The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking

by Dale Carnegie

ASK FOR A SHOW OF HANDS

The technique of asking for a show of hands gets a priceless reaction known as “audience participation.” When you use it, your talk is no longer a one-sided affair.

The audience is participating in it now.

PROMISE TO TELL THE AUDIENCE HOW THEY CAN GET SOMETHING THEY WANT

The “promise” type of opener is sure to get attention because it goes straight to the self-interests of the audience.

USE AN EXHIBIT

Perhaps the easiest way in the world to gain attention is to hold up something for people to look at.

Recognize that how you open a talk largely determines whether the audience is going to accept you and your message.

remember that you must not only capture the attention of your audience, but you must capture their favorable attention.

DO NOT OPEN WITH AN APOLOGY

No, we don’t want to hear apologies; we want to be informed and interested—to be interested: remember that.

Let your opening sentence capture the interest of your audience. Not the second sentence. Not the third sentence. The first! AVOID THE “FUNNY”

STORY O...

A sense of humor, though, is a prized asset for any speaker.

Perhaps the easiest way to create merriment is to tell a story on yourself.

Audiences open their hearts, as well as their minds, to speakers who deliberately deflate themselves by calling attention to some deficiency or failing on their part, in a humorous sense, of course.

Support Your Main Ideas

An incident or happening is the kind of example most often used by the average speaker, but it is by no means the only way your point can be supported.

USE STATISTICS

They can be impressive and convincing, especially as evidence where an isolated example might not do as well.

Statistics, of themselves, can be boring.

They should be judiciously used, and when used they should be clothed in a language that makes them vivid and graphic.

Mere numbers and amounts, taken by themselves, are never very impressive.

They have to be illustrated; they ought, if possible, to be put in terms of our experiences.

USE THE TESTIMONY OF EXPERTS

Frequently you can effectively back up the points you want to make in the body of your talk by the use of the testimony of an expert.

USE ANALOGIES

USE A DEMONSTRATION WITH OR WITHOUT AN EXHIBIT

Appeal for Action

the conclusion of a talk is the part toward which all that precedes it must reasonably move if an audience is to be impressed.

The close is really the most strategic point in a talk, what one says last, the final words left ringing in the ears when one ceases—these are likely to be remembered longest.

How do you go about bringing your talk to a climactic close? Here are a few suggestions: SUMMARIZE

ASK FOR ACTION

In your final words of a talk to secure action the time has come to ask for the order. So ask for it! Tell your audiepce to join, contribute, vote, write, telephone, buy, boycott, enlist, investigate, acquit, or whatever it is you want them to do. Be sure to obey these caution signs, however: Ask them to do something specific.

Ask the audience for some response that is within their power to give.

Make it as easy as you can for your audience to act on your appeal.

If you put enthusiasm into learning how to speak more effectively you will find that the obstacles in your path will disappear.

Think of the self-reliance, the assurance, the poise that will be yours, the sense of mastery that comes from being able to hold the attention, stir the emotions, and convince a group to act.

The most precious things in speech are the pauses.

Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.

There are four ways to develop speech material that guarantees audience attention. If you follow these four steps in your preparation you will be well on the way to commanding the eager attention of your listeners.

Limit Your Subject

have heard thousands of talks, less encompassing in scope, that failed to hold attention for the same reason—they covered far too many points. Why? Because it is impossible for the mind to attend to a monotonous series of factual points. If your talk sounds like the World Almanac you will not be able to hold attention very long.

In a short talk, less than five minutes in duration, all you can expect is to get one or two main points across. In a longer talk, up to thirty minutes, few speakers ever succeed if they try to cover more than four or five main ideas.

Develop Reserve Power

It is far easier to give a talk that skims over the surface than to dig down for facts. But when you take the easy way you make little or no impression on the audience. After you have narrowed your subject, then the next step is to ask yourself questions that will deepen your understanding and prepare you to talk with authority on the topic you have chosen: “Why do I believe this? When did I ever s...

Questions like these call for answers that will give you reserve power, the power that makes pe...

Assemble a hundred thoughts around your theme, then discard ninety.

If you decide on the topic early you will have the inestimable advantage of having your subconscious mind working for you.

“If a speech is to be of any importance at all, the speaker should live with the theme or message, turning it over and over in his mind.