The Lost Art of the Great Speech: How to Write It * How to Deliver It

Getting to know you

It's important to know yourself. Strangely enough, most of us don't know ourselves very well. A person may have a nervous habit that is apparent only to a spouse, a friend, or someone else who knows the person well. The pressure of standing before an audience may cause the person to exaggerate the habit. That's why a video camera is a useful device for speakers' training. If you could see a video of yourself delivering a speech, or practicing a speech, you could probably detect many problems that would be fairly easy to correct. This is absolutely the best way to evaluate what you say, how you say it, and how you look while you're saying it.

If seeing yourself on video is impossible, ask your spouse or a friend whether you ...