《The quick&easy way to effective speaking（演讲与口才）（英文版）》读后感400字

—此书不仅谈及如何get公共演讲需要的信心，基本技能和注意事项, 这些技能还可用到日常的生活对话比如说服孩子，解释事情;工作中比如培训员工，做presentation中，很实用。最重要的一点是读完此书让人对自己能做好演讲等类似的事情充满信心。

—读此书是因为女儿在参加public speaking的club，除了把此书推荐给了她，以后还能有根据地一起讨论她的每次演讲练习。

—自我感想：好的演讲=把公开演讲看成enlarged conversation+找回童年那种不怯场的感觉+充实的内容（实例数据：自己的阅历和research)+逻辑地delivery（若能幽默在某种场合）

Points:

—One time a young man who aspired to study law wrote to Lincoln for advice. Lincoln replied: “If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already.... Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.”

—effective speaking is more than “saying a few words” to an audience: it is the revealing expression of a human personality.

—Now we think of public speaking as a kind of enlarged conversation.

—Organization of the idea to be presented, the choice of the right words to launch it, the earnestness and enthusiasm used in delivering it are elements that will guarantee the ideas life in the final stage of solution.

--When he is unable to say clearly what he means, through either nervousness, timidity, or foggy thought-processes, his personality is blocked off, dimmed out, and misunderstood.

--When I am called upon to stand up and speak, I become so self-conscious, so frightened, that I cant think clearly, cant concentrate, cant remember what I intended to say. I want to gain self-confidence, poise, and the ability to think on my feet. I want to get my thoughts together in logical order, and I want to be able to talk clearly and convincingly before a business or social group.”

--What we like to hear at our dinner meetings, in our church services, on our TV sets and radios, is straightforward speech, conceived in common sense and dedicated to the proposition that we like speakers to talk with, and not at, us.

--Dr. Allman jotted it down:

Try your best to develop an ability to let others look into your head and heart. Learn to make your thoughts, your ideas, clear to others, individually, in groups, in public. You will find, as you improve in your effort to do this, that you — your real self — are making an impression, an impact, on people such as you never made before.

--The second guidepost, then, is to picture yourself as successfully doing what now you fear to do, and to concentrate on the benefits you will receive through your ability to talk acceptably before groups. Remember the words of William James: “If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.”

--the most important lesson I have ever learned. This is what I said: “The biggest lesson I have ever learned is the stupendous importance of what we think. If I knew what you think, I would know what you are, for your thoughts make you what you are. By changing our thoughts, we can change our lives.”

--“I think I know something about what an audience will listen to, and how they want it said.

--So, to succeed in this work, you need the qualities that are essential in any worthwhile endeavor: desire amounting to enthusiasm, persistence to wear away mountains, and the self-assurance to believe you will succeed.

--Because no one can learn to speak in public without speaking in public any more than a person can learn to swim without getting in the water

--I know all about that,” a young business executive once said to me,“but I hesitate to face the ordeal of learning

--What spirit is that?” he asked.

“The spirit of adventure,” I told him, and I talked to him a little about a path to success, through public speaking, and the warming up, the unfolding, of ones personality.

--To make this fearful situation simple and easy:practice, practice, practice. You will find, as thousands upon thousands have, that public speaking can be made a joy instead of an agony merely by getting a record of successful speaking experiences behind you.

--All our lives we have been speaking spontaneously. We havent been thinking of words. We have been thinking of ideas. If our ideas are clear, the words come as naturally and unconsciously as the air we breathe.

--What, then, is the proper method of preparing a talk? Simply this:search your background for significant experiences that have taught you something about life,and assemble your thoughts,your ideas, your convictions,that have welled up from these experiences.True preparation means brooding over your topics.

—The most famous psychologist that America has produced, Professor William James, wrote as follows:

“Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.“Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spontaneous cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. If such conduct does not make you feel cheerful, nothing else on that occasion can.

“So, to feel brave, act as if we were brave, use all of our will to that end, and a courage-fit will very likely replace the fit of fear.

—In fact, breathe deeply for thirty seconds before you ever face your audience. The increased supply of oxygen will buoy you up and give you courage.

—and begin to talk as confidently as if every one of them owed you money. Imagine that they do. Imagine that they have assembled there to beg you for an extension of credit. The psychological effect on you will be beneficial.

—and begin to talk as confidently as if every one of them owed you money. Imagine that they do. Imagine that they have assembled there to beg you for an extension of credit. The psychological effect on you will be beneficial.

—FIRST/SPEAK ABOUT SOMETHING YOU HAVE EARNED THE RIGHT TO TALK ABOUT THROUGH EXPE-RIENCE OR STUDY

—The point, though, is this: Speak on what life has taught you and I will be your devoted listener.

—But we are interested in you and your ideas. Tell us what you think, personally, not what somebody else said.

—Only by choosing topics which are felt by the heart as well as thought out by the mind will this sincerity be made manifest.

—FIRST/LIMIT YOUR SUBJECT

Once you have selected your topic, the first step is to stake out the area you want to cover and stay strictly within those limits. Dont make the mistake of trying to cover the open range

—In a short talk, less than five minutes in duration, all you can expect is to get one or two main points across. In a longer talk, up to thirty minutes, few speakers ever succeed if they try to cover more than four or five main ideas.

—How can we acquire this most important technique of using illustrative material? There are five ways of doing this: Humanize, Personalize, Specify, Dramatize, and Visualize.

—BE SPECIFIC — FILL YOUR TALK WITH DETAIL

You might say at this point, “this is all very fine, but how can I be sure of getting enough detail into my talk?” There is one test. Use the 5-W formula every reporter follows when he writes a news story: answer the questions When? Where? Who? What? and Why? I

—the surest way to arouse and hold the attention of the reader is by being specific, definite, and concrete. The greatest writers —Homer, Dante, Shakespeare — are effective largely because they deal in particulars and report the details that matter. Their words call up pictures.” This is as true of speaking as of writing.

—Sincerity rests upon belief, and belief is as much a matter of the heart and of warmly feeling what you are saying as it is of the mind and coldly thinking of what to say. “The heart has reasons that the reason does not know.” In many classes I have had frequent occasions to verify Pascals trenchant sentence.

—It is almost a hundred years since Abraham Lincolns assassination in the presidential box of Fords Theatre in Washington, D. C., but the deep sincerity of his life and his words still lives with us. As far as knowledge of law is concerned, scores of other men of his time outstripped him. He lacked grace, smoothness, and polish. But the honesty and sincerity of his utterances at Gettysburg, Cooper Union, and on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, have not been surpassed in our history.

—Teddy Roosevelt was a living exponent of the philosophy of William James: “Act in earnest and you will become naturally earnest in all you do.”

—says Mr. Whiting, “a state of mind that recognizes that a speech is unlike a recitation — that it is designed to get audience reaction — to make the audience a partner in the enterprise.” I like that description of the audience as “a partner in the enterprise.” It is the key to what this chapter is all about. If you use audience participation you confer the rights of partnership on your listeners.

—Henry and Dana Lee Thomas,in their book Living Biographies of Religious Leaders,said of Confucius:“He never tried to dazzle people with his exclusive knowledge. He merely tried to enlighten them with his inclusive sympathy.” If we have this inclusive sympathy, we have the key that unlocks the door to the audiences heart.

—

What do we mean by the purpose of a talk? Just this: every talk, regardless of whether the speaker realizes it or not, has one of four major goals. What are they?

1. To persuade or get action.

2. To inform.

3. To impress and convince.

4. To entertain.

—Psychologists say we learn in two ways: one, by the Law of Exercise, in which a series of similar incidents leads to a change of our behavioral patterns;and two,by the Law of Effect,in which a single event may be so startling as to cause a change in our conduct

—An audience absorbed in the human interest aspect of your example will give you reassurance when you need it most — during the first few moments of speaking. Communication is a two-way process; the speaker who captures attention is immediately aware of it. As he notes the receptive forces and feels the glow of expectancy, like an electric current, play over the heads of his audience, he is challenged to go on, to do his best, to respond. The rapport thus established between speaker and audience is the key to all successful speaking — without it true communication is impossible. That is why I urge you to begin with an example, especially when you are called on to say a few words.

—we have to learn to speak standing up, and of course we can. The chief secret lies in making a start — giving one short talk — and then making another start, and another, and another.

—The best way to present a speaker is to give his name or to say, “I present, ” and give his name.

—

When you do pronounce the speakers name at the very end of the introduction it is well to remember the words, “pause,” “part,” and“punch.”By pause is meant that a little silence just before the name is given will give an edge to anticipation;by part is meant that the first and last names should be separated by a slight pause so that the audience gets a clear impression of the speakers name;by punch is meant that the name should be given with vigor and force.

—There is one more caution: please, I beg of you, when you do enunciate the speakers name, dont turn to him, but look out over the audience until the last syllable has been uttered;then turn to the speaker.I have seen countless chairmen give fine introductory speeches that were ruined at the end because they turned toward the speaker, pronouncing his name for him alone and leaving the audience in total ignorance of his identity

—“It has been proved that the deepest yearning of the human heart is for recognition — for honor!”

When Margery Wilson, the author, wrote this she expressed a universal feeling. We all want to get along well in life. We want to be appreciated. Someone elses commendation, if it is only a word — let alone a gift presented at a formal affair — lifts the spirit magically.

—No infallible rules can be given; but we can, at any rate, indicate the three major phases of the longer talk to get action:the attention step, the body, and conclusion

—Some anonymous Irish politician is reported to have given this recipe for making a speech: “First, tell them what you are going to tell them; then tell them; then tell them what you have told them.” It is often highly advisable to “tell them what you have told them.”

—When we learn any new thing, like French or golf or speaking in public, we never advance steadily. We do not improve gradually. We do it by waves, by abrupt starts and sudden stops. Then we remain stationary a time, or we may even slip back and lose some of the ground we have previously gained. These periods of stagnation, or retrogression, are well known by all psychologists; they have been named “plateaus in the curve of learning.

—One time a young man who aspired to study law wrote to Lincoln for advice. Lincoln replied: “If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already.... Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.”

—Emerson wrote, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” That is more than a well-turned literary phrase; it is the road map to success.

—Clear, forceful, and emphatic expressiveness is one of the marks of leadership in our society.