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FIELD NOTES

5 Ways To Be Deliberate In Your

Public Speaking Delivery

Kwesi Sekou Millington, BComm

The following article was featured in the Huffington Post in September 2016. It’s reprinted here with
permisson of the author.

I try to drink my coffee black, or with some natural is an example of contrast. “Defeat” and “Victory”
Stevia in it at most. However, there is something are opposite words, therefore they create contrast.
about adding cream to coffee that makes it so Other examples are “Friend and Foe”, “High and

much tastier. A creamy coffee, whether it be Low”, etc.
made at home or a Vanilla Latte from Starbucks,
is so much more tasty. Well, just as cream makes Speech Element 2: “R” Rhyme

your coffee more pleasing to the palate, there are The most popular use of this element is “An apple

words you can use (and an order to use them) a day, keeps the doctor away”. “Day” rhymes with
that makes them more pleasing to the ear. In “Away”. Be careful with this element to ensure that
James Humes’ book, Speak Like Churchill, Stand
Like Lincoln, he states that the greatest leaders

are the greatest speakers. Humes goes on to say
that by using certain strategies in your delivery,
you can be come a “Lion” of speaking, and that
when you deliver lines in your speeches using 5

specific elements, your words will linger in your
listener’s mind. For the purpose of your speeches,
ensure that you add some of the following speech
elements to your lines of delivery, or risk those

lines being forgotten. Be deliberate with your
delivery, and your lines will surely linger.

Speech Element 1: “C” Contrast

The element of contrast simply means using
contrasting phrases very close together. For
example, a line from Winston Churchill, “There
is only one answer to defeat, and that is victory”,

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