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From the September 2006 American Speaker issue:
Speaker's Briefing
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‘Business Speak’ vs. ‘Political Speak’ — matching the right tone to the right audience …
You may give all your speeches in English … but different audiences require different dialects, different styles. Matching the right tone to the right audience is a crucial element in successful speaking. Consider the difference between an effective business presentation and an effective political speech. Writing in The Wall Street Journal in presidential election year 2004, Carol Hymowitz explained the difference.
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‘Humanize’ your statistics to hold audience attention …
Hard numbers reinforce soft words, and you can’t build a case without facts. But too many speakers drown their audience with statistics. Speech pros call it “number stacking” — piling too many statistics into a sentence, into a paragraph or onto a page. Numbers glut leaves your audience overwhelmed by figures and distracted from your message. 39 Communications Bloopers, published by Briefings Publishing Group, offers four useful tips for humanizing your numbers:
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When less is more: Fewer words = greater impact …
One of the most common speaking sins is using too many words to say too little. Excess verbiage doesn’t just waste time; it dilutes the impact. The next time you prepare a speech draft, review it for “verbal bloat” — always with the goal of making one or two words do the work of five or six.
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