Week One Lecture Notes

Presentation Skills / Week One Notes:

Link to Tony Robbins speech:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/96

Speech Structure

Preamble:

Last day, we talked informally about public speaking and presentations, including fears and strengths.

We agreed that in general terms a good public speech revolves around:

Content
Connection
Confidence

We learned three important delivery principles:

>Break the Ice
>Turn audience into stakeholders or participants
>Know your audience

Today, we will get into the specifics of public speaking in terms of form and structure.

When constructing a speech, pen to paper, where do you start?

You know the following:

The topic
The audience
The time allotted

Now, what is the first thing you need to do?

Decide what you want to achieve. Each good public speech or presentation should be strategically designed to achieve some sort of communications objective.

What is the OBJECTIVE?

Clearly define the communications objective of your talk.

State in ONE unambiguous sentence.

Then determine the type or style of speech you would like to give:

Essentially, there are 5 types/ categories of speeches:


Speech to Inform:

In essence, all speeches are to inform.
That should be the baseline
From teaching a class, to a presenting at board meeting, etc.
The facts

When my speech is over, I want my listener to know…


Speech to Stimulate:

Immediate and intensive effect
Designed to Incite passion
Reinforce and intensify already existing feelings in the listener
To motivate, before a football game, war, wedding.
Can be achieved by word choice, delivery of content, etc.


When my speech is over, I want my listener to feel…


Speech to Persuade

Expresses a point of view, and works to prove it
The viewpoint should be stated directly at some point
The audience now believes something that they did not before
Overcoming the resistance of other ideas or previously held belief systems
Use of logical arguments
Use of classic speech structure, problem and solution


When my speech is over, I want my listener to believe or think differently about…

Speech to Activate / Call to Action

Based on persuasion speech, but with an added element
The speech to activate wants people to do something,

Not the same as merely persuading
Now that you are convinced, do this…
Be specific about what you want the listener to do
Fundraising speeches are a good example
Support public TV, or call this number to donate money to support public TV
Measure the results

When my speech is over, I want my listener to do the following…

Speech to Entertain

Typically involve humour, or use the vehicle of comedy to get a message across
Ronald Reagan was a great believer in the use of humour for speeches

When my speech is over, I want my listener to feel amused, entertained, and happy about…

A Speech is not a thing. It is an Event.

When you plan a speech, you resemble a composer planning a performance.

However, speech writing or construction is not so much a science as it is an art form.

But, over the years, a certain amount of techniques and conventions have been developed to help one craft a speech.

The Structure

Opening
Body / Content
Closing

The Opening

Early on in your talk, within the first thirty seconds, your audience will be asking and answering for themselves, themselves the following questions:

Does the speaker care about me?
Does he / she cares about my situation?
Is the speaker credible?
Does the speaker have something worth saying?

Does it add value to my life?


A good speech opening lasts about 30 seconds to 1½ minutes.

Your opening should do the following things:

Get the listener’s attention
Establish your credentials and caring
Give the listener a compelling reason to be there
Smoothly introduce your topic

You can use the following techniques to accomplish this:


1. Begin with a story or illustration

Stories command attention
People like stories, they can relate to them
It builds empathy with your audience
The best stories are honest, personal and directly related to the topic
They add value

2. Establish a common bond with the audience

It says I am one of you, a common bond building technique
Connect with the life and times of the listener. Establish empathy
But make sure the connection is real, meaningless and trivial connections will not get you far



3. Pay the Audience a GENUINE compliment

Complimenting your audience a point a pride illustrates that you care enough to know why it makes them proud
You understand their values


4. Use HUMOUR to steer your audience into a topic

The effective use of homour will set your audience at ease

It must be tasteful, Relevant and Elegant

It should not override your credibility as an expert on the subject


Or USE some combination thereof.

The Body of the Speech


After the opening, you get right to the body of the speech.

A good speech will, at this point, will include the main thesis point or main statement.

This is the NUB of the speech.

This is what I am going to talk about.

This is the purpose.



A good thesis statement does three things.


Sets the Expectation of style: informative, persuasive, funny etc.

Sets the Tone of your talk. Light. Heavy. Enthusiastic.

Contains a hint, suggestion, or plants a seed of where is this going?


A good speech is based on just a few MAIN ideas.

But now you need to understand how to organize your ideas.

There are many ways and models to go about this.


A SPEECH TO INFORM:

Structure Options:

1. Format the speech to fit the brain’s filing system

TIME – when things happen
SPACE – where things happen
CAUSE and EFFECT – how things happen



2. Format you speech into LOGICAL parts that you chose in descending / ascending.

Start with MOST important to least important, in order.


3. The EXTENDED Metaphor

It can be a powerful technique, because it allows you explain a large amount of information without having to go into all of the details.

If it is a good metaphor, the listeners will fill in the details on their own.

Links your ideas to already known concepts, ideas or experiences.

Be careful in choosing your metaphor. It can backfire.



The Body:

Why do we use support material?

To explain, illustrate, expand upon, prove, support, etc.

Supporting you MAIN ideas with:


>Facts

>Illustrations

>Examples

>Expert Testimony

>Metaphor / Imagery

> Analogy


Connecting Ideas:

Transition Statements: A benchmark of where you are and where you are going.

This is a street sign.

The Closing

Bring the audience back to the beginning. Let them see the connections. Bookends.

FOUR ways to end a speech

1. End with a good, brief and relevant story that illustrates your point

2. End with a quotation or ringing phrase

3. End with an example of your theme

4. Summarize your main ideas