Chapter 31 Be specific, informative and clear

The so-called "preparation" is to put together "your" thoughts, "your" ideas, "your" ideas, and "your" motivation, and it is you who really have this kind of thinking and this kind of motivation. Some students once asked me, before preparing a speech, do I need to write down some beautiful words and sentences, and then put these words and sentences together?Is it a collection of thoughts that come up by chance but have no real meaning to you personally?My answer is, absolutely not!The so-called "preparation" is to put together "your" thoughts, "your" ideas, "your" ideas, and "your" motivation, and it is you who really have this kind of thinking and this kind of motivation.During the day, you will not lack them; at night, they even come to your dreams in droves.You feel new things and collect new experiences all the time in your life.These things are as deeply rooted in your mind as pebbles on a beach.To prepare is to think, to recall, to select the things that most attract your attention, and then to embellish them, to bring them together into a coherent, finely crafted work of your mind.Doesn't sound like a difficult process, does it?It's really not that difficult.Giving your focus, attention, and thought to the goal will suffice.

Years ago, two people attended a public speaking class I gave in New York.One of them is a Doctor of Philosophy, a professor in a university, gentle and refined; the other is a street vendor, who was a British naval soldier when he was young, bold and rude.Strangely, in the learning process of this speech training class, the speeches of the itinerant vendor were far more attractive than the speeches of the university professor.Why is this?Although this university professor tried his best to use gorgeous and vivid rhetoric in his speech, and maintained a gentle and elegant typhoon; but he lacked one of the most important things-concrete.His talk is too general, without vivid examples.And the itinerant vendor was just the opposite.After he opened his mouth, he immediately grasped the core of the problem, and the content was very clear, specific and informative.This, combined with his manly energy and novel phrases, made his speech very attractive.

I use this example not to say that a university professor’s speech level is not as good as that of an ordinary peddler, but to illustrate that a person who speaks concretely and clearly—no matter what the city he is educated in—can also have the ability to attract others’ interest. This technique is important, so I'm going to use a few examples to get it stuck in your mind.I hope you will always remember it and never forget it.For example, we could say that Martin Luther was "stubborn and naughty" as a child.But wouldn't it be more interesting and better if we said that Martin Luther admitted that his teacher often slapped him on the palms, sometimes "as many as fifteen times in one morning"?Because words like "stubborn and mischievous" are hard to attract people's attention.But if you say how many hits, it sounds more specific.

The writing method of ancient biographies often uses many general sentences with unclear meanings. Aristotle called it "the refuge of cowardly thoughts", which really hits the nail on the head.The writing method of modern biography should cite clear facts, and the semantic meaning is naturally clear and clear.John Doe had "poor but honest parents," says old-fashioned biographers.The new biography says that John Dee's father could not afford shoe covers, so he had to wrap them in sackcloth to keep his feet dry and warm when it snowed; No water was added to the milk, and sick horses were never sold as healthy.This statement also refers to his parents as "poor but honest".Is not it?Isn't that more interesting than saying "poor but honest"?As helpful as it is to the modern biographer, it must be equally valid to the modern orator.