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Stand and Deliver
Book

Stand and Deliver

How to Become a Masterful Communicator and Public Speaker

Dale Carnegie Training
Touchstone, 2011

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Dale Carnegie Training offers a truly outstanding book on public speaking in the name of its founder, Dale Carnegie. Among other techniques, this guide teaches readers how to deal with glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, which is the world’s most common phobia. The Carnegie organization’s training tactics are known for turning fearful, nervous presenters into dynamic, powerful speechmakers. This book is as valuable for orators as Gray’s Anatomy is for medical professionals. If only it weren’t written in the first person, as if Dale Carnegie himself were giving you advice – as he no doubt would be glad to do, had he not died in 1955. Carnegie, the author of the classic How to Win Friends and Influence People, may well be an immortal author, but the use of his first-person voice decades later is a little jarring. Other than this minor haunting, getAbstract recommends this eminently practical book to both aspiring and accomplished public speakers.

Summary

Anyone Can Speak Well in Public

No matter who you are or how fearful you may be of addressing an audience, you can become a powerful speaker. To do so, learn everything you can about your subject. About 10 days to two weeks before your presentation, spend 20 minutes writing no fewer than 50 questions about your topic. In another session, learn their answers. This will help you create an outline for your speech. Now, start rehearsing repeatedly – in your mind, in the car, before a mirror or with your friends.

Don’t memorize your speech. Your recall may fail at the podium. Instead, know it so well you can speak naturally, using your prepared answers as your main points. As you rehearse, your presentation’s structure will take form. Speak naturally, not in a forced or histrionic tone. Practice how to stress different words and phrases. Alternate your timing, delivery and vocal pitch. Try talking at various speeds to see what works best.

Be Yourself

Speak straight from the heart. Be true to yourself. Dale Carnegie and Earl Nightingale, both superb public speakers, spoke naturally, each according to his individual personality, background, and natural talents...

About the Author

Dale Carnegie, author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, founded Dale Carnegie Training, which has taught leadership and presentation skills to some seven million people.

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