Page 8 - VoicesMar2015 .pub
P. 8
eakers Paradox—Continued from page 7)
have to do with speaking and whether or not you write out your speeches. Simple.
You will never become a great speaker by writing your speeches.
If you sit down and write your speeches before you deliver them you will never be a
great speaker. The simple reason is you learned to write in formal English and when you
sit down to type out a draft of a speech you are writing it in a language that you do not
speak: Formal. The answer to the first statement of Speaker’s Paradox is, if you write in
formal English and then try to deliver that message it will not work because the syntax,
sentence structure and vocabulary of written formal language is different from the way
you talk and you will stumble. It will never sound as good coming out of your mouth as
it sounded in your head when you wrote it and read it. The solution is simple, don’t do
it that way. Don’t write in the formal language.
You will never become a great speaker without writing your speeches.
The solution is straightforward. You must learn to
write the way you talk. To do that I teach
protégés to make an outline of the speech they
want to give, including their key points. Then I
have them speak their first draft of the speech.
Deliver the speech that is in your mind, on your
heart, and deliver it the way you think you want
to say while recording it. Once you have finished,
or exceeded the time limits, whichever occurs
first, transcribe the speech exactly as you spoke
it. Now you will of course be tempted to edit it
while you are transcribing it, but resist that
temptation! You will not learn your own oral voice if you apply your formal voice editing
what you are listening to. You will also be hearing your voice exactly the way your
audience is hearing it. Ever hear someone say, “It doesn’t sound like me.” Well, that is
true it doesn’t sound like you to you, but everybody else has to hear it that way! You are
hearing your voice muffled through the bones and flesh of your face while you are
speaking—they are hearing the unadulterated true you. Hope they like it.
Getting your spoken voice down on the page just the way you speak, including pauses,
ums, ahs, double clutches, explicatives (shame on you!), etc. Is the first step toward
learning to write in your own oral voice. One important thing you must do when you
(Continued on page 9)
8
have to do with speaking and whether or not you write out your speeches. Simple.
You will never become a great speaker by writing your speeches.
If you sit down and write your speeches before you deliver them you will never be a
great speaker. The simple reason is you learned to write in formal English and when you
sit down to type out a draft of a speech you are writing it in a language that you do not
speak: Formal. The answer to the first statement of Speaker’s Paradox is, if you write in
formal English and then try to deliver that message it will not work because the syntax,
sentence structure and vocabulary of written formal language is different from the way
you talk and you will stumble. It will never sound as good coming out of your mouth as
it sounded in your head when you wrote it and read it. The solution is simple, don’t do
it that way. Don’t write in the formal language.
You will never become a great speaker without writing your speeches.
The solution is straightforward. You must learn to
write the way you talk. To do that I teach
protégés to make an outline of the speech they
want to give, including their key points. Then I
have them speak their first draft of the speech.
Deliver the speech that is in your mind, on your
heart, and deliver it the way you think you want
to say while recording it. Once you have finished,
or exceeded the time limits, whichever occurs
first, transcribe the speech exactly as you spoke
it. Now you will of course be tempted to edit it
while you are transcribing it, but resist that
temptation! You will not learn your own oral voice if you apply your formal voice editing
what you are listening to. You will also be hearing your voice exactly the way your
audience is hearing it. Ever hear someone say, “It doesn’t sound like me.” Well, that is
true it doesn’t sound like you to you, but everybody else has to hear it that way! You are
hearing your voice muffled through the bones and flesh of your face while you are
speaking—they are hearing the unadulterated true you. Hope they like it.
Getting your spoken voice down on the page just the way you speak, including pauses,
ums, ahs, double clutches, explicatives (shame on you!), etc. Is the first step toward
learning to write in your own oral voice. One important thing you must do when you
(Continued on page 9)
8
