The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking

by Dale Carnegie

the task of preparation of a talk is a task of reconstructing the answers to the questions Who? When? Where? How? and Why? You must stimulate the visual imagination of your listeners by painting word pictures.

RELIVE YOUR EXPERIENCE AS YO...

In addition to using picturesque details, the speaker should relive the exper...

The more action and excitement you can put into the retelling of your incident, the more it will make an impression on your listeners.

No matter how rich in detail a talk may be, it will lack punch if the speaker does not give it with all the fervor of re-creation.

Are you describing a fire? Give us the feeling of excitement that ran through the crowd as the firemen battled the blaze. Are you telling us about an argument with your neighbor? Relive it; dramatize it. Are you relating your final struggles in the water as panic swept over you? Make your audience feel the desperation of those awful mom...

Your listener will remember your talk and what you want them to do only if the examp...

In addition to making your talk more easily remembered, the incident-example makes your talk more interesting, more convincing, and easier to understand. Your experience of what life has taught you is freshly perceived by the audience: they are in a sense, predetermined to respond to what you want them to do.

State Your Point, What You Want the Audience to Do

The need for detail is over. The time for forthright, direct assertion has come. It is the reverse of the newspaper technique. Instead of giving the headline first, you give the news story and then you headline it with your Point or appeal for action.

MAKE THE POINT BRIEF AND SPECIFIC

Be precise in telling the audience exactly what you want them to do. People will do only wh...

It is important to ask for an overt action, one that can be seen, rather than mental actions, which are too vague.

MAKE THE POINT EASY FOR LISTENERS TO DO

it is the speaker’s responsibility to word his point, the request for action, in such a way that it will be easy for his listeners to understand and to do.

Speakers who give detailed action points are more apt to be successful in motivating their audiences than those who rest upon generalities.

STATE THE POINT WITH FORCE AND CONVICTION

The Point is the entire theme of your talk. You should give it, therefore, with forcefulness and conviction.

your request for action should be emphasized by vocal animat...

You are about to make your last impression o...

Make it in such a way that the audience feels the sincerity of yo...

Give the Reason or Benefit the Audience May Expect

In the reason step you hold out the incentive or reward the listeners may expect if they do what you have asked in the Point.

BE SURE THE REASON IS RELEVANT TO THE EXAMPLE

BE SURE TO STRESS ONE REASON-AND ONE ONLY

it is best to choose one outstanding reason or benefit and rest your case on it.

Your final words to the audience should be as clear-cut as the message on an advertisement in a national magazine.

There are other ways of building up an example, for instance, by using exhibits, giving a demonstration, quoting authorities, making comparisons, and citing statistics.

Your purpose is to make your audience see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt. Relevant detail, couched in concrete, colorful language, is the best way to recreate the incident as it happened and to picture it for the audience.

THE TALK TO INFORM

Restrict Your Subject to Fit the Time at Your Disposal

Arrange Your Ideas in Sequence

Enumerate Your Points as You Make Them

Compare the Strange with the Familiar

TURN A FACT INTO A PICTURE

AVOID TECHNICAL TERMS

Use Visual Aids

“One seeing,” says an old Japanese proverb, “is better than a hundred times telling about.”

If you use a chart or diagram, be sure it is large enough to see, and don’t overdo a good thing. A long succession of charts is usually boring.

Use abbreviations; write largely and legibly; keep talking as you draw or write; and keep turning back to your audience.

Keep the exhibit out of sight until you are ready to use it. Use exhibits large enough to be seen from the very last row. Certainly your audience can’t learn from any exhibit unless they see it.

Never pass an exhibit around among your listeners while you are speaking. Why invite competition? When you show an exhibit, hold it up where your listeners can see it. Remember, one exhibit that moves is worth ten that don’t. Demonstrate if practicable. Don’t stare at the exhibit as you talk—you are trying to communicate with the audience, not with the exhibit. When you have finished with the exhibit, get it out of sight if practicable. If the exhibit you are going to use lends itself to “mystery treatment,” have it placed on a table which will be at your side as you speak. Have it covered. As you talk, make references to it that will arouse curiosity—but don’t tell what it is. Then, when you are ready to unveil it, you have aroused curiosity, suspense, and real interest.

Visual materials are becoming more and more prominent as devices to promote clarity. There is no better way to insure that your audience will understand what you have to say than to go before them prepared...

THE TALK TO CONVINCE

Win Confidence by Deserving It

Especially when the purpose of our talk is to convince, it is necessary to set forth our own ideas with the inner glow that comes from sincere conviction. We must first be convinced before we attempt to convince others.

Get a Yes-Response

Speak with Contagious Enthusiasm

When your aim is to convince, remember it is more productive to stir emotions than to arouse thoughts.

Feelings are more powerful than cold ideas.