Toasmaster CC Manual Project 3 : Get to the point

General Purpose :

To inform audience about the approach to better speech preparation.

Specific Purpose :-

After listening audience should be able to use at least one of 3 key methods to prepare a speech.

The ingredient of a good speech.

Have you ever tried to contemplate on what makes difference between a good and a not so good speech ?

What makes a good speech?

At SHT, HTM and various visits to other TM clubs ,and apart from TMs , we all have listened to variety of speeches.

Once we've listened to the speech, we quickly declare out verdict irrespective of anything about the speech as either GOOD or NOT SO GOOD.

What are the ingredients of a good speech ? What differentiates a good speech from a not so good speech? And How a not so good speech can be transformed into a good speech?

Dear toastmaster, respected evaluators and most welcome guests.

I got an opportunity to read, research, implement and test various methods of preparing a speech and today I'd like to share with you what I've learnt.

Now first of all did you notice that I am using two terms here Good speech and Not so good speech, it is not because I want to increase my word counts and time of my speech to get to that green flag.

It is because I don't think there could be any thing as a BAD speech.

Because everyone of us possess some strength, some extra knowledge and skill.

Be it your sense of humor, or the way you give emotional touch to your speech, or the way you make your audience go to sleep, there is always something special about every one's speech and it will be unfair to call a speech BAD.

So I am not here to preach about how write speeches or any other literal topic like that, all I would like to discuss only what I've learned used and found useful in improving a NOT SO GOOD speech to a good speech.

Let me now get to the point, and discuss what are the ingredients

Easy to remember 3 questions

1.) What will I think if I was sitting in the audience?

2.) Am I making best use of time of my audience?

3.) does my has speech adequate amount of interest holders?

Before I explain each of these question in detail, let me tell you one simple very recent incident.

When I was preparing this speech I asked my room mate, that how would he approach these questions if he was giving a similar speech in his company, and he gave some really interesting answers.

1) What will you think if you were sitting in the audience ?

He answered, I'll think What a speaker, he must compete for the best speaker @ international level.

2) Are you making best use of time of your audience ?

My audience are my collegues who are occupied with useless stuffs all the time so at least I am making good use of their time.

3) Does your speech has adequate interest/ attention holders?

It depends on the audience's interest.

Well this is not the right way to approach these questions, we need to dig deeper and be honest to ourselves.

Let us consider each question one by one :-

Q1.) What will I think if I was sitting in the audience?

This is all about being audience focused. And why should we be audience focus….There is a very complex answer….

Because you are speaking for the audience and to the audience.

This way I get a second person opinion.

In case you find it difficult to analyze, it can always be substituted by making a friend of yours listen to your speech and ask the feedback.

And be open to criticism, and appreciate the feedback.

When I was preparing this speech I was trying to figure out how would I see it as an audience and answer I got was " Extremely boring ".

Jokes apart, who said that it is not a joke but truth.

Once you are aware of what will be audience's overall feel about your speech, we need to move to second part.

That is, are we utilizing audience's time ?

No matter if you are addressing an audience who are totally free and have ample time for all kind of stupid stuff.

We need to stick to the ethics and realize that the time of others is precious and we should make sure we don't waste audience's time, although there could be an exception like I am wasting your time right now.

And audience will consider their time utilized if :-

1) They learnt something from your speech

2) They got some information that was new to them

3) They were entertained.

4) They get to know something interesting about you or someone or something else.

So test your speech for these criteria and then make the speech better.

Because this is what will help you gain credibility and confidence from audience.

When you know your audience 's time will be utilized and also what will they think about your speech. You are all set for a good speech.

But things always don't go right, so we need to be on safer side and make sure about the third question :-

Does my speech has adequate interest holders?

Interest holders or attention holders are short pieces that make your speech interesting and keep audience involved.

You must have noticed that when you listen to a speech, you often get lost somewhere and then again come back to speech.

Right now, I am not sure how many people are really involved here, some might be still celebrating dussera, or thinking about Abhishek and aishwarya.

To keep the attention we may use :-

1.) A joke or humorous example.

Just imagine you are all feeling bored and then I say " I remember I was lost in a jungle with Bipasa basu "

You quickly come back to the speaker.

2.) You may use vocal variations or body language,

Interest holders (shout) are very essential (whisper).

Or do this ( A body gesture).

These body gesture and vocal variations will avoid your speech from being monotonous.

3.) There could be several other interest holders , like pauses, stories, quotes, poems,

Facts and figures , etc…

You can make your own interest holder.

Fellow toastmasters ,there exists one simple rules or theory for preparing a good speech

There are as many rules as number of speakers.

But we can always learn something from each other and hence I thought that sharing my views might help you in at least tiny puny way

If we can work on these 3 questions interest holder, time utilization of audience and understanding a third persons opinion, it'll enable to have more confidence and might help convert a not so good speech to a good speech.

And as I said earlier, there are no bad speeches only good and not so good speeches and its completely in your hand what speech you would like to deliver, good, not so good or a great speech.

Mr. Toastmaster.