Selling Yourself As a Speaker 87
- Notes.
- Nothing.
The manuscript is the most dif-
ficult to deliver well. If you can
learn the rhythm of eye contact for
a manuscript speech, you’ll im-
prove the delivery of speeches pre-
pared with any other method. So
we’ll concentrate on learning how
to maintain eye contact while de-
livering the toughest speech of all.
The first rule is: Your mouth
shouldn’t be moving while your
eyes are looking at any-
thing but your audience.
The second rule fol-
lows logically: Write
short sentences. The
longest sentence should
cover no more than two
lines of type.
Use a large font. The
type should be big. Use
periods. Substitute peri-
ods for other punctuation.
I’m not saying you
must write only simple
sentences. I’m saying you should simplify your sentences.
Here are some other useful tips for preparing your text.
- Leave an extra-wide left-hand margin.
- Double space your lines and triple or quadruple space your
paragraphs. In fact, make every sentence a new paragraph
and indent.
- Don’t carry a sentence over to the next page. In other
words, every page should end with a period.
- Leave a high bottom margin.
- Cut off the text about two-thirds of the way down the page.
“How long do I have to continue
to talk to these people?”
Talking to slides or a PowerPoint presentation
should be a felony.
