Many of my students come the to the TalkPower Workshops with
the idea that reading a speech is unprofessional; they fear that reading will
make them lose their spontaneity. This is the silliest thing I’ve ever heard
and completely impractical. An all-or-nothing approach will only serve to
discourage you from ever taking the risk of ever speaking in public.
Isn’t it better to feel confident, using a script? Why avoid
an opportunity to speak because you will forget what you wanted to say? If you
do accept and opportunity to speak, isn’t it foolish to run the risk of
rambling on and on, feeling insecure and embarrassed? Is it any wonder why
there are so many terrible speakers out there when people are taught that using
a script is a big no no? Of course you can read. Common sense will tell you
that confidence comes from feeling secure, and this will happen only if your
speech is accessible.
The fact is that people use their spontaneity when they read
from a paper because they prepare a talk as if it where a term paper. “Fill up
as many pages as possible and you’ll get a better grade.” If the professor had
to skim over repetitions and irrelevancies, that was his problem. A listening
audience cannot skim. Go of the beaten track for half a millisecond and you
lose your crowd. The audience tunes out planning dinner, lunch, the weekend,
counting the tiles on the ceiling…
Learning how to write for a listening audience, not a
reading audience in a TalkPower workshop makes all the difference. After you
have been using a written script for some time, and have internalized what a
real beginning, middle, and end are all about, you will be able to speak
without a script.
An old wives tale maintains that if you read from a script
you will sound stilted. Actually, you sound stilted when you constantly read
with your nose in the text. The secret of appearing spontaneous lies in rehearsing
the script so that you look up at the audience and then back at your script,
from time to time. Practice your talk looking at the text, then looking out at
your imaginary audience, then finding your place and looking at your text
again. Not only will you feel secure, you will appear charming, knowledgeable,
and in control.
Each year I subscribe to a series of play readings in New
York City, produced by a very talented theater company called TACT (The Actors
Company Theater). The actors are all seated in a semi circle and every actor
reads from his script. These readings rank among the best theater I have ever
experienced. Much work and rehearsal goes into each production, yet not one
actor memorized or improvises his part. Every word is read from a script, and
the results are always delightful.
Politicians read their speeches from a teleprompter and they
usually go off without a hitch.
Perhaps last month you saw a professional speaker a long,
magnificent, hilarious presentation without reading fro ma single note. And perhaps
you felt envious and inadequate. Let me assure you that this professional
speaker has probably given the same talk 100 times in the last five years.
“I was scheduled at
two colleges on two successive days. On the first day my talk on Ecology went
over so well I decided to get more mileage by giving it the second day. My teenage
son was with me and during dinner, prior to the second talk, I suddenly became
aware that my son was regailing the head table with an exact account I had
given the night before- and was about to give again!”
-Issac
Asimov
