Public Speaking - Organize Your Speech For More Impact
by Edward Hope
If your presentation is not organized in a useful way it will lose the audience’s interest. Your listeners will be confused and stop listening. Organizing your speech will make it clearer to the audience and strengthen its impact on them.
A well organized speech assists in the speech writing and the delivery of it. As with most endeavours in life a well thought out structure make the achievement of its objectives easier.
There are 3 components to speeches - introduction, body and conclusion. Each component has a different objective in supporting the purpose of your speech or presentation. Proper organization of each component will help achieve its’ objective, and the speech achieve its purpose.
1. Organizing the Introduction
The objective of the introduction is to catch the attention of the audience. It sets the stage for the main event - the body of your speech. The following are the steps usually found in an introduction
(i) Preliminaries - This is not always necessary. It is used when you need to respond to the master of ceremonies or acknowledge the organisers of the meeting etc
(ii) Attention Step - used to grab the attention of the audience through the use of attention grabbers e.g. a shocking statement, a funny story or joke etc
(iii) Benefit Step - a statement outlining how the speech will benefit the listeners e.g. it will make them more money, make their job easier
(iv) Preview Step - a brief outline of the speech to follow.
What is said in the introduction should be relevant to the main body of the speech and it should be brief. If the introduction is too long it can bore the audience.
2. Arranging the Body of Your Speech
The body of the speech should be arranged around main headings because this will break the speech up into manageable components. 2 - 5 main headings are the ideal numbers. If more than 5 headings are used, members of the audience will struggle to remember them all.
The main headings are best arranged in one of the ways that people commonly think about the subject of the speech. The most common patterns of thinking that people use to arrange a speech are:-
(i) Time - Divided up in the chronological order that events occurred
(ii) Location - Headings are arranged by their geographical location
(iii) Topical - arrangement by logical parts, divisions or components
(iv) Problem and Solution - the problem always precedes the solution.
Your topic will not always fit into the usual patterns. In this case the theme or central idea should be divided up into reasonable headings that support the theme. The information that you have gathered should be listed under the heading it supports. The arrangement discussed for the body of the speech applies equally to the supporting information, by the use of sub-headings.
3. Conclusion
The conclusion is important to you because this is where the audience will form a lasting impression of you. The following steps are usually found in a conclusion:
(i) Summary Step - summarize the main points of your speech
(ii) Benefit Step - it is useful to repeat this step from the introduction to remind the audience and reach the individual who may only have just started listening
(iii) Call For Action Step - this is only when an action is required from the audience. It is a last strong statement that evokes the response wanted from the audience.. Your conclusion is best when it is brief and does not introduce any new material. Otherwise you risk losing and confusing your listeners.
A well organised speech will make it easier to put your ideas across to the audience. It will be more understandable and have more impact on them. Also when delivering your presentation a well organized speech is much easier to recall.
Discover how to speak with confidence in public speaking and in private conversation. To claim your free preview of The Art of Great Conversation visit http://www.SelfConfidentSpeaking.com
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Motivation is an essential part of teaching English.
by Edgar Burt
At the beginning of the class the students were very attentive, because it was the first class of the day and the teacher had a nice, familiar song that the students were enjoying. After the song was finished, the teacher began talking again, the motivation dropped until the teacher announced that they would be working in groups, which got every student in the class excited. I think the motivation was very high because it was a well-known song and it got the students very excited. When the teacher gave direct, short instructions the students were more interested, than when the teacher gave longer instructions. This is because it is usually harder to follow longer directions, because there is so much being said and if it is in a foreign language it is even harder. Group work gets everyone talking and working on the specific tasks.
Throughout the class, the students lost interest at certain times. When the teacher gave praise to the students, they regained their interest. The students were more attentive when clear goals were used. When the students worked alone some of them were getting frustrated with themselves and gave up working with the activity. The students were a lot more interested when they were talking or in groups talking. When the teacher was talking, even though, she was giving information. Some of the students lost focus. I think the cause of this is because when you are talking to other people and are involved, there is satisfaction. Where if you are listening to someone talk, sometimes they are long-winded and you can easily loose focus. The time when the students were least attentive was while the grammar was being taught. The TTT (teacher talking time) made the students loose focus and also they already knew what was being taught in this particular class. A good way to solve this problem would be to challenge the students more in what is being taught.
When the teacher introduced the pictures to class, they regained their motivation to maximum, because they were trying to figure out what the pictures meant. The teacher kept asking questions throughout this activity to get the students on top of things. The students who attended this class were intrinsically motivated. They were excited to be in the class and for no other reason than because of their love of the language. There was one part in the lesson where the teacher was going around asking questions to individual students and it seemed that some of the student’s interest dropped until it was their turn. It was at that time when that student’s motivation got high and the other students lost a little.
When the students had a clear task (like a worksheet, or a group activity), they enjoyed it much more. They knew what they had to do. If one person finished, then they had to wait until the teacher was ready to move on. The student lost a little motivation, until this particular student offered their help to another student and in doing so he regained interest. The teacher then thanked him for helping that student and he got even more confidence.
In one activity in this lesson, the teacher added some personalization. The students started telling their own stories relating to the topic and the other students became extremely interested. I was quite fascinated that the students were so interested and would highly recommend this for recovering student’s interest.
The progress activity also involved studying pictures to reach a solution. The teacher was constantly going to the students and checking their progress and encouraging them throughout. When the teacher saw that something was giving the students trouble, she would sit down and work through it with the student and this gave the student the confidence to keep going.
Now you will have a better understanding of exactly why it is important to keep the students motivation up. When the motivation is high in the class, the students are excited and are willing to invest effort in learning activities and to progress, but you can’t expect the motivation and attention to be high throughout the entire class, but the teacher must try to have enough varied activities throughout and the motivation should remain fairly high. The teacher must also give positive energy to the class. If the teacher can do give the students the positive energy the students need then the students will give the teacher positive energy while they are learning and make the process more enjoyable. I hope this article will help with classes that are learning English.
Gavin Ramsey is an specialist at English Courses in England, Ireland, Study English (Cursos de Ingles). For more information on Learning English in England. Check out more on they regained
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Writing and Publishing Science Fiction Novels in 5 Simple and Easy Steps
by Gen Wright
Getting published after you’ve written your science fiction novel is no doubt a industrious task. Here are some practical rules that will aid you in writing an award winning science fiction work and publish it triumphantly.
Step 1: First Draft and Structure
A science fiction novel should be framed in three segments: the opening, the middle, and the climax. Once you establish your story plot, you need to reinforce it with any required research. Thereafter, you just have to outline your ideas on paper. High doses of imagination are the chief imperative for a triumphant science fiction novel.
Try to uplift your readers from the colorless blandness of ordinary routine life with your novel. Try to conserve suspense in each segment of the novel to make the story line consuming. Let the reader indulge in speculation over imponderable tense situations. Sketch each segment of the story markedly.
Recognize with your work that good science fiction has believable elements. Science fiction takes current technology and builds upon it. If your ideas are too implausible or past average comprehension, your novel will not strike a chord with readers.
Step 2: Evaluation by Peers
Your initial draft needs to be criticized by several of your colleagues. They will assist not just as proof readers, but will aid you in identifying partial story lines, conditions that are not believable, plots that aren’t believable, and characters that are too heroic. Science fiction is based on the suspension of disbelief, but disbelief can only be extended so far.
Online peer groups like Critters.org yield helpful advice and appraisal. You can also attend your local library assessment workshop. Workshops permit you to get your book manuscript read by multiple people resulting in more extensive feedback. By permitting you the opportunity to review the stories of another, workshops aid you in honing your writing mettle.
Step 3: The Final Draft
After assessment by your peers, you need to edit your manuscript in order to tie up loose ends and remove the inconsistencies pointed out by your evaluators. Clear away the indistinct minutia and construct a final version that provides a firm narrative. If you are faced with a creativity block, it would be prudent to stash the novel on a shelf for a few days and engage yourself with something else. Once you are revitalized you can complete your novel with restored zeal. If major changes have been made to the novel, it should be reevaluated by your peers.
Step 4: Getting Published
There are a lot ways to locate a publisher for your novel. The first is to read science fiction trade publications. Publishers who openly accept submissions routinely advertise in these publications. A second possibility is to inquire with publishers directly. Look at a few of your cherished science fiction books and contact the editorial department. Request a copy of their submission guidelines and standards. It is usually best to do this by mail and include a self-addressed stamped envelope. In some instances, a publisher will post this information on their website.
When selecting a publisher be sure they are writer friendly. They should have a past history of promoting the writers and books they publish.
Step 5: Critical Review
Get your book critically reviewed ahead of its publication. Give advance review copies to professional critics. Then, just before final publication, include their reviews on the inside or back jacket of your book.
Offering the novel to a person who will heap extreme praise on it even if it is drivel is not going to help you whatsoever. You are obliged have the novel reviewed by an authoritative critic. A real novel evaluation can save you from much future disgrace. Additionally, by getting your book evaluated by a real critic, you’ll build some promotion from the business the critic represents.
Conclusion
These uncomplicated yet sound guidelines will go a long way in aiding you to write and sell your science fiction novel. It is an enduring process and should not be pushed. In some cases writing, rewriting, and publishing a book can take some time. It requires a great deal of stoicism and perseverance. If you have these qualities and a great deal of creativity you can go a long way in the science fiction universe.
Gen Wright is a contributor to the online community Vampire Rave, a social network for real vampires. He also contributes to SciFi Section, a science fiction community.
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What Public Speakers Should Know About Web Affiliate Programs
by Thomas Christopher
Public speakers make much of their income selling information products, and not just their own. They can sell other people’s books at a bookstore’s markup. Online, where their business is moving, the equivalent of selling other people’s books is using “affiliate links.”
An affiliate link leads to a vendor’s site. You put it on your webpages or in your e-mail. If someone clicks on that link and makes a purchase, you get a fraction of the selling price. You use affiliate links to make money indirectly from your information: You give away information to attract visitors. You get paid when they click through to buy somebody else’s product. The fraction of the sales price varies from 4%-6% at Amazon to more than 50% at some of the high-paying affiliate programs. Some affiliate programs give you a one-time payment. Some pay you a fraction of recurring charges.
Related to affiliate links are Google AdSense ads. Whereas affiliate links are part of a three-way relationship between you, the customer and the vendor, AdSense ads are part of a four-way relationship. You attract customers to your webpages by giving them valuable information. You allow Google to place ads on your page. The vendor pays Google when people click through those ads. Google pays you a share of the price per click. Unlike affiliate links, you don’t get to choose what ads appear on your page. Google examines the contents of your page to decide what ads are most appropriate.
Why should you care about affiliate links? Income. They can possibly bring you a lot of income. Moreover, if you put up hubs (pages at Hubpages) or lenses (pages at Squidoo), you will automatically get AdSense ads inserted. You should make yourself familiar with them.
You should not, however, use them on all of your webpages. You should never use them on your pitch pages or your squeeze pages: you don’t want people clicking off those pages except to buy your product or to give you their e-mail information. You cannot use them directly in e-zine articles. Resource boxes are not allowed to contain affiliate links; although they can link to pages that do contain affiliate links. You may want to use some affiliate links in your mini-course, blog or e-zine — that’s one of the way to make money from them. You can also include affiliate links in e-books and online courses.
When should you use an affiliate link? My rule is this: if I’m going to recommend some product or service anyway, if I believe it will be of value to my reader, and if the vendor is offering an affiliate program, I’m no fool, I’ll use the affiliate link. I will not recommend something I don’t believe in just because it has an affiliate program. I will not fail to recommend something I do believe in just because it does not have an affiliate program. And overall, I recommend what I prefer, and I strongly prefer things that are free. You’ll have to make your own ethical decisions.
Beyond the ethics, there is a practical consideration: You only make significant money out of repeat sales based on long-term relationships. You will gain or lose respect based on the quality of the products and services you recommend.
One extra thing you should know about affiliate links is that they are often quite long. When an affiliate link is broken between lines of an e-mail, it ceases to function. To get around that problem, go to tinyURL.com and, for free, convert the long link into a short one. This also allows you to cloak affiliate links, preventing people from removing your affiliate identification, which people seem to enjoy doing.
A way you can get in on an affiliate program is to go to the website for the product or service you wish to recommend and look for a link labeled “affiliates,” “associates,” “partners,” or something similar. It may be hidden at the bottom of the webpage in tiny print along with links to other sections of the website.
Use affiliate links where you think they are appropriate. Affiliate links provide some people with fortunes, but even if they don’t do that for you, they may give you a few extra income streams.
Get more information on how to use web affiliate programs or sign up for the free e-learning course for public speakers on monetizing the web that was prepared for Speakers In Colorado by Dr. Christopher, a seminar leader and former university professor.
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Attacked for liking English
by Tom Aaron
I went out to a great soba place last week with Fred and had cold soba with tempura. Soba means both buckwheat and buckwheat noodles in Japanese. When people in Japan say soba, they probably mean the noodles. Our waiter was interested in English and asked us what soba was in English. Fred speedily replied that soba was fine. He continued, saying that some Westerners would probably not understand and that you would need to explain. One way to answer would simply be by saying that soba is buckwheat noodles. Concluding by comparing soba to sushi and kimonos, Fred said that in 25 years almost everybody in the United States would probably understand the word soba, just as almost everybody now understands sushi and kimono.
When our waiter went away, I said that everybody was interested in English. Fred answered, “Actually, I am too. Hard as it is to believe, I was actually attacked for linguistic insensitivity when I was in the states. I was taking a tour of a museum with some friends and really enjoying listening to all of the different North American English accents. The tour had a couple of New Englanders, a southerner, and a Canadian family whose speech was just dripping with the Canadian eh. You know what I mean, eh?”
I foolishly started to reply when Fred forged on. “So, I turned around to one of my buddies and I said, ‘I really love listening to all this English.’ One woman spun around and jumped on me, saying that I shouldn’t be so English centric or something like that. Can you imagine that? I live my life in Japan, speaking more Japanese than English. I speak several other languages fluently and smatterings of others. I love languages and have spent a great deal of time, energy, and money on getting better at them. And this woman had the nerve to jump on me.
I waited, eager to hear what Fred had said back to the woman who attacked him. Fred paused, an unusual action for him, and continued. “Can you believe that I was speechless? I wasn’t able to say anything. In retrospect, I have thought of a million answers. At the time though, I just couldn’t think of what to say. Well, fortunately, Maura immediately jumped into the fray.”
“You shouldn’t aggressively jump into conversations and attack people like that when you don’t know what is going on. Didn’t your mother teach you to ask questions first and make conclusions after getting all your information? Fred here happens to live in Japan. He spends most of his life in Japanese, both working and at home. Fred speaks at least four languages fluently, has traveled around the world, and is still interested in learning more languages. What is English centric about that? When Fred is back in America, he enjoys hearing all the different English accents that we have here. Fred loves languages, including his own.”
I could just picture it. I started to say so, but I couldn’t get a word in as usual. Fred continued on, “Well, the woman muttered an apology and slunk away. I thanked Maura for stepping in on my behalf. And what do you think she said?”
Fred continued, “She said, ‘I can’t believe you did not reply to her. You never used to be so quiet and slow to speak. Japan has really slowed down your speech.’”
Maura was right. Fred may dominate English speech in Japan among other Japanese and Westerners, but when he is back in America, things are different. He is just a touch slower and a touch more thoughtful. The bull of the woods in English conversation in Japan is just a puppy when he gets back to America.
Living abroad barely changes some people, people who live in ghettos with their own ethnic group and never learn the local language. For people like Fred though, people who learn the local language and live and work in it, something changes. Speech patterns, thinking, and vocabulary can all change. People change in different ways. Still, none of these changes are as great as we think they are. If Fred went back to America permanently, I am sure he would be able to more than hold his own after a few weeks setting back in. After all, Fred is Fred.
At Aaron Language Services (http://www.aaronlanguage.com/), we offer translation from Japanese to English, editing of English and other European languages, and online English coaching to a primarily Japanese client base.
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