Method: when you say it
Now it's all well and good to get people to listen to you by using manner (the thing we learnt about last lesson), but if you don't know how to organize your thoughts properly your audience will tune out just as quickly as they tuned in.
Luckily for us, the structure of a speech is actually something you already know. To jog your memory, does the phrase "once upon a time" ring any bells?
Speech structure is exactly like telling a story, you need to have a introduction that catches the viewer's attention, a problem to solve, a call to action, and an ending that links back to where it all started.
To explore this further, check out this clip on how to make your speech into a story with a best selling author and a champion public speaker:
a.k.a Violet (the creator of Grow Your Voice) and her Mum (R A Spratt)
Watch the video through, and then copy down the speech structure written on the board without the writing in red pen (those were just the details added for the example story).
Challenge 1: let's start at the ending.
(this activity should be done in pairs)
Not something you hear often. And with good reason, starting your speech with your "mic drop line" sort of defeats the purpose. It's also really confusing. Imagine sitting down to watch Frozen and suddenly you see Anna as a frozen ice statue - it's disconcerting and way too confronting for you to want to watch more.
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So of course, we want you to do this to your friends. Write one speech about any topic with a back to front structure. Start with the ending line, then your solution, your emotional problem etc. until you end with the opening line of the speech. Write another speech on any topic with the correct structure.
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You and the other person from your pair should deliver one of the speeches each to another pair and see if they can tell which one is back to front.
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Speech Ideas:
- uniforms are the worst thing ever
- wandavision's ending totally sucked
-the canteen should totally stock full chocolate bars
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So we've got the game plan, but what about the smaller steps?
The smaller steps being how your phrase things, the order that you say your smaller ideas and even the timing of your jokes. Sure, you can organize your overall idea into a neat structure, but the sentences you use to express yourself are still really tricky to get right: especially if you're thinking on your feet.
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To understand how you can organize your thoughts to talk smarter (his words not ours) watch this video:
Start the video at the time stamp 6:39
Write down three dot points on each main point the speaker mentions
Challenge 2: let's consider your situation
When you're delivering a speech, you're sort of like James Bond. You have to consider all the variables -- who's around you, what they expect to happen, what they want to hear-- and pull off your mission (delivering an epic speech) while still looking really cool.
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So your challenge is to come up with an imaginary audience of your five favourite fictional characters. Anyone from Sherlock Homes to Harry Potter. Now try and think of something that you'd want to tell them about (this can be your favourite tv show, an activity you do with your family etc.) and try and phrase it so all of the characters can understand and enjoy your speech.
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This might mean replacing movies with real life stories (if that characters world doesn't have movies in their world) or pretending that your computer is just a really advanced game you have with your friends (if that character lives in the past). Or even using slang from their world like "muggle" or "smurf".
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Work on your speech with 2 friends and see what you come up with!
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So, what's so special about method?
You did it! You've made it through your second communication lesson with grow your voice! Just before you go, pick a page in your workbook and write down everything you want to remember from this lesson as well as why method is so important.
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It doesn't matter if its a mindmap, a list, a comic strip or url to one of the videos make sure you've got some solid proof that you now know all about method.
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If you're feeling especially confident get your teacher or parent to submit your work to growyourvoiceyouth@gmail.com so we can put it up here as an example!