Persuasive Speech Idea Sitemap

1. Preliminary Steps - The prospective public speaker should memorize and recite the beginnings, climaxes and endings of great orations until they become thoroughly familiar. He will be encouraged to note how certain sentences, phrases and words may be used many times, being combined a little differently in each speech.

2. Great Orators - The following account of successful speakers should be carefully studied. Every speech, however short, should contain, beside the introductory, a short story illustrating the subject, the climax or summing up, and the close.

It has been well said that an anecdote, if well told, will prove more interesting and potential than the most eloquent utterance or the most elaborate argument.

3. Audience Confidence - The first thing for the public speaker to do is to gain the confidence and sympathy of his audience. Under no circumstances is he to antagonize or prejudice his audience against him in the beginning. There are many methods available for public speakers by means of which his audience may be made suggestible and uncritical and accept almost any conclusion which is presented to them.

4. The Peroration - The closing of the speech, brief though it be, furnishes an opportunity for the most effective oratory. As final impressions remain longest in the mind, the climax should consist of a summary of the main points, an emphasis of the central truth, an appeal to the emotions, a call to action.

5. Repetition + Suggestion - Mr. Dooley expressed the value of repetition and suggestion when he wrote: "I belave annything at all, if ye only tell it to me often enough."

In public speaking and conversation there are many ideas which must be repeated over and over again before they obtain the proper maximum effect.

6. Speeches That Effect - The general public is quite wrong in its estimate of the requirements for a career in successful oratory. On the discovery of oratorical talent, or having decided to make an orator of yourself, commence excavating for a good foundation. I endorse elocutionary training. The most eminent orators and actors stimulate their emotional nature by daily drill in vocal exercises. A good practice is the repeating of the alphabet and its various sounds in different tones, pitch and force.

7. How to be Heard - As you rise to speak, cast your eyes easily over the audience for a few seconds, then fix them upon the farthest auditors directly in front of you, and begin to speak in a pleasant tone of voice and with an easy naturalness of manner.

8. Debating - Debating is excellent training. It teaches one to think quickly and logically, not to be afraid of an audience, and is undoubtedly the best of all training in public speaking. Not only are these powers to be gained by the practice of debating, but the debater who is accustomed to speaking will carry the same clearness of thought, confidence and positive ness of speech into business and social life, where he is sure to excel.

9. Public Speaking - The American College no longer regards public speaking as a byplay but as a part of the serious work of a higher institution of learning. A generation ago the annual intercollegiate debate was like the old-fashioned spelling bee-there was a little hurried preparation and then a sort of pitched battle of wits.

10. Shakespeare - It is very essential that the public speaker should have a knowledge of human character. No one can hope for success in any calling to-day without this knowledge of human nature.

For a knowledge of history Shakespeare's historical dramas give history in a vital and attractive form. His portrayal of many of the characters of ancient times, as Cassar, Brutus, Coriolanus and others, is exceedingly vivid.

11. Study Shakespeare - The purpose of the drama is to teach a complete knowledge of human character. Suppose a man to have all other kinds of knowledge under the sun; let him possess all the bearing and grace of an angel, and the golden thoughts and musical words of a poet, and yet without this knowledge of human nature he would be the veriest fool.

12. Shakespearean Quotations - Familiar and frequently quoted passages, also -T Scripture and Shakespeare parallels. As ah additional aid to the memory the speaker's name has been attached to each quotation.

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by 't?
Henry VIII, 3:2. (Cardinal Wolsey).

13. Scripture + Parallels - The lowing arrangement of passages serves to show the Poet's frequent use of thought and language as found in the sacred volume. It does not, of course, follow that these were all purposely quoted from the Bible, but it does establish, beyond all dispute, that the mind of the great dramatist was thoroughly imbued with the thoughts and teachings of the Scriptures.1

14. Ready Made Speeches - To memorize these terse and witty sayings, stories, speechlets, etc., will place you in a position to entertain your friends on all occasions, and to be sought out among men for your spontaneous good humor and ability to interest and amuse at social or informal gatherings. The ability to do these things, to be popular, constitutes a first stepping stone in many a career of professional, political or business life.

15. Masterpieces - Read carefully the following wonderful word picture by Ingersoll. Try and visualize each scene. Let the mental image of Napoleon dominate each picture. Note the ordering of thought and expression increasing in significance, interest and intensity until the climax is reached. Note the contrast in the last paragraph between the peasant and Napoleon. Then memorize the entire selection by the principles of the Three Laws of Memory, using 'Interrogative Analysis."

16. Popularity in Business and for All - Whose books oh inspiration and self-help are famous the world over, and praised by men and women in every station of life, from the toiling laborer to the ruler of a great nation.

When you shake hands, grasp the hand as though you were glad to see the owner of it, not as though performing a perfunctory duty. Put your heart into your handshake.

Model Questions - As explained on page 51 of this book, debating is excellent training for concentrating the mind, directing ideas into a definite channel, and quickening individual thought. As Orison Swett Marden, the editor of Success and author of many excellent books on self-help, has well said, "Nothing is more noticeable during the education of a young man than his rapid growth and improvement when he takes active part in debating and public speaking.

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