My clients have been making a lot of speeches lately, and I have been helping them craft their messages. They are often sent "draft remarks" or "talking points" written by others. These documents are supposed to be for "review," but lately we have been doing wholesale rewrites. Because when you are delivering a speech, it needs to sound like you! One of "review" drafts mentioned a "favorite website of mine" that my client had never heard of. So that reference was out! If all this sounds familiar, it is; in March I wrote about why speaking in your own voice is essential for engaging your audience and maintaining credibility. But there is another, even more fundamental aspect of content development that I am currently emphasizing. The need to keep sentences short. When you are speaking, your message goes from your mouth to the listeners' ears. And then it vanishes! No turning back to the previous page to find the sense of that sentence. Your audience is completely dependent on the clarity of your verbal delivery. So you need to guide your listeners by shaping your message for them. Focus in on your main point. Frame it clearly and stick to it. Make yourself easily understood; use active verbs and concrete images. Don't dance around the issue using complex sentences. Don't lead your audience uphill on a path going nowhere.You will lose them if your syntax, vocabulary, and logic are too hard to follow. And if you must include a list, limit the items to three. And limit your lists.
As a playwright, I am trained to listen, and reproduce, a variety of cadences, rhythms and patterns of speech. Some of my characters speak in run-on sentences. Some speak in staccato phrases. These rhythms reflect their states of mind, including clarity of thought (or lack thereof). Trained actors know how to deliver these lines so the audience understands the sense contained in the words. But actors have the benefit of rehearsal, as well as highly developed speaking skills. If my characters "ramble," or speak in highly convoluted ways, it shows they lack focus, or are arrogant, or are terribly insecure. That is fine for a character in a play, but not the persona you want to present in a professional situation!
So keep your sentences short and to the point. Strive for clarity. Focus your message. You will be amazed how much easier it is for you to "connect" with your listeners if they can actually follow what you are saying!
