Carnegie Language Breakthroughs and the Art of Communication

Chapter 30 The Challenge of Effective Speaking (2)
It's a quote from author Marjorie Wilson that literally expresses the feeling of the entire universe.We all expect to live in harmony with people throughout our lives, we all want to be praised, to get a recommendation, even a single word—let alone accepting an award in a formal setting—can magically lift our spirits.

Tennis star Altie Gibson has used this "longing of the human heart" very aptly in her autobiographical book.She calls it "I'm going to be important."

When we prepare the award speech, we want to reconfirm to the recipient that he is really an "important person".His efforts have worked, he deserves the credit, and we're here to give him that credit.Our speeches should be brief, but well thought out, and may mean little to those who receive them regularly, but to those who are less fortunate they may be memorable.

Therefore, when we introduce such honors, we should choose words carefully.Here is a set of enduring formulas:

a. State why the award was presented: Either for long years of loyal service, or for winning a competition, or for some significant achievement, just state that.

b. Tell the life words and deeds of the winners, which is what the audience is most interested in.

c. Tell how the laureate deserved it and how much affection was felt for him.

d. Congratulate the winner and convey everyone's best wishes for his future.

The most important thing in this little speech is to be sincere, and everybody knows it without saying it.So, if you are singled out to deliver the speech, you are effectively, like the recipient, receiving a prestigious honor, because your friends and colleagues know that you can take on a task that requires heart and mind. It is entrusted to you, which is the great confidence that everyone has placed in you, that you will not fall into the error of exaggeration that some orators make.

Remember: at such a time, the easiest mistake to make is to exaggerate someone's merits.If you really deserve an award, you should tell the truth, but it is not appropriate to add embellishment and praise.Blind praise will make the receiver sad, let alone convince the audience with a clear heart.

We should also avoid exaggerating the importance of the prize itself, not emphasizing its actual value, but emphasizing the friendliness of the giver.

6. Express sincere feelings in your response

The answer should be shorter than the award speech, and it should not be something we have memorized, but it is still beneficial to prepare mentally.If you had predicted in advance that you were going to receive an award, then after listening to the award speech, you should not be at a loss and unable to answer.

Just saying vague things like "thank you", "biggest day of my life", and "best thing that ever happened to me" isn't good enough.Here, like the award speech, it is unavoidable to be exaggerated. "Biggest day" and "best thing ever" are too broad to cover.It is better to express your sincere gratitude in a more moderate and gentle tone.Here are some suggestions for you:
a. Say “Thank you, everyone” to the audience sincerely.

b. Give credit to those who have assisted you, your colleagues, your employer, friends or family.

c. Describe what the award or certificate means to you.If it's wrapped, unwrap it and show it.Tell your audience how useful and beautiful the prize is and how you will use it.

d. A sincere expression of gratitude again, and then it is over.

In this section, we discuss three special types of speaking, any of which you may be asked to give at work, or when you join an organization or club.

I urge you to follow these suggestions carefully as you deliver these speeches, so that you will feel the comfort and comfort of saying the right thing at the right moment.

organize longer speeches
Just as no sane person starts building a house without a plan, so why should a person give a speech without having a clear idea of ​​what he wants to achieve?

Speaking is a purposeful journey, and you must chart your itinerary beforehand.If a person starts somewhere casually, he usually doesn't go far before stopping there.

I wish a quote from Napoleon could be painted in a foot-high fiery red lettering and hung over the doors of every classroom on earth where students are taught speech.This sentence is:

The art of war is a science, without planning and thinking, it is impossible to succeed!

What he said also applies to speeches.Do all speakers understand this—or, if they do, do they often act on it?not necessarily!Many speakers spend no more time planning and arranging than cooking a bowl of Irish stew.

Novices who are new to public speaking seldom plan in advance.Planning in advance takes time, requires serious thinking, and requires strong willpower.Thinking with your head is a painful process.Invention King Edison once copied a famous quote from Sir Reynolds and nailed it to the wall of his factory:
The only way to success is to think hard, there is no shortcut.

But the inexperienced novice often begs for a momentary inspiration, only to find himself often: "Going astray, the road is full of pitfalls and temptations."

The late Lord Northcliff, from a small clerk with a meager weekly salary, finally became the richest and most influential newspaper owner in the British Empire through hard work.He says that a quote from the French philosopher Pascal that has most contributed to his success is: "Plan ahead to get ahead."

It's also an excellent motto to keep on your desk when you're planning a presentation.Be sure to plan ahead for how to start your speech, because at this time the audience's mind is still blank and able to remember every word you said.Also pre-plan what impression you will make on the listener at the end, because after that there is nothing against him.

How to arrange a set of speeches with the best ideas and the most effective way?No one can tell without researching it.It is always a new question, one that every speaker should ask himself and answer over and over again.We cannot come up with a hard and fast rule on this.Still, we can point out that there are three stages that are important in giving a longer speech: attention-grabbing, body text, and conclusion.Each of these three stages has its time-honored method, which can be used as a reference and play.

1. Use the opener to spark the interest of the listener

I once asked Lin Harold Hu, the former president of Northwestern University, what was the single most important thing in his long speaking career?He pondered for a moment, then replied, "Come up with a catchy opening statement that grabs the audience's attention immediately." Both the opening and closing of his speech are planned carefully in advance.So did John Bright.Greystone did the same.So is Webster.Lincoln even more so.Almost every speaker with common sense and experience does this.

When President Wilson addressed the U.S. Congress on the momentous issue of delivering an ultimatum to Germany's submarine warfare, he laid out his subject in just two dozen words and immediately grabbed the audience's attention. On this subject: a situation of particular urgency has arisen in our diplomatic relations which makes it my duty to be frank with you.

In the second sentence of Schiz Webb's speech to the Philadelphia Association of New York, he hit immediately at the heart of his speech: The most important issue on the minds of Americans today is that the current recession has no meaning?What is the future?Personally, I'm an optimist...

The sales manager of National Cash Register Corporation gave a speech in the same way to his salespeople.His introduction is only three sentences, and it is easy to understand.All of them are full of energy and drive: the people who can win the orders are the ones who keep the smoke in our factory chimneys.In the past two months of this summer, our chimneys have not produced enough black smoke to blacken much of the sky.Now that the heat is over and the season of business recovery is upon us, we have one short, urgent request to you all: We need more smog.

How to make the audience "whole heart" to you from the beginning of the speaker's speech is an important factor for the success of all persuasive speeches.Here are some ways, if used well, you can make your opening statement very attractive.

A. Start the speech with events and examples
It is very difficult and quite laborious to make the general audience endure abstract statements for a long time.On the contrary, if you give an example, it is easier for the audience to listen to it, which is much easier than the former.That being the case, why not give an example at the beginning?Sadly, I have a hard time convincing speakers to do this, I know.And I have tried.They always feel that they have to make some general statement first.In fact, it doesn't have to be so.You can start with an example to interest the audience, and then expand on your commentary on it.

Lowell Thomas, a world-renowned news analyst, speaker and filmmaker, began his discussion of "Lawrence of Arabia" from the pulpit this way:

One day, I was walking on Christ Street in Jerusalem, and suddenly I met a man, who was dressed in a gorgeous robe of an oriental monarch, with a golden machete hanging by his side, this kind of knife was only for the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad Worn...

And that's how he set out—starting with his own experience as a story, and that's what grabs people's attention.This opening method is often very clever and guarantees that it will not fail you.And there is action in this approach, and it pushes you forward.The reason why we follow closely is that we have been integrated into a certain situation and have become a part of it.We are eager to know what will happen.

I don't know of any other way to develop a presentation that is as motivating as using a story.

There is a theme that I have spoken on many times, and when I give this talk I begin my talk like this:

I was walking down a street in Fernon, South Dakota one evening just after I graduated from college, when I saw a man standing on top of a box and speaking to a crowd.I was curious, so I joined the crowd watching. "You see," said the man, "that you've never seen a bald Indian? Or a bald woman, have you? Now I'll tell you why..."

You see no pauses, no words to "warm up" the situation.Therefore, you can easily grab the audience's attention by simply moving directly towards the event.

A speaker who begins with a story of his own experience is invincible because it requires no brain-searching or the use of ideas.What you describe is your own experience, a reconstruction of part of your life, and a part of your own meridians.As a result, your confident and relaxed demeanor will help you build a rapport with your audience.

B. Create suspense

Here is how Mr. Will Healy delivered his speech at an athletic club in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
Eighty-two years ago, around this season, a little book was published in London, and it told a story that was destined to go down in history.Many have called it "the greatest little book ever written".When it was such a sensation when it first came out, friends meeting in Street Street or Bowmore Street would invariably ask each other, "Have you read it?" The answer was surprisingly unanimous: "Yes." , God bless it, I read it."

It sold 1 copies on its first day on the market.Demand reached 000 copies within two weeks.Since then, it has been reprinted countless times and translated into languages ​​all over the world.A few years ago, IP Morgan acquired the original manuscript of the book at a very high price.It is now resting in his majestic art gallery with many priceless treasures.What is this world-famous book?

After hearing this, are you still not interested?Aren't you eager to know more?Did the speaker powerfully grab the audience's attention?Do you feel like this opening sentence has captured your attention and heightened your interest as the episode progressed?Why?Because it piques your curiosity, it holds you with an air of suspense.

curious!Who can avoid it?

Even though you weren't there in person, you might be wondering as you read this.Who is the author, you ask?What book is mentioned above?To satisfy your curiosity, let me tell you the answer: The author of this book is Charles Dickens, and the title of the book is A Christmas Carol.

I once found birds flying around me for nearly an hour in the woods, watching me constantly out of sheer curiosity.I know a hunter who once surrounded himself in a sheet high in the Alps and crawled on the ground.In this way he arouses the curiosity of the antelopes and thus draws them to him.Puppies are curious, as are kittens, and so are all animals, including the famous primate.

Therefore, your first sentence must arouse the curiosity of the audience, and then they will be interested and pay attention to you.

It is in this manner that I myself begin my account of the adventures of Colonel Lawrence in Arabia:

"In the spring of 1871, a young man destined to become a world-famous physician, William Osler, picked up a book. He read 21 words in it, and the results had a profound impact on his future."

What are these 21 characters?How do these words affect his future?These are the questions the audience wants answered.

C. State a startling fact
Cliff R. Adams was the Director of Marriage Counseling at Penn State University.He published an article in Reader's Digest entitled "How to Pick a Spouse."In this essay, he unfurls the narrative with some startling facts that will take the reader's breath away and which of course grab your attention right away:
今天我们的青年从婚姻当中获得快乐的机会真是微乎其微。我们离婚率的高涨令人触目惊心。1940年时，5~6桩婚姻中有一桩会触礁，到了1946年，我们预计将上升至4∶1。如果这种状况继续下去，到20世纪50年代就将是2∶1了。

"A good journal article is a series of shocks," said Mike Lue, founder of a major journal.

These articles jolted us out of our daydreams.They call to our attention and hold our attention.Here are some examples.

In one, Blandin of Baltimore gave a talk titled "The Wonders of Radio."He began by saying, "Did you know that the tiniest sound of a fly walking on a glass window in New York can be transmitted by radio to Central Africa and amplified to make it sound like Niagara Falls?"

Mr. Harry Jones, president of Harry Jones & Co. of New York, opened his speech on "The Situation of Crime" with the following words: Taft, the former chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, once declared: "Our administration of criminal law is a A disgrace to civilization."

There are two brilliant things about what he said: not only was it a startling opening statement, but it was a startling statement quoted from a judicial authority.

Paul Gibbons, ex-president of the Optimist Club of Philadelphia, made the following jaw-dropping statement when addressing the subject of "sin":

Americans are the worst criminal nation in human civilization.As shocking as this statement is, it is equally shocking that it is true.Cleveland, Ohio, has six times as many murders as London.In proportion to its population, it has 6 times as many robbers as London.More people are attacked each year by gangsters who rob, or attempt to rob, in Cleveland than are robbed in England, Scotland and Wales combined.More people are murdered in St. Louis each year than in England and Wales.New York City has more murders than the whole of France, and more than Germany, Italy or the United Kingdom.Here's the sad truth: Criminals go unpunished.If you murder someone, the chances of you being executed for it are less than 170%.All of you in this room are good citizens who seek peace, yet you are 1 times more likely to die of cancer than you are to be hanged for shooting a person.

This opening speech is successful, because Gibbons's words reveal incomparable power and enthusiasm.His speech was full of vigor and vitality.However, I have heard other students start their presentations on crime with similar examples, and their opening remarks come off as flat.Why?Empty words are just empty words.Their structural skills are impeccable, but their spirit is equal to zero.Their attitude undermines and weakens everything they say.

Here are a few more examples, also beginning with "Amazing Events":

Example: The War Department predicted that 2 million Americans would be killed on the first night of the atomic war.

(End of this chapter)