Monthly Archives: October 2012

The Mechanics of Reading Your Speech

Posted on by

Certain situations require a manuscript speech, such as a eulogy or a CEO’s policy statement. In the last newsletter, I gave strategies for writing a manuscript speech. Now to the mechanics of reading your speech that you have carefully composed.

How do you keep from appearing to read your speech when you really are reading your speech? Here are tips to sound as though you are speaking from notes and not a manuscript.

  • Double space and use bold print.
  • Don’t use the last third of the page. This keeps you from looking down at the very bottom of the page and showing the audience the top of your head. This technique also helps you maintain eye contact with your audience.
  • Draw visual symbols in the margins as reminders. For example, sketch an arm to help you use gestures and a pair of eyes to remind you to look up at your audience as you speak.
  • Put the page in a plastic cover or attach to a manila folder to keep the page from folding over or flopping around. This allows you to move around the lectern as you hold the pages.
  • Practice until you become familiar with where words or sentences are on the page. This familiarity will encourage you to look up as you near the end of a page since you know where the end of the script is on that page and where it begins on the next page.
  • Finish the page at the end of a sentence or the end of a paragraph and not in the middle of a sentence where the pause as you turn the page could be misplaced.

Because the speech is written out word for word, some speakers don’t practice since everything that is said is in the manuscript. Once a disgruntled speechwriter knew his speaker never practiced in advance of the presentation and he was preparing the complete script. So at the end of the first page he had written, “Now the next 3 points are the most significant of this entire project.” The speaker turns the page and it is blank except for this sentence in big bold letters, “You are your own. I quit!”

You will avoid this problem if you read your speech aloud before you present it, and your audience will appreciate your preparation.

Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor Emeritus of Speech Communication, College of Informatics, Northern Kentucky University, near Cincinnati. He presents keynotes and seminars to corporations and associations whose people want to speak and listen effectively. See additional articles and resources at www.sboyd.com. To book Steve, call 800-727-6520 or email him through his website.

Interviewed in Front of an Audience

Posted on by

A friend was scheduled to be interviewed in front of an audience of 600. She asked for tips on how best to manage that speaking situation. It is one thing to be interviewed behind closed doors for a job or to review work performance, but having a large live audience is another dynamic. Here are tips I suggested to her.

Only answer the question. Don’t wander into other topics.

Keep your answers concise—not too short or too long. (Under 30 seconds unless you have a story to tell within your answer.)

Don’t qualify your answers with “I think” or “I’m not sure, but…” If you’re saying it, they know you are thinking it. You don’t have to say the obvious.

If possible, obtain a copy of the questions in advance and practice with a friend. Don’t practice more than once or twice because you don’t want your answers to sound rehearsed. In The Camera Never Blinks, Dan Rather writes about President John Kennedy and his skill at press conferences. He said Kennedy’s success was largely due to his habit of meeting with his key advisors on the day of the conference prior to the event. They peppered him with questions they thought he would be asked; he practiced answering so that he could give effective answers to the press with the television cameras rolling.

Unless it is information directed to the audience, look at the person interviewing you. You are having a conversation, not giving a speech. (That’s good news, right?)

Show nonverbally that you are connected with the questioner. Look engaged by smiling, nodding, making eye contact with the speaker, and leaning forward at times. Have a well-modulated voice and overall pleasant demeanor. Look like you are enjoying yourself, even if you are not.

An outstanding interviewer was Art Linkletter. His television show, House Party, was on the air for 25 years and was highlighted by his interviews with children. He once said about interviews: “The two best interview subjects are children under 10 and people over 70 for the same reason. They say the first thing that comes to their minds. The children don’t know what they’re saying and the old folks don’t care.”

His tongue-in-cheek comment will help us remember that we do want to practice, and we do care about what we say in order to have a successful interview. We don’t want to be perceived as being in either of the Linkletter categories!

Five Tips for Great Beginnings and Endings

Posted on by

If you have a great beginning and powerful ending, you can hide some of the mistakes you make during the bulk of your presentation. Here are five suggestions for always getting off to a great start and concluding on an emotional and mental high.

First, make the opening sentence count. Out of curiosity, if nothing else, your audience will want to check out your appearance and how you deliver the speech. Don’t waste your opening on the weather or what a privilege it is to be there. Begin with a sentence that grabs the attention of the audience.

You can use a quotation that relates to your topic. Sometimes I begin my “Be Present When You Are Present” keynote with “The single greatest secret to success is paying attention.” Who doesn’t want to know the one secret to success?

The opening might be an object that draws attention. My cannibal fork from the Fiji Islands gets quick attention.

Humor might be the attention getting opening that will work best. Whatever you do, make sure the opening relates to your topic. For example, in a speech on listening I might begin “The only reason we listen is because we know we get to talk next.”

Second, preview your presentation. Your audience wants a road map of your speech. Tell the audience your main points and what you hope your audience will do as a result of your speech. “Today, I want to talk about three ideas that will help you pay better attention in your job and with your family members. They are: look for a connection with everyone you meet, embrace the day, and listen to ask questions.”

Mention a name, place, company value, or current event that lets the audience know you have done homework in learning about them and their organization. “I appreciate….” Here you can mention a person who helped you learn about the context of the conference you are keynoting, an ancillary plant you have visited in another state, or even a current news item about the company.

Third, do not spend much time on either the opening or the conclusion. Two to three minutes should be maximum time with each even if your presentation is an hour or more in length. I find that speakers have a hard time concluding. When you say, “In conclusion,” make sure you are near the end of your presentation. Don’t speak another ten minutes. The safest approach is never to say “In conclusion” at all. Just conclude.

Thus the fourth tip is to make it clear to your audience that you are concluding and that should include a summary of your thesis or main ideas. If the presentation is persuasive, then you want to fill in the blank of this sentence, “What I want you to do as a result of my presentation is.…” Use your unique application of this sentence: “I want you to remember that you must be aware of your surroundings to pay careful attention, and connecting, embracing, and questioning will provide the self-discipline to do so.”

Finally, end with an exit line, as I will do with this article. People remember best what you say last. Make that last sentence count.

One of my endings is a reference to the logo of Australia; I show a picture, which has two animals on it—the emu and the kangaroo, indigenous to that country. Then I say, “There is another reason why these two animals are on the logo. They can only move forward. By what we have discussed today, may you always move forward and never backward in your ability to pay attention.”

Not All Valuable Information is Found by Googling

Posted on by

I grew up in the card catalogue era. If you don’t know what that is, ask your parents. Today I can ask my students a question they don’t know the answer to and they can give me the information in a few seconds by googling it on their Mac or iPhone. But I have found that some of the greatest sources of information are people who have been students of life and surroundings such as my wife’s Uncle Tommy.

In all my years in my wife’s family, Tommy is the one I most enjoy talking to because he knows so much about so many things.

Tommy drove a semi-trailer truck so long that he was honored for driving over two million miles without an accident. One day I asked him, “What is the one thing you did that helped you drive that many miles without an accident?”

His response came quickly: “Always look a mile down the road…for brake lights.”

That line has guided me often since; there are so many applications besides to my driving habits. Look to the next day before retiring for the night. Look down the road at what needs to be covered before midterm exams, or remember to check special family days that you want to honor.

Tommy’s breadth of knowledge amazes me. He and his wife, Deba, recently moved from the city to the country and he loves to spend time working outside. When I was there a few days ago admiring his garden, I asked a question about the green plant that looked like radishes. He said, “That is mustard and we just ate that recently.” I then got a commentary on several unusual vegetables I was not that familiar with.

Tommy is a great fisherman and I had the privilege of going fishing with him on his pontoon boat on Old Hickory Lake near Nashville last week. I was amazed at how adroitly he maneuvered his truck and the huge boat down a narrow road to the place where he could put the boat in the lake.

Once we got in the lake, he began to point out certain houses around the lake. He referenced some landmarks and gave a little history of the lake. I asked how deep and how long the lake was. He knew the answers to both questions. Although it was not a great day for fishing he still caught several and I mainly observed—though not by choice.

Tommy is also a great chef. I’ve eaten his homemade biscuits and other traditional Southern breakfast items. One time he discussed how he created some of the dishes he is known for. His fish fry dinners are the best and people who are invited to one make every effort to attend. I’m not sure how many pounds of fish you will find in his freezer at any given time, but he can always make time to “fry some up.”

He is an expert marksman and hunts all kinds of fowl. He mentioned dove hunting season and when I told him I had never eaten dove, he went into a discussion of how to prepare the meat and about its taste.

Each time I visit Tommy, I learn new things. I thoroughly enjoy learning from people who study life and all that goes into making a meaningful life. A favorite source for me is my friend and uncle, Tommy. Did I mention that Tommy is 79 years old?

Five Tips on the Use of Visual Aids

Posted on by

With the rise of many kinds of software for computer-generated visuals, such as PowerPoint and Keynote, we have additional choices for visuals we use in a presentation. Whiteboard, flip charts, objects, and cutaways are all standard means of visually reinforcing our points in a speech. Whichever type of visual you use, here are five tips on making them more effective.

The visual should be big enough to be seen by everyone. That is the benefit of software-generated visuals; you can adapt the size of the visual to the size of the audience and the room. Although I have seen effective use of poster boards on a tripod on a stage with several hundred people the audience, you should never have to ask, “Can you see this from where you are sitting?” You should know ahead of time because you have personally sat on the back row to see if the visual is readable or understandable.

I typically use 24-point Times Roman font as the minimum size. A way to insure easy visibility is the 6 by 6 rule: no more than six lines on a page and six words on a line.

Talk to the audience, not to the visual aid. You should know what the next slide or page contains; thus looking at your visuals should be unnecessary unless you are working with the visual to demonstrate how something is done. If you need to see the PowerPoint slide as it appears on the screen, make paper copies of the slide and use them as your notes. I find that I can put up to six slides per sheet of paper and the words are large enough for me to see.

Visuals should be simple and easy to explain. Some charts I’ve seen speakers use confuse more than they clarify. A general rule is one idea, one picture, or one chart per slide, page, or poster.

The visual aid should not overshadow the speaker. Each visual should require your explanation or elaboration. If not, then you, the speaker, become unnecessary. Always tell more than you show. If you use video of any kind, the content should require your commentary; introduce the clip to prepare us for something that is about to happen on screen or draw a conclusion at the end of the film.

Finally, practice with your visuals as you practice your presentation. If you don’t work with your visuals until the actual speech, the extra dimension of visuals may complicate your delivery of the presentation. Show the slides as you practice in an empty conference room. Go through the actual demonstration with the cutaway or object.

Visuals add more time to the presentation. The practice session(s) allow you to be more confident with the length of your speech. This practice also helps you identify typos or grammatical errors on your slides. Have someone else proof your slides to avoid the embarrassment of seeing a typo on your slide as you are in the middle of your presentation.

Visuals give us the sixth sense in speaking—the combination of two or more of the five senses. When visuals are an essential part of our speech content, we can give the audience more opportunities to pay attention and understand.

In case you missed the previous Tips articles:
Five Tips for Organizing a Speech
Five Tips for Good Delivery
Five Tips for Controlling Stage Fright

Writing the Speech You Have to Read

Posted on by

Ideally, you want to speak from notes and not a manuscript. I have a hard time keeping my mind and eyes on the audience when I am reading a speech. But if you have lots of technical information to include or if you have a special presentation to deliver where each word has potential for specific impact, you will probably use a manuscript for your presentation.

Here are some specific tips on how to write that special presentation. Overall, keep in mind that writing a speech is not the same as writing a report. Writing for the ear is more informal than writing for the eye. You want the script to sound pleasing to the listener. Since your audience members cannot go back and reread as they can with a report, what you say must make sense immediately. To make this happen consider these tips:

  • Write in short sentences. Keep grammatical construction simple.
  • Feel free to use contractions. Speaking is more personal than writing.
  • Choose words that create pictures. Alliteration, where initial sounds and sounds within words are repeated, is one way to do that. “Don’t trifle with the truth.”
  • Personification is another way. This is where abstract qualities take on animate features or personalities. We have a “bull” or “bear” stock market.
  • Develop metaphors. Pro football player Joe Walter described playing a three-hour football game like being in five 30 mph car crashes.
  • Use stories. Write the story just as it happened. In fact, talking through the story as you write it will help you to keep it in oral form. Include dialogue when possible. Help your audience see the action.

I’ll discuss the mechanics of delivering a manuscript in another article. I’m not recommending you use the manuscript by choice. However, certain times, whether it’s a eulogy or a presentation to a group of scientists on a new formula for toothpaste, the manuscript is a must.

Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor Emeritus of Speech Communication, College of Informatics, Northern Kentucky University, near Cincinnati. He presents keynotes and seminars to corporations and associations whose people want to speak and listen effectively. See additional articles and resources at www.sboyd.com. To book Steve, call 800-727-6520 or email him through his website.

Enthusiasm!

Posted on by

This statement is one of the best I have found on enthusiasm: “Light yourself with the fire of enthusiasm and people will stand in line to watch you burn.” No matter the topic or activity, the person who shows enthusiasm is irresistible. Always be enthusiastic about what you say in a speech.

As I often say in speeches, the last four letters of the word “enthusiasm” stand for what is important in communicating your passion for your subject: “I am sold myself.”

Most people are enthusiastic about something. One place where I worked made me fear for my safety near the time clock at quitting time—I could get run over as people enthusiastically hurried to punch the clock to leave work.

The key to a successful speech is to be enthusiastic about your content.

Are you enthusiastic about the topics you speak about? Does it show? In Where the Game Matters Most, William Gildea writes about kids’ enthusiasm for basketball in Indiana: “The game is still played in barns. It’s played on driveways, at playgrounds, in alleys. Indiana’s beacon remains the outdoor basketball hoop.”

To get the most out of your next presentation, be enthusiastic. Enthusiasm is generated by having ideas and examples in your speech about which you get excited. As the old caution goes, “Be fired with enthusiasm or you’ll be fired with enthusiasm.”

You Receive a Poor Introduction…

Posted on by

On more than one occasion I have been introduced as a professor at the University of Kentucky instead of Northern Kentucky University. What do I do about that inaccurate information when I get up to speak?

Perhaps an introducer has mispronounced your name (Steve Boyd is hard to mispronounce!) or the city where you are from (Nagadoches, Texas, for example). These errors put the speaker in a difficult position because your opening remarks have a lot to do with your success for the rest of your speech.

The best policy is to ignore the bad or inaccurate introduction and move quickly into your material. If inaccurate information has been presented, make the correction in the content of your material. For example, I might say, “In my 39 years at Northern Kentucky University, I have found.…”

If your name is mispronounced, you could mention your name in connection with a point later in your presentation. For example, at a writer’s conference I attended last week, an author said, “A reader asked me, ‘Ms. Macias, what happens when…?’” Then the audience knew to pronounce her name “muh-SIGH-us,” and not what the introducer had said.

In any of the above situations, here are a few principles that apply no matter what the problem is.

Never make a member of your audience look bad. Don’t insult or point out the mistakes of someone in the audience, including your introducer. Even if it is deserved, you will lose some of your rapport with the audience.

Don’t panic. When something goes wrong in the introduction, or in any other part of your presentation, take a moment before you take action. Just pausing will sometimes calm you and give you time to use good judgment on what action to take.

Learn from your mishaps. Analyze a presentation problem and ask yourself how you might handle it differently next time. Keep track of what you did well in handling that last problem area and remind yourself to do it again next time. (Fortunately or unfortunately, there’s always a next time!)

Introduce yourself to the introducer prior to the beginning of the program. Get to know him or her. If nothing else, getting to know you will often prompt more warmth in the voice when you are introduced. When you tell your name and what you do, you are reminding the person of correct pronunciation and verifying key biographical information.

I assure you that you will receive an occasional bad introduction, but these tips will help you minimize damage.

Preparation Should Be Continuous

Posted on by

I’m always preparing—well, in a loose sort of way. As I go about my activities during the day, I am always alert for material for a sermon or speech. Any new or unusual object or action I see or any current event or story I read, I evaluate as to whether I might incorporate it in one of my programs.

For example, years ago while on vacation, we stayed in a bed and breakfast in Utah that had hummingbirds feeding in the flower-covered front yard. Their energy and speed and beauty impressed me. I began thinking, “How can I work what I am seeing into one of my presentations?” By simply having this question in my mind, I eventually developed a hummingbird story that I use to end many of my speeches.

When I am preparing a new presentation, I go back to notes I have taken or clippings I have kept that might be appropriate material for an upcoming presentation.

When you regularly speak on your area of expertise, pay attention to the new, the unusual, the historical, or even the hypothetical. Keep notes on each. You never know when you might be preparing a key point in a presentation you have not yet been assigned or agreed to deliver.

To be an effective speaker over a long period of time, your preparation does not begin and end on a certain day or hour. Preparation is a continuous process.