June 14, 2010
Welcome to the June Issue of Speaking-Out-Loud write-out-loud.com's monthly E-zine to help you effectively 'talk your walk'.
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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 Getting Feedback
Susan's Spiel
The Power of Repeating Oneself
This month's Article is about the power of repetition. What can Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King and Barack Obama teach you?
These three powerful orators use repetition to reinforce their theme or message. Follow their example and find out more.
Getting Feedback Often we have no idea at all how our presentation or speech was really received. When we get no useful feedback we tend to rely on our impressions and they can be wrong.
If you'd like to learn how to get helpful feedback to improve your speeches reading this is a must.
And lastly there's How to be Boring.
I don't know anybody who deliberately sets out to be boring but I've heard plenty of speakers who are.
Do you fall into that category? Read and find out.
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,
Susan
Article
The Power of Repeating Oneself, Repeating Onself, Repeating Oneself...
Here's a song fragment. I can almost guarantee you'll be singing the remainder of it before you've completed reading it.
'We all live in a ... ...'
And here's another that's almost universal: ' Happy birthday ... ...'
They're called refrains or choruses and repeat throughout the duration of the song.
Repetitions are part of many forms of communication: music and art as well as oral and written story telling, poetry, advertizing and speech writing.
The repeated phrase has the effect of reinforcing and strengthening a theme or message. When used well it will continue to echo on in the minds of the audience long after the speaker has finished.
Here's three famous examples to illustrate.
The inspirational orator and Prime Minister of Britain throughout World War Two, Winston Churchill, used the phrase We shall ... in his 1940 " "We shall fight them on the beaches" speech eleven times.
His use of the word 'we' drew his audience together bonding them as a single entity, strong and united in their resolve. Each repetition of 'we shall' reinforced the last building to the final powerful assertion.
- we shall not flag or fail
- We shall go on to the end
- we shall fight in France
- we shall fight on the seas and oceans
- we shall fight with growing confidence...
- we shall defend our Island
- we shall fight on the beaches
- we shall fight on the landing grounds
- we shall fight in the fields and in the streets
- we shall fight in the hills
- we shall never surrender
In 1963 Martin Luther King gave a speech now known as 'I have a dream' (Click the link to watch.) He uses two repeated phrases to anchor and reinforce his theme of racial equality: 'I have a dream' and 'Let freedom ring'. 'I have a dream' is ranked at number one of America's top one hundred speeches.
And one more example of repitition, this time from US President Barack Obama.
The phrase 'Yes we can' became an integral part of his pre-presidential election campaign. It was in his speeches, on his bill boards, made into a song that went viral on the net... 'Yes we can' became a mantra, a potent rallying call.
The lesson is simple and powerfully effective. In a motivational or persuasive speech repetition consciously and carefully used can nail home your message.
The next time you're preparing a presentaton to inspire or persuade, try it!
Getting Feedback
How do you measure your performance?
You're standing in front of the audience. You've prepared your speech well. You've made sure its relevant, that it flows well and is neither too short or too long.
Now that you are delivering the speech something you hadn't planned for is happening. They're not listening. They're bored. Their faces are blank. Where are the smiles and nods of agreement?
That's what you think but it isn't necessarily true.
Without direct and structured feedback it's tempting to fill the blank with negative self-talk. Rushing to a conclusion that your presentation was a flop or a failure because you didn't see or hear what you expected to is hugely undermining. Do that to yourself too many times and you reduce the possibility of real improvement. Instead your focus becomes survival - getting through the ordeal.
But there is a way to change the 'speaking-to-a-void' experience and that is to organise formal feedback across measurable meaningful elements.
Although better than silence general luke-warm or positive comments are not helpful either if you genuinely want to lift the quality of your speeches. 'OK', 'good' or 'excellent' tell you nothing more than your presentation was reasonably well received. Broad brush stroke
descriptors give you nothing to work on. How do you know what to improve or tweak if everything is alright?
Before your next presentation or speech organize somebody to give you written feedback AND decide what elements you want comments on.
Choose a person whose judgement you trust and who has sufficient experience to evaluate your performance helpfully. Make the approach well ahead of your speech to give yourselves time to discuss what
is going to be evaluated and how.
Examples.
- You know you frequently say 'um' or 'err' when thinking of the next thing you want to say. You've been practicing substituting a pause and would like confirmation that you have improved. Your feedback person or evaluator can keep a running tally through your speech to give to you at the end.
- You tend to clasp your hands awkwardly and rock on your feet. The evaluator will note if and where that occurred in your speech.
- Transitions or moving from one major point to the next have proved tricky in the past. Your evaluator will listen and watch to see how effective they are.
Organized feedback lets you know where you need to focus your energy. Without it you can flounder around not knowing what's going on. You can imagine, quite without foundation, that you're either worse or better than you actually are!
For those of you who are serious about improving your public speaking skills you'll find this page on speech evaluation invaluable.
There's a downloadable, printable, easy-to-use speech evaluation checklist as well as suggestions about how to use it effectively.
How to be Boring
Here's a fail-safe tip! Use it and you'll have the desired result - nobody listening or caring to a word you say.
The tip is - include EVERYTHING.
Do not discriminate or select a few important points of interest. Give your audience the lot.
Sometimes in an attempt to be thorough, to demonstrate your depth of knowlege or simply to share your passion for your subject the temptation to tell absolutely everything you know is too much to resist. Unfortunately the end result over-loads your audience and when that happens ears switch off. If you haven't made a choice about what is important, interesting, or exciting for your audience to know then neither will they. Instead some will be bored, others puzzled and a lot more bewildered.
To avoid information overload consider your audience and the purpose of your presentation.
- Are you there to inform, entertain, or demonstrate?
- What do you want the audience to know, do and feel as a result of hearing your presentation?
- How much does the audience know already about your subject?
- What do they need to know to enable them to act as you want them to at the conclusion of your speech?
Let your answers to those questions be your guide as you prepare.
Putting everything indiscriminatly into a presentation serves no one well.
By pass the risk of boring your audience by planning.
Click the link to find out more about planning your speech.
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Thank you for reading the June 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!
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Until next time,
Happy speaking,
Susan