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Prof Anderson: Hi class, this is William Anderson
again, and in this video I want to talk to
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you about delivery methods.
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These are various methods for delivering
your speech, and I want to
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talk to you about four of them.
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The first one is called a manuscript
delivery.
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In a manuscript delivery, you have
your entire speech written
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out in front of you and you read it
verbatim.
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Now there is a big important
advantage to using this method, and
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that is this is the only method that
precise wording is important.
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In other words, you are going to say
exactly what you meant to say
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and perhaps more importantly,
you're going to avoid saying something
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you did not mean to say.
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So, any time precise wording is really
important, this is the only method
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you should consider using.
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However, there are two important
disadvantages to this method.
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The first one, is it's very poor eye
contact.
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With eye contact, we communicate
our engagement with the audience, so it's
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really important that you're giving it
up using a manuscript delivery.
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Also this method, it's very inflexible.
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As we've talked about before in the
course, it's important that you are
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able to adapt to the facial expressions
and the nonverbal feedback
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you're getting from your audience.
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Well, if you're staring at your script
reading it, you're not even seeing
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those facial expressions, you're not
even seeing that nonverbal feedback.
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So, because of these two important
disadvantages, this method should
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never be used anytime precise
wording isn't important.
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For most of you, precise wording
will never be important.
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There are a couple of instances
where it might be.
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For example, if you ever find yourself
in a very bad legal situation,
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sometimes your attorney might
prepare a very specific statement for you
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and tell you to read it.
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Now, sometimes in our normal
vernacular, our normal conversation,
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there are multiple words that
effectively say the same thing.
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But, in a legal setting, each word can
have a very specific important meaning.
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And remember, anything you say
can and will be used against you
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in a court of law, and so in this sort
of circumstance it could be
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that the exact wording that you
use can have a very big impact.
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Or, if you're a spokesperson
for the government.
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Sometimes the government, a
government spokesperson making a slip
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of the tongue, using wrong words,
can have a catastrophic effect.
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So in some of those instances
precise wording might be important.
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But for the vast majority of you,
precise wording will never be important
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and therefore, reading your speech
is generally a bad idea.
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The second one is memorized.
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In the memorized method, we
spend a considerable amount of time
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writing out our speech and then
much more time committing it to memory
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so that we can recite it.
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The advantage to the memorized
delivery method is that it allows for
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very good eye contact, you literally
don't have notes to look at.
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But there are two compelling
disadvantages to this method.
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First of all, it is the most
inflexible of the methods.
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When you memorize a speech,
you're really memorizing the flow.
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You're memorizing, um, not
individual words but rather the flow of
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the speech, and so if you look up
and you're talking to your audience
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and they look confused, you know you
have to go back and provide a different
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example or a different explanation.
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But to do so would break you from
that flow, making it hard to get back in.
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The second disadvantage to this is this
is the most inefficient of the methods.
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By inefficient, I mean you're wasting
time committing your speech to
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exact memory.
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So, let's say, for example,
you're giving a 5 minute speech.
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And a 5 minute speech, for most people,
is about four to five pages of text,
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probably closer to four.
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Well, if it takes you an hour to write a
four page paper and you're really
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good at memorization and it takes
you two hours and you can commit the
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entire four pages to memory, that's
180 minutes that you've put towards
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writing and memorizing your speech.
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If you would've taken that same
180 minutes, spent about 10 or 15 minutes
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preparing a good speaking outline,
and then all the rest of the time
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focused on practicing and polishing
your delivery, you would've
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been able to get- well if it's 15 minutes,
that would leave 165 minutes of
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a 5 minute speech, and that's
33 practices I believe.
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If you practice your speech 10 times,
just 10 times, you can dramatically
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improve your delivery.
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Here, you're giving up 30 practices so
you can make sure you used the right
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preposition in the right order,
that's a bad trade.
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So it's better to use that extra time
practicing, polishing, and perfecting
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your delivery.
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And incidentally when I say practice, I
don't mean read the speech quietly
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to yourself.
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I mean stand up, speak it like as if
you were going to be delivering the
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speech, because you build muscle
memory in the pronouncing of the
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words, um, and that's a better
use of the time.
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Because of these two big disadvantages,
the memorized method is an
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anachronism, it's effectively lost in time
for truly no public speakers
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use this method anymore.
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Number three, impromptu.
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Impromptu is speaking with virtually no
preparation,
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this is the come as you are speech.
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Now, this is not a good choice to make,
but this is the choice that
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will be made for you much of the time.
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Many of the speeches that you give
in your life, you will find out
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you're going to be giving a speech a
matter of a few minutes before you're
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giving it.
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You might be at a meeting and suddenly
the boss looks at you and says
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'uh, why don't you go ahead and
brief us on a project.'
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Or you could be sitting at your
office not even knowing there's a meeting
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going on, there's a knock at your door,
your cubicle, your work station
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and the boss says 'we need you
to update everybody, come on, let's go.'
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You have the time it takes to stand up
and walk to the room to prepare
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your speech.
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And during that walk, your boss is
going to be visiting with you.
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The key to good impromptu
speaking is being organized.
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Organized and confidence will help
dramatically improve
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your impromptu speaking.
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Finally, the fourth one, extemporaneous.
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Extemporaneous speaking, you never
actually plan out the exact wording
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you're going to say, instead you
simply prepare an outline.
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And as soon as you've got your
outline ready, you turn your attention to
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practicing and polishing your delivery.
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The advantage here is that it allows
for very good eye contact.
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You want this outline to be very
sparse, very few notes, only the
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least amount of notes you
need in order to make sure that
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you're able to deliver your speech.
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By having few notes it encourages
you to look up at your audience.
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Second advantage, is that this
one is very flexible.
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Because you have a very brief outline,
if it looks like from your
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audiences reaction that they get a point
and you can skip the next example,
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it's easy to skip the next example,
move onto the next part.
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Or, if they look confused and you
need to give another example, it's
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able to do that and not lose your place.
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Third, it's very efficient, because it
doesn't take long to prepare a quick
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outline, most of your preparation
time is spent practicing, polishing,
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and perfecting delivery, which is
really where the main benefit comes.
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Fourth, impro-- er, extemporaneous
speaking tends to be very well
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organized, an outline is an
instrument of organization and is at the
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heart of the extemporaneous
speaking style.
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The only major disadvantage to
extemporaneous speaking is that it
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doesn't allow for precise wording.
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So, in the rare occasion that precise
wording is important, you would
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never want to use this method.
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But because most of the speeches
you give in your life, if not all of them,
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precise wording won't be important,
extemporaneous speaking is the best
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method to use in almost every
circumstance.
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So, I hope that this helps in selecting
which method to use.
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Again, the speeches in class are
practice for out there.
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In terms of speeches in class, I
always encourage you to only use the
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extemporaneous method.
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Thank you.