FRANCISCO SARAIVA

One of the most disturbing events of 1970 happened on May 4. It was the day of the Kent State Massacre. A shooting rampage was staged by the National Guardsmen of Ohio, leading to the death of four Kent State University students. The grueling act as initiated by then US President Richard Nixon was a response to the students’ protest against the expansion of the Vietnam War to Cambodia. This gave birth to the composition of the protest song “Ohio” penned by Neil Young and released shortly after the gruesome incident by David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young.

Because of the song’s profound effect on the students and the Americans in general, it eventually became their anti Vietnam-war protest anthem. As such, numerous videos have been uploaded on the internet to demonstrate the severity of the situation at that time and how “Ohio” moved and inspired the people.

This moving video presents the news headline in New York Times and The Journal that fateful day in May 1970. Followed by series of photos of the four innocent victims, troops in heavy battle gear at gunfire position interspersed with images of people scampering for a place to hide and grieving for the lifeless bodies of the students (00:56-1:06), protesters and again the death squad (1:32-1:45).

The “OHIO” bi-line

“Gotta get down to it,

Soldiers are gunning us down,

Should have been done long ago”

up and under the images of the guardsmen. While the next few lines of the song goes

“What if you knew her and

Found her dead on the ground

How can you run when you know”

Up and under the images of grieving people over the victims (1:51-1:59)

Right after the chorus in the interlude portion of the song, are images of protesters followed by “Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming:

We’re finally on our own” (2:19-2:24)

showing the troops and Nixon referring to the map of Cambodia. The song ends with the photos of the four student victims of the tragedy that befell America.

This footage presents to the public how a song can represent itself as an instrument to awaken socio-political awareness, which are also used as sources for public address. As such political rallies may be enlivened by songs and performances depicting current events and political concerns especially when it is based on true-to life experiences coupled by images of human atrocities.

Photo Source: http://www.alancanfora.com

Another fellow Toastmaster with a very informative public speaking blog is Andrew Dlugan. Aside from his various fields of interest, Andrew is an award winning speaker and Toastmaster officer based in Canada. He has an interesting blog entitled Six Minutes where he features different speeches, presentation skills, book reviews and helpful tips on public speaking. I had the chance to ask Andrew a few questions regarding himself as a public speaker and about his blog.

The Weekly Review of the Public Speaking Blogosphere is my favorite part of Andrew’s blog. One of my main challenges is dealing with the tremendous amount of information on public speaking that arrives from everywhere in a time efficient manner. Besides visiting Andrew’s excellent blog, I asked him if he has any more tips for people wanting to gain more knowledge but having difficulty selecting their sources.

Andrew said, ”Selecting the best sources is certainly a challenge, a challenge which gave rise to the public speaking weekly reviews. While I encourage everyone to regularly read as many public speaking blogs as they can, I understand that not everyone will do so. By filtering down weekly advice from 100+ blogs to a short list of the most thought-provoking and original articles, I hope to help readers find the best sources. So, my first piece of advice is to make the weekly review a “must read” each week. The variety of topics covered is a great starting point for public speaking students.

My second piece of advice is to sample from a breadth of topics rather than just one or two. For example, consider these two options: A) Subscribe to five blogs, all of which concentrate on slide ware B) Subscribe to five blogs, where each specializes in a different topic: slide ware, speechwriting, professional speaking, speech analysis, and delivery techniques. I believe that option B will provide you with the greatest growth over time.

Third, remember that some of the best information sources are not blogs. For example, there are a number of excellent public speaking books available. Again, I recommend seeking out the best books covering a breadth of topics, particularly those where you feel that you have the most room for improvement.”

Then, I asked Andrew about the challenges that he has to face as a speaker and what areas need to be improved. “I completely agree.” He said. “Every speaker can improve, and I am no exception. One of my main challenges right now is incorporating humor with more impact into my speeches. I am studying humor writing techniques as well as techniques such as pausing and vocal variety as they relate to delivering humor.”

I followed it up with the next question, “If you could choose anyone in the world to be your mentor and to help you in taking your public speaking skills to the next level, who would that be?”

“That’s a difficult question for a couple reasons. First, I’ve always tended to be more of an independent learner rather than having a single dedicated mentor. Second, there are so many excellent speakers whose speaking skills I admire, and who I have learned from. I have done speech critiques of several of them on my blog.”

Though Andrew has difficulty picking just one person, he said, the quality he seeks most to emulate and to take his skills to the next level is the unquestionable passion exhibited by nearly every TED speaker that he has viewed. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. This is a global community whose speeches aim to spread creative ideas and inspire others to move and do something for the world.

Andrew said he advises speakers to choose topics by asking three questions:

(1) Do you have expert knowledge to share?
(2) Does the audience care about it?
(3) Are you passionate about it?

“TED presentations have all three qualities, but it is the third –passion — which transforms speech into an experience. Any mentor who can show me how to bring that level of passion to the stage every time I speak is the mentor I would choose,” said Andrew.

Every visit to Andrew’s blog is a new way of learning and gaining knowledge not just about public speaking but the world as well. Click your browser to sixminutes.dlugan.com

The Ted talk video of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore runs for 16 minutes and 57 seconds. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore started off with rather amusing anecdotes of how his life has been since he left the White House. Then he proceeded with the real serious business of talking about the climate crisis with a question: What can you do about the climate crisis?

First he presented a temperature record of the United States of America showing that in January of 2006 the temperature was 39.5 which were 8.5 higher than the previous month which was pegged at 31. He, then, mentioned that although cars and trucks are easy visible targets of concern and they should be but the fact is there is more global warming pollution coming from buildings than from cars and trucks. He stresses that carbon capture and sequestration (C.C.S.) will enable us to continue to use fossil fuels in a way that is safe, if we can only use renewable at the current level of technological efficiency.

Al Gore presented the following ways by which people may help in addressing the climate crisis: 1.) Reduce emissions from our homes by way of wise energy use, better design, insulation and by using green electricity whenever possible. 2.) Reduce emissions from cars and other forms of transportation by buying a hybrid, using the light rail, car pooling and biking. 3.) Be a green consumer by buying the most energy efficient appliances. 4.) Live a carbon neutral life by reducing carbon dioxide emissions and offsetting others that have not been reduced. 5.) Check out www.climatecrisis.net and consider using the carbon calculator which is equipped with functions to help the user reduce carbon emissions. 6.) Make businesses carbon neutral. 7.) Integrate climate solutions in all your innovations whether one works in technology, entertainment, or in design and architecture. 8.) Invest sustain ably in companies and firms that are part of the solution. 9.) Become catalyst of change by teaching others, learning more about the climate crisis, and talking about it. 10.) Raise awareness. 11.) Sending a representative to Nashville for training under Al Gore. 12.) Become politically active. 13.) Consider the benefits of carbon capping and trading and convince companies to get maximum income from reducing and trading carbon emissions. 14.) Help in mass persuasion campaigns. 15.) Use proper branding for environmental issues.

Al Gore capped his talk with a call to all that are present regardless of political beliefs to help address the issue of climate crisis. He presented his points well and achieved overwhelming response to the cause he aimed to open our eyes on.

It is really an “Inconvenient Truth” to think about how we are slowly withering our resources away as we strive to preserve our existence. He was able to open many eyes in his quest to promote spreading knowledge about this phenomena. With this engaging and very relevant talk it is no wonder that Al Gore became a Nobel winner.

Nick Morgan is a speech writer, speech coach and communications skills expert. He has worked with various corporate executives and public figures as a speech writer. He is the founder of Public Words, a communications consultancy firm aimed at helping people develop their public speaking and presentation skills. Nick recently gave me the chance to do a short interview with him which I would like to share with you.

I asked Nick’s insights on some topics concerning his expertise.

Nick suggests that a speaker should do “focused rehearsing” of the speech before delivering it in front of a live audience. In this regard, I asked him whether some people rehearse so much that when they deliver the speech they are no longer spontaneous and they are just acting. Would it be fair to say that the communication style is not congruent with the speaker’s own personality?

“It’s very rare for someone to be over-rehearsed,” Nick replied. “If someone is just ‘acting’ and not appearing authentic or real, it’s because they haven’t realized the point of rehearsal, which is to get other distractions out of the way so that you can be ‘there in that moment‘ for the audience. Anyone who is fully present never looks fake.”

“I understand you love poetry and I enjoyed the Fernando Pessoa quote on your email signature. Do you think well chosen quotes can improve the impact of a speech? When should a speaker use quotes?”

“Quotes can be useful in two ways — if used sparingly. The first is to establish authority. You quote an expert to show that you know what you’re talking about, and you know the experts. The second is to add a little poetry — a little magic — to the prose. These sort of quotes are usually brought in at the end of a speech. Take care that you don’t become cliched, however, you must use an unusual quote, not a hackneyed one.”

Too much use of quotes will make a speaker boring and stereotyped. Timing is the key. I guess it is a matter of applying it at the proper time.

“In your book “Working the Room”, it is evident that you believe the only reason to give a speech is to “change the world”. Do you think many of today speeches don’t have a clear purpose?

“Far too many speeches today don’t reflect the purpose and passion that a speech must have to change the world. You can only really make one point in a focused, clear speech. So make that point well and powerfully — and you will change the world. Otherwise you’re wasting your time and the audience’s time. “

You can read more about Nick Morgan at his site, www.publicwords.com