Delegation Resource Manual: Month by Month Implementation Guide
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YMCA PA Youth & Government Program
What are some tools that we can use in our speeches/presentations to really sell our point—to help
people really care and understand what we’re speaking about?
Chart responses. (Mnemonic devices like acronyms, alliteration, patterns; visual aids; Humor; Word
Plays.)
Bringing it Home - 10 minutes
So, you are almost home. The final base, home base, is wrapping it up with a big finish.
Statistics show that at least three out of every 100 people listening to you are NOT going to like you,
no matter what you do. I don’t have any statistics on this, but I’d say that several of the people in
your audience—more than three for sure—are not going to be listening, until the very end. So,
that’s why it’s important to have a powerful closing—leave them with at least some little nugget of
your brilliance.
My best tips: make them laugh, make them think, or make them cry (or just really touch their
heartstrings.)
Get together in groups of 3-4. Come up with a brilliant closing line (or couple of lines) for the
following speech/presentation. Have one person deliver.
Speech 1: You’ve just given a speech to your neighboring middle school’s eighth graders about
transitioning into high school. Bring the speech home!
Speech 2: You are concluding a presentation to your biology class about how Gregor Mendl can be
credited (or blamed) for today’s scientific study of genetics. Bring the speech home!
Speech 3: You are wrapping up a speech to your church congregation about your HI-Y’s fundraiser
to buy dog food for the local animal shelter. Bring it home with a great closing!
Bring it Home - 5 minutes
Just like any good baseball player, you and I aren’t going to be an Abe Lincoln, JFK, Ronald Reagan,
Billy Graham, or Oprah Winfrey right off the bat (no pun intended.)
Great public speaking:
1.
Takes passion—or at the least a genuine enthusiasm for your topic.
2.
Takes practice—you can’t practice too much.
3.
Takes courage to be good—jump off the cliff! Have fun! Take a chance!
Do all of these things and you’ll be a cracker jack speaker in no time! (Pass out cracker jacks.)
