Speaking Badly

This short article appeared in today's e-zine from The Media Coach, Alan Stevens:

HOW TO GIVE A REALLY BAD SPEECH

As Yogi Berra used to say "You can learn a lot from watching". Well I've been watching people make speeches for over thirty years, and many of them were fantastic. Some were just average. A few were - well, utterly dreadful would not be too harsh a description. So I've come up with a checklist of how to give a really bad speech. Here it is.


Start badly
Not know how to use the microphone or other technology
Have a confusing message (or no message at all)
Patronise the audience
Read from a script
Turn your back on the audience
Try to tell jokes
Use jargon or technical language
Run out of time
End poorly

No prizes for guessing what you have to do to give a really good speech.




"This information was written by Alan Stevens, and originally appeared in "The MediaCoach", his free weekly ezine, available at www.mediacoach.co.uk."