The Art of Public Speaking
Public speaking — the 1915 textbook Carnegie co-wrote before How to Win Friends: stage fright, emphasis, pauses, notes, suggestion and moving a crowd.
Mechanisms
Pasture the horse beside the tracks
The opening chapter's cure for stage fright is repeated exposure.
"How would you cure a horse that is afraid of cars—graze him in a back-woods lot where he would never see steam-engines or automobiles, or drive or pasture him where he would frequently see the machines?" "You must learn to speak by speaking."
Why it matters
The opening chapter's cure for stage fright is repeated exposure. Books can coach you, but in their words "no one ever learns to swim" in a wetless bathing suit.
Use when: You've been reading about public speaking instead of booking a talk.
Pour water in the glass to get the air out
A mind packed with the material has no room left for "How does my hair look?" The blacksmith's rope on the horse's nose is the same trick, distraction by something stronger.
"One way to get air out of a glass is to pour in water." "fill your mind with your speech-material and, like the infilling water in the glass, it will drive out your unsubstantial fears."
Why it matters
A mind packed with the material has no room left for "How does my hair look?" The blacksmith's rope on the horse's nose is the same trick, distraction by something stronger.
Use when: You're backstage replaying everything that could go wrong.
Script the first few sentences word for word
The authors want the opening fixed so you are not hunting for words at the start.
"Have the first few sentences worked out completely so that you may not be troubled in the beginning to find words. Know your subject better than your hearers know it, and you have nothing to fear."
Why it matters
The authors want the opening fixed so you are not hunting for words at the start. Knowing the subject better than your hearers is their other cure.
Use when: You're preparing a talk and plan to improvise the opening.
Whisper the word that matters
Emphasis comes from contrast.
"To make a word emphatic, deliver it differently from the manner in which the words surrounding it are delivered. If you have been talking loudly, utter the emphatic word in a concentrated whisper—and you have intense emphasis."
Why it matters
Emphasis comes from contrast. A Fifth Avenue bus turns heads in a farm town and an ox team turns heads on Fifth Avenue, so whatever you've been doing, change it on the key word.
Use when: You've been raising your voice to stress points and the room has tuned out.
Stress the man who bit the dog
Words the audience already expects don't need stress.
"'But,' said Mr. Dana, 'if you see a man bite a dog, hurry back to the office and write the story.'" "'New stars and suns' are hardly as emphatic as the word 'larger.' Why? Because we expect an astronomer to discover heavenly bodies rather than cooking recipes."
Why it matters
Words the audience already expects don't need stress. Save emphasis for the new or surprising word, the part that is news. The authors treat the average sentence as "just one big word, with the important word as the accented syllable," the way nobody stresses every syllable of "Massachusetts."
Use when: You're marking up a script and stressing the obvious nouns.
Stress one word and they hear its opposite
Heavy stress implies a contrast.
"If you say, 'My horse is not black,' what color immediately comes into mind? White, naturally, for that is the opposite of black." "Strongly emphasizing a single word has a tendency to suggest its antithesis."
Why it matters
Heavy stress implies a contrast. Leaning on "chance" in "Destiny is not a matter of chance" sets up "choice" before you say it.
Use when: You want the audience to arrive at your point a beat before you state it.
Pause on both sides of the big phrase
The authors separate this from stumbling with "uh" and "er." A deliberate pause makes the audience wait and makes the phrase land.
"one of the most important means of developing power in public speaking is to pause either before or after, or both before and after, an important word or phrase."
Why it matters
The authors separate this from stumbling with "uh" and "er." A deliberate pause makes the audience wait and makes the phrase land. They say it is hard to grasp until you notice good speakers doing it.
Use when: Your key line goes by before anyone registers it.
Circle the pivot, box the anecdote
Uniform text is hard to find with a half-second glance.
"he may underscore a catch-word heavily, draw a red circle around a pivotal idea, enclose the key-word of an anecdote in a wavy-lined box" "nothing so eludes the swift-glancing eye of the speaker as the sameness of typewriting"
Why it matters
Uniform text is hard to find with a half-second glance. Visual marks act as handles, and the authors say even an accidental blot can help you recall a point.
Use when: You lose your place in your notes mid-talk.
Memorize the joints, improvise the rest
Write and memorize the introduction, the conclusion and the key argument, and speak the rest.
"Others again write and commit a few important parts of the address—the introduction, the conclusion, some vital argument, some pat illustration—and depend on the hour for the language of the rest."
Why it matters
Write and memorize the introduction, the conclusion and the key argument, and speak the rest. Fully memorized lines, the authors warn, usually "sound like memorized words, and repel."
Use when: You're choosing between reading a script and winging it.
Tell the joke that fits, skip the one that's funnier
At banquets and occasions the authors want humor mixed with substance.
"An anecdote without bearing may be funny but one less funny that fits theme and occasion is far preferable." "humor alone rarely scores so heavily as the two combined, while the utterly grave speech never does on such occasions."
Why it matters
At banquets and occasions the authors want humor mixed with substance. A string of unrelated jokes joined by "And that reminds me" wastes the chance.
Use when: You've got a great joke for a toast and it has nothing to do with the occasion.
Ask who else is speaking and whether there's a desk
The checklist covers the audience, their likely attitude, the program order, the room and the exact time.
"Who else will speak? Do I speak first, last, or where, on the program? What are the other speakers going to talk about? What is the nature of the auditorium? Is there a desk?"
Why it matters
The checklist covers the audience, their likely attitude, the program order, the room and the exact time. The authors put most speech misfits down to never asking.
Use when: You've been invited to speak and know only the topic.
Ten minutes means neither nine nor eleven
Running over takes time from the next speaker and the audience.
"Let ten minutes mean neither nine nor eleven—though better nine than eleven, at all events." "Blessed is the man that maketh short speeches, for he shall be invited to speak again."
Why it matters
Running over takes time from the next speaker and the audience. The fix is planning: give each point its share of time and decide in advance where the main section sits.
Use when: Your talks keep running long.
Count the rolls yourself
A first-hand fact can't be waved off as hearsay, and the authors add that seeing the facts yourself changes how you deliver them.
"Your words come with the weight of authority when you can say, 'I have examined the employment rolls of every mill in this district and find that thirty-two per cent of the children employed are under the legal age.' No citation of authorities can equal that."
Why it matters
A first-hand fact can't be waved off as hearsay, and the authors add that seeing the facts yourself changes how you deliver them.
Use when: Your argument rests on numbers you've only read secondhand.
Close while their last thought is yours
The authors quote a publisher: subscription buyers acted while the salesman's picture filled their minds and every objection was crowded out.
"Most of us are captured by the latest strong attack, and if we can be induced to act while under the stress of that last insistent thought, we lose sight of counter influences." "ninety per cent of the people who bought books by subscription never read them."
Why it matters
The authors quote a publisher: subscription buyers acted while the salesman's picture filled their minds and every objection was crowded out.
Use when: You're about to sign something while the pitch is still ringing in your ears.
Suggest their minds are already changing
The authors say feelings, thoughts and wills "tend to follow the line of least resistance." Telling people they are dug in digs them in; suggesting that opinion is already shifting makes holding out the effort.
"Suggest to a man that it is impossible to change his mind and in most cases it becomes more difficult to do so" "Suggest subtly and persistently that the opinions of those in the audience who are opposed to your views are changing"
Why it matters
The authors say feelings, thoughts and wills "tend to follow the line of least resistance." Telling people they are dug in digs them in; suggesting that opinion is already shifting makes holding out the effort. They note the born contrarian needs the reverse.
Use when: You're addressing people who are against you and about to call them stubborn.
Call the half-empty room a great gathering
The setting suggests a flop unless something stronger suggests otherwise.
"A gloomy day, in a drab room, sparsely tenanted by listeners, invites platform disaster. Everyone feels it in the air." "let the speaker walk squarely up to the issue and suggest by all his feeling, manner and words that this is going to be a great gathering in every vital sense"
Why it matters
The setting suggests a flop unless something stronger suggests otherwise. Here the stronger signal is the speaker's own manner, set against the room.
Use when: Turnout is thin and you're tempted to apologize for it.
Lead with the cities that already adopted it
The authors note that reformers save as their strongest argument the places that have already adopted the plan.
"The advocates of the commission-form of government of cities, the champions of votes for women, reserve as their strongest arguments the fact that a number of cities and states have already successfully accepted their plans."
Why it matters
The authors note that reformers save as their strongest argument the places that have already adopted the plan. It answers "has it worked?" and "am I alone?" at once.
Use when: You're proposing a change to a cautious group.
Imply it so nobody can dispute it
The authors say indirect language persuades because it "does not make statements that can be directly disputed." They still want a logical base under it.
"Figurative and indirect language has suggestive force, because it does not make statements that can be directly disputed." "When immediate action or persuasion is desired, suggestion is more efficacious than argument—when both are judiciously mixed, the effect is irresistible."
Why it matters
The authors say indirect language persuades because it "does not make statements that can be directly disputed." They still want a logical base under it.
Use when: Every direct statement you make draws a rebuttal.
Start with their pains
Advertising that opened with the firm's size or the remedy's strength went unread.
"Patent medicine advertisement usually begins by talking about your pains—they begin on your interests." "Recently a book-salesman entered an attorney's office in New York and inquired: 'Do you want to buy a book?' Had the lawyer wanted a book he would probably have bought one without waiting for a book-salesman to call."
Why it matters
Advertising that opened with the firm's size or the remedy's strength went unread. Opening with the reader's problem made them ask for the solution. The authors set it against a book salesman whose opening, "Do you want to buy a book?", talked only in terms of his own interest.
Use when: Your pitch opens with your company's history.
Pack them into the front pews
The authors say feeling catches across a packed crowd and dies across empty benches, and point out that St.
"It is as hard to kindle enthusiasm in a scattered audience as to build a fire with scattered sticks." "Have your audience seated compactly."
Why it matters
The authors say feeling catches across a packed crowd and dies across empty benches, and point out that St. Peter's moves ordinary services into side chapels.
Use when: Forty people are scattered across a room for three hundred.
Repeat their claim while your facts take it apart
The authors print Antony's oration as their model of turning listeners into a crowd.
"For Brutus is an honorable man, So are they all, all honorable men" "He hath brought many captives home to Rome, Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?"
Why it matters
The authors print Antony's oration as their model of turning listeners into a crowd. Antony never attacks Brutus's claim head-on. He repeats it after each fact (the ransoms, the refused crown, the tears for the poor) until the refrain itself sounds like an accusation.
Use when: You have to answer a respected opponent without attacking them by name.
Show the prize, then refuse to read it
Antony holds up Caesar's will and declines to read it, so the crowd demands it.
"Let but the commons hear this testament-- Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read--" "You will compel me then to read the will?"
Why it matters
Antony holds up Caesar's will and declines to read it, so the crowd demands it. By the time he gives in, they are asking for the argument he came to make.
Use when: You have a strong document or number and want the room to ask for it.
Start on the motive they have, end on the highest
The authors use a Kipling war speech that opens on self-interest and ends on patriotism.
"Notice how at the last the pleader sweeps on to the highest ground he can take." "This is a notable example of progressive appeal, beginning with a low motive and ending with a high one in such a way as to carry all the force of prejudice yet gain all the value of patriotic fervor."
Why it matters
The authors use a Kipling war speech that opens on self-interest and ends on patriotism. They call the appeal to prejudice rarely justifiable and still show the sequence: meet people at the motive they already feel, then climb.
Use when: Your audience cares about their own costs and you need them to care about the larger cause.
Carry your license
Reputation gets a hearing, and the authors say facts have to follow fast.
"Ignorance and credulity will remain unchanged unless the suggestion of authority be followed promptly by facts." "Don't claim authority unless you carry your license in your pocket. Let reason support the position that suggestion has assumed."
Why it matters
Reputation gets a hearing, and the authors say facts have to follow fast. They cite Bryan, whose fame filled halls, and add that "back of it all, he is a great speaker."
Use when: Your title or credentials got you the invitation and you're tempted to coast on them.
Arguments
Don't tell them not to put beans up their noses
Naming an action plants it, even inside a prohibition.
"To warn children that they should not put beans up their noses is the surest method of getting them to do it." "Every thought called up in the mind of your audience will work either for or against you."
Why it matters
Naming an action plants it, even inside a prohibition. The authors say a speaker should avoid calling up the very thoughts that work against the goal.
Use when: Your warning slide lists the exact mistakes you don't want people to make.