Chapter 39 Dramatize one's own experience while telling an example

When telling a case, be sure to recreate the things in your own experience, so as to have the same effect on the audience as your original feeling.Dramatize your experiences to make them sound more interesting and empowering. In your speech, you should spend most of your time describing experiences that have inspired you.Psychologists say that we learn in two ways: one is the law of practice, which allows a series of similar events to lead to changes in behavior patterns; the other is the law of effect, so that a single event may have a strong shock and cause our behavior change.We usually have many extraordinary experiences, and we don't need to spend too much time searching for them.Much of our behavior is guided by these experiences.Reframing these events turns them into a factual basis for influencing the behavior of others.This should be easy for us to do, since people respond to words in much the same way as they respond to real events.When telling a case, be sure to recreate the things in your own experience, so as to have the same effect on the audience as your original feeling.Dramatize your experiences to make them sound more interesting and empowering.The following suggestions can make the steps of the example clear, powerful and meaningful.

This kind of example can be powerful if it is a single event that once had a powerful impact on your life.It may not have taken more than a few seconds, but in that brief moment, you have learned an unforgettable lesson.For example, when a person in our class told the story that he wanted to swim ashore from the side of the overturned boat, I believe that every listener made up his mind that if he was faced with a similar situation, he would follow his advice and stay by the side of the boat. until rescuers arrive.And after I heard another speaker tell the harrowing story of a child and an upside-down electric lawnmower, it left a vivid impression on my mind every time I encountered children on my electric lawnmower. When hovering near the grass machine, I suddenly become more alert.Many of our teachers, because they were so impressed by what they heard in class, took immediate action to prevent similar accidents from happening in our neighborhood.For example, a teacher put a fire extinguisher in the kitchen because he heard a lecture and vividly reproduced a fire caused by a cooking accident.Another took a lesson from another incident about a mother who went berserk after finding her child passed out in the bathroom clutching a bottle of poison to label all bottles containing the poisonous substance and take special care to keep it Keep out of reach of children.

One lesson you'll never forget is a must for persuasive speaking.Use this kind of incident to move your audience to take action—it will happen to you, it will happen to them, so it is better to listen to your advice and do what you want them to do. Doing so grabs the audience's attention immediately.Some speakers don't get noticed right away, and a lot of the time it's because they're saying clichés that the audience isn't really interested in.Would it be jarring if I said, "Man, I'm not used to public speaking?"But many trite ways to start are just as annoying.Going into great detail about how you chose your topic, or saying you weren't prepared enough, or announcing a title or theme like a preacher is preaching, are all things you must avoid in short speeches that get action.

Remember an adage from a leading newspaper and magazine writer: Start in the middle of your story to grab your audience's attention immediately.Here's a list of opening lines that caught my attention like a magnet: "In 1942, I found myself lying in a hospital bed." "At breakfast yesterday, my wife was pouring coffee..." "Last July when As I was driving down Route 42 quickly..." "The door to my office opened and our foreman, Charlie Fan, barged in." "I was fishing in the middle of the lake when I looked up and saw a speedboat coming towards I'm coming quickly." When you open with a clear when, where, who, what, and why, you're using one of the oldest forms of attention-grabbing communication. "Once upon a time" is a magical word that opens the floodgates of children's fantasies.In the same playful way, you can grab the audience's mind right from the start.

Details are not interesting in themselves.A room littered with furniture and antiques won't look good, and a picture full of irrelevant details won't hold the eye.Likewise, too many irrelevant details can make conversation and public speaking a boring endurance test.So you want to use only details that emphasize the point and why of your presentation.If you want to tell everyone that you should check the condition of your car before going on a long trip, then you should detail the tragedies that happened because you didn't check your car before you went on a trip.But if you talk about how you saw the scenery, or where you spent the night when you arrived at your destination, you will only obscure the point and distract attention.

However, if you focus on your topic and use details to render your story, it is indeed the best way.It helps you recreate the situation so that the audience can feel it.Simply saying that you have been in an accident due to negligence in the past, it is difficult to make the audience drive carefully, this method is stupid and uninteresting.If you translate your thrilling experience into words and use various words to convey your feelings, then you can imprint this event in the hearts of your audience, and they will believe your advice.Consider the following example, a lecture given by a student:

"In 1949, on the morning before Christmas, I was driving north on Route 41 in Indiana with my wife and two children in the car. Hours and hours of driving - the slightest touch of the steering wheel would make my 'Ford' slide like hell. Hour by hour just like that. “We came to an open turn. The ice was starting to melt, so I was on the gas, trying to make up for lost time. Everyone else seemed to be in a hurry, trying to get to Chicago first. The tension of danger eased, and the children began to sing in the backseat. "The car started to go uphill and entered a forest area. When the car was speeding to the top, suddenly I saw - but it was too late - because there was no sunlight on the northern hillside, the ice on the road had not melted. We The car skidded and went out. We flew over the curb, completely out of control, and then fell into the snowdrift, still standing upright. The door of the car was smashed, and we were covered with broken glass."

The rich details in this case make it easy for the audience to be on the scene.You want the audience to see what you see, hear what you hear, and feel what you feel.The only way to do this is to use rich and specific details.As pointed out in the first chapter of the second part, clarify the five questions of time, place, person, event and reason to stimulate the audience's visual imagination. In addition to using pictorial details, the speaker should also reproduce the situation.Oratory has something in common with its sister art "acting," and all famous orators have an element of acting.It is not a rare quality to be found only in rhetoricians; children have it a lot, and many people we know have it too, for facial expression, imitation, or gesture.Most of us have some kind of these skills, and with a little effort and practice, we can develop more of them.

When you describe an event, the more action and emotion you put in it, the more impressive it will be for your audience.No matter how detailed a speech may be, it is powerless if the speaker does not tell it with recreative fervor.Do you want to describe a fire to us?Then pass on to us the feeling of intensity, anxiety, excitement, and tension that people feel when the fire brigade is fighting the flames.Do you want to tell us about a quarrel you had with your neighbors?Bring it back before our eyes, make it dramatic.Do you want to tell about the panic that came over you during your final struggle in the water?Let us feel the desperation in those terrible moments of life.One of the purposes of giving examples is to make your speech memorable.Your audience will remember what you said, and what you asked them to do, only if you imprint the example on their minds.We can always remember Washington's honesty because of the cherry tree thing, which has been deeply rooted in Weems' biography.The Bible "New Testament" is a rich treasure house of good words and deeds. Its moral principles are conveyed and strengthened by examples rich in human interest, such as the story of "the good Samaritan".

This kind of example, in addition to making your speech easy to remember, can also make your speech more interesting, persuasive, and easier to understand.What life has taught you has been re-perceived by the audience, who, in a sense, have resolved to respond as you will. "I understand what he said, I know where he is now!" It's like a tour guide, taking tourists to see the scenery of Paris in one day.It's not impossible, but just like you can see the National Museum of American History in thirty minutes, you don't know what you're seeing, jumping from point to point like an agile goat.

Professor William James pointed out in his speech to the teachers that a person can only express his point of view on one point in a speech.The speech he refers to refers to the kind of speech that is limited to one hour, but I have heard a speaker give a three-minute speech. He said at the beginning that he wanted to talk about eleven points.It takes an average of sixteen and a half seconds to illustrate a point.I was extremely surprised at the time, how could such a "smart" person actually want to do such a ridiculous thing, is it incredible?Of course, this is also an extreme example, but that way, if not to that extent, is enough to hinder any novice.It's like a tour guide, taking tourists to see the scenery of Paris in one day.It's not impossible, but just like you can see the National Museum of American History in thirty minutes, you don't know what you're seeing, jumping from point to point like an agile goat. Take the title speech of the Labor Union, for example. You cannot imagine telling us in three or six minutes why they were founded, what methods they adopted, what they achieved, what they failed, how to settle industrial disputes, and so on.If you try desperately to do it, no one will have an idea of ​​what you're saying.It will be just a messy, vague, and all-too-simplistic outline. Wouldn't it be wiser if you took only one aspect of the trade unions and dealt with them at length?Of course.This way you will leave a single impression on your audience, but be thorough and easy to understand and remember. However, if there is really a lot to talk about, I suggest you at least give a brief summary at the end.One morning, I went to visit the general manager of a company, only to find an unfamiliar name on his door.The HR team leader is an old friend of mine, and he said: "His name cheated him." "His name?" I didn't understand. "Isn't he one of the directors who controls this company?" "I'm talking about his nickname," said the friend, "his nickname was 'Where's He Now.' Everyone called him 'Where's He Now Jones.' So he didn't last long, and the family changed. A relative took his place. Because he never bothered to understand the company's business overview, he wandered here and there, and passed the long days by running around in this way. He thought it more important to him to see a clerk in the shipping department turn off a light, or see a stenographer pick up a piece of paper, than to research a big deal. He was rarely in the office, so we called him 'he where are you now'." "Where's He Now Jones" reminds me of many speakers who fail to perform better because, like Mr. Jones, they try to cover too much ground.Haven't you heard their speeches?As they talked and talked, did you ever wonder, "Where is he now?" Some experienced speakers sometimes make this mistake.Perhaps they are so multifaceted that they fail to see the danger of distraction.You should not be like them, you should stick to the theme.If you make yourself clear, the audience will say something like: "I understand what he said, and I know where he is now!" Almost all themes can be delivered in time order, space order or logical order of things. For example, in chronological order, materials can be processed according to the arrangement of past, present, and future, or flashbacks can be started from a certain day.The process of speaking starts from rough raw materials, then goes through various manufacturing stages, and finally completes the product.As for how much detail is included in it, of course it depends on how much time is available to determine. In terms of spatial order, a certain point can be used as a foothold, and then expanded outwards; or it can be processed according to orientation, such as north, south, east and west.If you want to describe the city of Washington, you can lead the audience from the top of Capitol Hill to describe interesting places in various directions.If you describe a jet engine or an automobile, it is best to break it down into its component parts and then talk about it.And some themes themselves have their own logical order.For example, the structure of the U.S. government has its original organizational form. If you discuss it in terms of its legislative, executive, and judicial branches, the effect will be clear.