Chapter 20 enrich the speech with descriptions and examples

In The Art of Accessible Writing, Rudolf Fritsch begins a chapter by saying, "Only a story can be truly readable." He goes on to use Time and Reader's Digest to illustrate How to use this rule.Nearly every article in these two influential magazines, he said, was written as pure narrative or generously peppered with anecdotes.There is no denying that a story has the same power to command the attention of an audience when it is spoken in public, as it is when it is written for a magazine. Norman Vincent Peale's speeches have been heard by millions on radio and television.In speeches, he says, he likes best to cite examples to support his arguments.He once told an interviewer for Speaking Quarterly: "Using real examples is the best method I know. It makes ideas clear, interesting, and persuasive. Usually I always use several examples to support each of the main points."

Readers of my books will also quickly notice that I like to use anecdotes to deduce the main points of my thoughts.The principles in the book are listed on only one and a half pages, and the remaining hundreds of pages are filled with stories and examples to guide readers on how to use these principles effectively. How can we get the trick of using examples?There are five methods to choose from: Humanize, Embody, Inform, Dramatize, and Visualize.Let's talk about these five methods in detail. If you're talking about things or conceptual issues, it can be annoying, but when you're talking about people, you can definitely grab people's attention.When the new day comes, across the country, across the backyard fence, at coffee tables and dining tables, there will be millions of conversations—and what will be the main content of most of them?people.They'd talk about, Mrs. So-and-so did it; I saw what she did; he made a "windfall," and so on.

I've spoken at student gatherings across the United States and Canada, and I quickly learned from experience that if you want them to be interested, you have to tell stories about people.The kids fidgeted whenever I touched on broad and abstract ideas: John seemed impatient and shifted in his seat; Tom made faces at his neighbor; Billy threw something in the other row seat…… Once, I asked a group of American businessmen in Paris to give a talk on "The Way to Success."Most of them just list a long list of abstract characteristics and talk about the value of hard work, perseverance and high ambition.

So I broke off the class and said the following: "None of us want to be preached to. Nobody likes that. Remember, make it fun and interesting for us, otherwise we won't pay attention to what you say. Also remember that the funniest thing in the world , there is no better celebrity anecdote than a refined, witty one. So tell us the story of two people you know and why one succeeded and the other didn't. We'd love to hear it. Also keep in mind that we may also benefit greatly from this example." There was a student in this class who always found it difficult to raise his own interest or interest his audience.But this night, he understood the suggestion of "Story of Human Nature" and told us the story of two classmates in the university.

One of them, with extreme prudence, bought shirts at various stores in the city, and made charts showing which ones would last the longest, would last the longest, and would get the most use of every dollar invested.His mind is always on the pennies.After he graduated, he considered himself very high, and he did not want to start from the bottom and gradually climb up like other graduates.So, when the third-year reunion came, he was still drawing his shirt-washing table, still waiting for a particularly good errand to come to him.It turned out that it didn't come at all.A quarter of a century has passed since then, and the man has lived a life of resentment, dissatisfaction, and still holds a small office.

The speaker then compared this failure to the story of another classmate who had exceeded all expectations.This friend was extremely easy to get along with, and everyone liked him.Although he was ambitious and determined to achieve great things in the future, he started as a draftsman.However, he is always looking for opportunities.At that time, the New York World's Fair was in the planning stage, and he inquired that there was a need for engineering talents, so he resigned from his post in Philadelphia and moved to New York.There he partnered and started a contracting business.They contracted the business of many telephone companies, and this person was finally hired by the fair with a high salary.

What I have said here is only a generalization of what the speaker said.He included many amusing and human details that made his lectures entertaining.He continued to talk and talk—this person usually couldn't find materials to give a 3-minute speech, but when he stopped talking, he was surprised to find that this time he spoke for a full 10 minutes.Because the speech was so wonderful, it seemed that everyone thought it was too short, and there was still more to say.This is his first successful speech. Everyone can learn something from this event.If a plain speech can contain a story with human interest, it will definitely be more fascinating.The speaker should cover only a few important points and then cite specific examples.This way of structuring your speech is sure to grab the attention of your audience.

If other people are involved in the storytelling, it is in any case preferable to use their first names, or to invent aliases if you want to protect their identities.Even if you use an impersonal name like "Mr. Smith" or "Joe Brown," it's more vivid than "this person" or "someone."Surnames Personal names have the function of authenticating and revealing individuals, as Rudolf Fritsch pointed out: "Nothing adds to the truth of a story so much as a name; nothing is more false than a name. Just imagine, in the story What will happen if the main character has no name or surname?"

If your speech contains many names and personal pronouns, you can determine whether it is the most worth listening, because in your speech, there is an invaluable element of human interest. At this point, you might say, "That's all well and good. But how do I know if I've included enough detail in my speech?" There's a way to test that.Use the "Five W's Formula" that journalists follow when writing a news story: When, Where, Who, What, Why, if you follow this If you use formulas to do it, your examples will be full of vitality and colorful.Let me cite an interesting incident of my own to illustrate.This anecdote was published in Reader's Digest:

"After leaving college, I spent two years running around South Dakota working as a salesman for Ironclad. I was traveling around and riding delivery trucks. One day I had to stop at Redfield Two hours to catch a southbound train. Since Redfield is out of my area, I can't use that time for pitching. In less than 1 year, I'll be on an American drama in New York Art college was off, so I decided to use my spare time to practice speaking. I walked aimlessly across the yard and started rehearsing a scene from Shakespeare's Macbeth. I threw up my arms and said very dramatically. Shouting: 'Is this a dagger that I see? Its handle is facing me? Come on, let me hold you! I can't grab you, and I still see you!'

"I was in the midst of the scene when four policemen came up to me and asked me why I was threatening women. I was astonished as I would have been if they accused me of robbing a train. They told me that there was a The housewife was watching me from behind her kitchen curtain a hundred yards away. She had never seen anything like it before and called the police and they arrived just in time to hear me yelling about daggers thing. "I told them I was playing Shakespeare, but they didn't let me go until I showed the Ironclad order book." Note how this anecdote answers each of the questions in the "Five W's" formula above. Naturally, too many details are worse than no details.We've all been fed up with lengthy, superficial and irrelevant details.Note that I have short and to-the-point answers to each of the five W's in my account of my near-arrest in a South Dakota town.If the speech is messy and full of trivial and trivial incidents, the audience will not be able to concentrate on it and obliterate many of your remarks.Nothing kills a person's speech more than an audience's inattention. Suppose you wanted to give an example of how you used the principles of interpersonal relationships to successfully appease a customer's anger. You might start like this: “A guy walked into my office the other day. He was furious because the appliance we had sent to his house the week before wasn’t working. I said to him we’re going to do everything we can to remedy the situation. After a while, he Then he calmed down and seemed very satisfied with our dedication to get this thing done well." This little incident has an advantage—it is very detailed—but it lacks the name, the special details, and above all the actual dialogue that would bring it to life.Let's add oil and vinegar to it: "Last Tuesday, the door to my office slammed open. I looked up and saw Charles Brixham with a scowling face. He was one of our regular customers, and before I had time to ask him to sit down, he slammed Say, 'Ed, you send a truck right away and get me that washing machine out of the basement.' "I asked him what was going on and he was so out of breath he could barely answer. "'It doesn't work at all,' he yelled, 'and the clothes are all tangled up, and my wife hates it, annoys it.' "I asked him to sit down and explain. 'I don't have time to sit down, I'm late for work! I don't think I'll ever come here to buy household appliances anyway. Trust me, I won't ask any more.' Having said that, he stretched out his hand and hit the table and my wife's photo again. "'Listen, Charlie,' said I, 'you sit down and tell me all about it, and I promise to do anything you want me to do, will you?' He sat down, and we Finally, we settled the matter calmly and clearly.” Not every time you can add dialogue to your speech.You should be able to see, though, that the dialogue quoted in the excerpt above has a dramatic effect on the listener.If the speaker has some imitation skills and can put the original tone into the words, the dialogue will be more effective.Moreover, the dialogue is a conversation in daily life, which will make the speech more authentic and credible.It makes you sound like a real person speaking across the table, not an old pedant reading a paper in front of well-educated academy members, or a great speaker yelling into a microphone. Psychologists tell us that more than 85% of knowledge is absorbed by us through visual impressions.This undoubtedly explains why television is an advertising and entertainment medium, and why it is so effective.The same is true for public speaking, which is an aural art as well as a visual one. One of the best ways to enrich a speech with detail is to include it visually.Maybe I'll get bored of you spending hours just to tell me how to swing a golf club.But if you stand up and show what to do when you hit the ball down the fairway, then I'll give you my full attention.In the same way, if you use your arms and shoulders to describe the drifting and unstable situation of the aircraft, I must be more concerned about the results of your knocking on the door of hell. Please listen to the following passage of British historian Macaulay's condemnation of Charles I.Note that Macaulay uses not only pictures but also parallel sentences.The strong contrast has always attracted our interest.The sharp contrast is the bricks and mortar that make up the following passage: "We accuse him of breaking his coronation vows; while others say he has kept his marriage vows! We accuse him of abandoning his subjects to the merciless blows of a hot-tempered bishop; while others defend him by saying that he Kisses his little son on his lap! We accuse him of violating the terms of the Petition of Rights after promising to abide by it; and we are told that he is in the habit of praying at six o'clock in the morning! On the basis of the above Considering, as well as his Van Dyck costume, his handsome face and his pointed beard, he owes his popularity to our age."