Chapter 27 Chapter Two Title: The Inner Soul of Speech

Speech as a realistic social activity, its purpose or goal can be summarized in one sentence, that is, to strive for the maximum "commonality".The "commonality" mentioned here means "to achieve consensus and build sympathy".But all kinds of speeches have their own purposes, there are macro and micro purposes, as well as on-site and after-the-scene purposes. Generally speaking, the purpose of a speech is to reach a consensus between the speaker and the audience, so that the audience can change their attitudes, arouse actions, and push human society towards an ideal state.Whether the speech is to promote one's own propositions, viewpoints, or to spread moral and ethical sentiments, or to impart scientific and cultural knowledge and skills, it is all to make the audience agree with one's own propositions, viewpoints and positions to achieve consensus, and on this basis to stimulate the audience's enthusiasm. Take practical actions to move towards the ideal state.This is the public purpose and meaning of speech.

From the point of view of the micro purpose of the speech, so far, there is no full-time speaker.Today's speakers have their own formal occupation or profession.For example, Lincoln was president and Churchill was prime minister.Due to the differences in various factors such as different occupations, different majors, and different experiences, the purpose and content of the speeches are also different.On a micro level, every speech by every speaker has a different specific purpose. We can also look at the purpose of the speech from the purpose pursued by the speaker. Generally, there are two types of on-site purpose and after-the-scene purpose.

From the point of view of the purpose of the scene, every speaker hopes that the speech will be successful.This purpose can be fully reflected from the on-site and intuitive effects, such as the expressions and emotions of the audience, or laughing, or full of righteous indignation, or cheering, or tears, or shouting slogans, or thunderous applause, which shows the speaker's The practical purpose meets the practical purpose of the audience and resonates.Of course, the effect of the scene is only superficial, the key is the practical purpose of the speaker and the content of the speech touched the hearts of the audience.

Of course, any speaker will not only stop at the purpose of the scene, but pursue the purpose after the show, that is, the actual actions of the audience, which is the ultimate goal of the speaker. When Napoleon led his troops on an expedition to Egypt, they encountered the main force of the enemy near the pyramids. The situation was critical. Napoleon stood in front of the cavalry and gave a loud speech: "Soldiers, today the four thousand years of history are looking at you from the top of these pyramids!" His speech boosted the morale of the exhausted French army and finally defeated the enemy.

Napoleon's speech had an intuitive effect on the scene, boosted morale, and the soldiers fought the enemy bravely and won the victory, thus achieving the goal after the field. In short, the purpose of the speech scene is the premise and basis of the purpose after the speech, and the purpose after the speech is the destination of the purpose of the scene.Without the realization of the on-site purpose, there can be no realization of the after-show purpose; if only the after-show purpose is pursued and the on-site purpose is neglected, the after-show purpose is nothing but empty words, and the speech will lose its meaning.Speech is not only a complex social practice, but also a tool.People always pick up tools with a purpose. There is no such thing as a speech without a purpose. The only difference is whether the purpose is correct or not, and whether it is elegant or not.

Also, it's worth noting the purpose of the listener.The audience is a collection of countless individuals.Because these people are different in age, gender, education, interest, occupation, etc., the purpose of listening to speeches is naturally different. Some audiences supported Lincoln's speech on emancipating black slaves, while others opposed it. It can be seen that the purpose is fundamentally different.Even for audiences with the same purpose, speeches with the same content often take what they want and have their own emphasis.But generally speaking, the speaker's specific practical purpose and the audience's individual practical purpose are unified.

In short, each speaker must establish a clear speech purpose, achieve the unity of the macro and micro, the unity of the surface and the depth, and the unity of the present and the long-term. Only such speeches are meaningful and valuable. Once the topic is selected, there will be a general direction for the speech, but only the general direction is not enough, a specific path must be determined, and the theme must be determined.The theme is the soul of a speech, which determines the ideological strength of the speech, restricts the selection and organization of materials, and affects the way of argumentation and on-site effects.It is the concretization and clarification of the topic.Without a clear theme, a speech is like an idol without a soul. Even if the speech is extravagant, people will be confused and miss the point.

The purpose of speeches is to inform, educate, organize and inspire the masses.Therefore, the topic selection must have the significance of the times, and we must firmly grasp the problems that people generally care about and the problems that need to be solved urgently in social reality.For example, major ideological and political issues, social atmosphere and moral cultivation issues that are closely related to the real society, as well as issues that reflect the development of science and culture and promote the development of science and culture, and so on.In order to express a sense of the times and bring out new ideas, the speaker must consider the occasion, environment, and reality of the speech, as well as his own understanding of the history and current situation of the issue, and give scientific analysis and explanation to conform to the historical development. law.

The topic selection must be targeted, and it must be able to profoundly affect the audience and greatly infect the audience.Due to different ethnic groups, different personalities, different occupations, different age gaps, and different living environments and cultural accomplishments, there are great psychological differences, style differences, and emotional differences among the audience of speeches.When selecting a topic, the needs of different types of audiences should be considered, and it should be determined according to the knowledge level, hobbies, customs, etc. of audiences of different nationalities, occupations, and levels.

Only when the topic is suitable for the audience's psychology and wishes can the audience's attention be mobilized and the audience's enthusiasm and interest in listening to the lecture can be aroused.For example, it is very suitable for young people to talk about love affairs between men and women, how to view popular songs, etc., but it may not be suitable for middle-aged and elderly people.Obviously, if you talk about high-energy physics to old farmers in mountainous areas, it may not be popular no matter how well you talk; if you talk about water and soil improvement, the situation will be very different.

In order to meet the needs of different types of audiences, the selection of topics should consider the degree of adaptability.The larger the adaptability of the topic, the wider the audience; on the contrary, the smaller the adaptability, the narrower the audience.In general, the higher the degree of specialization of an issue, the smaller its fitness. You are speaking on the basis of existing knowledge base.Perhaps the reason you were asked to give a speech was: "Can you tell us about your thoughts on the current economic downturn?" A compelling and informative presentation. Among them, personal experience can be considered from the following aspects: Extraordinary experience.Think about places you've traveled, jobs you've had, or things that got you into trouble.If true, these are stories worth telling.However, don't dismiss experiences that may seem mundane to you, they may seem vivid to someone else. Professional knowledge or expertise.People want to know how things work.People are often interested in hearing about processes and steps, even if they appear to be nothing out of the ordinary to the practitioner himself. You can also build a speech around people you meet in your life.And topics like that - you can offer unique insights and insights into human nature or aspects of our culture. You'll find that the more you know about a subject, the more you feel you need to learn.Don't let this blind you to the fact that you still know far more than your potential audience about this particular area of ​​interest than they do. Strong opinions and beliefs.Think about it, what other topics can make you enthusiastic?These topics may touch on your core values, and they often make good speech topics.You feel more at ease when you deliver a speech based on a deeply held belief.Audiences will also be more empathetic—even if they hold the opposite view, they won't be so repulsed when they see your speech coming from the heart. Be aware, too, that embarrassing your audience by taking an unobjective or irrational position, or by making inappropriate self-disclosures during the speech, can affect the effectiveness of your speech. In order to choose a topic on which you will speak, all you need to do next is to consider the audience and the occasion of the speech.At this point, two questions you can ask yourself are as follows. (1) What are the audience's expectations? (2) What are the expectations of these people now? Knowing what this audience is made of and why they come together can help you troubleshoot many themes. The content of the speech should be coordinated with the atmosphere of the speech occasion, that is, the time and space environment of the speech should be considered.The space-time environment not only refers to the layout of the speech site, but also includes factors such as time, background, organization and audience.Obviously, it is absurd to talk about sadness on a festive occasion and joy in a sad atmosphere. The topic selection should also take into account the time available for speaking.According to psychological research, the average person's brain can only explain or receive one or two important questions within an hour.Therefore, the choice of speech topics must be concentrated and concise, full of characteristics, and the time must be properly grasped.If you participate in a speech contest, it is even more necessary to understand the limited time; otherwise, you will be in a hurry and even at a loss when you modify the content on the spot, add or delete.In addition, when attending a meeting with many people speaking, you must also consider whether the order of your speech is at the beginning, middle or end of the meeting, and you must also understand the situation of the speaker before your speech and the speaker after your speech .These are closely related to the audience's psychological habits and emotions, and cannot be ignored. All else being equal, the best themes are those that are both timely and timeless.Certain topics have always been, and always will be, the subjects of much talked about. When you connect a contemporary event with some topic of human immortality, you connect the two elements of timeliness and eternity.But it does not mean that as long as these elements are present, this theme is a good theme.Consider first the criteria of timing.A speech on an event may be called timely if it occupies the front page of the newspaper for two weeks in a row.But unless you can convey your perspective on this to your audience in a broader sense, you can only provide them with a fairly limited amount of useful information.You wasted their precious time. The converse is also true: if you don't connect your subject to a real-world issue at hand, there's a good chance your audience won't be interested or bothered by your arcane exposition.A deep, timeless theme should be linked to its real reflection, and a well-timed speech should point out the timeless implications of that theme.