Persuasive Speech Outline, with Examples
Updated March 17, 2021 — Gini Beqiri
A persuasive speech is a speech that is given with the intention of convincing the audience to believe or do something. This could be virtually anything — voting, organ donation, recycling, and so on.
A successful persuasive speech effectively convinces the audience to your point of view, providing you come across as trustworthy and knowledgeable about the topic you’re discussing.
So, how do you start convincing a group of strangers to share your opinion? And how do you connect with them enough to earn their trust?
Topics for your persuasive speech
We’ve made a list of persuasive speech topics you could use next time you’re asked to give one. The topics are thought-provoking and things which many people have an opinion on.
When using any of our persuasive speech ideas, make sure you have a solid knowledge about the topic you’re speaking about — and make sure you discuss counter arguments too.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- All school children should wear a uniform
- Facebook is making people more socially anxious
- It should be illegal to drive over the age of 80
- Lying isn’t always wrong
- The case for organ donation
Read our full list of 75 persuasive speech topics and ideas.
Preparation: Consider your audience
As with any speech, preparation is crucial. Before you put pen to paper, think about what you want to achieve with your speech. This will help organise your thoughts as you realistically can only cover 2-4 main points before your audience get bored.
It’s also useful to think about who your audience are at this point. If they are unlikely to know much about your topic then you’ll need to factor in context of your topic when planning the structure and length of your speech.
You should also consider their:
- Age
- Gender
- Cultural or religious backgrounds
- Shared concerns, attitudes and problems
- Shared interests, beliefs and hopes
- Baseline attitude — are they hostile, neutral, or open to change?
The factors above will all determine the approach you take to writing your speech. For example, if your topic is about childhood obesity, you could begin with a story about your own children or a shared concern every parent has. This would suit an audience who are more likely to be parents than young professionals who have only just left college.
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Remember the 3 main approaches to persuade others
There are three main approaches used to persuade others:
- Ethos
- Pathos
- Logos
The ethos approach appeals to the audience’s ethics and morals, such as what is the ‘right thing’ to do for humanity, saving the environment, etc.
Pathos persuasion is when you appeal to the audience’s emotions, such as when you tell a story that makes them the main character in a difficult situation.
The logos approach to giving a persuasive speech is when you appeal to the audience’s logic — ie. your speech is essentially more driven by facts and logic. The benefit of this technique is that your point of view becomes virtually indisputable because you make the audience feel that only your view is the logical one.
- Ethos, Pathos, Logos: 3 Pillars of Public Speaking and Persuasion
Ideas for your persuasive speech outline
1. Structure of your persuasive speech
The opening and closing of speech are the most important. Consider these carefully when thinking about your persuasive speech outline. A strong opening ensures you have the audience’s attention from the start and gives them a positive first impression of you.
You’ll want to start with a strong opening such as an attention grabbing statement, statistic of fact.
These are usually dramatic or shocking, such as:
Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will be dead from the food that they eat — Jamie Oliver
Another good way of starting a persuasive speech is to include your audience in the picture you’re trying to paint. By making them part of the story, you’re embedding an emotional connection between them and your speech.
You could do this in a more toned-down way by talking about something you know that your audience has in common with you. It’s also helpful at this point to include your credentials in a persuasive speech to gain your audience’s trust.
Obama would spend hours with his team working on the opening and closing statements of his speech.
2. Stating your argument
You should pick between 2 and 4 themes to discuss during your speech so that you have enough time to explain your viewpoint and convince your audience to the same way of thinking.
It’s important that each of your points transitions seamlessly into the next one so that your speech has a logical flow. Work on your connecting sentences between each of your themes so that your speech is easy to listen to.
Your argument should be backed up by objective research and not purely your subjective opinion. Use examples, analogies, and stories so that the audience can relate more easily to your topic, and therefore are more likely to be persuaded to your point of view.
3. Addressing counter-arguments
Any balanced theory or thought addresses and disputes counter-arguments made against it. By addressing these, you’ll strengthen your persuasive speech by refuting your audience’s objections and you’ll show that you are knowledgeable to other thoughts on the topic.
When describing an opposing point of view, don’t explain it in a bias way — explain it in the same way someone who holds that view would describe it. That way, you won’t irritate members of your audience who disagree with you and you’ll show that you’ve reached your point of view through reasoned judgement.
Simply identify any counter-argument and pose explanations against them.
- Complete Guide to Debating
4. Closing your speech
Your closing line of your speech is your last chance to convince your audience about what you’re saying. It’s also most likely to be the sentence they remember most about your entire speech so make sure it’s a good one!
The most effective persuasive speeches end with a call to action. For example, if you’ve been speaking about organ donation, your call to action might be asking the audience to register as donors.
The most effective persuasive speeches end with a call to action.
If audience members ask you questions, make sure you listen carefully and respectfully to the full question. Don’t interject in the middle of a question or become defensive.
You should show that you have carefully considered their viewpoint and refute it in an objective way (if you have opposing opinions).
Ensure you remain patient, friendly and polite at all times.
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Example 1: Persuasive speech outline
This example is from the Kentucky Community and Technical College.
Specific purpose
To persuade my audience to start walking in order to improve their health.
Central idea
Regular walking can improve both your mental and physical health.
Introduction
Let’s be honest, we lead an easy life: automatic dishwashers, riding lawnmowers, T.V. remote controls, automatic garage door openers, power screwdrivers, bread machines, electric pencil sharpeners, etc., etc. etc. We live in a time-saving, energy-saving, convenient society. It’s a wonderful life. Or is it?
Continue reading
Example 2: Persuasive speech
Tips for delivering your persuasive speech
- Practice, practice, and practice some more.
Record yourself speaking and listen for any nervous habits you have such as a nervous laugh, excessive use of filler words, or speaking too quickly. - Show confident body language. Stand with your legs hip width apart with your shoulders centrally aligned. Ground your feet to the floor and place your hands beside your body so that hand gestures come freely. Your audience won’t be convinced about your argument if you don’t sound confident in it. Find out more about confident body language here.
- Don’t memorise your speech word-for-word or read off a script. If you memorise your persuasive speech, you’ll sound less authentic and panic if you lose your place. Similarly, if you read off a script you won’t sound genuine and you won’t be able to connect with the audience by making eye contact. In turn, you’ll come across as less trustworthy and knowledgeable. You could simply remember your key points instead, or learn your opening and closing sentences.
- Remember to use facial expressions when storytelling — they make you more relatable. By sharing a personal story you’ll more likely be speaking your truth which will help you build a connection with the audience too. Facial expressions help bring your story to life and transport the audience into your situation.
- Keep your speech as concise as possible. When practicing the delivery, see if you can edit it to have the same meaning but in a more succinct way. This will keep the audience engaged.
The best persuasive speech ideas are those that spark a level of controversy. However, a public speech is not the time to express an opinion that is considered outside the norm. If in doubt, play it safe and stick to topics that divide opinions about 50-50.
Bear in mind who your audience are and plan your persuasive speech outline accordingly, with researched evidence to support your argument.
It’s important to consider counter-arguments to show that you are knowledgeable about the topic as a whole and not bias towards your own line of thought.
Easy persuasive speech topics — 90 examples
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90 persuasive topic suggestions + resources for writing persuasive speeches
By: Susan Dugdale | Last modified: 08-05-2022
Let’s be right up front about this.
‘Easy’ and ‘persuasive’ are seldom paired when it comes to speech topics! Therefore examples of easy persuasive speech topics are a bit of a rarity, and finding them can be tricky.
However all is not completely lost.
They can, and do, come together, but only if you work at it. Let me show you how.
What’s on this page
- 90 potentially easy persuasive speech topics
- the myth of ‘easy’ and an ‘easy speech’
- what makes a successful persuasive speech
- how a persuasive speech topic can become easy
- additional persuasive speech resources
The myth of ‘easy’ and an ‘easy’ speech
That word ‘easy’ is very tempting. It seductively implies something you can fling together, without a lot of effort, at short notice.
An ‘easy’ speech is not going to take a lot of work to plan, research, to write, or to practice. Everything needed to prepare it will be done without hassle, because it’s, ‘easy’. The entire process will flow smoothly from start to finish without fuss.
When you present the speech the audience will be spell-bound, riveted by your outstanding choice of subject and its treatment. In short, they will be amazed.
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What a successful persuasive speech usually takes
To give a successful persuasive speech means being able to use a compelling mix of reasoning and emotional appeal to convince whoever you are talking to that your point of view is right.
Generally doing that well takes thought and effort.
You have to have chosen a subject your audience will be genuinely interested in and use just the right combination of logical reasoning and emotional appeal to engage and hold them from the first words you say till your last. That in turn means thinking your speech through carefully, step by step, and then doing whatever is needed to make it work.
Those things include:
- deciding on a specific speech purpose, (what you want people to do as a result of listening to your speech)
- research to pull facts together to ground your speech, to give you a solid platform to stand on
- understanding your audience so you know how best to shape your material to address their concerns
- sorting out any additional resources you may want to use (eg. images, graphs, hand outs …)
- practice, and then more practice.
You see? Easy and persuasive don’t seem to have a lot in common.
However, there is a way through.
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How a persuasive speech topic becomes easy
You’ll be glad to know there are exceptions.
A persuasive topic becomes ‘easy’ if:
- it fits with the criteria you’ve been given,
- you already know a lot about it,
- there’s a readily accessible, and credible body of knowledge covering it,
- you’re passionate about it, and
- you genuinely want to do what is required to cover it well.
Difficulties miraculously melt away when you are totally engrossed!
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90 potentially easy persuasive speech topics
Below are 90 possible persuasive topics chosen for their broad appeal, and because they are subjects people generally feel strongly about.
Read them through, making a note of any that jump out and that you think you may be able to use. These will be the ones you’ll find much ‘easier’ than the others because you’re already interested!
Easy persuasive speech topics 1-10
- Having a pet
makes their owner a better person.
- The future has
already been decided. - We need to
understand and learn from our history. - The death
penalty is never acceptable. - Life was better
before the influence of online social media took over. - Adversity makes
a person stronger. - It is better to
earn your own living rather than to be financially provided for by
someone else. - The amount of
money a person has is not a meaningful measure of success. - All tobacco
products should be banned - Good health
care should be available to all people.
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Easy persuasive speech topic examples 11- 20
- Subliminal
advertising should be banned. - Men and women
should receive the same work place benefits. - No child should
be denied an education on the grounds of gender, race or poverty. - A school
uniform helps make everyone equal. - All children
should be welcome in the world, regardless of the circumstances of
their birth.
- Poor
nutritional health in first world countries is the result of poor
food choices. - Sugar should be
banned. - Child care
should be free. - Parents should be equally responsible for child care.
- The family who
eats together stays together.
Persuasive speech topic ideas 21- 30
- War is never
right. - Censorship is
sensible on the internet. - Children should
have their use of social media and the internet monitored. - Abortion on
demand should be a right. - Hate is not
natural. It is a learned behavior. - Immigrants
should be welcomed and helped rather than banned. - Violence breeds
violence. - Adults wanting
children should be required to hold a parenting license. - The same
adoption laws should apply to whoever wants to adopt a child. - Fear fuels
violence.
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Topic suggestions for persuasive speeches 31- 40
- Race crime
is the result of ignorance.
- Food waste is
criminal. - Money never
solves problems. - Satire keeps us
sane, and honest. - Art/music/dance
is necessary for survival. - Graffiti is art
too. - People who are
suffering from mental ill-health should be treated similarly to
those suffering from physical ill-health. - To be a little
bit crazy is a good thing. - We need to move
to keep fit, functioning and balanced. - The elderly
should be cared for in their own homes.
Ideas for easy persuasive speeches 41- 50
- Those who
want to die should be allowed to with dignity. - The real reason
a bully bullies is never the person who is getting bullied. - Love makes the
world go around. - People should
never be cloned. - Genetic
engineering should be banned. - Using a mobile
phone while driving should be illegal. - Keeping animals
in zoos is inhumane. - A driver’s
license test should be taken every 3 years.
- A vegan diet is
not natural. - Fossil fuels
should be phased out.
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Examples of easy persuasive speech topics 51 — 60
- Unmonitored
use of facial recognition technology is a violation of individual
rights. - The use of any
form of corporal punishment should be banned. - Everyone should
spend several months per year working for the betterment of others
in a non-profit social service organization. - Thanks and
gratitude should be regularly expressed for everything good in our
lives. - Everyone
deserves to be loved. - Discipline is
good for us. - To be
vulnerable is to be strong. - Children should
come with a user manual. - The arts are
equally as valuable as the sciences. - Laughter heals.
Speech topics for easy persuasive speeches 61 — 70
- Real life is
stranger than fiction. - Recycling
should be compulsory. - A greener world
is necessary for our survival.
- Welfare should
start at home. - Financial
education is essential. - True equality
is a fantasy. - Everyone
deserves a living wage. - The fast food
industry is responsible for many of the Western World’s health
problems. - A sugar tax
would help control the consumption of foods with high sugar content. - Homework should
be banned.
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Persuasive speech topic suggestions 71 — 80
- Everybody
should learn to cook and clean for themselves. - Everybody’s
screen time should be monitored. - Tithing helps
us take care of those who can’t help themselves. - Expressing
oneself freely is more important than getting the grammar,
punctuation and spelling right. - Sticks and
stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me is a lie. - Vacations are
essential. - Team sports
build good character traits. - All forms of
gender bias should be illegal. - Being outdoors
in nature heals.
- Cosmetic and
reconstructive surgery should only be for those who genuinely need
it.
Easy topics for persuasive speeches 81 — 90
- The ability
to sustain a real time face to face conversation is being lost due
to our high use of smart phones. - Cheating on a
test or in an examination is understandable. - We must never
tell lies to children except about Father Christmas, the tooth fairy
and the Easter Rabbit. - Single sex
schools are better for girls. - Getting top
marks in an examination is not the only way to prove a person’s
intelligence. - Everybody is
entitled to privacy, including children and teenagers. - Table manners
are important. - Clothes speak
louder than words. - Poverty is a
state of mind. - Education is
the passport to a better life.
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More persuasive speech resources
Persuasive speech topics
- 105 fun persuasive speech topics: ideal for light-hearted, informal speeches
- 100 non-boring persuasive speech ideas — a ‘tired’ topic is not for you.
Choose something fresh and original.
- 50 good persuasive speech topics with treatment examples to show you how the same topic is treated differently for different audiences.
- 310 persuasive speech topics for college: mental health, society, family & friends, animals, education
- 108 feminist persuasive speech topics: the top current women’s rights & feminist issues
For assistance with planning and writing
- Writing a persuasive speech — a 7 step action plan that includes how to choose a topic, analyze your audience, set a good speech purpose, decide on a structural pattern (with examples) and, more.
- A persuasive speech outline example using the 5 step structural pattern: Monroe’s Motivated Sequence. (With a free printable outline)
- A persuasive speech example using Monroe’s Motivated Sequence
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10 oratory techniques that make ordinary speech great
September 26, 2020Work and studyColumn
Top tips from James Humes’s book Secrets of Great Orators.
Speak like Churchill, act like Lincoln” that will teach you how to speak in front of an audience in an exciting and convincing way.
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Viktoriya Shilkina
Editor-in-chief of the electronic library of non-fiction book reviews KnigiKratko.ru.
The appearance of the head of the company, his leadership qualities and sales skills determine the success of the enterprise. This is known to PR specialists who write speeches for leaders, think over their appearance, teach them to speak in public and correctly place accents. However, even the best PR specialist will not be able to independently make a bright personality out of an ordinary person, a hero of public speeches.
The book of James Humes — a famous writer, former speechwriter of five American presidents — reveals some of the secrets of public speaking and building charisma.
Having mastered the techniques offered by the author, you will gain confidence and learn how to easily and successfully cope with public speaking.
1. Pause
Where should any successful performance start? The answer is simple: pause. It doesn’t matter what kind of speech you have: a detailed speech for several minutes or a short introduction of the next speaker — you must achieve silence in the hall. After stepping onto the podium, look around the audience and fix your eyes on one of the listeners. Then mentally say the first sentence to yourself and after an expressive pause, start talking.
2. First sentence
All successful speakers attach great importance to the first sentence of a speech. It should be powerful and be sure to evoke a positive response from the audience.
The first phrase is, in the terminology of television people, the «prime time» of your speech. At this moment, the audience is maximum in size: every person in the hall wants to look at you and find out what kind of bird you are.
In just a few seconds, the dropout of listeners can begin: someone will continue the conversation with a neighbor, someone will turn to the phone, and someone will fall asleep altogether. However, everyone will listen to the first phrase without exception.
3. A bright start
If you don’t have a bright, appropriate aphorism that can grab everyone’s attention, start with a story from your life. If you have an important fact or piece of news that your listeners don’t know, start with it right away («Yesterday at 10 o’clock in the morning…»). In order for the audience to perceive you as a leader, you need to immediately take the bull by the horns: choose a strong start.
4. Main idea
Before you sit down to write your speech, you must determine its main idea. This key point that you want to convey to the audience should be concise, capacious, “fit in a matchbox”.
Stop, look and make a plan: first of all, highlight the key ideas, and then you can supplement and explain them with real life examples or quotes.
As Churchill said, a good speech is like a symphony: it can be performed in three different tempos, but it must retain the main melody.
5. Citations
There are a few rules that can be followed to make quoting effective. First, the quote should be close to you. Never cite the statements of an author who is unfamiliar to you, uninteresting, whom it is unpleasant for you to quote. Secondly, the name of the author should be known to the listeners, and the quotation itself should be short.
You also need to learn how to create an environment for quoting. Many successful speakers use similar techniques: before quoting, they pause and put on glasses or, with a serious look, read a quotation from a card or, for example, a newspaper sheet.
If you want to make a special impression with a quote, write it out on a small card, take it out of your wallet during the speech and read the statement.
6. Wit
Surely you have been advised many times to dilute your speech with a joke or an anecdote.
There is some truth in this advice, but do not forget that a joke for the sake of a joke only offends the listener.
No need to start your speech with an anecdote that has nothing to do with the situation (“It seems that it is customary to start a speech with an anecdote, and so. Somehow a man comes to a psychiatrist …”). It’s best to sneak into your funny story in the middle of a speech to defuse the situation.
The author of the book advises to use the rule of three Rs to test a joke or witticism: the joke must be realistic, relevant and told (not read).
7. Reading
Reading a speech from a sheet with downcast eyes, to put it mildly, does not cause delight in the audience. How then to act? Is it really necessary to memorize a half-hour long speech? Not at all. You need to learn how to read correctly.
The first rule of reading a speech: never say a word with your eyes on the paper.
Use the SOS technique: look — stop — say.
Take any text for practice. Lower your eyes and mentally photograph a few words. Then raise your head and stop. Then, looking at any object on the other side of the room, tell what you remember. And so on: look at the text, stop, speak.
8. Orator’s techniques
It is known that Churchill recorded his speeches like poetry, dividing them into separate phrases and writing each on a separate line. To make your speech sound even more convincing, use this technique.
Use rhymes and internal consonance in a phrase to give the sound of your speech a poetic force of impact (for example, Churchill’s phrase «We must follow the principles of humanism, not bureaucracy»).
It is very easy to come up with rhymes, just remember the most common ones: -na (war, silence, needed), -ta (darkness, emptiness, dream), -ch (sword, speech, flow, meetings), -oses / wasps (roses, threats, tears, questions), -anie, -yes, -on, -tion, -ism, and so on. Practice these simple rhymes by making sonorous phrases.
But remember: the rhyming phrase should be the same throughout the speech, you don’t need to turn your speech into a poem.
And so that the rhyme does not go to waste, express the key idea of the speech in this phrase.
9. Questions and pauses
Many speakers use questions to establish contact with the audience. Don’t forget one rule: never ask a question if you don’t know the answer to it. Only by predicting how the public will react will you be able to prepare and get the most out of the question.
10. Finale
Even if your speech was inexpressive, a happy ending can fix everything. To impress in the finale, tune in, call on your emotions to help: pride, hope, love and others. Try to convey these feelings to your listeners in the way that the great speakers of the past did.
Never end your speech on a minor note, by doing so you will simply destroy your career. Use uplifting quotes, poems, or jokes.
And, finally, the last advice of the author: surprise your listeners, take them by surprise! This is what all great orators have done. Do not be predictable and prosaic, do not become slaves to pleasantries. Don’t be like everyone else.
Read also ?
- How to change your speech to sound more confident
- 8 myths about public speaking
- 6 secrets of strong public speaking from a TEDx expert
How to keep the audience’s attention? Three main principles of persuasive speech
Andrey Semerkin , Executive.ru
You need to make a presentation. You have been preparing for a long time, and now, confident in yourself, you take the floor. However, a few minutes into the performance, the listeners begin to get distracted and delve into their phones. All attempts to keep their attention are futile. At the end there are languid pops, and no questions. What’s the matter?
Executive .
en spoke with Mike Clayton , a professional public speaker and business consultant, about why public speaking fails, what is important to consider when preparing a short report, and what are the secrets of speaker magnetism.
Executive . en : Why do some people have trouble speaking in public and others don’t? What is the reason? Is it a simple lack of skills or … psychological trauma, parents’ mistakes in upbringing?
Mike Clayton: The reasons may vary, but I believe that most people who have trouble speaking in public have negative associations, perhaps from childhood. Fear of failure or fear of being exposed. On the other hand, some people develop the skill of successful public speaking early enough that they associate public speaking with something pleasant, such as applause.
Keep in mind that a little excitement is good: it generates adrenaline, which improves the quality of the performance.
The question is different: what caused your excitement — fear and horror or readiness and desire to go out to the audience.
Executive . en : Let’s try to help the reader who, for example, has to speak at a professional conference with a report on the practice of his company. The time limit is 15 minutes. How to formulate a topic? Are there secrets here?
M.K.: There is a secret. The theme of the speech depends on what kind of change you want to achieve: the main message that you want to convey to the audience, or the actions that you want to encourage people to take. Think, “If I could hear people discussing my presentation after my presentation, what would I like to hear?” Formulate the topic and content of the speech in order to achieve the desired reaction.
Executive . en : How many slides would you recommend a speaker prepare for 15 minutes?
M.
C.: There are no rules here. However, I strongly recommend that you reflect only one idea per slide. In 15 minutes, it is better to limit yourself to two or three ideas, but an experienced speaker can even break this rule.
Executive . en : Speech rate: did you count how many words per minute an English-speaking speaker pronounces oratory? Do you have any recommendations for speaking rate?
M.K.: It is hardly possible to answer this question: some English speakers speak quite quickly. The main thing is to respect your audience: slow down the pace of speech if you are hard to listen to or if your ideas are too complex. Start slowly to get people’s attention, and then vary the pace. Slow down to focus on key ideas, and lower your voice to force the audience to listen carefully.
Executive . en : Should I pause: stop, slow down? If yes, then these breaks should be placed throughout the text depending on its meaning and structure, or can you give recommendations: for example, change the tempo every 40 seconds?
M.
K.: Of course, pauses give the audience time to comprehend what was said, and they give you, as a speaker, time to think, they also help to emphasize certain words, add weight to them. Plus, when you vary the pace of your speech, it helps keep your audience’s attention. Vary the pace of your speech and pause to emphasize a new topic or ideas and highlights. As for certain periods of time, it is impossible to formulate rules that will work in any situation and in any language. The advice collected in my book does not depend on a particular culture and language.
Executive . en : Our imaginary speaker doesn’t just want to be understood by the audience, he wants to be persuasive. How can he achieve his goal?
M.K.: Three basic principles of persuasive speech:
1. The audience must trust you.
2. Provide a clear, well-founded argument based on well-chosen facts.
3. Give the audience an emotional reason to agree with your ideas and listen to your recommendations.
Executive . en : How do you make sure your audience doesn’t lose focus on the speaker? How to manage this attention? Let’s say a speaker looks into the audience and sees that 70% of the audience is looking for something on their smartphones. What should he do?
M.K.: One way to lose the interest of the audience is to ask too many questions at once and confuse the listeners. So watch your audience and you’ll know when their attention shifts to something else. And if this happens, try to win their attention again. The easiest way is to ask a simple question that will get them thinking (not a closed question that can be answered with a yes/no answer).
And if people are looking at their cell phones, I usually pause and turn in complete silence to the person who is distracted or distracting others. I silently wait until someone in the audience pushes him. If the other person is distracted, I will walk up to them and do the same.
When the attention of the entire audience will be drawn to me, I will continue my speech. Silence is one of the most effective speaker tools.
Executive . en : Does the timbre of the voice matter: bass, tenor, alto, soprano? Does it matter if the speaker speaks «from the stomach», «from the chest» or «from the throat»?
..: Yes, the timbre of the voice is important (the deeper the voice, the more authority you inspire the listeners), but not in the same way as the diversity of the voice — the ability to use the full depth and possibilities of your voice. This requires a comfortable posture (standing straight, facing the audience), many pauses to catch your breath, and the ability to speak in a chest voice, inhaling deeply with the diaphragm (the stomach protrudes forward).
Executive . en : The speaker comes to the most important point of his report.
What should he do to keep this point (this idea) in the memory of the audience?
M.K.: I think we should do the following:
1. Note that he will now say something important: “so, here is what you need to remember….”
2. Slow down the pace of speech, speak a little quieter than usual, and
3. Pause…
4. Then state the important idea clearly and concisely
5. Pause again
6. Re-emphasize what has been said, for this you need to repeat your idea, explain it or give an example.
Executive . en : How to behave if the speaker doesn’t know the answer to a question asked from the audience?
M.K.: Basic options:
1. Give a general answer and then invite the audience to comment on the question.
2. Admit that you don’t know the answer and explain how the audience can find the answer.
3. Admit that you do not know the answer and promise everyone that you will find out the answer by a certain day (and keep the promise).
Mike Clayton, How to Talk to be Listened , – M.: Pretext , 2016
Speech and communication are amazing achievements that distinguish people from the animal world. But it often happens that when we speak, people do not listen to us, so the book describes the barriers that prevent communication, and explains the principles by which proper communication with people is built.
Oral language and the ability to communicate using it are amazing achievements of communication culture that distinguish people from animals. However, we often talk but people don’t listen, so in this chapter we’ll outline the barriers to communication as well as the principles for successful communication.
How often do you talk during the day? Hundreds, a thousand times? And every time you hope that people will pay attention to you, that they will hear you. Because you want to convince, influence, convey your idea or tell something.
But it won’t work if people don’t listen to you.
Speaking so people will listen is a vital business skill at all stages of your career. In addition, this skill is useful at home, in communication with friends, in social life. Communication is probably the most important part of human life. Without communication, we become sad, angry or depressed. However, as a rule, we take communication for granted. I speak and people listen. But after all, often you, sharing ideas that you think are interesting at meetings, see that no one pays attention to what you say. And so you sit and think: “Why didn’t anyone hear me?”. You know that your idea is really important and smart, but it was not accepted.
Or, for example, you need to give a presentation. You prepared well, covered all the topics and questions, but after a few minutes after the start of the speech, you realized that the audience was distracted. In the middle of a presentation, you are desperately trying to grab their attention, but you don’t know how, and so by the end of the presentation, you are exhausted enough that you are glad when this horror is finally over.
This is followed by languid applause — not even applause, and no questions. And at a meeting with a potential client in the sales department, it can be even worse — as if nothing you say makes any sense to him. He stubbornly returns to the same question, and by the end of the meeting you have no doubt that he will buy a lower quality product at an inflated price from your competitor. What’s the matter?
Most likely, the idea is not yours and the topic of the presentation is not yours, and the product offered to the buyer is of no interest to you at all. You probably talked and people just didn’t listen to you. That’s what my book is for—showing you how to speak so people will listen, whether it’s speaking in front of a large audience at a conference or having a casual conversation with a colleague. My goal is to help you communicate your thoughts in an effective, persuasive, and engaging way. In this book, I give a lot of advice and offer many methods, strategies and techniques, plans and tips to help you speak so that people pay attention to you and really hear what you have to say.
And that’s not all: if you follow my advice, people will not just listen — they will understand you, you will be able to convince them and encourage them to act.
The impact of speech
Oral speech has a huge impact on the development of mankind: it can inspire great deeds and push to terrible atrocities. Oral speech can strengthen the self-consciousness of the nation, change the perception of the life of an entire generation and introduce indelible images.
On a physical level, the loss of the ability to speak effectively — that is, the loss of voice — can cause a feeling of helplessness and worthlessness in a world where we constantly have to communicate. Anyone who has lost the ability to communicate effectively, either temporarily or permanently, is familiar with the frustration that comes with trying to reach out to a world built around the principle of effective verbal communication.
What hinders communication?
The physical inability to speak is only one of the barriers to effective communication; there are many others.
Do you have anything to say?
- Ideas. First, to generate interest, your ideas must be new, or you must come up with a new way of taking ideas or a more efficient way of formulating them.
- Doubts. If you doubt what you want to say, in all your words people will hear only one thing — uncertainty. Considering a complex issue, you need to talk about its subtleties and «pitfalls»; but if you show fragility of conviction in your speech, this will sharply reduce the effectiveness of your words.
How to capture people’s attention
- Perception. What do people hear? Do they pay attention to you and listen to your words? If so, do they hear exactly what you want to say, do they get your point, are they ready to think about it and move on to action?
How to effectively formulate an idea
- Culture. Each of us brings something from our subculture to our speech. Sometimes some elements of this subculture are alien to our listeners and can create additional barriers to communication.
- Language. Even people who speak the same language have linguistic differences, such as regional accents or dialects. Different sections of society express themselves differently, men and women also use different words and phrases, ethnic groups try to keep their dialects, and young people make their own rules. In addition, each of us has our own personal style of communication.
- Value. The meaning we derive from what we hear is rarely exactly what the person intended to say. We filter what we hear according to our experiences, prejudices, beliefs, values, and stereotypes and create our own interpretation. So even when we hear everything a person says exactly as he says it, we cannot understand everything he wanted to say exactly as it was meant to be.
How to achieve the desired impact and results
- Emotions. Your emotions influence speech, and if you know how to control them, then they have the right effect on the listeners, but otherwise, betraying your moral state — fear, hostility, prejudice or inappropriate sentimentality, destroy your credibility.
- Technologies. When speech is transmitted using communication technologies, its potential impact (both positive and negative) increases with great force. Much of today’s oral culture is spread through audio recording and broadcast, which means that technology has become an important part of many performances.
- Psychology. To become a successful speaker, you need to understand the psychology of people — how they listen and perceive what you say. This knowledge can greatly improve your ability to influence and persuade, to make you remember what has been said and to inspire action. Without this knowledge, your words will simply drown in emptiness.
It’s amazing that we are able to communicate at all, since each of us has our own habits and peculiarities when communicating… Many of them blur or distort the meaning of what was said. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to get rid of bad habits, so this book is about acquiring new habits with which you can «remake» old ones.