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You don't want to speak just "well", and you don't want to be just
"better". What you want is to be GREAT! This guide isn't just an
introduction to public speaking, it's your handbook to improve your
public speaking, whatever skills you possess. It doesn't matter if
you're an advanced public speaker, just beginning, or in need one great
speech. Public Speaking Rules! is your nut-and-bolts handbook whether
you're starting from scratch or simply brushing up.
In this book are tips, techniques, and strategies that are the
fundamentals necessary for giving GREAT public speeches. The information
is easy to use and understand because of it's practical,
straightforward, hands-on approach. Learn how to be effective and
persuasive while discovering the "art of public speaking". If it's the
only speech you ever give, be effective, and master the speech
occasion. Knowing what you're doing will build strength, confidence,
and effectiveness. It will turn public speaking into Public Speaking
Rules!
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VIDEO:
Public Speaking Rules! - All you need for a GREAT speech!
Book Introduction by Richard L. Weaver II, PhD
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Preface
The purpose of this book is to provide you with all you need to give
a great speech. There are numerous books on public speaking;
however, most of them give you far more than you need, want to read,
or can use. At some point after reading the books available, you
want to say, “Enough! I will do it by myself!” Now you don’t have
to do that. The basics are here; the essentials have been boiled
down; the fundamentals have been written in a way that can be easily
understood, effortlessly digested, and skillfully applied.
After writing many textbooks, delivering hundreds of public
speeches, and lecturing on the topic for more than 30 years, I have
reduced the principles and theories to a basic set of nuts-and-bolts
that are all you need to give a great speech.
The best way to read this book is from front-to-back without
skipping around. Each chapter not only builds on the last one, but
refers to it and depends on it; thus, to get the full benefit start
reading, and don’t stop until you have completed the book.
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Public Speaking Rules - Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - Deal With Your
Anxiety/Fear
Avoiding things that make you anxious is only a temporary solution, and
it will make you worry about what will happen next time. Also, every
time you avoid something, it is harder the next time you try it.
Avoidance, too, sets you on a pattern of avoiding more and more things.
For some people, just the thought of having to give a public speech can
trigger an adrenaline surge that quickens your pulse, raises your blood
pressure, and kick-starts your anxiety.
It will help you cope with anxiety to remember these four things:
1 Even experienced public speakers get nervous before a presentation.
2 Nerves do not need to be your enemy.
3 No matter how nervous you are, you are probably the only one who
knows it.
4 And, as long as you act like you are confident and play the role of
a secure and knowledgeable speaker, you will be in command of the
public-speaking situation.
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Chapter 4 - Organize Your Ideas
Planning is the key to good organization, and no matter the length of
the intended speech, its purpose, thesis, audience, or occasion,
carefully plan your introduction, body, conclusion, and the links that
hold the parts of the speech together.
Organization, as noted in the quotation at the beginning of this
chapter, leads to clarity. But the most essential point of the analogy
between providing a framework for a speech and planning a trip or
vacation is this: If the speech doesn’t move listeners toward some
meaningful and recognized goal, they will lose interest in it. Although
listeners do not always have to see their final destination, they need
some sense that they are progressing toward something. That final
destination provides listeners with closure or gratifies them through
accomplishment. And — here is the essential point regarding
organization — the more effectively listeners are led, the better the
payoff will be for both you and them.
Effectiveness cannot be left to chance.
Your reward for preparing a successful speech is that you will grab
listeners’ attention, guide them efficiently through your presentation
while holding their interest, and not just bring them satisfied to your
conclusion but have them, as well, accept your central thesis.
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Chapter 8 - Rehearse Your Speech
Rehearsing a speech is no different than test driving a new vehicle.
Would you ever think of going into a car dealership and purchasing a car
off the floor without first test driving it? A test drive is the best
way you have of thoroughly checking out a vehicle before buying it.
A test drive doesn’t obligate you to buy or even make an offer on a new
car, just as rehearsing a speech doesn’t obligate you to accepting
every idea and all the wording you have selected. You are simply trying
them on to see how they feel. Just as you want to thoroughly check out
the vehicle, you want to thoroughly check out your speech to see how
comfortable you are with it.
A car’s major systems are the brakes, engine, transmission, lights, and
the other electrical systems. A speech’s major systems are the
introduction, transitions, main points, sub points and supporting
material, visual support, and conclusion. How do they feel individually
as you rehearse them? How do they hold together as a complete unit?
In a test drive of a new car, you also want to check out the other
functioning parts such as doors and windows, trunk, engine, and locks.
The functioning parts of a speech are those revealed in your delivery of
the ideas. What about your facial expressions, gestures, and body
movement? How dependent are you on your notes? Or, to put it
differently, how well do you know your information? This ties into
another relevant question: how much will you be able to connect with
your listeners, notice their feedback, and respond and adapt as
necessary?
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Chapter 11 - Learn From Every
Performance
One of the best ways I have discovered for learning from every
performance is to use an evaluation form and, as objectively as
possible, look at every aspect of what I have just accomplished. Just a
random, cursory, subjective analysis, for me, doesn’t work for several
reasons:
> First, it is casual and thus superficial.
> Second, it often overlooks crucial aspects.
> Third, because it is rapid and lacks thoroughness; it has no real
power to change behavior. The evaluation is seldom permanent and
lasting.
The point of this chapter, then, is assessment and evaluation. It
offers a checklist you can use to review each aspect of any speech
performance. It will examine everything from your analysis of your
audience to the selection of the topic, from the gathering of
information to its organization, and from the rehearsal of your speech
to its delivery.
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Chapter 12 - Break the Rules!
There is nothing wrong with “making your own rules” when it comes to
creating something that is entirely new and never experienced by anyone
before, but even in art, music, and literature, laying a solid
rule-based core of background and experience is likely to be what brings
you success, appreciation, and a desire for more. What you have to
understand, whether it’s art, music, literature, or speechmaking, all
have been around for a long time which means there are clear listener
expectations — predictions, assumptions, and expectancies — that must be
met or, at the very least, acknowledged, if you expect to be
successful. You have the right to “make your own rules,” but you may
not be allowed the freedom to do so when faced with listener
expectations.
The real problem with naiveté and innocence is that they often come
across as incompetence, ineptitude, amateurishness, clumsiness, and lack
of skill. When you try to succeed using your inexperience and, perhaps,
simplicity, what you may not realize is that your credibility takes a
whack. It is too much of a risk; better to learn the rules first, and
follow the advice for breaking the rules.
The essential point of breaking the rules is to put your own personal
stamp on your presentation — to make it distinctive, special,
extraordinary, and one-of-a-kind. What you want to do is avoid a
formulaic, cookie-cutter, mechanical presentation. Breaking the rules
often leads to making s speech memorable!
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Epilogue
Just as you would take the medicine a doctor prescribed to remedy an
illness, correctly spell the words you are using in an official essay or
report, or appear on time for an important appointment with a boss or
supervisor, you would follow public speaking rules if your goal was to
give a great speech. Although you may stand back and question whether
the prescription is the proper one, examine words to determine if they
are spelled correctly, or question the time arranged for an important
meeting, in the end, you would accept and follow what you knew was
important for you. In the end, you would accept and follow public
speaking rules because you knew they were important. The rules work!
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Public Speaking Rules!
