International Paper asked George Plimpton, who writes books about facing the sports pros (like “Paper Lion” and “Shadow Box”), and who’s in demand to speak about it, to tell you how to face the fear of making a speech.
One of life’s terrors for the uninitiated is to be asked to make a speech.
“Why me?” will probably be your first reaction. “I don’t have anything to say.” It should be reassuring (though it rarely is) that since you were asked, somebody must think you do. The fact is that each one of us has a store of material which should be of interest to others. There is no reason why it should not be adapted to a speech.
Why know how to speak?
Scary as it is, it is important for anyone to be able to speak in front of others, whether twenty around a conference table or a hall filled with a thousand faces.
Being able to speak can mean better grades in any class. It can mean talking the town council out of increasing your property taxes. It can mean talking top management into buying your plan.
How to pick a topic
You were probably asked to speak in the first place in the hope that you would be able to articulate about something that interests you a lot. Still, it helps to find out about your audience first. Who are they? Why are they there? What are they interested in? How much do they already know about your subject? One kind of talk would be appropriate for the Women’s Club of Columbus, Ohio, and quite another for the guests at the Vince Lombardi dinner.
How to plan what to say
Here is where you must do your homework.
The more you sweat in advance, the less you’ll have to sweat once you appear on stage. Research your topic thoroughly. Check the library for facts, quotes, books and timely magazine and newspaper articles on your subject. Get in touch with experts. Write to them, make phone calls, get interviews to help nourish your speech. Rehearse your talk—and learn—for learning means self-confidence. You’ll discover how much confidence that knowledge will inspire.
Now start organizing and writing. Most authorities agree that a good speech breaks down into three basic parts—an introduction, the body of the speech, and the summation.
Introduction: An audience makes up its mind very quickly. Once the mood of an audience is set, it is very hard to change it, which is why introduction is so important. The mood of the introduction is to be lighthearted and enticing. It can start off by telling a good-natured story about yourself.
But be careful of jokes, especially the shaggy-dog variety. For some reason, the joke that convulses guests in a living room tends to suffer as it emerges through the amplifying system into a public gathering place.
Main body: There are four main intents in the body of the well-made speech. These are 1) to entertain, which is probably the hardest; 2) to instruct, which is the easiest if the speaker has done the research and knows the subject; 3) to persuade, which one does at a sales presentation, a political rally, or a town meeting; and finally, 4) to inspire, which is what the speaker is perhaps seeking in the graduation talk, in a sermon, or at the pep rally.
Hurry-Up Yost, who coached Michigan’s football team for twenty-five years, once gave a particularly inspiring talk to the members of a sales force who had come in from all over the country for a dinner. He got carried away and at the final exhortation held his team up by picking the wrong locker-room metaphor. (He urged the sales force to dive into the swimming pool.)
Summation: This should be where you “ask for the order.” In ending should incorporate a sentence or two which sounds like an ending—a short summary of the main points of the speech, perhaps, or the repetition of a phrase that the speaker has hoped to convey. It is valuable to have a fairly clear idea of the last sentence or two as something which might produce applause. Perfectly acceptable phrases are perfectly acceptable. (“And now I would like to signal my conclusion by saying: “In closing…” or “I have one last thing to say…”)
Once done—fully written, or the main
Maverick 