Chapter 32 Get a good response with a short speech

A famous British bishop addresses soldiers at Upton Camp during World War I.They will be sent to the front to fight, and of course only a few of them understand why they are sent to the front.But the archbishop ignored all these backgrounds and talked to them about "international goodwill" and "the right of the Serb nation to a place under the sun." It is amusing that half of them even I don't know if Serbia is a town or what kind of disease.Facing such an audience, he might as well give them a resounding eulogy with the profound "nebula theory", which will have exactly the same effect.Fortunately, none of the cavalry slipped away during the whole speech, not because they were fascinated, but because every exit was guarded by gendarmes to prevent them from slipping away.

I have no intention of disparaging the bishop, who is a scholar to the core.Had he delivered such a speech in front of a group of religious people, he would probably have looked impressive and at his best.But what he is facing right now is a soldier who is about to go to the front line. It is conceivable that he has suffered a defeat, and the entire army has been wiped out!Why is he like this?Obviously he did not know his audience, nor did he know the real purpose of his speech, which made him not know how to achieve his purpose. So, what is the purpose of the speech?To sum up, any speech, whether it is clear or not, generally contains four goals, which are:

(1) Persuade others to take action. (2) Explain the situation. (3) Enhance impression and make people convincing. (4) Make people happy. Let us illustrate these with a series of specific examples from President Lincoln's speech career. Few people know that Lincoln once invented and patented a device.This device can lift a ship stranded on the beach or other obstacles.He also made models of this instrument in a mechanic's shop near his lawyer's office.Occasionally, when a friend came to the office and saw this model, he would take the trouble to explain its structure.The main purpose of this kind of explanation is to explain the situation so that the other party can learn more about it.

When he delivered that monumental speech at Gettysburg, when he delivered his first and second inaugural addresses, when Henry Clay died and he gave the eulogy of his life, he was on all these occasions The main purpose of a speech is to enhance the audience's impression and convince people. Every time he pleaded his case to a jury during his legal career, the goal was to win a verdict in his favour.And when he makes political speeches, he is working to win votes.His purpose in speaking on these occasions is to get his audience to act. Lincoln prepared a speech on invention two years before he was elected president.Of course his purpose in giving this speech was to entertain people, at least, that was his original goal.Unfortunately, he didn't succeed this time.He originally wanted to be a popular speaker, but he suffered a lot of setbacks in this regard.He once gave a speech in a small town without anyone even listening.

In stark contrast to his speeches in this area, his speeches in other areas have been surprisingly successful, some of which have become classics of human language.What is the reason?Mainly, he gave these talks knowing what he was aiming for and how to get there. Many speakers fail to match their goals with those of those they are speaking to, and when they get to the podium they scramble, slur their words, make mistakes, and inevitably fail. Here is just one example: A member of the United States Congress once gave a speech in the old New York circus. Before he could say enough, there was a roar and boos from the audience, so that he had to leave the platform.What is the reason?Because he has very unwisely chosen to give an expository speech on this occasion.He told his audience how America was preparing for war.His audience doesn't want to be scolded here, what they want now is entertainment.At first they listened to him patiently and politely for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, hoping that his performance would end quickly.But he still babbled on and on.The patience of the audience is running out, they don't want to be patient anymore.Someone started booing and mocking him, others followed, and in a flash a thousand whistled, some even roared.But this speaker was really stupid and numb. He was completely unaware of the audience's mood at this time, and continued to speak with his head sullen.The helplessness of the audience has turned into anger. This man is actually ignorant and tries to persuade the audience to calm down, so the fierce protests are getting louder and louder.Finally, the howls and roars of the audience drowned out his words.At this point, he could only give up his efforts, admit defeat, and leave the venue humiliated.

Please use the example of the above congressman as a reference!Adapt the purpose of your speech to your audience and the occasion.The congressman would not have suffered such a disastrous defeat if he had considered in advance whether the goals of his speech were in line with those of the audience who came to the political rally.Only by properly analyzing the audience and the occasion of the speech can you choose one of the above four purposes as the purpose of your speech. So how do you organize your presentation material so that your audience will feel motivated to take action? I remember discussing this issue with colleagues in 1930.At that time, my speech courses began to gain popularity all over the country.Due to the large number of people in a class, we had to limit the speeches to the students to two minutes.If the speaker's purpose is simply to entertain or explain a situation, this restriction will not affect the speech.But when we get to a speech where we want to encourage the audience to take action, it's a different story.If we follow the stereotyped format of a speech—introduction, body, and conclusion—a paradigm that has been followed by many speakers since Aristotle, the speech will not be effective in motivating the audience to action.Obviously, this required us to inject something new and different in order to achieve the desired result within the set two minutes and get the audience to act.

We held seminars in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, asking all of our teachers for advice.Many of them taught in the speech departments of prestigious universities; some had achieved remarkable success in their careers;We hope to synthesize different backgrounds and use the wisdom of those with different backgrounds to devise a new method for the structure of speeches, so that this method can reasonably reflect the needs of our time and conform to the rules of psychology. And can use this to influence the audience and get them to take action. The hard work paid off, and from these discussions a "magic formula" for framing the speech was finally born.We used it in our speech training class as soon as it came out, and it's been with us ever since.What is this "magic formula"?In fact, it is very simple, it can be said that it is broken at one point.Specifically, it is as follows: at the beginning, tell the audience the topic you want to talk about in the form of an example. Through this example, vividly explain what you want to convey to the audience.Then state your argument in detailed and clear terms.Finally, state why, which means emphasizing to your audience what benefits it would be if they did what you say.

We are sure that as long as you use this "magic formula", you will be able to attract the attention of the audience and make the audience focus on the key points of your speech.It can also make you forego those long-winded and tasteless opening remarks, such as, "I don't have time to prepare this speech very well", or "When the host asked me to talk about this topic, I wondered for a moment why he chose Me?" Remember that the audience isn't interested in your apology or justification on stage, whether you mean it or say it as a polite gesture.What they need is action.Whereas in the "magic formula," you give them action as soon as you speak.

Let's take a look at how Neilan Stone uses events or examples to impress the audience and arouse their support for the United Nations Children's Rescue Action: "I pray that I don't have to run around and cry for it anymore. Think about it, a child is only a peanut away from life and death. Is there anything more miserable than this in this world? I also hope that everyone here will always There is no need to do anything about it, or to live with such tragic memories forever afterward. However, these relentless events in the world make us unable to stop ourselves. Just in Athens in January, a I heard their voices with my own ears and saw their sad and frightened eyes in the bomb-ravaged workers’ area... What caused this tragic scene was only a half-pound can of peanuts. When I When I struggled to open the aid in my hand, groups of ragged children surrounded me and stretched out their hands frantically. There were also a large number of mothers, pushing and fighting for their babies...they all pushed the babies to the My little skinny hand stretched convulsively. I tried my best to make the most of the little aid I carried, to save even one more hungry child.

"I was nearly knocked over by them under their frenzied crowding. All I could see were hundreds of hands: begging hands, grasping hands, desperate hands, all pitifully small hands. I I tried my best to share a little here, and a little there. Move another place, take a piece here, and a piece there. Hundreds of hands stretched out to me, begging me. When they got me Hundreds of pairs of eyes sparkled with hope as we handed out... Finally, I stood there helpless with nothing but the empty blue jar in my hand... Hey, I hope this never happens It will happen again, forever away from our side."