Lend Me Your Ears: All You Need to Know about Making Speeches and Presentations

385 Pages·2005·1.19 MB·English

by  Max Atkinson

Lend Me Your Ears:
All You Need to Know
about Making Speeches
and Presentations
Professor Max Atkinson
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
‘For all those who are serious about the art of making speeches,
Max Atkinson’s previous book, Our Masters’ Voices, was a bible.
There was scarcely a single major speech in my eleven years as
leader of the Liberal Democrats that I made without benefiting
either from it or from his personal advice and help. Lend Me Your
Earsincludes many new insights into the art of effective speaking,
and will be invaluable to all those interested in making words
count and using verbal communication to influence people.’
Paddy Ashdown
Leader of the Liberal Democrats, 1988–99
‘As a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, I relied for rhetorical direc-
tion on the great speakers from Demosthenes to Churchill, on the
great guides from Aristotle to the President himself, and on Max
Atkinson. No one surpasses Atkinson in the rigor and clarity with
which he spells out how to move audiences to applause, get
quoted in the media and become known as the most brilliant pres-
ence on any podium.’
Clark Judge
Managing Director, White House Writers Group
‘Over the last 30 years I have spoken in 28 countries, launching
cars, opening buildings and guest speaking at conferences.
Throughout I have read any book on oratory that I can lay my
hands on and Max Atkinson’s Lend Me Your Ears is by far the
best. I had planned, in my retirement, to write the perfect book on
public speaking. I will now have to find something else to do!’
Peter Hancock
Managing Director, Peter Hancock International, Ltd.
By the same author
Discovering Suicide: Studies in the Social Organisation
of Sudden Death.London: The Macmillan Press, 1978.
Order in Court: The Organisation of Verbal
Interaction in Judicial Settings(with Paul Drew).
London: The Macmillan Press, 1979.
Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation
Analysis(edited with John Heritage). Cambridge and
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Our Masters’ Voices: The Language and
Body Language of Politics. London: Methuen, 1984
(reprinted by Routledge, 1988 onwards).
Lend
Me Your
Ears
All you need to
know about making
speeches and
presentations
Professor Max Atkinson
2005
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further
Oxford University’s objective of excellence
in research, scholarship, and education.
Oxford New York
Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
With offices in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Text Copyright © 2004 by Max Atkinson
Illustration Copyright © 2004 by Brett Ryder/Heart 2004
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
www.oup.com
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Atkinson, J. Maxwell (John Maxwell)
Lend me your ears ; all you need to know about making speeches and
presentations / Max Atkinson.
p. cm.
Originally published: London:Vermilion, 2004.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-530075-8 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 0-19-530075-0 (pbk.)
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-530074-1 (hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-19-530074-2 (hardcover)
1. Public speaking. I. Title.
PN4129.15.A85 2005
808.5’1—dc22
2005012876
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
The author and publisher would like to thank the following:
Methuen Publishing Ltd. for permission to reproduce copyright material from
The Complete Beyond the Fringe, London, 1987: Copyright © 1963, 1987, 2003
by Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore.
The Royal Institution of Great Britain for permission to reproduce copyright material from
Sir George Porter and James Friday (eds.), Advice to Lecturers: An Anthology
Taken from the Writings of Michael Faraday and Lawrence Bragg, London, 1974.
For Joey
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction: Audiences Are Always Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
PART I: The Language of Public Speaking
1. The Battle for Audience Attention:
Keeping Listeners Awake and Engaged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2. Speaking in Private and Speaking in Public:
Conversation and Public Speaking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3. The Sight and Sound of Words:
Differences between Writing and Speaking . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Part I Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
PART II: Visual Aids and Verbal Crutches
4. Reading from Slides and Talking with Chalk:
Visuals Ancient and Modern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5. Showing What You Mean:
Visuals for Viewers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Part II Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
PART III: Winning with Words
6. The Persuasive Power of Words:
The Use of Rhetorical Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
7. Painting Pictures with Words:
The Use of Imagery and Anecdotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Part III Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
PART IV: Putting Principles into Practice
8. Translating Messages to Increase Impact:
Political Speeches and Business Presentations . . . . . . . . . 249
9. Putting it all Together:
Structure and Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
10.Unaccustomed As You May Be:
Making Social and Duty Speeches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Part IV Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
PART V: Body Language and Speech
11.Physical Facts and Fiction:
Body Language, Movement and Tension. . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
12.The Power of Speech:
Restoring Confidence in the Spoken Word. . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Preface
When academic research delivers findings that attract interest
beyond a narrow field of specialisation, it is an added bonus for
the author. If the results turn out to have practical applications
that directly benefit other people, it’s an even bigger bonus. So I
count myself fortunate that my previous book* apparently hit the
mark on both these counts. The analysis of political speeches on
which it was based was originally motivated by a purely technical
interest in the workings of speaker–audience interaction, and its
practical potential only started to become apparent after publica-
tion. In the original preface, I had written:
The question of how far this study could be exploited in
training politicians to become more effective speakers is
one to which no definite answer can be given at present: as
far as I know, it has not yet been tried.
Twenty years on, it has been tried and tested on countless occa-
sions, not only in the training of politicians, but also in coaching
*Max Atkinson. Our Masters’ Voices: The Language and Body Language of Politics. London:
Methuen,1984 (reprinted by Routledge, 1988 onwards).
1