ART OF SPEAKING

number of items that people can easily remember. Too many sub-heads can actually damage the unity of your speech. More than five sub-ideas spell "danger" to the speaker.

The order in which speech materials are presented can either strengthen or weaken the effect of the speech. The speaker may find that his speech fits properly into one of the thought patterns.

If not, then, he should arrange his data in relation to the strength of each point. A speech may be organized around either three or five points.

The more nearly your ideas approximate one of the following arrangements, the more effective your speech will be.

The Form of the Outline

The speaker should begin the outline of the speech by stating the intended audience response in as concrete terms as is possible. This assures the speaker that his thinking about his purpose for speaking is clear.

He should then record the central idea. This is the next step because the selection of the central idea will determine the framework of the speech.

After selecting the central idea, the speaker should check to see if it actually will (when developed) bring about the desired response.

Division of the central idea into sub-ideas should be the next step.

Before completing the outline, it is necessary, of course, to explore each sub-idea, read about it, talk about it, and record whatever support can be found for it.

At this point it may be necessary to review the central idea and sub-ideas to see if your reading and other research will enable you to improve upon your previous choice of headings.

The next problem is to select from the recorded materials, the best supports available for each particular idea; decide how much is needed and arrange them in the most effective way.

If some headings require more specific data for support than has been found, additional research should be done.

Now that we have the ideas set down, we need to ask one more question: "Which of these ideas will the audience accept on my own authority, and which of these ideas will require additional support?"

In general, the more radical the statement, the more likely it is that you will need to refer to a source of reference to persuade the audience to your way of thinking.

Preparation of the Introduction and the Conclusion

After the body of the speech is complete, and only then, is it possible to determine an appropriate introduction and conclusion.

Planning the Introduction

The purpose of the introduction is to prepare the audience to hear your speech.

In order to do this, it must get the attention of the audience, make the audience like or respect you (or both), and create an interest in the ideas you are going to present.

Speak Audibly. This needs little comment since a speech unheard is practically the same as a speech unmade. The members of the audience need to listen from the beginning in order to understand the speech fully.

What can be said to gain attention will, of course, depend upon the speaker, the audience, and the situation. Some approaches that have been successful in the past are:

 A startling statement: "More people have been killed on our highways than have died on all the battlefields in the history of the world!"

 A seemingly unbelievable but true statement: "There are many Americans who actually enjoy paying their income taxes."

 A question or a series of questions: "Have you ever stopped to think what it would be like to live in Red China? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a Chinese Communist?"

 A familiar quotation: "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been!'"

 The business-like approach: "Today we are going to discuss three factors. First, we shall consider . . . etc."

An example: You may use a serious story, an anecdote, a joke, or a parable. Remember that one illustration is worth a thousand words of explanation.

All the world likes a good story.

Notice how speakers you hear get the attention of their audience. Remember, the first sentence you say will be listened to by all. You may never again have so high a percentage of listeners.

Don't miss your best opportunity by wasting it on formalities or trivialities.

The routine recognition of important guests can be left to a less important part of the speech. "Ladies and gentlemen" is the safest type of salutation and is usually used in most speech situations.

Now that you have the attention of the audience, you need to concentrate on making the audience like or respect you enough to listen.

With a hostile audience, it may be necessary to prolong the introduction, but for most audiences, it is sufficient that you be well-prepared to speak to them, that you be interested in them, and that you get the job done as quickly and as well as possible.

Avoid long-winded introductions. Get to the point. Avoid apologies at all costs. The speaker who says, "I'm not very qualified to talk to you on this subject, but . . ." ought not to be speaking to begin with.

Your introduction should arouse the interest of your audience in the theme of your speech.

Therefore, your startling statement, challenging statement, series of questions, familiar quotation, business-like approach, or illustration should point up the theme of your speech.

Do not warm up the audience with a few unrelated jokes and then say, in effect, "Well, we had better get back to the speech." You can tell jokes but choose ones which illustrate your point.

If you think you will be nervous during the first few minutes of your speech, begin with an introduction that will require movement.

Put a chart on one side of the platform so that you can walk over and point to it, set up a demonstration and practice opening with it, or plan to have a few pieces of note paper in your hands at the beginning.

A physical movement will assist in calming you. Plan enough movement in your introduction to put yourself at ease.

It can be seen from the above discussion that an introduction for a particular speech must be worked out in terms of the nature of the speech, the speaker, the audience, and the speech situation.

We have offered some general suggestions that you might try out in your speeches, but we must repeat these cautions:

 First, introductions should be as brief as possible.

 Second, materials in introductions should be included only if they contribute to one of the three purposes of the introduction.

 Third, the more original and the more timely it is, the more effective the introduction will be.

 Fourth, all introductions should be planned, yet flexible enough to incorporate events that happen as late as your own introduction.

Planning the Conclusion

The purpose of the conclusion is to draw the whole speech together in a few words. In order to do this, it must give the audience a sense of finality or completeness, summarize the content of the body of the speech, and/or arouse the audience to action.

Although a conclusion may achieve all three of these purposes, any one of them may be sufficient to meet the needs of an individual speech.

In order to give the audience a sense of finality or completeness, the conclusion should be adequately designed to balance Preparation of the Introduction and the Conclusion.

After the body of the speech is complete, and only then, is it possible to determine an appropriate introduction and conclusion.

It should be neither too long, nor too short. Avoid the anti-climax. There is nothing worse for an audience than to think that a speaker is concluding, only to find that he has gained steam and is moving on to something new.

A preview of your speech in your introduction will help to avoid these anti-climaxes. Here are some suggestions for giving your conclusion a sense of completeness:

 A significant quotation: Save a particularly effective sentence from one of your best sources and use it as the basis of your conclusion.

You might say...

"My remarks encouraging this class to adopt a child overseas, under the Save the Children Federation, may be most effectively concluded by quoting Constance Capron from her Reader's Digest article, when she said:

'I was ashamed that my own troubles, now petty by comparison, had blinded me to the realities of life.' Are we in this same fix?"

 A startling statistic: "Only 5,500 children are now being sponsored through the Save the Children Federation. Only 5,500.

Think of the thousands more who need help. Are there not more than 5,500 families in the United States who can afford to share a small amount of their income with a destitute child overseas?"

 A fitting example: "Let me tell you one story before I end my speech. This is the story of Stella Saradari of Serres, Greece.

Her father died fighting the Communists in the mountains of Greece; her mother is a scrub woman. Stella, her brother Constantine, and her mother live

in one room. Their house fell down after a particularly hard winter, and had to be rebuilt by neighbors ..."

The conclusion to every speech ought to summarize its content.

If you tell an audience in your introduction what to expect in the speech, by saying, "I am going to discuss three things with you;" if you point out to the audience in the body of the speech when you are discussing each of these by saying, "Now first, we will discuss . . . ".

And if, in your conclusion, you say, "Now, I have told you three things about . . .," your audience cannot help but get a clear picture of your message.

If this sounds too elementary to you, remember that you are already highly familiar with the content of your speech and have gone over the material several times.

Your audience, on the contrary, has not had this opportunity. If you give an audience three reviews of your main structure (once in the introduction, once in the body, and once in the conclusion), you need have no fears of being misunderstood.

The suggested conclusions will, to a very great extent, summarize your content. But, your central idea will be even clearer if you also review for your audience the main parts of your speech. If you are not organized, you cannot make such a summary.

Friday, August 5, 2022

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