On being a good speaker

ON BEING A GOOD SPEAKER

Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB

         In his book, “Life is worth living,” Bishop  Fulton Sheen gives us some valuable insights about how to be a good speaker. Most of us underestimate ourselves that few are not ready for the task or may not have the opportunity to do so. But speaking is not just about a formal context like some sort of a one – way traffic. The basic thing about speaking is to know the stuff that you want to say and so the ground – rule for a good speaker is “study, study, study.” There is no other substitute for it. The importance of study lies in the fact that one needs to know his or her matter and that means one would also need to do his or her own little bit of research.

            Besides this, there are 3 other things that Bishop Sheen speaks about,

1.     Sincerity
2.     Clarity
3.     Flexibility

1.     Sincerity: The basic stance about sincerity is that one should be one’s self. One should not try to ape someone else.

2.     Clarity: Clarity is derived from understanding a subject. Bishop Sheen points out to the fact that many professors are dull in class because they do not understand their subject. The ordinary teacher of physics could not tell an uneducated person anything about the mathematics of space – time. It is very easy to write a paper by giving a lot of footnotes. The use of footnotes is important in writing a paper although to use an excess of it would be an indication that the person has not completely understood that particular text. The real skill is shown when one is able to translate the same matter into simple words, so much that even a small child who is of the 7th or 8th grade would be able to follow.

The ideal talk possesses clarity for both the educated and the simple when it condenses abstract principles or scientific description with concrete examples or analogies. The educated can follow both; the uneducated can group the idea at least vaguely through illustrations drawn from their own experience. Our Blessed Lord, Who is the Eternal Word, did not disdain to use parables to make mysteries clearer to our finite minds. One must always know more about a subject than one gives a speech. As the lungs must have the atmosphere, as the eye must have more light that that which enters it, so the mind, to breathe easily on a subject, must have a great environment of knowledge.

Clarity is aided by telling the audience what you are going to do. Give them the points of discourse. Then they know at least when you are going to finish.

3.     Flexibility: Readers should always be prepared to skip over about 89 pages if they see the audience tiring. Flexibility will be increased when one does not harm the speech memorized; then one can make use of any occasion that may arise in the course of a discourse. Recall the beautiful impromptu speeches of our Blessed Lord such as the one to the woman at the well, when He turned the subject of thirst into the idea of the soul’s yearning for God.

More important than the above factors is that preparing a discourse is to recognize that every speaker is the trustee of God’s truth. When we speak, we are only the flute; it is God who breathes on us. We supply only the quality of tone – nothing else.  

Prayer and meditation are essential for a truthful message. Light and heat are inseparable in fire and they ought to be inseparable in anyone who gives a discourse. The light is God’s truth; the heat is the tremendous love with which one ought to communicate the truth. To love what we say, it must be true. To want to speak the truth, it must be loved.

It is said that whenever before Bishop Sheen would give his sermon, talk or speech, he would always go in the Chapel and pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament the following prayer,

Give me strength, to speak Thy Truth, that Thou mayest be known, not me, the power to make others love Thee, but not that I may be loved. Instill in those who listen to me a love Thee, so that there may not be only truth communicated, but also a love of that truth.


            We who are called to be the trustee of God’s truth ought to do the same. 

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