HOW TO PREPARE FOR DEBATE AND SPEECH (part 4)

                       HOW FAMOUS SPEAKERS PREPARED THEIR ADDRESSES

               1. “The art of war” said Napoleon, “is a science in which nothing succeeds which has not been calculated and thought out”. That is as true of speaking as of shooting. A talk is a voyage. It must be charted. The speaker who starts with nowhere, usually gets there.

                          2.  No infallible, ironclad rules can be given for the arrangement of ideas and the construction of all talks. Each address has its own particular problems.

                   3.    The speaker should cover a point thoroughly while he is on it and then not refer it again. There should be no darting from one thing to another and then back again as aimlessly as a bat in the twilight.

                      4.   The late Dr. Conwell built many of his talks on this plan:

               a). State your facts.

               b). Argue from them.

               c). Appeal for action. 
  5.    You will probably find this plan very helpful:

               a). Show something thing that is wrong.

               b). Show how to remedy it.

               c). Appeal for action.

  6.     Here is an excellent speech plan:

                a). Secure interested attention.

                 b). Win confidence.

                 c). State your facts.

                 d). Appeal to the motives that make men act.

                          7.    All the facts on both sides of your subject must be collected, arranged, studied, and digested.  Prove them;  be sure the are facts; then think out for yourself the solution those facts compel.

                    8.  Before speaking, Lincoln thought out his conclusions with mathematical exactness. When he was forty years of age, and after he had been a member of Congress, he studiedEuclid so that he could detect sophistry and demonstrate his conclusions.

                    9. When Theodore Roosevelt was preparing a speech, he dug up all the facts, appraised them, then dictated his speech very rapidly, corrected the typewritten copy, and finally dictated  it all over again.

                         10. Notes destroy about fifty percent of the interest in your talk. Avoid them. Above all, do not read your speech. An audience can hardly be brought to endure listening to a read speech.

             11.  After you have thought out and arranged your speech, then practice it silently as you walk along the street. Also get off somewhere by yourself and go over it from beginning  to end, letting yourself go. Imagine that you are addressing a real audience. The more of this you do ,the  more comfortable you will feel when the time comes for you to make your speech.

HOW TO PREPARE FOR DEBATE OR SPEECH part 3

                           SELF CONFIDENCE THROUGH PREPARATION
1. When a speaker has a real message in his hand and heart- an inner urge to speak, he is almost sure to    do himself credit. A well prepared speech is already nine-tenth delivered.

2. What is preparation? The setting down of mechanical sentences on paper? The memorizing of phrases? Not at all. Real preparation consists of digging something out of yourself, in assembling and arranging your own thoughts, in cherishing and nurturing your own convictions.
 
3.   Do not sit down to manufacture a speech in thirty minutes. A speech can’t be cooked to order like a  steak. A speech must grow. Select your topic early in the week, think over it during odd moments, brood over it, sleep over it, dream over it. Discuss it with friends. Make it a topic of conversation. Ask yourself all possible questions concerning it. Put down on pieces of paper all thoughts and illustrations that come to you and keep reaching out for more. Ideas, suggestions, illustrations will come drifting to you at sundry times –when you are bathing, when you are driving downtown, when you are waiting for dinner to be served. That was Lincoln’s method. It has been the method of almost all successful speakers.

HOW TO PREPARE FOR DEBATE OR SPEECH PART 2

Develop Courage And Self Confidence

1.               A large number of students and other people are desirous of training debates and speeches now. The prime reason is that they want to conquer their nervousness, to be able to think on their feet and to speak with self confidence and ease before a group of any size.

2.                The ability to do this is not difficult to acquire. It is not a gift bestowed by Providence on only a few rarely endowed individuals. It is like the ability to play golf: any man or woman every person can develop his own latent capacity if he has sufficient desire to do so.

3.       Many experienced speakers can think better and talk better when facing a group than in conversation with an individual. The presence of larger number proves to be a stimulus. An inspiration. If you faithfully follow my suggestions, a time may come that you will look forward with positive pleasure to making an address.

4.       Do not imagine that your case is unusual. Many men who afterwards  became famous speakers were, at the outset of their carriers, beset with self- consciousness and almost paralyzed with audience fright. This was the experience of Bryan, Jean Jaues, Llyod George, Charles Stewart Parnell, john Bright, Sheridan and host of others.

5.       No matter how often you speak, you may always experience this self-consciousness just before you begin; but in a few seconds after you have gotten on your feet, it will vanish completely.

6.       In order to get most out of this article and to get it with rapidity and dispatch, do four things: 

a)      Start with a strong and persistent desire. Enumerate the benefits this effort to train yourself will bring you. Think what it can mean to you .Arouse your enthusiasm for it. Think what it can mean to you financially, socially and in terms of increased influence and leadership. Remember that upon the depth of your desire will depend the swiftness of your progress.

    b) Prepare. You can’t feel confident unless you know what are you going to say.

c) Act confident. “To feel brave” advises Professor William James, “act as if we were brave, use   all of our will to that end, and a courage fit will very likely replace the fit of fear”.

d) Practice. This is the most important point of all. Fear is the result of lack of confidence; and lack of confidence is the result of not knowing what you can do; and that is caused by lack of experience. So get a record of successful experience behind you, and your fears will vanish.