When you speak, does your audience get it?
If your audience doesn’t grasp your message (and your topic is one you know they are interested in), you need to rethink the way you present it. You need to organize your ideas to promote understanding.
The second Toastmasters speech project addresses organizing your speech. This article of the Toastmasters Speech Series examines the primary goals of this project, provides tips and techniques, and links to numerous sample speeches.
Randy Pausch delivers a lesson laden lecture — Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams — which will have you laughing, crying, and cherishing life.
The “elephant in the room” — Pausch’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer — serves as an emotional backdrop for this memorable lecture.
In addition to illuminating many of life’s important lessons, Randy Pausch’s last lecture also provides five lessons which can help you connect with your audience.
Each year, MIT professor Patrick Henry Winston delivers an open lecture entitled How to Speak.
Positive word of mouth spread over the years, and the event now draws a beyond capacity crowd with people sitting uncomfortably on steps and the floor to listen to Winston. You can learn from the master teacher from the comfort of your web browser by viewing the lecture video.
In the 45-minute lecture, Winston delivers dozens of practical tips for speaking effectively, particularly when teaching. This article highlights seven of the best.
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A strong speech opening is critical to grab the attention of your audience.
Suppose you were delivering a speech to raise awareness in your community about school security. How would you open your speech?
Both openings are direct, to-the-point, and boring! What if there was a better way?
J.A. Gamache demonstrates how to complement strong writing with powerful body language in a speech titled “Being a Mr. G.” that took first place in the 2007 Region VI Toastmasters speech contest.
This video critique analyzes many noteworthy elements of the presentation, including:
Steve Jobs wrote and delivered the commencement speech “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” to the graduates of Stanford University on June 12, 2005.
The style and content are very different from his Apple product launch presentations, but no less worthy of study.
Noteworthy elements of this wonderful speech include:
This article examines Al Gore’s presentation from TED in 2006. My aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of the presentation, not to express scientific or political opinion on the content of the message.
This was a fantastic presentation worthy of study. There is much to be learned from analyzing what Gore did well, and what he could have done better.
I first viewed Dick Hardt’s Identity 2.0 presentation from OSCON 2005 over two years ago. It was unlike any presentation I had ever seen at the time. I noted that I had just been injected with information.
I recently returned to the presentation with a more critical view.
