Speech Analysis

I believe this speech, written by myself and two of my associates in the College of Fine Arts and Communications Advisement Center, was successful because it created a connection with my audience. This connection began with direct questions that forced my audience to respond and apply the issues to their own circumstances, continued with an extended metaphor that vividly illustrated the problem faced by BYU, and concluded with personal experiences that helped me express my own commitment to the goal of increased graduations. As this speech was taking shape, I consciously used the power of language to build a connection with my intended listeners.

Learning how to use words to make a connection means learning to respect the power of words and learning to choose words wisely to convey meaning. Words carry meaning in two ways: through their denotations (dictionary definitions) and through their connotations (all of the emotional implications given to words by society). The connotations of words, like fashion trends and hairstyles, shift and mutate through time. It is connotations that enable one word or group of words to take on a unique flavor that cannot be expressed any other way. For this reason, I place a great deal of emphasis on words in my own life. I have a group of favorite phrases that assist me in evaluating situations, dealing with problems, and communicating to others how I feel about life. These are a few of my favorite phrases: “Be about abundance,” “Clue into consciousness,” “Don’t be attached to the outcome,” “Life is embrace and release,” “Pick it up and look at it,” and “I am open and receptive to the new.”

Let me tell you a little about what each of these phrases means to me. Watch how the words themselves carry the weight of the message. I also believe these “tidbits of wisdom” apply directly to public speaking, especially in the realm of relating to your audience.

Be about abundance. I feel that everyone is deserving. If you are talking about abundance, you are bringing an energy into your speech that gives people hope that there is plenty on this planet for them.

Clue into consciousness. Be awakened to the now. Live in the moment. Sometimes we miss out on some of our most important learning experiences by not paying attention to what life is giving us.

Don’t be attached to the outcome. I feel that many people are stuck in the past or are escaping into the future. In their unhealthy attachment to an experience that did or didn’t happen or to an expectation, they miss out on other opportunities. This attitude keeps them from moving on and making new choices.

Life is embrace and release. I feel that we need to embrace all of life’s experiences, but be willing to surrender our hold when necessary. For example, we need to embrace our children, but when the proper time comes, we need to release them to their own journey.

Pick it up and look at it. This is one of my favorite phrases because it visually describes the process of taking responsibility for our own actions. I believe we need to take responsibility by looking at our good and bad deeds and analyzing the outcomes. If we are not really happy with something we’ve done, we need to pick it up, rectify the situation if we can, and then let it go.

I am open and receptive to the new. Love, relationships, abundance, learning: these are all things that are sometimes new to us. It’s hard to reach out and find somebody new, to find a new job, to learn new things. We like being stuck in our comfort zone. I also like the phrase, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear,” because it goes along with the idea that life presents us with new learning opportunities and also provides us with the “teachers” along the way. Sometimes we are our own best teachers.

All of these life skills have a lot to do with public speaking, because learning to become a better speaker and learning how to live a fuller life are part of the same journey—a journey that you and your audience are both on. The above phrases are my favorites. What are yours? Do you use some words loaded with personal meaning? You can communicate their significance to your audience with sincerity because the language will be from the heart. When selecting phrases, metaphors, narratives, inspirational stories, etc., use words to make that connection with your listeners. This is called relational speaking.