How to Prepare, Stage, and Deliver WINNING PRESENTATIONS

Effective Language Is Forceful

The great speakers, the ones to whom we listen and by whom we are moved, almost always use language well. Susan B. Anthony, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King were acclaimed as outstanding speakers because their ideas met the needs of their times and their messages were spoken in words and phrasing that were stirring and memorable. Their speeches are often quoted.

The business conference room is not the same as the political platform, yet the speakers discussing lasers or cash flows who are effective generally have the ability to use the language well. Conversely, the speakers who bore us or leave us unimpressed often do so, in large part, because of bland or murky language, such as "At this ...