any people see public speaking as an art form. That is, they dont see any
linear process for getting better at it. At the extreme, they may even believe that
some people are endowed with the ability to do it, while others arent. And theres
simply nothing they can do to change that.
If youre one of those people, I have good news for you: youre half right and half
wrong. Its true that public speaking is an art. In many situations, there will be no
one right answernot correct way to say things or to do things. However,
youre also half wrong. As with any art, you can become better at it by learning
the fundamentalsby taking art classes and practicing sketching, painting, and
free drawing. And this is especially true of public speaking.
In this guide, we are going to focus on this aspect of public speaking: the fact that
you can get betterin fact, much betterat it if youre only willing to learn and
practice the fundamentals.
In the rest of the book, we will direct you through the entire process. We will take
you from the start, where you select a topic, to the actually scenarios you might
encounter when you deliver the speech in a public setting. By the time youre
finished, you should be ready to churn out speeches and deliver them in front of
a crowd of any size.