Lend Me Your Ears: All you need to know about making speeches and presentations

This book is a follow up to ` Our Masters Voices', which focused on the skills of political orators and unearthed successful technique to inspire and persuade an audience. This book is geared towards anyone wishing to understand the fundamentals of presenting. Does it offer anything different? Yes and No. What I like about this book is that it has a great summary at the end of each chapter, so if you are an experienced presenter, so you can glance through the summaries, and decide if you would learn from a closer inspection. The first couple of chapters don't really offer anything new or different to the experienced presenter, but Atkinson comes into his own in later chapters, dealing with words and language structuring. As a voice coach, it is always refreshing to see vocal skills covered with advice and practical exercises. Many similar books give voice a token mention, yet voice plays a hugely important part in inspiring, and moving any audience. I like the fact that he includes practical relevant exercises at the end of each chapter - so the reader can take ownership of their learning as they read through the book - putting the theory into practice. Atkinson reminds us "the customer is always right" and the same should be said of an audience. When you are presenting to an audience, the audience is your sole customer. It's the audience's needs that should always be first, yet too often a presenter focuses on their own needs and wants. Atkinson's passion is using "rhetoric as a tool kit" when presenting. He draws on the political stage for reference. He opens our eyes to how contrast, metaphor, anecdote, puzzles and imagery can have a powerful effect on any audience. He gives us plenty of examples of their application on the business stage. It's content heavy, so best read in short bursts, followed by trying the exercises. I think this book is definitely a valuable read for a novice presenter. For the more experienced presenter who may be a little cynical about rhetoric in business presentations, I would say " leave your comfort zone, challenge yourself and use your imagination to move your audience.

Even if you don't have an immediate need to speak in public, you will enjoy this book. We are all judged at one time or another by our capacity and willingness to speak in public. The information in this book is entertaining and very helpful to any novice or old hand who has to speak to an audience. Advice is given for speaking in general and also for speaking at specific occasions (toasts, funerals, etc).

This book was recommended by an excellent executive coach who trains many top executives' speeches and presentations. It contains many practical ideas such as; -Step-by-step guide for preparation, -"Winning with Words" (effective use of rhetorical techniques, -how to use visual aids, -how to avoid using them as clutch, -how spoken words are different from reading, -tons of good quotes as examples, etc. It was very useful for me as I prepare my 60-minute speech, and I highly recommend this for people who are challenging themselves as a public speaker.

As an executive speech writer and coach, I've read many fine books on public speaking. This book is one of the best I've seen about the art of crafting a compelling speech. I especially enjoyed the three chapters of the first section. They examine how giving a speech is like and unlike holding a conversation. And they suggest ways for making a speech more conversational. You've probably heard much of the advice before - make the audience part of your speech, establish eye contact, pause, avoid being overly formal or using words that are rarely heard in everyday conversation, etc. - but now you'll understand why. I liked the chapter titled "The Persuasive Power of Words." It examines four rhetorical techniques that make audiences pay attention to and remember what you say: 1. CONTRASTS, which include contradictions ("not this but that"), comparisons ("more this than that"), opposites ("black or white"), and phrase reversals 2. PUZZLES (assertions that briefly confuse the audience, priming them for your solution) and QUESTIONS 3. LISTS OF THREE 4. A COMBINATION OF THE OTHER THREE TECHNIQUES And I found a lot to think about in the chapter, "Painting Words with Pictures." It begins, "A picture may sometimes tell a thousand words, but words can just as easily be used to create a thousand images." It then examines the different ways of creating images in the minds of your audience: similes, metaphors, analogies, anecdotes, and quotations. I found the other chapters on visual aids (including PowerPoint) and body language less insightful, although I agree with almost everything Atkinson writes in them. (Beware: if you're wedded to PowerPoint or if you believe that how you speak is more important than what you say, you're going to be challenged - rightly, I think - by what he writes.) Each chapter is filled with examples and stories (mostly from politics) and ends with a one- or two-page summary. Each section concludes with exercises to help you apply what you've read. The book's subtitle, "All You Need to Know about Making Speeches," is a bit misleading. The book is more about writing a speech than delivering one. And while it gives great advice about using words, phrases, and images to strengthen a speech's impact, it goes into considerably less detail about constructing a speech. Atkinson has experience in academia and as a consultant for politicians and corporations. His book is both intellectually stimulating and practical. You may not like this book if you're looking for a beginner's guide to public speaking. But if you want to make your speeches more engaging and memorable, you'll profit from this book. It's one of the few books I go back to again and again as I'm writing speeches for my clients. I highly recommend it.

"Without doubt this is the best ever "how to" book on speeches and presentations, no matter what the topic - business, social, political, or technical. As a CEO I have sat through so many turn-off presentations by people I know to be literate and interesting. This book demonstrates how unnecessary this is and that one does not have to be a "born speaker" to make lively, interesting, really effective presentations. It is completely practical in identifying the tried and tested techniques which have served the great communicators down the ages. It is also first class on how to use (but not over use) modern computer aids to great effect. No wonder speechwriters to Presidents Reagan and Clinton say the author Professor Max Atkinson is the speechwriters Guru."