Page 10 - PUBLIC SPEAKING_Neat

2. Tailoring our message to our audience
We are geology major. Two
people ask us how pearls are
formed. One is our friend; the
other is our nine-year-old
niece. We answer as follows:

mmr.umy.ac.id
To our “When any irritant, say a grain of sand, gets inside the oyster’s shell, the
friend: oyster automatically secretes a substance called nacre, which is principally
calcium carbonate and is the same material that lines the oyster’s shell.
The nacre accumulates in layers around the irritant core to form the
pearl.”
To our “Imagine you are an oyster on the ocean floor. A grain of sand gets inside
niece: your shell and makes you uncomfortable. So you decide to cover it up. You
cover it with a material called mother-of-pearl. The covering builds up
around the grain of sand to make a pearl.”

3. Telling a story for maximum impact
Suppose we are telling a friend about a funny incident at last week’s football game.
We do not begin with the punch line (“Keisha fell out of the stands right onto the
field. Here’s how it started …”). Instead, we carefully build up our story, adjusting
our words and tone of voice to get the best effect.

4. Adapting to listeners’ feedbacks
Whenever we talk with someone, we are aware of that person’s verbal, facial, and
physical reactions. For example:
A friend has asked us to listen while she practices a speech. At the end we tell her,
“There’s just one part I really don’t like—the quotation from Professor Xavier.” Our
friend looks hurt and says, “That was my favorite part!” So we say, “But if you just
worked the quotation in a little differently, it would be wonderful.”
Each day, in casual conversation, we do all these things many times without
thinking about them. We have already known these communication skills. And
these are among the most important skills we will need for public speaking.
The question rises next is “How come those skills above become the most
important skills needed in public speaking?” To make it simple, read the

illustration in the table below.

We are at an open meeting of the school board, we stand up
Setting/Problem: and deliver a thoughtful, compelling speech on the necessity
for keeping the special teacher since our child has learning
disability and he needs help from the teacher.

4 | Public Speaking