The Art of Public Speaking summary

Imagine you’re a pianist. Whether you’re playing your own songs or the compositions of someone else, there are countless ways to interpret the music. You could play slowly or quickly, softly or loudly; with wild flourishes or with rigid uniformity. There are, in short, no hard-and-fast rules for how music should be played.

The same can be said of public speaking. There is no end to the number of ways to give a speech successfully, but first, you’ll need to master the speech-giving basics.

Imagine two speakers, each delivering anti-slavery speeches in pre-Emancipation Proclamation America. The first is a white politician, a man with a solid record of anti-slavery activism. The second is a black mother on the auction block, a woman who’s just watched her son get sold down the river.

Whose speech do you think would be more stirring?

What are you going to do about that tree? You know, the gnarled apple tree in your backyard with the stunted, leafless branches? Here’s a possible solution. You could dash to the garage, grab your chainsaw, saw off the branches of your neighbor’s towering oak tree, haul them to your yard and nail them gloriously to your tree’s trunk!

Ah, if only horticultural difficulties were so easily overcome.

What do you think basketball players have in common with public speakers? Sure, both ought to be comfortable in front of crowds – but there’s something else. They’ve both got to be in good cardiovascular condition!

Whether you’re running in for a slam dunk or trying to make yourself heard in a large auditorium, a strong pair of lungs can only help.

Ah, fresh air! Chirping crickets! The star-strewn night sky! You’re camping, and all you need now is to start a fire and get some hot dogs roasting. You collect some nice dry sticks, cast them about at random, light a match and apply it to the nearest bit of kindling.

If you have any camping know-how at all, you’ll have already noticed a critical flaw in this fire-making choreography. Your stick arrangement is all wrong. If you want to achieve a hearty blaze, you’ll need to place your sticks in a pile so the flame can pass from one to the next.

There was once a king who wanted to rule the world. And he had a marvelous skill: he could build impregnable castles. But this king also had a fatal failing: he was incapable of toppling his enemies’ fortifications.

Building an irrefutable argument will get you nowhere if you’re unable to refute the arguments that might be used against you. Indeed, if you can’t poke holes in the counterarguments of potential disputants, their assertions will be, as far as you’re concerned, as unassailable as yours.

Argument is the foundation on which all convincing speeches are built. But if a speech is merely a well-wrought chain of logical links, it will lack luster and life. It will be sturdy, no doubt – but who will want to listen to it?

That’s why you should harness the power of the imagination before you approach the public-speaking platform.