The Lost Art of the Great Speech

Richard Dowis's manual on public speaking is useful and comprehensive. He covers everything from why you should learn to speak in public to "leveraging" your speech to improve your organization's visibility. No detail is too small. Dowis takes you step by step through researching, outlining, writing and practicing your speech. He discusses room set-up, commonly mispronounced words, formatting (including why he prefers sheets of paper to index cards), and what to eat or drink beforehand (eschew alcohol as a relaxant and try deep breathing or stretching instead). His appendices include an editing checklist and a list of public speaking resources. Each chapter comes with a "podium presence tip." Dowis insists that just as you can't become a good writer unless you read books, you can't become a good speaker unless you read and listen to speeches. Therefore, each chapter ends with the text of a speech by a skilled orator, including Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Jesse Jackson and Mario Cuomo. Inspiring as they are, these examples have little obvious connection to the chapters' contents, so you may be tempted to skip them instead of studying them. getAbstract recommends this book to executives and managers whose jobs include representing their companies to the press and the public, and to anyone who wants to be more confident, poised and articulate.