Public Speaking for Success

• After independent thinking, collect information on your topic from encyclopedias, magazines, books, and the Internet.
• Collect far more material than you intend to use.
• The way to develop reserve power is to know far more than you can use to have a full reservoir of information.

• Plan your talk carefully. Think about what you want to say and how you want to say it. Organize your thoughts and create an outline.
• Cover each point thoroughly. Don't just skim over the surface of your topic. Make sure to provide enough information so that your audience can understand and appreciate your message.
• Use a logical structure. Your talk should flow smoothly from one point to the next. Use transitions to help your audience follow your train of thought.

• Gather all the facts. Make sure you have all the information you need to support your claims. Be prepared to answer any questions your audience may have.
• Practice your talk. The more you practice, the more confident you will feel when you give your talk. Practice in front of a mirror or with a friend or family member.
• Do not read your talk. Reading your talk will make you sound boring and uninterested. Instead, speak from the heart and use your own words to communicate your message.

• Be confident and enthusiastic. Your audience will be likelier to listen to you if you believe in your words. Speak with conviction and passion.
• Russell H. Conwell built many of his talks on this plan: 

a. State your facts.

b. Argue from them. 

c. Appeal for action. 

• Another helpful plan: 

a. Show something wrong. 

b. Show how to remedy it. 

c. Appeal for action.

• Here is an excellent speech plan: 

a. Secure interested attention. 

b. Win confidence. 

c. State your facts. 

d. Appeal to the motives that make men act.

• The three natural laws of remembering are impression, repetition, and association.
• To get a deep, vivid impression of something, you must concentrate, observe closely, and get your impressions through as many senses as possible.
• The second law of memory is repetition. You should repeat things at intervals and go over your notes just a few minutes before you need to use them.
• Do not sit down and repeat a thing over and over until you have it engraved on your memory. 
• Go over it once or twice, then drop it; come back later and go over it again.

• Repeating at intervals, in that manner, will enable you to memorize a thing in about one-half the time required to do it in one sitting. 
• After we memorize a thing, we forget as much during the first eight hours as we do during the next thirty days, so go over your notes just a few minutes before you rise to make your talk.
• The third law of memory is association. You can associate things by thinking about them from all angles, asking questions, and connecting them to other things you know.

• To remember a stranger's name, ask questions about it, observe their looks, and try to connect the name with their face and occupation.
• To remember dates, associate them with prominent dates you already know.
• To remember the points of your address, arrange them in a logical order and make a nonsense sentence out of them.
• If you forget what you're saying, you can use the last words of your last sentence as the first words of a new one.

• Enthusiasm is key to good public speaking. If you are not excited about your topic, your audience will not be either. So, ensure you are passionate about your words and that your enthusiasm comes through in your delivery.
• Be convinced of your message. If you don't believe in what you are saying, your audience will be able to tell. So, make sure you are confident in your message and that you can back it up with evidence.
• Think about your facts and how they relate to your audience. What are the most important points you want to make?

• Speak with conviction and passion. Your audience should be able to tell that you believe in what you are saying. Speak with conviction and passion; they will be more likely to believe you.
• Be heard. Speak loudly and clearly, and project your voice so everyone can hear you.
• Don't use weasel words. Weasel words are words that are vague or ambiguous, and they can make your message less persuasive. Avoid using weasel words like "maybe," "probably," and "could."
• Love your audience. Remember that your audience is made up of real people with real needs. Speak to them as if you care about them.

• We learn through sudden improvements, not gradual. We plateau sometimes but can break through with more practice.
• Initial nervousness is normal, even for great speakers. It fades after a few seconds of speaking. 
• If we stay faithfully busy improving, we will become competent through persistence, even without extraordinary ability. 
• Think of success to do what's needed to achieve it in public speaking.
• If discouraged, look at Lincoln's photo and think what he would do.
• 4 qualities for Navy chaplain success starting with G: Grace, gumption, Grit, and Guts.

• Delivery is as important as the words alone. The flavor of how you say it counts. 
• Engage your listeners; don't ignore them by staring over their heads or at the floor. Communicate and connect through eye contact. 
• Use the same natural conversational tone and directness as normal conversation, enlarged to the group. Relate to them as individuals rather than just a group. 
• Anyone can deliver a talk with practice. Be yourself and put your style and individuality into it rather than imitating others. 

• Address listeners as if expecting them to respond, keeping delivery more engaging by imagining questions being asked. 
• Put emotion and sincerity into your talking to help more than follow the rules.
• Unconscious things we do in conversation but often forget in public speaking:

1.    Stress important words more than unimportant ones. 
2.    Vary pitch rising and falling rather than monotone.
3.    Vary speech rate, slowing on important points.
4.    Pause before and after important ideas.

Imagine that someone has asked you a question and that you are repeating it. Say aloud, “You ask, how do I know this? I’ll tell you.” …That sort of thing will seem perfectly natural; it will break up the formality of your phraseology and warm and humanize your manner of talking.

• The opening is highly important, so it should be carefully planned in advance
• Keep the introduction very short, ideally just 1-2 sentences
• Novices often make the mistake of either telling a story or apologizing, avoiding both
• Ways to immediately gain attention:

1.    Arouse curiosity with a story
2.    Relate a human interest story  
3.    Begin with a specific illustration
4.    Use an exhibit or prop
5.    Ask a question
6.    Open with a striking quotation
7.    Explain how the topic affects the audience

• Don't make the opening too formal; it seems casual and inevitable  

• Begin on common ground that everyone can agree on to start positively  
• Don't frame your opening in a way that causes people to say "no” immediately
• Avoid saying you will "prove" something, as that can arouse opposition 
• Raise a question for the audience to consider rather than stating your position
• Use facts and examples strategically, as in Mark Antony's speech, without directly arguing. 
• Allow the audience to form their own conclusions based on the information presented

• The close is the most memorable part, so plan it carefully and rehearse 
• Round off your talk smoothly rather than leaving it rough
• Effective ways to close include:

1.    Summarizing main points 
2.    Appealing for action
3.    Paying a sincere compliment
4.    Quoting relevant poetry
5.    Building to a climax

• Get a strong beginning and ending close together in time  
• Always stop before the audience wants you to

• When taking questions:

1. Repeat questions for all to hear 
2. Keep responses clear and concise and follow up on talk points
3. Avoid arguments and respect differing views
4. Don't let one questioner dominate; invite others
5. If heckled, smile and stay silent before inviting the next question  
6. Conclude when the time called rather than taking extra questions

• In summary, plan an impactful close and smoothly wrap up the talk positively. When taking questions, keep responses respectful and invite broad participation.

• Use simple language and avoid technical terms.
• Be sure of your topic and have a clear understanding of it.
• Use exhibits, pictures, and illustrations to appeal to the sense of sight.
• Christ declared that He had to teach by parables, “Because they (His listeners) seeing, see not and hearing, hear not; neither do they understand.”
• Christ made the unknown clear by discussing it in terms of the known. He likened the Kingdom of Heaven to leaven, nets cast into the sea, and merchants buying pearls. “Go thou, and do likewise.”

• If you wish to give a clear conception of the size of Alaska, do not quote its area in square miles; name the states that could be put into it; enumerate its population in terms of the town where you are speaking. 
• Avoid technical terms when addressing a lay audience. Follow Lincoln’s plan of putting your ideas into plain language for any boy to comprehend. 
• Be definite. Don’t just say “dog” if you mean “a fox terrier with a black splotch over his right eye.

• Restate your big ideas, but refrain from repeating yourself.
• Clear your abstract statements by following them with general illustrations or specific instances.
• Do not strive to cover too many points in a short speech.
• Close with a summary of your points.

• Every idea is held as true unless hindered by a contradictory idea.
• First, set forth our ideas; second, prevent opposing ideas from arising to render them null and void.
• To be impressive and convincing, you must:

1. Convince yourself before you attempt to convince others.
2. Show how your idea is similar to something people already believe.
3. Restate your ideas and illustrate them with figures.
4. Use general illustrations and specific instances.
5. Use the principle of cumulation.

• Experience upon experience must be piled up until the very weight embeds the thought deep in the brain's tissues.
• Use graphic comparisons. Visual impressions stick longer.
• Back up your statements with unprejudiced authority.

• People are interested in extraordinary facts about ordinary things.
• People are interested in themselves.
• To be a good conversationalist, lead others to talk about themselves and their interests.
• Use human interest stories to illustrate your points. Glorified gossip and people's stories will almost always win and hold attention. 
• Be concrete and definite. Do not belong to the “poor-but-honest” school of speakers. Do not merely say that Martin Luther was “stubborn and intractable” as a boy. 

• Announce that fact. Then, follow it with the assertion that his teachers flogged him as often as “fifteen times in a forenoon.” That makes the general assertion clear, impressive, and interesting.
• Use phrases that create pictures and words that set images floating before the eyes.
• Use balanced sentences and contrasting ideas.
• Interest is contagious.

• Win their confidence by deserving it – by your sincerity, being properly introduced, being qualified to speak on your subject, and telling the things your experience has taught you.
• To persuade an audience, you should:

1. Capture their attention.
2. Earn their trust.
3. Present your facts and arguments.
4. Appeal to their emotions.

This method can be used in public speaking, writing, and personal relationships.

• We are judged by what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it. Our language use is often the main way we are judged. Accurate and refined use of our native tongue is essential for ladies and gentlemen.
• Your language will reflect the company you keep. Follow Lincoln's example and keep company with great authors like Shakespeare through their works. This will enrich your mind and language unconsciously. 
• Give up newspapers for books by authors like Tacitus, Thucydides, Newton, and Euclid, as Jefferson wrote. 

• Read with a dictionary to look up unfamiliar words and try to use them to fix them in memory. 
• Study the origins of words, which are often interesting histories rather than dull facts. 
• Avoid cliches and worn-out phrases, instead using precise language. Refer to a thesaurus often to improve word choice.
• Strive for fresh comparisons rather than tired ones. Have the courage to be distinctive rather than relying on trite phrases.
• Articulate clearly without mumbling, speaking too fast or slow, mispronouncing, or speaking in a monotone.