卡耐基演講·做好講演前的準備工作

多年以前，有兩個人一同參加了我在紐約的一個訓練班。一個是哲學博士，在大學里任教當教授，溫文儒雅；一個是街旁的一名流動小販，年輕的時候曾在英國海軍待過的，豪爽而粗魯。但很奇怪的是，在這個演講訓練班的學習過程中，那位流動攤販的演講，卻遠比這位大學教授更能吸引人。這是為什么呢？這位大學教授以漂亮的詞匯發(fā)言，臺風溫文儒雅，講話條理清楚，但是，其中缺少了講演的一個重要的元素：具體化。他的談話太不明確，太過空泛了，而那位流動攤販正好相反。他開口之后，就立即抓住了問題的核心，內容很明確，而且具體、實在，加上他充沛的男子漢活力以及新奇的詞句，使他的演講十分吸引人。MANY YEARS AGO, a Doctor of Philosophy and a rough-and-ready fellow who had spent his youth in the British Navy were enrolled in one of our classes in New York. The man with the degree was a college professor; the ex-tar was the proprietor of a small side-street trucking business. His talks were far better received by the class than those given by the professor. Why? The college man used beautiful English. He was urbane, cultured, refined. His talks were always logical and clear. But they lacked one essential - concreteness. They were vague and general. Not once did he illustrate a point with anything approaching a personal experience. His talks were usually nothing more than a series of abstract ideas held together by a thin string of logic.On the other hand, the trucking firm proprietor's language was definite, concrete, and picturesque. He talked in terms of everyday facts. He gave us one point and then backed it up by telling us what happened to him in the course of his business. He described the people he had to deal with and the headaches of keeping up with regulations. The virility and freshness of his phraseology made his talks highly instructive and entertaining.

我舉這個例子，不是因為它代表著大學教授或流動攤販的典型，而是因為它可以說明只有說話具體而且明確的人才具備吸引別人興趣的能力。I cite this instance, not because it is typical of college professors or of men in the trucking business, but because it illustrates the attention-compelling power of rich, colorful details in a talk.

這里有四種能夠保證受眾注意力的方法，如果你遵循這四個步驟準備你的演講，你就能很好地調動聽眾的積極性。There are four ways to develop speech material that guarantees audience attention. If you follow these four steps in your preparation you will be well on the way to commanding the eager attention of your listeners.