Lost art of the Great Speech

The third project in the Toastmaster's manual ask us to think us "what is the point we want to make", which does seem evident, perhaps to us, but not always to those who listen.

In the project four, all is about good rhetorical devices, simplicity, the "what words and phrases we use" to deliver it.

I did make a point "there is life after 70" in the my 3rd speech, only to forget to apply about all I have learned before, so much I was thinking to use short words and short phrases to deliver my message.

Being 'simple' I did achieve, even repetition, which is one of the rhetoric device used already 2000 years ago, but I still did not really understand "rhetoric" why and how to use it.

The book "lost art of the great speech" has more then three chapters, with examples, clear and great, and finally, I did understand their utility, and could track even who and when uses it.

In the book there is a lot more, and there are also lots of parts of the greatest speeches, as examples, and already it is useful to read it for those chapters. But there is a lot more.

How to write, how to deliver, this book by Richard Dowis, is worth reading, worth having and reading it now and again. He calls them also "the secrets of the pros".

One of the other devices, about which the Toastmaster manual does speak, but this book gives a lot of useful examples also, is the rule of three. Sometimes, three words, other times three sentences, echoing, completing each other.

Expecting three and not two or four is "wired in us", it seems.

From the bible or Julius Cesar, to today's speeches, I could give an example, but why not try to find your own?

They could be at the beginning of a sentence or at the end, they emphasis and enhance each other.

The same book, write also of the importance of "getting personal", which of course is then, more explained why and how, in the "power of personal storytelling".

The books I have each echo each other, confirm each other and complete each other.