The Sound of Your Voice | How to Make the Point Article

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How to make the Point
By Dr. Carol Fleming

Whether it’s a report to the Board, a toast to the bride and groom or an announcement in front of a class, speaking in public always carries with it major opportunity and challenge. There are so many ways to get it wrong! Many people look for ways to avoid the exposure. This is understandable but it’s still a shame. “All God’s chillen’ got a voice in the choir”, we are told. You need to make it a point to add yours.

The next series of short articles will be focused on tips for becoming a more comfortable and effective public speaker. Although most of my readers are adults I am hoping that this information can be made available to young people who are facing the need to make an oral report in school. You can’t start too early in developing the attitudes and practices that will help you realize the opportunity I mentioned above. There is an awfully lot of suffering that is avoidable and an equal amount of satisfaction and effectiveness that can be yours. Do you get the point?

HOW TO MAKE THE POINT

I know a really good way a speaker can lose an audience. Just keep them guessing about what your point or message is. You may be satisfying your need to tell the tale in the order that you experienced it, or painting a context that sets the stage for the information It all makes perfect sense to you.

You wait for the speaker to ‘get to the point’ with mounting irritation. You are a busy person with much on your mind. You have only so much attention span to devote to the wait. But, why should you have to wait at all? Unless there’s a joke punch line coming up, listeners have every right to understand the point – the core message – as soon as possible. As the old saying goes, “Tell’m what you’re going to tell’m” and don’t make them sit there guessing. This means, of course, that you had better be sure exactly what your core message is yourself! If you had to summarize your message in just one statement, what would it be? (e.g. This administration is bankrupt of solutions. The merger will affect all departments. The success of the fundraiser depends on participation of everybody.)

But don’t stop at telling them just once. Be prepared to repeat the most important message several times in the course of your remarks. Because this core message is embedded in language context, your listeners can’t be expected to automatically identify the important features. By repeating the core message at least three times, slightly varied, the listener is confident they have found “the point’. You are probably concerned that the audience will be offended by the repetition. I doubt that they will actually notice it consciously. But, when someone asks them later what you said, they will most likely answer with your core message. In which case, you have made your point.

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