Form & Substance

What is Public Speaking?

Public Speaking is simply speaking, speaking in public.

Speaking, as it were, is a simple process to express in words to someone other than oneself, and in the case of public speaking to merely more than one person in the open domain.

It's 2D

There are two dimensions of involvement reflective of a prominent public speaker, viz.

• the Form and
• Substance.

The Form

The “Form” is the way a speech is being delivered which, in a nutshell, is identical to one playing with a musical instrument.

He chooses his instrument, his use of his voice to utter his sounds or tunes or music, his style of holding his instrument, his personal steps or movements, his personal attire on stage, and last but not the least, his choice of his piece of his “masterpiece”.

The Substance

This masterpiece is the “Substance” or the contents for his communication with his attentive audience.

A speaker is naturally endowed with his best in-house musical instrument, consisting of his vocal cavity, vocal chords, larynx, lungs, and the inherent voluntary muscles controlling use of all the combinational parts of this body instrument.

Like one of The Three Tenors

That is how Tenor like Luciano Pavarotti “speaks” to his huge clusters of fans and is recognized across the globe.

The bulk of the so-called “Substance” in a typical speaker comes from his experience and his own field of specialty, such as medicine, international affairs, finance, bio-engineering, computer science, technology, quantum mechanics or architecture.

I M Pei, ..... Ieoh Ming Pei

For example, Mr I.M. Pei is not a well known public speaker as such, but whenever he speaks, there is always a large audience to listen to him.

They came to listen to his humble beginnings in China, how he reached the U.S. and became the most sought after architect to build the John F Kennedy Memorial Library, the Paris Glass Pyramid, the Bank of China in Hong Kong and Raffles City in Singapore.

Mr Pei specializes in the use of geometrical angles and the beauty associated with it to power his architectural insights to the worlds of the East and the West, and is held in awe by his contemporary fellow architects. He has his “Substance” in all his speeches in the main.

For the very first time ....

The minute a newly born is able to speak his first words, he attracted so much curiosity with his family circles or friends or neighbors.

Soon after the center of gravity wears off, unless the person is a genius or has acquired his skill-sets in public speaking in his adult life. By then, there is paradigm shift from being involuntary or less than voluntary use of his speaking skills to one that is specially, consciously and voluntarily pursued to better himself in speaking excellence.

That's when the fear creeps in ....

That is where anxiety starts, fear escalates and heart starts beating fast. We begin to see such a speaker failing to realize who he is, not with himself and begin to drift away from his conscious self into the realm of uncertainty.

The focus is on him; the expectation builds up around him and we could see that he freezes his motions, runs a cold stream in his veins and his mettle begins to melt down. At public speaking forums, it is a common sight, even evident among some professionals, especially in strange lands.

Glossophobia

That is glossophobia, the fear of public speaking. They probably lack the speaking DNA, which is for Differentiation, Nexus and Agility.

All Good Speakers were Bad Speaker at first. And so, public speaking could be developed and made to sparkle and impress on others.

It is Nurture vis-à-vis Nature. The process is long, curved but deterministic. It requires a conscious effort to observe, listen and practice, much the same as a swimming champion learns to develop his amphibious skills.

All efforts add up and are cumulative. It appears there is no short cut, as each attempt of learning tends to rectify only one tiny aspect of what one lacks. Along the way, the speaker needs to realize his fault perhaps even be faulted and go on to listen to critique and polish his instrumentation keys.

Towards Excellence ....

The frequent use of settings is important, especially if there is an every ready listening audience to appreciate his crafted delivery.

Excellence is an inverse function of deterministic pursuit and efforts. The Speaker must observe his audience and their response and take note of their agreeability by way of their nodding their heads, un-swayed pairs of eye balls, body adherence to their seats, hushed silence and all other characteristics of listening to a speaker, par excellence. If there is an Evaluation, requested or otherwise, it is a bonus, as some one has a specific or voluntary assignment to pin point areas of appreciation and improvement.

A good speaker tends to differentiate himself and be salient. He wants a different image and speaker personality. He creates his own repertoire much akin to what a seasoned musician does. He is he own image, nothing else matters.

When he speaks, he readily links up his vocal chords with his neurons in his brains, and produces a verbal message of distinction. He has to be agile and swift as split seconds of activity within say his pause which he intentionally exudes once or twice to spring a new point or idea to re-align the focus of his audience.

What's good if style is without substance ?

A good speech is like a glass or crystal-ware. It requires thinking, organization skills, vocal variety, good gestures, added humor or entertaining value and subtlety to inspire his admirers. This is the “Form” dimension of his skill-sets which could take time to learn, un-learn and re-learn along the way.

The “Substance” dimension is the contents he pours into his crystal cup, based on his backgrounds, his experience, professional expertise, know-how and academic achievements. The contents could be water or ‘diamond’ waters or wine or the XO.

For an Outstanding Speaker, members of the public is willing to spend big bucks to listen to and be entertained. This is the same scenario to those who frequent the Musical Recitals Halls. They pay hugely for those few hours of transient delights and still ask for more.

Where else to learn public speaking without paying a hefty sum ?

At Toastmasters, we get trained in peer groups, inexpensively and through a proven process used in the global community. Thousands of speakers have been trained, re-trained and trained over and over again. Some of them have become Professional Speakers.

Others have traveled overseas to influence and convince hesitant aspirants to join in the movement and gain their personal confidence in public speaking. The Basic Manual, for example, with its 10 Projects calling out the progressive degrees of speaking difficulty, is the world’s best stepping stone to learning in public speaking, in my view.

Join the Toastmasters ....

Toastmasters will go through the thorough process of preparation and delivery. They will be evaluated in every project verbally and in written form before proceeding to the advanced level of speaking skills development. To the novice speakers, this tunneling process through the Toastmasters terrain could be laborious, exacting and even nerve racking. But the end of the journey in all cases is sweet and sheer ecstasy. Nobody ever felt otherwise. Some have been so spurred to proceed to pursue their Advanced Speeches and thereby have attained higher accolades.

It is more of the “Form” factor that Toastmasters get trained than the “Substance” or contents of speeches. The contents are a choice of the speakers themselves and a result of the wealth of their personal knowledge well and experience shuttle that they acquired over time.

When they speak, they get certain points as ingredients from their dossier of database to drive the message, to add flavor or to be differentiated. There has been no fixed formula in this blending of Form and Substance exercise, and there will never be.

And just follow these steps :

The value of public speaking is to gain personal confidence. The greater value is to influence others. The greatest value of all is to test our complex genes to link up the Brain and the Speaking Mechanical Parts to bring a message in communication and leadership.

• The First Step is to gain a CTM for all Toastmasters.
• The Second Step is to achieve an ATM or DTM.
• The Final Step is to go beyond the Toastmasters terrain into the wilderness.

To speak your way to the Top !

If a Speaker has such DNA macro-molecules and managed to attain a carat-crowned recognition in the geosphere, he will be in the pristine kingdom that belongs to the giants of Winston Churchill, Abrahim Lincoln, John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Mao Zhe Dong, and …….er, Toastmaster Champion of District 80.

By Kim-See Teo, CL

 

 

Teo Kim See, CL

came to the Toastmasters World, quite by chance. Way back in late 2002, he emailed one inquiry to Toastmasters International for some information.
Based on a reply from TI, he set the ball rolling with a demo meeting to culminate in the inauguration of Raffles Town Toastmasters on Feb 19, 2003.
There were 29 charter members, and he was voted to be the charter president.

Competent Leader Kim-See Teo is now the IPP.

The rest as they say is now history .......

 

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