Language in Speech Making

(A Toastmaster Basic Speech)

 Ladies and Gentlemen:  

        Have you ever thought you could interchange using the words information and communication?  Because if you have, sorry. but  no sir, you can’t.  The journalist Sydney Harris distinguished the terms as:  information is giving out while communication is getting through.  But I would say you could use both as substantives and have them then synonymous.  For instance, you can say “The information he gave was incorrect”, or you can say, “My communication to them was intercepted".  These utterances are both correct.  But try switching them and say: “The communication he gave was incorrect.”  What do you think? Not erroneous, right?  And then say,  “My information was intercepted”.  Not wrong either.  Both are grammatical.  But Ladies ad Gentlemen, you will have to admit with me that your inherent knowledge of appropriate combinations in language makes you hesitate about the acceptability of these last 2 sentences.  They’re okay grammatically but they violate certain semantic constraints.  The structures are good but the meanings go ~ !!  Take this sentence again.  Green ideas sleep furiously.  Good syntax!  But you can’t use green with ideas and you can’t use furiously with sleep.  So what am I trying to say here?  I’m saying that language is a most important aspect to consider in speech making.

       So fellow toastmasters, let me do my task by mentioning just a few of so many ways by which we can achieve effective speeches through language use.

1.  Be Simple.  Use short easily understandable words that convey concrete specific meanings.  Say  ‘learn’ rather than ‘ascertain;.  Say ‘large’ rather than ‘elephantine’.  Say ‘after-dinner speech’  rather than ‘post-prandial discourse’.

2.  Be Accurate.  Your goal as a speaker is precision.  Don’t make it possible that your listeners put another meaning different from the one you want to convey.   ‘Democracy’, for instance, does not mean the same to a citizen of the United States as it is to one from the Soviet Union.  The English Language is rich in subtle variation like for the word ‘shine’, it will give choices from ‘glow’, ‘glimmer’, ‘glitter’, ‘flare’, ‘blaze, ‘glare, ‘shimmer, ‘sparkle’, ‘flash’, ‘beam’.  You would have to choose the exact shade of meaning you wish to communicate.

3.  Use Repetition.  Oral speech is ephemeral – language disappears into the atmosphere as soon as you speak your words, therefore, as a speaker, you need to repeat.  This does not mean saying the same word twice or thrice…. it also means you may rephrase, meaning – you may repeat the idea in phrases or sentences.  ‘Democracy’, for example, can also be ‘government derived from the people’, ‘rule of the majority’, ‘human rights are a central component’, ‘consensus by referendum’.

4.  Use Action Words.  To have your sentences come alive, so to speak, use action words to put across movement.  Use them in such a way as to make your listeners feel like they’re stretching….or feel like they’re tightening their muscles.  An example:  Instead of just saying “We were happy”!, why don’t you say, “We jumped joyously when congress passed the bill”!  Instead of saying, “We watched the water flow”. …. Why not say, “We watched the water rush downstream”!  - to impact imagination.

                                                                                                                             

5.  Use Picture Words.  Adjectives function to give color to words and create pictures in the minds of listeners.  Better still is not only to use adjectives but also words and phrases that appeal to the senses.   For example, instead of just saying, the child was happy, describe the child as having a smile on his face.  Instead of saying the lady was sad, why not describe her as having tears rolling down her cheeks.  Otherwise for the sense of hearing, you might say of her voice,  “Her voice was  the whisper of a child in pain”!  That was a direct comparison. – a figure of speech known as a metaphor. You could also go indirect like saying, “His words cut the air until it bled.”!  This is imagery that has the power to transmit not only images into the mind but feelings as well which heighten the impact of your message.

6.  Use Transitional Devices.  Unlike written material where punctuation marks are used, oral communication needs signposts to enable listeners to follow the movement of ideas.  Transitional devices improve coherence by indicating relationships…. like addition;…. where you can use  ‘besides’, ‘in addition’, ‘one more thing’; contrast; - ‘on the other hand’, ‘in contrast’, ‘however’: cause and effect, - ‘as a consequence’, ‘in effect’, ‘as a result’, … and so on and so forth.

        So dear  Ladies and Gentlemen:   if you can manage to remember all these into your speech making, the non-language thing to describe it will be a ‘thumbs-up’!  But one word I am ready to use for now would be ‘Awesome’!  Your speech will be nothing but ‘Awesome’!  For now then,  why don’t you start examining your language as you communicate to the toastmaster right beside you!  But wait! That’s for after the meeting, of course!

Mister Toastmaster!