SPEAK UP WITH CONFIDENCE: How to Prepare, Learn, and Deliver an Effective Speech

by Jack Valenti ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1982

The advantage of having a Jack Valenti as a coach on speechmaking is a supply of entertaining anecdotes about public figures. The disadvantage is that the anecdotes tend to overrun the coaching--so that the same basic advice appears again and again. To wit: keep your speech to no more than about 15 minutes, less if there are other speakers on the program; divide it into short paragraphs that you can memorize two at a time, then four at a time, and so on; use written notes of your key points (and perhaps the last few sentences) to jog your well-prepared memory; in drafting the speech, be particularly mindful of the thought, theme, and mood you wish to convey. This is tame if respectable stuff--leavened with famous examples of platform humor: JFK on his choice of brother Bobby as Attorney General, Winston Churchill's epigrams, etc. Speaking for ""the camera's eye"" (Nixon's perspiration beads, Johnson's ""credibility gap"") is treated as extra-tricky. An amiable off-the-cuff presentation--of less prospective help to fledgling speechmakers than some of the businesslike manuals (like L. Perry Wilbur's 1981 Stand Up, Speak Up, or Shut Up), but no loss to those who go for the Valenti name and the promising title.

Pub Date: June 15, 1982

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1982

Categories: NONFICTION