and women up-to-date on the latest command
evolutions, events and policy changes by informing.
SPEECHES TO INTRODUCE
There are many occasions that will require you to
introduce a speaker, such as the following: guest
speakers at command briefings, training sessions, news
conferences or briefings and public meetings. In
addition, you will often have to write a speech of
introduction to be given by another person. It is always
wise for you to anticipate the need to prepare an
introduction as an aid to the program chairman, to
introduce your officer in command, or some other naval
representative at public speaking engagements.
Your main objective is to stimulate the listeners’
desire to hear the speaker; everything else is
subordinated to this aim. The duty of the person who
introduces the speaker is to introduce, not to make the
presentation or air his views on the subject. He is only
the foregoing agent for the speaker whose job is to sell
the speaker to the audience.
SPEECH DELIVERY METHODS
Learning Objective:
Identify the various speech
delivery methods.
Now that you have studied the speech preparation
steps and the various classifications of speeches, it is
time to select a speech delivery method. Why decide this
first? Simply because the degree and type of
preparation vary with each different method of delivery.
Four principal methods of presenting a speech are as
follows:
l Impromptu
. Memorization
. Manuscript
l Extemporaneous
IMPROMPTU
The impromptu method is completely unplanned.
You are at a meeting of the Second Class Petty Officers
Association Advisory Board and someone says
something with which you disagree. So you get up and
make an impromptu speech. Perhaps you are on leave
in your hometown and stop by to see your former high
school principal. He invites you to tell the senior class a
little bit about your Navy travels and experiences, and
thus you deliver an impromptu speech.
Unless you are one of those rare people who can talk
on any subject at any time, impromptu speaking will
probably be difficult for you. You may find yourself
nervous, tongue-tied and unable to think of anything to
say, much less express yourself clearly. This is a
perfectly normal reaction to an unfamiliar situation, and
it should not disturb you. The nervousness generated in
this setting is both physical and psychological, and you
should attack it on both levels. The following sections
address these concerns.
Physical Considerations
On the physical level, start by making yourself
comfortable. Stand naturally on both feet with your
knees relaxed and take several deep breaths. Regulate
your breathing and talk slowly so that you never run out
of air. As you get into the subject, you will begin to feel
better, and the pounding in your chest and wobbling
about the knees-neither of which is apparent to your
audience no matter how obvious they may be to
you–will gradually subside. At the end of three minutes,
you probably will not notice these symptoms any more.
Psychological Considerations
Psychologically you should realize that your fear is
most likely based on the unfamiliarity of the situation,
and not the fact that you have to talk. Obviously, you
know something about the subject (probably more than
anybody else in the room does), or you would not have
been asked to speak in the first place. You could say the
same thing to three sailors on the mess decks with no
strain. It is really the situation, not the task at hand, that
has got you nervous.
Situational Concerns
It is a pretty safe inference that the audience is
reasonably well disposed to you personally and to what
you are about to say. If they were not, you would not
have been invited to speak. You can remember that your
nervousness is NEVER as apparent to the audience as it
is to you. If you have ever detected that a speaker felt
bad, rest assured that he really felt a lot worse.
Additionally, the reaction of an audience toward a
nervous speaker is rarely ever contempt. They almost
always feel sympathetic toward the speaker. So tell
yourself that you know considerable y more about the
subject than anybody else there, that the audience is
friendly, and that all you are doing is talking to them-and
you talk to people every day without getting nervous.
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