SURE YOUR AUDIENCE LISTENS TO WHAT YOU SAY
This is very important, it depends not so much on what you say but how you say it. People are impressed by your appearance. Man and woman as well, always look on the outward appearance. Before you appear in public make sure you are clean. Your posture is import. Its not pose. You are not there to exhibit yourself, you are there to explain yourself. Your voice, tone, gestures, fluency, memory, matters a lot all in this rule. Also your imagination, humor etc. add spices to it.
Six:
BE SURE YOU ONLY SAY WHAT YOU INTEND TO SAY
The speaker must always be in command of himself and in control of his tongue. He must aim at one or more of the following five possible goals. To Inform, To Convince, To Activate, To Impress, To Entertain. Luther says, “Stand up cheerily — Speak up manfully – Leave off speedily”.
The end of the speech should be carefully prepared. This will enable you to finish with strength, bringing the whole to a perfect climax. The finish of the race marks out the winner so the finish of the speech is its most vital part.
Seven:
BE SURE YOU ARE NEVER SATISFIED WITH HOW YOU SAY IT.
The writer says, “The day the speaker thinks he has arrived he’s finished. If you are ever satisfied with your performance then you have lost that vital motivation of aiming to reach the top. With that gone, and a false sense of achievement having taken its place, you are most certainly on the decline”.
In speaking you will ever be a learner. Only diligent study, incessant reading, constant memorizing and continual practice will enable you to climb the hill the summit of which you are probably not destined to tread.
“The Bible should be the book of books to you. It is the Book which will give you blood and the blood is the life”. It will also give you iron in that blood. There are no pictures, stories, truths and tragedies like those of the Bible. It is the one book you can rely on “to make God known to you, Christ, grace for sinners and heaven” The writer while concluding the subjects presents some wonderful testimonies of some brainy men to the Divinity and Supremacy of the Bible. They were not known as active Christians but their contribution to the world is great and worthwhile. They are BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, THOMAS JEFFERSON, DANIEL WEBSTER, GOETHE, and MATHEW ARNOLD their firm belief and trust in the Holy Bible is projected at the end of the book. He also gives the reader a list of great books authored by the great writers, to look into. He says, “Other books especially what we might call big books will help to simulate your thinking.
The great standard works like Gibbon’s, “Decline and Fall”, Butler’s, “Analogy”, Boswell’s “Life of Johnston”, Plato’s, “Republic”, Demosthenes, “Upon the Crown”, Thomas Carlyle’s “French Revolution” and “Letters of Oliver Cromwell”, Ruskin’s “Works” and a host of others,
In poetry Dr. Shedd recommends Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare and Milton. And he personally recommends the “Crowned Masterpieces of Eloquence”
The writer continues on reading, “To read with understanding is the test of culture and sets the line of demarcation between the educated man and the ignorant. Reading is a great gift, but without understanding it is nothing.
Mark Twain had read singularly few books but those which took his fancy he read over and over again. There was not a book in his small library of favorites which was not copiously marked, thumbed and underlined. That is to read with understanding. It is wisdom, in this sense, to be a man of one book rather than to be a man of ten thousand. The writer continues, “I am not advocating parsimony in the adventure of personal reading. Every new book read, adds somethingto the bookman’s knowledge. But if my readers glance at Ruskin’s essay on King’s Treasures in The Sesame and lilies they will find an inspiring interpretation of reading and understanding. Almost every word which meets our eye has a history as interesting as if it were al living personality. Be ever vigilant, too, for the inner significance of the thought”.
“Draw up a plan for reading for the year. Read with pen and notebook in hand. Always harvest what you have read and have a system whereby you can readily enjoy that harvest when you require it. (I recommend to you Ruskin’s lecture “Sesame”. As a man is known by the company he keeps so a speaker is known by the books which he reads”.
Above all things be diligent, Solomon the great and wise King of Israel was–right: “Seeth thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before Kings; He shall not stand before mean men”, (Proverbs 22:29).
“Be sure you are never satisfied with how you say it”
Wonderful read indeed!! This book is a must for the aspiring and budding young speakers.