Speech Elements

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Speech Elements
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The Power Point
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Speak plain and to the purpose.-Shakespeare
You ought to be able to put your bottom-line
message on the inside of a matchbookbefore you
ever start your typewriter. -Dwight d. eisenhower
Find the message first and the words will
follow.-Cato
Every journey begins with the first
step. -chinese proverb
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Finding your Power Point

• Before you even begin a speech, you need to know
  what your bottom-line message is that you want to
  leave with your audience.
• Figure out whom you are trying to reach and what
  message you want to send.
• While in Vietnam, a young marine who had been
  injured dictated a letter to a nurse to be sent
  to his wife. In the letter he mentioned, The
  nurses here are a rather plain lot. The nurse
  doing the transcribing interjected, Dont you
  think that is a bit unfair? You forget who Im
  writing to, said the marine to the nurse.
• A speech is like a symphony---it has three
  movements, but just one dominant melody.
• Churchill would always belt out the central chord
  of Beethovens Fifth Symphony, da da da dum---a
  symphony he was partial to because the four notes
  represented a Vfor Victory---in Morse Code. He
  explained that Beethoven already had that chord
  drumming in his head before he wrote that
  symphony.

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Winston churchill and the Power Point

• In 1937, Churchill spoke at a small dinner party
  where key members of the Conservative party were.
  
• His POWER POINT was this The number of German
  Luftwaffe planes was 100 times the amount of the
  RAF inventory therefore, they needed to start
  manufacturing planes now.
• To enhance his speech, he used a quote from
  George Washington, The only way to ensure peace
  is to prepare for war.
• He also used this anecdote It seems the zoo
  featured a cage where a lion and a lamb lived
  together in peace and harmony. It was a huge
  drawing card for visitors. One English tourist
  asked the zookeeper, How did you find such a
  lion? The lion isnt the hard thing, replied
  the zoo man. Its the lamb. Every morning we
  need a new lamb.

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The Power Brief
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A speech that is brief, if good, is good twice
over.--Cervantes

• Ronald Reagan once told this story about the best
  sermon he had ever heard
• Eggs could have been fried on the steps of the
  Civil War Memorial in the Dixon town square, and
  the humidity was so thick that you could have
  ladled it out like soup.
• When it came time for the sermon, the preacher
  mounted the steps to the pulpit and faced the
  congregation. He pointed downward and said, Its
  hotter down there, and then descended from the
  pulpit. That was his sermon!

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Calvin Coolidge

• His nickname was Silent Cal, because he never
  wasted any words.
• Once, after the President had attended church, a
  reporter had this conversation with Coolidge
• What was the sermon about, Mr. President?
• Sin, answered Coolidge.
• What did he say about it?
• He was against it.
• A woman in a receiving line at the White House
  once gushed to him, Mr. President, I bet my
  husband I could get you to say more than two
  words.
• You lose, was Coolidges reply.

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The Power Stat
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A statistic should tell a story.-margaret
Thatcher

• Use only one statistic at a time.
• In 1958, the deficit reached one billion dollars
  for the first time. President Eisenhower tried to
  get the American people to comprehend the
  enormity of the debt by citing this statistic
• To understand the billion dollar deficit,
  imaging taking all the one-dollar bills in a
  billion and laying them out end to end. Why, it
  would more than go to the moon and back again!

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Things to remember about stats

• Relate your statistics to your listeners.
• I once heard an actuary describe the odds of one
  in a quadrillion. He likened that astronomical
  figure to one human hair among all the heads of
  the world.
• A man came to Andrew Carnegie, the steel baron,
  and said, Mr. Carnegie, you are the richest man
  in the world. Dont you think you should share
  some of that? Yes, said Carnegie, surprising
  the man. Carnegie then sent a note to his male
  secretary, who appeared in a few moments with a
  check for the caller in the amount of 32 cents.
  That number was derived by taking Carnegies
  wealth and hundreds of millions and dividing it
  by the population of the world.

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More you need to know about stats

• Compare to the familiar
• Kosovo is about 5,000 square milesin other
  words, about the size of Connecticut.
• If we accept 99.99 as our perfect goal, wed
  have to accept these conditions two unsafe
  landings a day at Chicagos OHare Airport and
  15,000 pieces of mail lost by the U.S. Post
  Office every hour.
• We ought to make May 15th instead of April 15th
  the deadline for income tax filing---because
  until May 15th every dollar we make goes to the
  Federal Government.
• 623,000 soldiers died in the Civil Warin other
  words, the dead of the Civil War exceeded the
  lives lost in all other wars the United States
  has fought, from the Revolutionary War to Desert
  Storm.

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Final advice about stats

• Round your statistics
• 21.2 of people choose decaf coffee for
  breakfast one out of five.
• Three out of four death notices in California
  are whites but two out of three birth registrates
  are non-whites (Hispanic and Asian).
• By the end of the year, six out of ten British,
  including children and pensioners, will have
  their own mobile phones.
• A full-page spread in the London Times featured
  three naked baby girls sitting on a bench, their
  backs to the camera. From left to right, the
  captions, one above each of the little girls,
  read
• DOCTOR AUTHOR
  CANCER

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The Power Parable
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Parables provide pictures of the abstract

• Churchill said that an abstract idea goes in one
  ear and out the other---never establishing itself
  unless it is reinforced by a picture or a story.
• Jesus Christ never used the word salvation,
  Paul did. Instead, Jesus preached about a young
  man who blew his wad on wine, women, and song,
  then came back and said, Dad, forgive me and let
  me have a second chance. This is salvation
  expressed in a story.
• In 1864, Abraham Lincoln was looking like he
  would lose re-election until he gave a speech
  where he told an parable about the story of an
  Illinois farmer who wouldnt change horses in the
  middle of the stream. That single story won him
  the re-election.

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Master the art of Storytelling

• Tell stories for a purpose.
• Tell personal stories.
• Tell success stories.
• TRY OUT STORIES FIRST!
• Collect stories from history and your own life to
  make a point in a speech.
• Speechwriters often keep a file of 3 X 5 index
  cards with stories filed under themes or
  categories to use for different occasions.
• Know your historypay attention in your history
  and English classes to gain more anecdotes to add
  to your collection!

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Examples of stories

• When Franklin was our minister to France he
  attended a fancy ball in Versailles. He spotted
  King Louis XVI across the room. In his
  conversation with the French monarch, he pointed
  out a thin mademoiselle. Although he knew that
  the king fancied the more voluptuous types,
  Franklin said, Sire, theres a pretty girl.
• The king demurred, Ah, Franklin, its a pity
  that God did not endow her, for she does no
  justice to her décolletage.
• True, Sire, but you can endow us because our
  country has the same problem as the young ladyan
  uncovered deficit.
• The king laughed, and Franklin got the loanmoney
  to keep George Washingtons Continental Army in
  the field.

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Examples of stories

• The close of the nineteenth century found a
  Swedish businessman settling down to his
  breakfast of kippers, eggs, and bacon. As he
  sipped his morning coffee, he glanced at the
  Stockholm Journal. To his astonishment, he found
  his picture emblazoned on the front page. He read
  further. It was an obituary! He knew at once that
  they had confused him with his brother, who had
  just died in the East Indies, but he had to read
  what they wrote about him. To his chagrin, he
  found phrases such as Merchant of Munitions,
  Dealer of Destruction, Peddler of Death
  applied to him. Immediately he called for his
  carriage to take him to his solicitors office.
  There he wrote a new willa will that established
  the Nobel Peace Foundation.