April 06, 2010
Welcome to the April Issue of Speaking-Out-Loud write-out-loud.com's monthly E-zine to help you effectively 'talk your walk'.
If this E-zine speaks to you, then quite likely it will talk sense to your friends, family or work mates too. Please pass it along.
You might even suggest that they sign up! The page to send them to is here Speaking-Out-Loud
Remember, if you have any questions you're most welcome to ask them through my contact form. I enjoy hearing from my readers and will respond as soon as I am able.
Happy speaking,
Susan
In this Issue
If you don't have time to read the whole ezine, click on the topic that interests you. This month you will find:
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They Said It Don't Talk to Me in that Tone of Voice
Susan's Spiel
How to give a Great Acceptance Speech
This month's Article is about how to accept an award with grace. Standing in front of audience and being expected to make a speech after receiving an award can be challenging.
Some weep, some giggle hysterically and some use words they wish they hadn't. What will you do when it's your turn? There are alternatives. Read them here.
Don't Talk to Me in that Tone of Voice How may times have people said that to you? And how many times have you said it to your children? Understanding and using tone conciously is critical for clear communication. This month's They Said It segment introduces a famous study of verbal communication and gives you a simple exercise to tone up successfully.
And lastly there's Wedding Speeches. A brand new collaborative adventure brings you personalised wedding speeches (father of the bride, groom, best man and maid of honor) in minutes. No more anxiety, no more procrastination. These are speed speeches with a difference!
I am always looking for ways to improve the site. If you see any errors or would like to contribute in any way, please accept this invitation to contact me through my About Me page.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy this month's Speaking-Out-Loud!
Happy speaking,
PS. I hope you had a happy Easter!
Susan
Article
How to give a great acceptance speech
You have been nominated for an award! Fantastic. You've worked so hard and thoroughly deserve it.
Now you have to make a speech when you receive it.
Which of the following should you do?
- Prepare a list of people to thank; remembering everyone from your first teacher to your second cousin in Eketahuna.
- Act surprised and down play the significance of the award
- Nothing. Allow inspiration to guide you when the moment arrives because spontaneity is is more real.
If you answered 'none' of these you are right. Each one of them is a recipe for a speech you may live to regret.
So what are the elements of a good acceptance speech?
Here are some tips to guide you:
- Be prepared. Mostly an award is not a surprise. You will have had time to consider what you want to say and to rehearse it. Use cue cards with a few bullet points on them to help you keep track of what you wanted to say rather than reading from a script.
- Be brief. Ask what the desired length of speech is and prepare to finish speaking BEFORE the time allocation is up.
- Be humble and gracious. Acknowledge the work that others have done to help you achieve as well as what the organisation giving you the award stands for
- Thank those nearest and dearest to you for their support
- Be sincere, speak from the heart, tell what the award personally means to you and be yourself.
Click the link to find out more about giving an acceptance speech You'll also find on going links to working with cue cards, writing and rehearsing a speech.
And I've saved the BEST until last!
Read an inspirational and humble award acceptance speech. This is the full text of the speech that Olive Mumba, Zambian school principal, gave to acknoweldge receiving an award for her contribution to education in Seattle.
The speech is graciousness personified and the story it tells is truly remarkable. When Olive finished she got a standing ovation.
Don't speak to me in that tone of voice!
It's not what you say but how you say it that makes the difference
A well quoted study by Albert Mehrabian Professor Emeritus of Psychology, UCLA, established that in verbal communication words, tone and body language (facial expression) needed to be in harmony or congruent before being believed by listeners.
He broke down his analysis into percentages. Words (what you actually say) according to him amounts to a mere 7% of the total communication package. Tone (how you say what you say) was rated as worth 38% and remaining 55% was accounted for by body language or facial expression.
Using his model as a guide you can understand how the same words spoken differently can mean something completely opposite to their original meaning. That difference is achieved by tone and further reinforced by body language.
In any sort of communication, public speaking or personal conversation, the tone of voice you use impacts on the listener ahead of the actual words.
Becoming concious of tone and its effects makes you a better communicator.
Have a play with this simple sentence: 'I like it.'
How many ways can you say it? How many different underlying messages can you convey through those three little words?
Can you make it sound as if:
- you really DO like it
- you are unsure or diffident about it
- you couldn't care less about it
- you might like it but have some reservations about it
- you actually loathe it
- you are frightened by it
- you are amused by it
This is a superb exercise to do in front of a mirror. Watch what you do as you voice the sentence with each different intention. Your face will reflect the changes of meaning. Some expressions will be more subtle than others but they'll be there and those are cues that your listeners pick up on. They and your tone of voice will shape their response.
Click the link if you liked this exercise and want more of a similar type. Vocal Variety Exercises.
Wedding Speeches
Help! I'm the father of the bride/best man/groom/maid of honor. What do I say? And I don't have time to write a speech anyway!
It's dilemmas like these combined with a fascination for language that started me thinking about something I called in my imagination a 'speech machine'.
What if, I thought to myself, there was a way of combining carefully pre-crafted speech segments in a piece of clever software that allowed a user to manipulate them to 'write' the speech they needed?
I didn't want fill-in-the-blank templates. These result in essentially the same speech but with personal user variations like names or places.
What I had in my mind was finding a way to allow a user access to a speech segment bank so they could pick and mix pieces to create a unique and personal speech.
After much experimentation with a programmer friend, the first speechmachine is built and open for testing by you.
At present we have Father of the Bride, Groom, Best Man and Maid of Honor speeches available. The speechmachine requires a little bit of personal information to get started and then you're away, actively creating your own speech- picking and mixing, editing and deleting the segments we provide. It's simple. It's easy to use and we hope, hassle free.
If you have a wedding coming up it's an ideal time to give it a whirl. If you know someone who'd be interested send the link!
All we are asking is that if you do use it you give us some feedback about its performance. What should we add? What should we do better? Ultimately we want to provide a personal,seamless, user-friendly service.
We do plan to add other types of speeches later but first we're focusing on getting the basic functioning and content right!
The place to go to get one of those wedding speeches is here at speechmachine
And please remember we're interested in All your feedback - that's the good, the bad and indifferent. We genuinely want to know how you go with it.
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Thank you for reading the April Issue of Speaking-Out-Loud. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please feel free to contact me with any questions through the form at the foot of the Speaking Out Loud Page. I love hearing from my readers!
If you enjoyed this issue of Speaking-Out-Loud, please feel free to send it on to any friends or family. The site url to forward so they can subscribe is Speaking-Out-Loud.
Until next time,
Happy speaking,
Susan