Speaking easy

　　Speaking in public is most people s least favorite thing. the reason is that we re all afraid of making fools of ourselves. The more important the speech, the more frightened we become.

　　But stop biting your finger-nails. Public speaking is easy. It s just plain talking, and you talk all the time. Although I m basically shy(honest!), I ve been making speeches and talking on radio and television for more than 30 years, and I can tell you that public speaking is not a “gift” like musical talent or being able to draw. Anybody who can talk can speak in public. Here are some of the lessons I have learned:　

　　Keep it simple.

　　Your audience2 is going to come away with one or two of your main ideas. One or two. Not ten or 20. If you can t express in a sentence or two what you intend to get across3, then your speech is not focused well enough. And if you don t have a clear idea of what you want to say, there s no way your audience will.

　　Get organized.

　　No matter how long or short your speech, you ve got to get your ducks in a row—how you re going to open, what major points you want to make and how you re going to close.

　　When I do a radio or TV piece, I often write the last sentence first. When you know where you re headed, you can choose any route to get there. A strong close is critical4: the last thing you say is what your audience will most likely remember.

　　Keep it short.

　　the standard length of a vaudeville5 act was 12 minutes. If all those troupers6 singing and dancing their hearts out couldn t go on longer without boring the audience, what makes you think you can?

演講其實很簡單

　　很少有人喜歡在公共場合演講，原因是我們都怕出洋相，越是重要的演講心里越恐慌。

　　但是你不必緊張兮兮的。演講其實很容易。演講就跟平常說話差不多，大家天天都在說話。我這個人盡管骨子里很害羞(這是實話！)，但卻在廣播電視節目里講了30多年，說了30多年。可以這么跟你說，演講跟音樂才華和繪畫能力不一樣，不靠“天賦”。只要會說話就能演講。這里談談我自己的幾點經驗。

　　要簡單明了

　　別人聽你講話，總會記住你的一兩個要點。一兩點，不是一二十點。如果一兩句話不能把你想說的意思表達出來，那說明你說話的重點不夠突出。如果連你都不知道自己想說什么，怎么能指望別人聽明白呢？

　　要有條理

　　說話長也好，短也好，必須井井有條——開始說什么，主要想談哪幾點，最后怎么收尾。

　　我做廣播電視節目的時候，常常先把最后一句話寫好。一旦你知道了目標，路徑就可以任你挑選了。關鍵是收尾要有力：最后說的話別人可能記得最清楚。

　　話不宜長

　　一個雜耍節目的標準長度是12分鐘。如果這些演員盡情歌舞超過12分鐘都會讓觀眾厭倦的話，你說你還能怎么樣呢？