Junk Words— Get Them Before They Get You!

Notice the regular “uh” “oh” and “mmm” that infest your speech? TM Paul Chee tells you the way to throw out these parasites that eat on the true essence of your speech.

Have you ever noticed that while delivering a speech, the “and you know”s come up more frequently than the actual things you intended to say? Or have you ever been stuck in the middle of a sentence, not knowing how to continue but for the mm?

Most, if not all of us, can remember such embarrassing times. How then are we to eliminate these junk words from our conversations or oral presentations? How are we to get rid of them before they do us in?

The first step in getting rid of your junk words is to count them. As elementary as that seems, counting junk words would keep you aware of the frequency at which you use them. Be warned that if junk words perpetuate your speech, your audience will start counting them. You want to be known for your ideas, your plans, your integrity, and your vision. Nobody wants to be known as that “you know” speaker.

I cannot tell you how many junk words you can drop before your audience starts to take notice and loses concentration on your message. However I have a challenge for you( zero junk words. That brings us to the second point. After counting and having a feel of the frequency at which we use junk words; now is the time to eliminate them altogether. Before facing the firing squad, first deliver your speech into a tape-recorder. Play it back. Count and take notice of where junk w ords pop out. It would be helpful if you note them down on your written script. Next, deliver your speech again. This time, when you feel that the junk word is just round the corner, SHUT UP! A nicer way of putting it would be to pause. It does not matter if the pause appears at an awkward point in the sentence. Our first goal is to get rid of the junk words. As we cannot speak as fast as our thoughts, these pauses give us time to come up with a more suitable word to replace the

Lastly, speak as how you write not as how you think. Nobody writes with s and “you knows” thrown in. With more practice, you will be able to accomplish this. It is extremely difficult to speak as fast as your thoughts. You do not have to. Your speech should turn out like the final draft of an essay; smooth and coherent. Be confident of what you have to say. And most important of all, be prepared and stay focused.

That is how you can eliminate the junks words from your speech: count them, pause, speak as though you are writing and stay focused. Get those junks words before they get you!

NUS Toastmasters meeting on 19 dec 06

Dear Friends,

Exams are finally over. It is time for us to focus on our public speaking. You are cordially invited to our meeting on 19 dec 06 (Tue) from 7 to 9.30pm at YIH function room 2.

Here is the tentative Program Sheet for our meeting and here is a map of the venue

Seeya,
Gary

Intrigue, Innovate, Inspire! – Portraying Dynamism in Public Speaking

ATM-S, CL Stuart Tan tells us how important facial expressions and gestures are in making or breaking a good speech.

I was watching a particular male lecturer walk into an auditorium full of fresh undergraduates, awaiting their first lecture for the semester. The lecturer promptly stood behind the lectern. As he was flipping the pages of his lecture notes, it was rather obvious that something was wrong with his gestures. He kept sticking his pinkie out as he turned the pages. In an almost feminine gesture, he swept back his (short) hair, and gestured with his right hand in a limp and somewhat unmanly manner, saying “Good morning class”. Till today, I still wonder if he truly was a male lecturer.
There my interest for that subject died a very prompt death.

And it started to get me thinking. What if toastmasters did not realize the absolute value of gestures when they were speaking? From then, I started to observe the way people speak and gesture at the same time, then I realized that there are key characteristics of the gestures of dynamic speakers.

Firstly, gestures are very deliberate and appropriate. Dynamic and charismatic speakers have gestures that are meaningful and add impact to what is said. Contrary to this, you will still see many experienced toastmasters engaging in incongruent communication. For example, when we want to make a point, we typically use strong gestures, such as slamming our right fist into our left palm. These “sharp” and “strong” gestures are characteristic of impactful, authoritative persuasion. Conversely, gestures that are “rounded” in nature, tend to assist the speaker in appearing more approachable and more friendly. Appropriate gestures means you don’t say “I am so glad to have all of you here in the audience” by slamming your fist into your palm or the table. Likewise, if you wanted to tell the audience “this is an unacceptable policy, and everyone here must vote against it”, using rounded gestures deletes the effectiveness of the spoken word.

Secondly, gestures are varied. I once wrote about the principle of variety in a separate article1. The principle of variety states that the greater the variety of gestures a speaker can use congruently and in conjunction with what he says, the more dynamic he appears to be. Take stock of your own gestures. Do you notice if you tend to gesture around your waist? Do you have the “elbows glued to the waist “syndrome? Do you tend to use one type of gesture most frequently? Consider breaking out of your comfort zone. Portrayal of dynamism typically comes from inner self-confidence. It shows if you use varied gestures, that you are confident of yourself, making you a more credible and believable speaker. Hence, your ability to appear dynamic and charismatic increases manifold. If you notice problems with gestures, try deliberately using gestures beyond your zone of comfort. For example, try using bigger gestures (e.g. stretching your arms wide, gesturing above your head) and gestures that are out of the ordinary. Take stock of the gestures other people have, and try to adopt some of these gestures as you progress in your toastmasters career.

Finally, dynamic speakers consider facial expressions. I’ve been to many speech competitions where the motivational speaker speaks with a poker face. Imagine “YOU MUST BE SELF-MOTIVATED” with a nonchalant expression. Certainly makes it hard for you to believe the speaker doesn’t it? In speech delivery, consider smiling slightly and raising your eyebrows a little. This baseline expression generally allows the audience to see you as open and friendly. Furthermore, applying the principle of variety and appropriacy, facial expressions can be varied to add impact to the speech.

I used to run a program for singles called “Attracting the People you like”. It so happened that someone approached me during my program to tell me how great it was, and that he was facing a problem I had not yet addressed. He claimed that he had trouble with even initiating a relationship. With a very bland poker face he said to me “I don’t understand why everyone I date tells me I’m boring”. I had to tell him to go look at himself in the mirror.

I can’t emphasize how important it is to ensure that our gestures and facial expressions are used as tools for our benefit rather than against us. While many of these are unconscious behaviors, through our practice at chapter meetings, let’s weed out these poor public speaking practices and look towards excellence in public speaking!

Thinking on your feet – A guide to impromptu speaking

ATM-S Chris Ng Wai Chung teaches you how to survive the fear and trauma of speaking unprepared when you are made to do impromptu speaking in front of an audience.

“It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.” — Emiliano Zapata, Mexican Revolutionary

About 18 years ago, I was asked by my primary school principal to step onto the stage to explain to about a thousand fellow primary school students why I did not pay my milk-money. Without hesitation, I proceeded to wet my pants. That feeling of deja vu repeated itself when I was 17 in junior college. After applying for the Plain English Speaking Competition, I surprised myself during the auditions for having only said about 5 sentences to a group of stunned teacher-panelists after I was given my first table topic. ( After which I ran out of the classroom )

While the above scenario may seem familiar to many of you, I’ve seen many dramatic turnarounds from the public speaking disasters in my past. Diane was this lady who was my schoolmate in NJC , after her round of auditions, I remember her telling the group of us hopefuls that she really screwed up and was too nervous to perform, she eventually became the best speaker in the JC debates in 1992 with her name appearing in the newspapers after her hard earned victory. And some of us have heard of the “Scat-man” song on the radio ( truth is, he stutters ).

This article hopes to dispel the myths of impromptu speaking and highlights the PREP formula as taught by the Toastmaster’s movement. It will then give some tips on how to build your repertoire of speeches to make it truly memorable.

Impromptu Speaking Basics : PREP formula

There are many strategies which public speakers employ to create the illusion of confidence on stage. Fact of the matter is that most public speakers have butterflies in their stomachs. The trick is to make them fly in formation. The Toastmasters movement suggests the use of the PREP formula and it goes like this :

P : Point—State your point to the question.
R : Reason—State a reason why you raised your point.
E : Example—Give an illustration which supports your above-mentioned case.
P : Prep—Which leads us to the next point.

By employing this strategy, you “daisy-chain” your response to the table topics and could speak endlessly about the topic given to you.

Example,

Topic : Is Batman is more intelligent than Superman ? Elaborate on your answer.

Point : I believe with great conviction that there is incontrovertible evidence that Batman, the caped crusader demonstrates a much greater intellect than Superman, the Man of steel.
Reason : One of the reasons is that Batman, having no supernatural powers, relies solely on his wits and technology whereas Superman is blessed with the powers of flight and superhuman strength.
Example : In the latest confrontation with the Joker, Batman outsmarted the Joker by causing the Joker to slip on a banana peel and fall into gigantic toilet bowl. The latest comic shows Superman beheading Lex Luthor with a casual flick of his index finger and sending his head into planetary orbit.
Point : Which brings us to the question of Superman’s brutality that which could only be found in basest of primates.

And so on and so forth…

Let’s have a harder example,

Topic : If there is a Statue of Liberty in the east coast of the United states. Please explain the significance of building a Statue of Responsibility on the west coast.

Point : Liberty without responsibility will result in chaos and anarchy.
Reason : While a Nation like the United States may find comfort in truth, justice and the American way, the lack of responsibility will find justice very elusive indeed.
Example : While the “Land of the free” could brag about the freedom of speech in their society, can a Caucasian ever have the freedom to utter the words “nigger” without reprisal or litigation in New York or death in the Bronx ?
Point : Which leads us to the point where by the liberties of a society is limited by the responsibility exercised by it’s citizens.

For Intermediate speakers : Speech frameworks

The PREP technique is all it takes to survive a gruesome one to two minute table topics session, but for longer speeches, the constant use of this framework, could put the most attentive speakers to sleep. Intermediate speakers consider the following frameworks which could be constructed to supplement their speeches. If the speaker’s level of proficiency were a pimple it’d turn dark and purple at this stage.

Three of the most commonly observed frameworks are highlighted here.

a) Basic framework

This style begins by an introduction to the subject matter, a definition to the problem and plenty of sign postings which guide the listener to the actual body of the speech. The body of the speech contains about 2 to 3 PREP cycles which reinforces the point the speaker wishes to make. And the speaker concludes the speech by a call to action or reaffirms his stand on the subject matter. The speaker would usually employ the phrases “First of all”, “Secondly” and “Finally” to break his speech down into logical components.

b) Pros/Cons Framework

This framework considers a yes/no problem like “Should abortion be banned in Singapore”.The speaker then proceeds to use the “On one hand…”and the “On the other hand…” in the speech body to consider both sides of the coin, then the speaker concludes by taking a stand and giving the reasons why one case is stronger than the other.

Caution : Practiced wrongly, the speaker will seem to be indecisive at a taking a stand so be sure to make one case weaker than the other.

c) Chronological

This framework applies to questions where historical examples be used to reinforce the points the speaker has to make. Questions like “Is the feminist movement still relevant in modern society today?” The speaker could begin the body of the speech by using the words “In the past,,,” and then subsequently use the words “Now times have changed…” and even take the opportunity to contemplate the future by considering “Perhaps in the near future we would be able to…”

Advanced speakers : Unique Selling Propositions

The greatest speakers have something special which distinguishes them from other speakers in that they are unique and offer something to the listener be it hope, joy or enlightenment. At this point, you should think of Marilyn Monroe who has that pout which made her a legend or Jennifer Lopez’s….errrrmmm….beautiful face.

Here are the possible things advanced speakers do to make their speech truly memorable.

a) The Flirt : Charm the audiences by enforcing a personal stake in the presentation.

Many impromptu speakers flirt with the audience and end up with most of the awards when the event is over. This technique keeps the audience riveted by picking on someone from the audience – this creates a personal atmosphere. Occasionally, if a roast becomes inappropriate when used on someone else, the speaker would often employ himself/herself as subject matter.

A Microsoft salesman in a technical conference had probably made arrangements with a fellow employee to seek permission to use him in a speech delivery would begin by saying “Suppose our friend, here James, is feeling naughty and decides to do this to the operation system because he does not want his boss to see these pictures…”, it makes the audience attentive and brings a human dimension to the speech.

b) The Laugh-a-minute : Just employ humor over and over again

Everybody likes a jokes or two, so long as the joke is politically correct and does not involve a pair of donkeys and a beautiful princess. ( you are supposed to laugh at this point…)

When employing this technique, the speaker uses humor, his improvisation and some jokes he heard in the past and blends it in his speech. Puns could be used as well if it is tasteful in nature.

“He is arguably the best public speaker in this club. To say that he is the best public speaker would lead to a heated argument. “

or

“Urggh !!! It was so bad, a bed-ridden quadriplegic in an intensive care unit could play the piano better than her daughter did !!! “

c) The fountain of knowledge : Tap into books for knowledge and wisdom

The problem with “knowledgeable” people is that they seldom possess the right skills to package the information to make it interesting, this technique is therefore risky at best. The speaker has to read widely and possess special skills, here are a series of leads which could allow a speaker to dazzle the audience with his showmanship and knowledge.

- Quotes

A speaker always has a arsenal of 20 or so quotes which can be used for most occasions.

- Ancient philosophy

The speaker should focus on general themes which could only be covered by such a subject matter like Happiness, Decisiveness, Friendship, Wisdom. The occasional reference to a philosopher like Socrates could reinforce the point made in a speech. It would also be useful to understand that people have begun thinking about the same questions that we have

- Business / Management

For working audiences the occasional reference to Peter Drucker or Bill Gates may be used to show how well informed you are. More importantly, many motivational speakers tend to give jaded audiences the impression that they lack solid content in their presentations.

- Great Literature

Another general field which demonstrates how people behave in interesting circumstances. Ralph Waldo Emerson is probably the most misquoted writer in the Toastmasters movement. The poet/philosopher has written widely in topics like “Self-Reliance”, “Love” . The ever popular William Shakespeare has written works which paints a pictures of the human condition in various circumstance in many of his Great works.

- History

The ability to remember a date will be viewed favorably by a discerning audience. More importantly the ability to relate the various events which happened in the past with some degree of accuracy would mean that the audience would be informed of history, thus, ensuring that “history does not repeat itself”.

Conclusion

We’ve covered some fundamental aspects of impromptu speaking to an audience and reviewed some techniques found within the Toastmaster movement. We examined the various frameworks that could be employed for different forms of questions and we finally considered some means to make the impromptu speech a memorable one.

If you, kind reader, would like to have just a summary of this entire article, I guess I could only conclude that impromptu speech could be trained. Whether you are a novice, expert or guru, there would always be room to develop a new technique or style to dazzle the audiences in the next club meeting.

Here’s wishing you great time in next table topics session !!

Hi, I’m a freshman.

CTM Kiruthika Ramanathan thinks otherwise in her relation of how she landed up joining Toastmasters.

“Hi Kiruthika” a familiar voice called over the deafening din in the matriculation maze. I turned around, relieved to see the familiar face of a JC senior.

“What are you doing here?” Dumb question. For the past half an hour I had seen nothing besides the hundreds of seniors approaching nervous freshmen asking them to join some club or another. So far, I had already signed up for Judo club, political society, volunteer action committee and about ten others. Heaven knew where I was going to find the time to attend all the activities when lessons started.

“I am here on behalf of the toastmasters club. c’mon up here and let me tell you all about us.” At that moment all wanted to do was go home and curl up with a nice cold drink. It was really hot in the hall, despite the aircon – but hey, I couldn’t very well tell her to get lost could I? Especially not when, barely two minutes ago, I had felt so glad to see her. So making the decision, when actually there was no decision to be made, I followed her to the small booth with a banner that said “TOASTMASTERS CLUB”.

Six dollars!! I walked away from the table after paying the membership fees. And that was the umpteenth activity that I had signed up for…. Maybe I just won’t go for the meetings….

It turned out that those were pretty much the only ECA meetings that I attended.

I have been with NUS toastmasters for two years now and I would not be exaggerating if I said that my experience in the club was one of the most enriching ones in my life.

Under the guidance of expert seniors I picked up invaluable information on preparing speeches, body language during speeches, vocal variety, impromptu speaking and many others aspects of speaking that I thought that one had to be born with to display. I am now a competent toastmaster – the invaluable experience that I had gained was reinforced by a certificate from the renowned toastmasters international organisation. I have come a long way from being the stuttering schoolgirl that I was and I am sure you can too.