subject: THE BEST WAY TO PASS A MESSAGE [print this page] THE BEST WAY TO PASS A MESSAGE THE BEST WAY TO PASS A MESSAGE
Every talk, regardless of whether the speaker realizes it or not has one of four major goals.
They are:
To make something clear
To impress and convince
To get-action
To entertain.
When you talk on a subject strange to your hearer or hearers describe the things they did not know by likening them to the things they did know.
The kingdom of Heaven, what would it be like? How could those untutored peasant Palestine know? So Christ described it in terms of objects and actions with which they were already familiar.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea. That was lucid; they could under stand that. The housewives in the audience were using leaven every week; the fishermen were casting their nets into the sea daily; the merchants were dealing in pearls.
Avoid Technical Terms
If you belong to a profession the work of which technical, if you are a lawyer, a physician or engineer be doubly careful when you talk to outsiders. Express yourself in plain terms and give necessary details. It is a good practice to pick out the least intelligent looking person in the audience and strive to make that person interested in your argument. This can be done only by lucid statement at fact and clear reasoning.
Appeal To The Sense Of Sight
The nerves that lead form eye to the brain is many times larger than those leading from the ear; and science tells us that we give twenty-five times as much attention to the eye suggestions as we do to ear suggestions. "one seeing", says an old Chinese proverb "is better than hundred times telling about". It you wish to be clear, picture your points and visualize your ideas. One cannot rely on speech alone to make himself understood or to gain and hold attention. A dramatic supplement is needed. It is better to supplement whenever possible with pictures which show, the right and the wrong way diagrams are more convincing than mere words and pictures are more convincing than diagrams.
The ideal presentation of a subject is one in which every subdivision pictured and in which the words are use only to connect them. Not every subject or occasion, of course, leads itself to exhibits and drawings; but let us them when we can. They attract attention, stimulate interest and often make our meaning doubly clear.
Be sure that the thing you wish to speak about is clear to you because you cannot make people understand a subject, unless you understand that subject yourself. The more clearly you have a subject in mind, the more clearly can you present that subject to the mind of others.
