Scissors vs. Pencil

It is said that we learn to give speeches from the time we learned to speak. We weren't given a proper speech format but we still managed, didn't we? However, presenting in front of the class, office, and work is a different story.

As an experienced public speaker, I learned that it's not what I say that's important, it's what my audience remembers from my speech. Above that, it's not just what they remember, but what they take of it and put into action. If they remember what we say, they will think differently.

Based on the article "Be Concise!" by Stephen Boyd, one of the greatest speeches was John F. Kennedy's 1960 inaugural address when he committed the nation to go to the moon. The length of his speech was 14 minutes. Stephen directs us to many famous speeches that were known to be concise as well as provide us with a few tips on how to make this possible.

It is a common thought that having a lot to say is better than not saying much in speech. But in reality, having something important to say is better than just saying something. For a speech to have more effect, we should say what we need to say in a concise way, like the American author and comedian says, "I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil." In other words, what we cut out of our writing can be more important than what we add to it.