The Well-Spoken Woman (22 page)

A speech should have a flow that the audience can discern and follow. It shouldn't be a deluge of information, nor should it be a linear stream of data. A speech should not start at point
A
and end up at point
Z.
When you are writing for the eye, the information can be laid out in a straight line. The reader can go back and reread something she missed the first time. A more holistic or full-circle approach will ensure that the listeners hear your main points and that they stick. Good speech writing is literally well rounded, meaning you end where you began. The speech's opening should lay out the topic and purpose and foreshadow the theme. The body of the speech covers the main points that
support the goal and objectives. The conclusion isn't something new. The conclusion summarizes the main points and revisits the main theme.

Outline the Body of the Speech

The body of the speech is the speech. Organize the main points by developing an outline that divides the content into limited, manageable parts. With an outline, you will be able to maintain order and balance throughout and literally see how ideas might flow together. You can also see which ideas have been overemphasized to the exclusion of others. Limit the overall length to no more than three or four main points. There are five primary methods of arranging content.

 

• Chronological:
  A chronological order arranges ideas in a time sequence. Events can be ordered as they occurred, or a process can be described. Past, present, and future is a common arrangement. A step-by-step pattern is effective when laying out detailed plans or procedures, conducting a training seminar, or presenting historical material. The following example traces the history of the women's movement over the past 150 years:
  

   
  

  I. The first wave of the women's movement begins in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York.
  

  A. Women in Wyoming are granted the right to vote in 1890.
  

  B. In 1920, the suffrage amendment is signed into law.
  

  II. In the mid-twentieth century, the second wave focuses on gender equality in laws and culture.
  

  A. The 1963 Equal Pay Act makes it illegal to discriminate in pay.
  

  B. The National Organization for Women is founded in 1966.
  

  III. The present-day movement is a continuation of the second wave and a response to perceived failures.
  

  A. The Hill-Thomas confirmation hearings rivet the nation on workplace sexual discrimination and fuel the 1992 “Year of the Woman” in politics.
  

  B. Younger women create the third wave, which heightens awareness of racial issues and generational differences.
  

   
  

• Topical:
  Topical patterns simply divide a speech into categories of a subject. Using this pattern, you list aspects of a person, place, or thing. Resist the temptation to list all the aspects by limiting yourself to those that will be of greatest interest to the audience. The following topic outline is designed for prospective pet owners who are considering adding a Great Pyrenees to the family.
  

   
  

  I. Great Pyrenees: A Large-Breed Dog
  

  A. History of breed
  

  B. Breed information
  

  II. Temperament and Personality
  

  A. Good with children & other animals
  

  B. Requires obedience training
  

  III. Care and Feeding
  

  A. Diet
  

  B. Exercise
  

   
  

• spatial:
  A spatial or geographical pattern organizes the major points by position, location, or direction relative to each other. This order can create a visual appreciation for the subject as well as provide an orderly and logical flow. An interior designer might employ a spatial division to describe how a renovation will progress; the designer might start with the kitchen and describe how changes in that room would affect the decor of adjoining rooms. Topics that lend themselves to a spatial arrangement include a description of a hospital campus; a presentation on geological formations of the Grand Canyon; or the explanation of the layout of a museum, library, or airport.
  
• Causes and effect:
  The cause-and-effect arrangement is a useful format when the speaker's goal is to explain why something is the way it is or to provide a perspective on an issue. This pattern is freuently used for persuasive speeches. It prepares the audience to consider, and then accept, a specific proposal for improvement. For example, a speech about the dangers of offshore oil drilling might argue from the following causal outline:
  

   
  

  I. Three principal causes of offshore oil disasters:
  

  A. Poor federal oversight
  

  B. Lack of proper equipment maintenance
  

  C. Company failure to take preventive steps
  

  II. The effects of oil spills create additional problems:
  

  A. Worker death and injury
  

  B. Economic hardship for fishing and tourism industries
  

  C. Environmental havoc
  

  III. What can be done to limit drilling accidents:
  

  A. Federal and local legislation
  

  B. Corporate responsibility and accountability
  

  C. Citizen input
  

   
  

• Problem and solution:
  The problem-and-solution arrangement can be used to advocate for a change in action or thought. This is one of the most frequently used methods, as it is a logical approach and audiences are familiar with the flow. It is similar to the Monroe sequence explained in
  chapter 5
  . The first step is to define the problem; then you provide a solution and suggest a course of action that benefits the audience.
  

Speech Writing Step 4: Open and Close Well

Now that you have established a theme and drafted the outline, write the introduction and the conclusion, starting with the intro. Contrary to popular belief, audiences remember what they hear first better than any other point of the speech. They remember second best what they hear last. The opening is the prologue that sets the stage for the rest of the play. It can be as brief as thirty seconds or as long as two or three minutes, depending on the overall length of the speech. Use the opening to accomplish the four points listed here, and the cell phones will remain in sleep mode.

For many people, the beginning is the most difficult portion to get through. The ability to start well can be hindered by different factors, including a bad introduction, bad acoustics, equipment glitches, and stage fright. Environmental distractions or a case of the nerves can cause
speakers to say and do peculiar things. If you don't preplan the opening, you risk permitting something else to become the central focus. Here are the worst ways to start.

Busted Openings

• Tell a joke:
  Leave it to pros like Whoopi Goldberg. Comedians diligently perfect their timing and are prepared to recover if nobody laughs.
  
• Give logistical information:
  Latrine directions are for drill instructors.
  
• Admit unpreparedness:
  Immediately, everyone does a watch check and looks for the nearest exit.
  
• Disclose self-doubt:
  Don't give them an excuse to question your expertise or capacity to lead.
  
• Apologize:
  This draws more attention to nervousness, a misspoken word, or a technical problem. The exception is a late arrival. Then you owe your audience a sincere and humble explanation.
  
• Say: “You would rather be somewhere else.”
  This may be true, but vocalizing it can be a downer.
  
• Misstate the host's name:
  Save yourself the humiliation by writing it down.
  
• Let slip: “Someone else wrote this speech.”
  This may be true, but you come across as less genuine and committed.
  

Bang-Up Openings

A good introduction is free of the obvious, ordinary, and offhand. It is a creative articulation of the speech topic and theme. The well-spoken women who delivered the following well-written dynamic openers earned rave reviews.

 

• Pose a question:
  Legendary marine biologist Sylvia Earle is an eloquent speaker who uses sophisticated multimedia presentations to pull listeners deep into her underwater world. Earle has led more than fifty deepwater research expeditions, including one that gained international headlines when five women aquanauts lived for two months in a special laboratory on the ocean floor. Dubbed “her deepness” by the
  New York Times
  , Earle shares her passion for the sea by asking the audience members to imagine the fate of the oceans.
  

Fifty years ago when I began exploring the ocean, no one—not Jacques Perrin, nor Jacques Cousteau or Rachel Carson—imagined that we could do anything to harm the ocean by what we put into it. Or by what we took out of it. It seemed, at the time, to be a sea of Eden, but now we know and now we are facing Paradise Lost.

I want to share with you my personal view of changes in the sea that affect all of us. And to consider why it matters that in fifty years we've lost—actually, we've taken, we've eaten—more than 90 percent of the big fish in the sea. Why you should care that nearly half of the coral reefs have disappeared? Why a mysterious depletion of oxygen in large areas of the Pacific should concern not only the creatures that are dying but it really should concern you as well?
¹¹

• Quote an admired figure:
  Civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune was a teacher who founded schools to educate black students and served as an adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. McLeod Bethune celebrated the achievements of African American women at the Chicago Women's Federation in 1933 by using the time-honored technique of quoting a respected person.
  

To Frederick Douglass is credited the plea that “the Negro be not judged by the heights to which he is risen, but by the depths from which he has climbed.” Judged on that basis, the Negro woman embodies one of the modern miracles of the New World.
¹²

• Recount a personal experience:
  Handgun-control activist Sarah Brady shared her family's trauma with gun violence. At the Democratic National Convention in August 1996, Brady took the audience back to the day when her husband and President Reagan were attacked by a would-be assassin.
  

Fifteen years ago, [my husband] Jim was White House press secretary. Our son Scott was just two years old. All our dreams had come true.

But then one rainy afternoon in March our dreams were shattered by an assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan. President Reagan was shot. And so was Jim. We almost lost Jim that day. And we almost lost the president. But thanks to the heroism of the Secret Service and the determination of the physicians and staff at George Washington Hospital, Jim lived and so did the president. Thank God.

But our lives would never be quite the same. All it took was one gun, one bullet and one man who should never have owned a gun.
¹³

• Specific example:
  In 1872, it was illegal for women to vote, but that didn't stop Susan B. Anthony on election day. Her effort to cast a ballot nearly landed her in jail, and she was fined $100. Anthony refused to pay as a protest against the absurdity of the laws that discriminated against women. She defended her actions by asserting her equal rights as a citizen.
  

Friends and fellow citizens, I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.
¹⁴

• Colorful language:
  US senator Barbara Mikulski's floor speech in support of the anti-wage discrimination legislation known as the Lilly Ledbetter law grabbed attention with its vivid wording.
  

I take the floor today as the dean of the Democratic women in the Senate. I say to my colleagues and to all who are watching: We women are mad as
hell, and we don't want to take it anymore. We are mad that in this institu-tion, when all is said and done, more gets said than gets done.

We are here today, united as Democratic women, to be a voice, a voice for change. We have a checklist for change we think we can do before this Congress adjourns. These are issues that focus on the big picture of what our country is facing, but they also focus on the impact these issues have on families. We look at macro issues that affect the world and the macaroni-and-cheese issues that affect families.
¹⁵

• Humorous common bond:
  “My fellow job seekers” So said former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina as she greeted the graduates of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State Uni-versity. Fiorina delivered the commencement address just months after being fired.
  

When I first received the invitation to speak here, I was the CEO of an $80 billion Fortune 11 company with 145,000 employees in 178 countries around the world. I held that job for nearly six years. It was also a company that hired its fair share of graduates from North Carolina A&T. You could always tell who they were. For some reason, they were the ones that had stickers on their desks that read, “Beat the Eagles.”

But as you may have heard, I don't have that job anymore. After the news of my departure broke, I called the school, and asked: do you still want me to come and be your commencement speaker? Chancellor Renick put my fears to rest. He said, “Carly, if anything, you probably have more in common with these students now than you did before.” And he's right. After all, I've been working on my resume. I've been lining up my references. I bought a new interview suit. If there are any recruiters here, I'll be free around 11 a.m.
¹⁶