卡耐基演講·3.使演講更細節(jié)化

這一點，你很可能早就知道，可是你也可能會疑惑：那我怎么知道在我的講演里有沒有足夠的細節(jié)？有個方法可以測試一下。準備講演時使用新聞記者寫新聞故事時必需的五要素：時間、地點、人物、事件和發(fā)生的原因。如果你依照這五要素來準備，你的舉例便會有了詳盡的敘述，自然栩栩如生。讓我舉出自己的一件趣事來加以說明。這則趣事曾經(jīng)刊登在《讀者文摘》上：You might say at this point, "this is all very fine, but how can I be sure of getting enough detail into my talk?" There is one test. Use the 5-W formula every reporter follows when he writes a news story: answer the questions When? Where? Who? What? and Why? If you follow this formula your examples will have life and color. Let me illustrate this with an anecdote of my own, one that was published by the Reader's Digest:

離開大學(xué)后的兩年里，我做了鐵甲公司的銷售員，一直在南達科他州四處跑，靠的是搭乘運貨卡車來完成我的旅途。一天，我在萊德菲爾，兩小時后才能搭上一列南行的火車，我有兩小時的等待時間。由于不是我負責(zé)的區(qū)域，所以沒有辦法利用這段時間進行推銷工作。另一方面，再過不到一年，我就要上紐約的“美國戲劇藝術(shù)學(xué)院”去讀書，所以我決定利用這段空閑來練習(xí)臺詞。我漫無目的地走過車場，開始演練莎士比亞《麥克白》里的一幕——我一邊猛地舉出雙臂，一邊十分戲劇性地高呼：“我眼前所見是匕首嗎？它的把手正朝向著我。來吧，讓我握著你：我抓不著你，但我依然看見你！”After leaving college, I spent two years traveling through South Dakota as a salesman for Armour and Company. I covered my territory by riding on freight trains. One day I had to layover in Redfield, S. D.,for two hours to get a train going south. Since Redfield was not in my territory I couldn't use the time for making sales. Within a year I was going to New York to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, so I decided to use this spare time practicing speaking. I wandered down through the train yards and began rehearsing a scene for Macbeth. Thrusting out my arms, I cried dramatically: 'Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee: I have thee not,and yet I see thee still.'

當我正沉浸在自己的表演中時，四名警察突然朝我撲來，問我為什么要恐嚇?gòu)D女。我大吃一驚，就算他們指控我搶劫火車，我都不會有這么驚異。他們告訴我，有個家庭主婦，在30米開外的廚房窗簾后面一直看著我。她從沒有見過這樣的行徑，便打電話給警方。他們到達時，剛好聽到我在鬼哭狼嚎地講著關(guān)于匕首的事。I was still immersed in the scene when four policemen leaped upon me and asked why I was frightening women. I couldn't have been more astounded if they had accused me of robbing a train. They informed me that a housewife had been watching me from behind her kitchen curtains a hundred yards away. She had never seen such goings-on. So she called the police, and when they approached they heard me ranting about daggers.

我告訴他們，我是在“演練莎士比亞”。但是他們不信，直到我出示了鐵甲公司的訂貨簿以后，他們才放我走。I told them I was 'practicing Shakespeare, but I had to produce my order book for Armour and company before they let me go.

這是一件很有趣的事，你在閱讀的時候請注意一下，這則趣事是怎樣體現(xiàn)那五要素的。Notice how this anecdote answers the questions posed in the 5-W formula above.

自然，細枝末節(jié)過多又比沒有細節(jié)更糟。人人都曾經(jīng)被冗長、膚淺而不切題的細節(jié)搞得煩不勝煩。注意看看，我在敘述自己在南達科他州萊德菲爾鎮(zhèn)幾乎被捕的事件里，對每一個要素都是進行簡明扼要的敘述。如果講演中全是亂糟糟的雞毛蒜皮的瑣碎之事，聽眾必然會不耐煩從而分散注意力，抹殺你許多的言論。一個人的講演過程中最糟糕的事，莫過于不能抓住聽眾的注意力了。Of course, too much detail is worse than none. All of us have been bored by lengthy recitals of superficial, irrelevant details. Notice how in the incident about my near-arrest in a South Dakota town there is a brief and concise answer to each of the 5-W questions. If you clutter your talk with too much detail, your audience will blue-pencil your remarks by refusing to give you their complete attention. There is no blue pencil more severe than inattentiveness.