BUSINESS
THOMAS MICKEY
Lessons from Toastmasters
PHOTO COURTESY JANINE MUDGE bout 100 years ago, YMCA staff member Ralph Smedley founded Toastmasters International in Springfield, Illinois, to give people an opportunity to improve their public speaking skills.
Since then, Toastmasters has spread Smedley’ s philosophy around the world. Today 345,000 people call themselves Toastmasters and make up the 16,000 clubs worldwide.
Toastmasters could improve a GWA member’ s public speaking skill. Attending a meeting and joining a club may even open the door to a public speaking career. Many professional public speakers attribute their success to Toastmasters.
Educational materials from Toastmasters, such as the Competent Communication manual, reflect the group’ s long history of training public speakers. Such Toastmaster training defines a speech, highlights its goal and presents the elements of a successful speech.
DEFINING A SPEECH To give a speech means you present your message before a live audience. The structure of the speech includes three parts— introduction, body and conclusion.
The speech begins with an icebreaker, which could be a short story or anecdote. This relaxes the audience, and lets them get to know the speaker a bit.
Then the speaker presents the main idea of the speech. Before the audience invests the time and energy in listening, they need to know what single idea the speech will cover.
Finally in the introduction the speaker will highlight the division of the speech, usually in three parts. So if, for example, you were going to talk about how to grow tomatoes, you might divide your talk into preparing the site, selecting the seed or small plant and maintaining the plant during the growing season.
The body of the speech requires a discussion of the three points you highlighted in the introduction. Here the speaker employs stories, anecdotes, statistics or quotes to make each of the three points believable.
It is important to follow the specific order of the three points because you, as the speaker, set up the audience to follow the speech. The
Thomas Mickey, GWA member for 20 years, joined Toastmasters more than 25 years ago. He has served various officer positions in his local Toastmasters club in Quincy, Massachusetts, including president and area governor, overseeing several Boston clubs. He is professor emeritus at Bridgewater State University, where he taught public relations and writing. You can find his blog at AmericanGardening. net
audience expects that order.
The body of the speech takes 90 percent of the time. This is the part that has to be carefully prepared to develop the main idea in the most interesting and entertaining way possible.
After the third point in the body of the speech, the speaker begins the conclusion by repeating the main idea along with the three points used to develop that idea. Then, the speaker concludes with a story or anecdote that mirrors how the speaker began. Consider this part a neat wrap up of what you set out to do in the introduction.
GOALS FOR THE SPEECH The goal of the speech is usually to educate or persuade an audience. The speaker may intend to teach something or share an idea. On the other hand, you may want to move the audience to take some action, such as buy a book, try a new plan or adopt a best practice. Each represents different goals for a speech and demands a somewhat different structure.
ELEMENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL SPEECH
An effective speech begins with a carefully chosen main idea, expressed in words the audience can follow. That may seem like an easy order, but it is surprising how often speakers use complex language or jargon. It is a good idea to write an outline for the speech with well-chosen words that will impact the audience. Bring the outline to the lectern. It is seldom helpful to write out the entire speech.
Tone and volume of voice, eye contact and body gestures contribute to a successful speech. The speaker’ s voice needs a certain pace in timing— not too fast, not too slow and with pauses for effect. Volume is important because the entire audience needs to experience the speech. The speaker must look at the audience during most, if not all, of the speech. Where appropriate, hand gestures tell the audience the speaker is human and likable, and not stiff and distant. These issues are different from the choice of a main idea and the structure of the speech, but nonetheless are as important for success.
Speakers everywhere ought give a note of thanks to Smedley. Through his Toastmasters organization, he has provided a philosophy of public speaking in a practical form. Every week, clubs scattered around the world follow that philosophy in their meetings. More confident speakers become the result.
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