TranscpritforanImpromptuSpeechSample.docx
Well, it's going to happen. Someday your boss, or a client, is going to put you on the spot, and just say, could you talk about such and such for a few minutes? Whether you have public speaking anxiety or not, being put on the spot to give a speech is stressful.
You have to be ready for that, and in a way you have to plan for an unplanned speech. Can you plan to create an impromptu speech? Yes you can. By having the right tools, you'll be all set, and that is the planning we're going to do. We're going to plan to have tools that can make a difference when you're asked to give an impromptu speech.
Hi. My name is Michael Sugarman, and I am an instructor in public speaking. I have been doing this for over 30 years, and I feel quite confident that the tools I'm going to present to you can make a big difference. What you're going to learn in these next few minutes is first of all, how to respond to the request, how to quickly create the speech, and also keeping in mind a format that will help you go through it quickly called four, three, two.
Let's get started with how to respond to this request. When you get a request, it's important that you give a response. And that response is no if given politely, it's fine. If that's it, if you wish to say well no, I'm not ready or I'm not prepared or I'm not comfortable giving at this time, well that's fine.
In most situations, that's appropriate. However, if you are going to say yes, please say yes enthusiastically. Not, yes, if I have to. Or really, do I have to? Or well, okay, but I'm nervous. No, just say yes, if you're going to do it.Say it positively. So that's the first thing, is responding to the request and then, perhaps you could ask for some time to collect your thoughts.
Whoever the requester is, you can say, well, is it okay Susan, if I just jot down a few things first and give me a minute? Most likely they will, and that's going to help you a bit. So just jot down a few thoughts, you'll see it won't be very many, because you're gonna get up there quickly.
When you have jotted down those points, then what you're going to do is make sure you have identified three main points you want to make. Most speeches have three to five, maybe more than that in terms of points. But it's good to have three points about that topic, that'll keep the speech moving along.
And then as you slowly walk to the front of the room, that's a time you could think of an attention getter, such as the rhetorical question, and the interesting statistic. Perhaps a very short story, a quote if you have some memorized. Or just a single word or two that gets their attention, and makes them curious about what you're going to talk about.
So you have your three points and you're slowly walking to the front as you think of your attention getter. Then you turn around with a smile and you keep four, three, two in mind. This will take some practive to memorize and this is the way I do it and can make a big difference.
Four, three, two stands for the introduction, which I call grip, three parts of the body, those are the three points you just created. And two parts of the conclusion. Let's go over these in detail now. The four parts of the introduction are GRIP. Get attention, which you just created as you walked to the front.
Tell them the topic, that you don't have to plan. You already know what that is. Introduce yourself and possibly some credibility statement of your background or why we should be listening to you with this topic. Of course, if they know you, you don't have to introduce yourself as they already know your name.
And finally, preview. That's when you list what the three points are very quickly. So you do the GRIP, get attention, reveal the topic, introduce yourself and then preview mention at three points. Then you do a nice transistion into your body. Let's get started. You start talking about your first point, make it brief.
Move on to your second point, move on to your third point. People like to know you're moving along and getting towards the end. So transitions help quite a bit. And finally, that's a transition I just used. You go to your conclusion, your conclusion has a simple repetition of the preview.
Just list those three points. That's your summary. It is not an inference. It is not making a conclusion that's logical. It's just saying exactly what the three points are. The preview was, I'm going to talk about a, b, c. And now the summary is, I just talked about a, b, c.
And then, finally, some closing statement. This should be separate from the preview. A closing statement can connect to the beginning, as you're going to see, I'm going to do that in a moment. It can be a wishing them well, any plan of action, anything about the future, some final words to close, and don't just close with the words thank you.
In fact, you don't even have to say thank you at all. Make a closing statement something dramatic, something that really gives closure, and something where they know you're finished with your speech. It also helps to slow down a bit near the very end, because then, they know you're near the end, as well.
Remember, don't forget to use transitions throughout. That'll show you're moving along. Transitions such as first, second,third, next let me move on to, I just talked about B, let's move on to C. Those type of things are transitions. Those people like to know there's a flow, and it shows you're very organized.
So, what just happened here? The steps to create an impromptu speech, respond to the request with a clear no, a polite no, or a positive yes with no hesitation. Create the speech, which really means just create the three points and think of an attention getter as you're walking to the front.
And then keep in mind four three two. Four is GRIP, get attention, reveal the topic, introduce yourself, and preview the points. Three is the points with some detail. And then two is the conclusion, which is a summary, which is repeating the preview. And then a closing statement. Well I'm going to close now.
I've just given you the summary. And the close is simply, you can plan an impromptu speech. The way you plan it is you have these tools in mind, this structure, and you just take your ideas and put them into that structure. I wanna wish you the best of luck applying this, I know it can make a big difference.