless of their intentions.

Why could this woman speak so fervently against alcoholic beverages? Because the only man she ever really loved had be­came a hopeless alcoholic. That is why she set herself up as the hatchet-woman against the liquor traffic. She could put heart in her speaking because her heart had been fired with a desire to destroy that force which had robbed her of fondest desire.

Naturally, if a person expects to put life in a talk he will had to have experienced life. A pitiful type of talk to hear, for instance, is one made by a bachelor about how to rear a family. Can one made by a student about “How to be happy after retiring at sixty-five.”

When a speaker, through personal experience, has “earned the right” to make a speech, he can speak with a depth of sincerity and reality which is far more effective than all the clever phrases a brilliant mind can construct.

A student who had been struck by lightning and lived to tell about it spoke on his experience. He had the tattered clothing that he had worn and the old shoes whose soles had been loosened “by the lightning. Do you think his speech was impressive? Why?

Another young man talked about how it feels to sit in an electric chair. He had had this experience when he visited a state prison. Of course his talk was interesting and convincing.

In my next post but one about whether you need to be swallowed by a whale to be interesting while speaking in public. Let me know what you think.