Chapter 6
Crafting a Captivating Speech
IN THIS CHAPTER
Outlining your speech … sort of
Making your speech sound like you
Cuing yourself with punctuation
Honing your speech-writing skills with a few exercises
Can you remember the last time you were at a conference and a very interesting keynote speaker with presumably a lot to say droned on mindlessly for what seemed (or really was) hours, spewing information in no particular order? Probably not. Those people are weeded out early in the process, and regardless of their merit and worldliness, they don’t often get to go onstage and vomit words. At least not twice.
This highlights a very important point you must grasp to get anywhere in public speaking: Presentation is king — as it is in publishing.
Of course, that’s not an absolute rule. You must have something to say in order to say it. I don’t know anything about plumbing, and even if I craft the best speech I can about the mechanism below my toilet, it will still come out not great. ...
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