How to Deliver a TED Talk: Secrets of the World's Most Inspiring Presentations, revised and expanded new edition, with a foreword by Richard St. John

CHAPTER 11

Mastering Your Verbal Delivery

TIP 71: Adopt the tone of a passionate one-on-one conversationalist.

To properly grace the TED stage, you must master verbal delivery. Fortunately, you have fertile opportunities to practice, as public speaking is an amplified version of everyday conversation. This, of course, is a double-edged sword because the imperfections that exist in regular speech are magnified during presentations. However, with a small amount of practice, you can transform your verbal delivery both on and off stage.

With the exception of spoken-word artists and classically trained storytellers, most TED speakers tend to adopt the speaking persona of the passionate conversationalist. To pull this off, speak in your own voice with ...