What if You Draw A Blank?
If you have time before your speech, create an outline of the major themes or points and commit it to memory with a memorization trick, like an acronym. Don't try to remember the entire speech in detail; just remember the order of important points.
If you suddenly lose your train of thought or draw a complete blank, there are a few you can do to keep from panicking.
If you have time before your speech, create an outline of the major themes or points and commit it to memory with a memorization trick, like an acronym. Don't try to remember the entire speech in detail; just remember the order of important points.
If you suddenly lose your train of thought or draw a complete blank, there are a few you can do to keep from panicking.
- Pretend like you're pausing on purpose. Walk back and forth slowly, as if you're letting your last point sink in.
- If you still can't remember what to say, make up a reason to pause the speech. You can say, "I'm sorry, but my throat is very dry. Can I please get a glass of water?"
If these tricks don't appeal to you, think of your own. The trick is to have something ready ahead of time.
The Beginning: Ask for Ten Seconds
The start of any presentation is vital, since it is when you establish your credibility with the audience and begin to get into a rapport with them. Any type of opening can be used in any presentation, but you have to be aware of the context of the presentation (analysis) when thinking about the opening.
Although, the best presenters often break the rules regularly and combine his own analysis with what is there as written protocol.
The following are explanations of how you can start a speech or presentation.
The start of any presentation is vital, since it is when you establish your credibility with the audience and begin to get into a rapport with them. Any type of opening can be used in any presentation, but you have to be aware of the context of the presentation (analysis) when thinking about the opening.
Although, the best presenters often break the rules regularly and combine his own analysis with what is there as written protocol.
The following are explanations of how you can start a speech or presentation.
The Questioning Opening
To be or not to be? Now that’s a good question. Starting with a question and going on to either answer it or give a discourse on the many facets that might go to making an answer, is another technique for opening a presentation.
Be sure when considering the ‘questioning’ opening that you are not merely doing it to start your speech, rather you should be trying to get them interested, engaged or inspired by what you are going to say.
The Factual Opening
This technique involves playing it pretty straight, telling in advance what you are going to cover in the proceeding minutes.
Mahatma Gandhi, on 24 February 1916 in Benares, used a measured, factual opening in one of a series of speeches that strove for independence for India. A few simple facts, established inside a minute or two and a devastating final two sentences set out his thesis that there was no salvation for India under the then present governing structure.
This opening is appropriate when you understand that the situation demands you to get to the point quickly, you want your audience to immediately know where you are going, or you want to make sure they get the structure of your presentation right at the beginning.
It could be useful when you have to speak on a very technical matter and there is a real necessity that the audience know where you are going and you will then give signposts along the length of your presentation that refer back to the opening.
The Surprising Opening
Shocking or surprising the audience at the beginning is an excellent way of gaining attention at the start, though it is obviously a bit riskier than the factual opening.
The surprising opening can be a visual experience, through a picture on a slide, a sensory experience or simply be spoken by the presenter. It has the effect of juxtaposing what the audience expects with what they receive.
An example of a surprising opening would be the speaker saying “I have two passions in my life: communication and making soup!” and then going on to explain the trials and tribulations of soup-making, recipes included.
This has the effect of engaging those who do make soup, and intriguing those who don’t. The link is made when they speaker say- ‘it is important to know not only what to put into your soup, but also what to leave out - just like creating a presentation.’
Be aware of the risk of trying too hard with the surprising opening. Also, putting all your eggs in this one basket means that if it is unsuccessful you will have work to do in creating rapport.
It is possible to create a surprising opening that has no connection whatever with the topic of the presentation (it could be about the venue, about yourself or how you got there) but it is better if the connection is eventually made with the topic at hand, and runs as a theme through the presentation.
The surprising opening may also be a bald, bold and bluntly stated opening statement that gets right to the point, with no preamble or beating about the bush.
The Reveal Opening
Rather than give all the facts in a summary right at the beginning, the reveal opening toys a bit with the audience and has them guessing what you might be going to talk about, peeling back a few layers about the subject as you begin.
Stanley Baldwin’s speech on 6 May 1924 in London is a gradual peeling back from beginning to end of what it is like to be English. The final line is “We still have among us the gifts of that great English race.” Everything leading up to that was a sentimental journey, through an England that never existed outside the mind of the speaker.
Baldwin speaks of “the anvil of the country smithy, the corncrake on a dewy morning, the sound of the scythe against the whetstone, and the sight of a plough-team coming over the brow of a hill…” He continues in that vein, revealing an England that evokes nostalgia as it peels back the layers towards the peroration that talks of “brethren, justice and humanity” of the English race.
Peppering the first few minutes with clues for the audience can draw them into your talk in a seductive way, and in a completely different way from the factual or surprise opening. You will have to ensure that your pace of delivery is right. If used effectively you can gradually draw the audience into your way of thinking.
The Oblique Opening
Setting a false trail and having your listeners’ guess where you might be going to say can engage and captivate an audience, especially if they have turned up expecting something fairly mundane and staid.
A good, and if you like, standard way of creating an oblique opening is to start by telling the audience all of the things you might have included, but have decided not to include on this occasion.
This can be an interesting and enjoyable journey and allows you to home in on your topic without doing the obvious of simply starting with what you are going to tell them.
Salman Rushdie spoke in 1991 about the value of his life. The opening takes us up in a hot air balloon that is careering towards the ground. He then describes a Balloon Debate, a form of entertainment that has individuals defending the merits of famous people in a balloon to save them from being jettisoned.
He returns to the balloon theme at the end, stating simply that “the balloon is sinking into the abyss”, a powerful metaphor for his own situation and that of the democratic world.
This is a classic oblique opening, where an audience is expecting, and eventually gets a very serious speech on a life and death topic but is treated to an entirely different journey at the outset.
To be or not to be? Now that’s a good question. Starting with a question and going on to either answer it or give a discourse on the many facets that might go to making an answer, is another technique for opening a presentation.
Be sure when considering the ‘questioning’ opening that you are not merely doing it to start your speech, rather you should be trying to get them interested, engaged or inspired by what you are going to say.
The Factual Opening
This technique involves playing it pretty straight, telling in advance what you are going to cover in the proceeding minutes.
Mahatma Gandhi, on 24 February 1916 in Benares, used a measured, factual opening in one of a series of speeches that strove for independence for India. A few simple facts, established inside a minute or two and a devastating final two sentences set out his thesis that there was no salvation for India under the then present governing structure.
This opening is appropriate when you understand that the situation demands you to get to the point quickly, you want your audience to immediately know where you are going, or you want to make sure they get the structure of your presentation right at the beginning.
It could be useful when you have to speak on a very technical matter and there is a real necessity that the audience know where you are going and you will then give signposts along the length of your presentation that refer back to the opening.
The Surprising Opening
Shocking or surprising the audience at the beginning is an excellent way of gaining attention at the start, though it is obviously a bit riskier than the factual opening.
The surprising opening can be a visual experience, through a picture on a slide, a sensory experience or simply be spoken by the presenter. It has the effect of juxtaposing what the audience expects with what they receive.
An example of a surprising opening would be the speaker saying “I have two passions in my life: communication and making soup!” and then going on to explain the trials and tribulations of soup-making, recipes included.
This has the effect of engaging those who do make soup, and intriguing those who don’t. The link is made when they speaker say- ‘it is important to know not only what to put into your soup, but also what to leave out - just like creating a presentation.’
Be aware of the risk of trying too hard with the surprising opening. Also, putting all your eggs in this one basket means that if it is unsuccessful you will have work to do in creating rapport.
It is possible to create a surprising opening that has no connection whatever with the topic of the presentation (it could be about the venue, about yourself or how you got there) but it is better if the connection is eventually made with the topic at hand, and runs as a theme through the presentation.
The surprising opening may also be a bald, bold and bluntly stated opening statement that gets right to the point, with no preamble or beating about the bush.
The Reveal Opening
Rather than give all the facts in a summary right at the beginning, the reveal opening toys a bit with the audience and has them guessing what you might be going to talk about, peeling back a few layers about the subject as you begin.
Stanley Baldwin’s speech on 6 May 1924 in London is a gradual peeling back from beginning to end of what it is like to be English. The final line is “We still have among us the gifts of that great English race.” Everything leading up to that was a sentimental journey, through an England that never existed outside the mind of the speaker.
Baldwin speaks of “the anvil of the country smithy, the corncrake on a dewy morning, the sound of the scythe against the whetstone, and the sight of a plough-team coming over the brow of a hill…” He continues in that vein, revealing an England that evokes nostalgia as it peels back the layers towards the peroration that talks of “brethren, justice and humanity” of the English race.
Peppering the first few minutes with clues for the audience can draw them into your talk in a seductive way, and in a completely different way from the factual or surprise opening. You will have to ensure that your pace of delivery is right. If used effectively you can gradually draw the audience into your way of thinking.
The Oblique Opening
Setting a false trail and having your listeners’ guess where you might be going to say can engage and captivate an audience, especially if they have turned up expecting something fairly mundane and staid.
A good, and if you like, standard way of creating an oblique opening is to start by telling the audience all of the things you might have included, but have decided not to include on this occasion.
This can be an interesting and enjoyable journey and allows you to home in on your topic without doing the obvious of simply starting with what you are going to tell them.
Salman Rushdie spoke in 1991 about the value of his life. The opening takes us up in a hot air balloon that is careering towards the ground. He then describes a Balloon Debate, a form of entertainment that has individuals defending the merits of famous people in a balloon to save them from being jettisoned.
He returns to the balloon theme at the end, stating simply that “the balloon is sinking into the abyss”, a powerful metaphor for his own situation and that of the democratic world.
This is a classic oblique opening, where an audience is expecting, and eventually gets a very serious speech on a life and death topic but is treated to an entirely different journey at the outset.
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