Increase Your Influence with Your Audience Using Speech Patterns
“The success of your presentation will be judged not by the knowledge you send but by what the listener receives” – Lilly Walters
We have talked a lot about speaking in the last few months. However, one public speaking topic we have not covered is the common speech patterns you can use to organize your presentations. Speech patterns are very helpful because they guide you in preparing and delivering your presentation. They also gude your audience in understanding your presentation.
What follows are the common speech patterns, how the speech pattern you have selected for your presentation actually increases your influence with your audience, and how you can adapt different speech patterns to the same presentation.
The Common Speech Patterns?
The following information on speech patterns comes from What Are the Five Organizational Patterns of Public Speaking:
Logical or Topical: If you are giving a presentation that contains several ideas that are interrelated in such a way that one flows naturally to the next, the logical pattern of organization can be used. As the name implies, you’ll be organizing the information in a logical manner according to topic. This organizational pattern can also be used in a speech that discusses several sub-topics under the banner of a primary topic – just attack them all in a logical sequence.
Chronological: When information in a speech follows a chronological sequence, then the information should likewise be organized chronologically. For example, a speech on the development of a new technology should begin with its origin, then continue along the same time-line as events occurred. This organizational pattern is typically used in any speech addressing a subject from an historical perspective.
Geographical: If you wish to evoke an image of something that has various parts, and those parts are distinguished by geography, then organize your speech using a spatial pattern. Spatial patterns are suited for speeches about a country or city, or even a building or organization, provided that the organization occupies a specific geographical location, such as a hospital or university.
Cause-and-Effect: Another way of organizing a speech on a particular topic is to look at the subject in terms of cause and effect. For example, a speech about providing foreign aid to victims of a natural disaster in another country would discuss the disaster itself (the cause) and the impact the disaster had on the nation’s people (the effect). In this particular example, a further effect would be found in discussing the details of how foreign aid can help the victims.
Problem-Solution: The problem-solution organizational pattern is similar to the cause-and-effect pattern, but is typically used when the speaker is trying to persuade the audience to take a particular viewpoint. In essence, the speaker introduces a problem, and then outlines how this problem can be solved.
So, there you have the five basic speech patterns you can use to prepare and guide you and your audiences in your presentations. Read on to find out how you can use speech patterns to increase your influence with your audience?
How Using Speech Patterns Increase Your Influence with Your Audience
Once you have selected the appropriate speech pattern, it will greatly help you in preparing your presentations because they suggest the main points of your presentation and their order. The basic speech patterns are akin to a roadmap of your presentation.
Just as speech patterns guide you through your presentation preparation, speech patterns will also guide your audience through your presentation. It will not take long for your audience to realize there is a pattern to your presentation. When your audience knows what to expect, they can better concentrate on your presentation message.
A recognizable pattern allows your audience to focus on your message. Haphazard presentation patterns distract your audience focusing them on the haphazard nature of your presentation and defocusing them on your message.
Audiences love to listen to presentations that follow familiar speech patterns. Because of the familiar organization of your presentation you actually will increase your credibility with your audience. Increase credibility causes increase influence.
We have explored the basic speech patterns and how you can use speech patterns to increase your influence with your audience. Let’s now look at how you can adapt different speech patterns to the same presentation.
How You Can Adapt Different Speech Patterns to the Same Presentation
You may be thinking that the speech pattern you choose for your presentation cannot be changed to another speech pattern. Although the five speech patterns are different and unique, with a little imagination and effort you can change one speech pattern to another in the same presentation.
For instance, your presentation about the great museums of Italy can follow a chronological pattern (e.g., Tuesday – visiting the Vatican Museums in Rome; Wednesday – visiting the Gallery of the Academy of Florence (Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze) where sculpture The David is; Thursday – visiting the Doge’s Palace in Venice, and so on).
You could easily turn this chronological speech pattern in your presentation about the great museums of Italy into the Geographical speech pattern by emphasizing the cities or regions in which the great museums reside – Rome, Florence, and Venice.
You could also easily turn this chronological speech pattern in your presentation about the great museums of Italy into the Logical/Topical speech pattern by emphasizing the museums themselves.
So, the same topic can be portrayed in your presentation using any of the five speech patterns.
There is a caution though. Use only one speech pattern in your presentation. If you try to mix two or more speech patterns in your presentation, you will only end up confusing your audience and yourself when you deliver your presentation. Remember, the speech pattern you choose is a roadmap of your presentation for the audience.
We have defined the five basic speech patterns: (1) logical or topical, (2) chronological or time-sequenced, (3) spatial or geographical, (4) cause-and-effect, and (5) problem-solution; showed how speech patterns actually add to your influence with your audience; and finally, learned how to adapt speech patterns to the same presentation.
If you stick to one of these basic speech patterns, presentation preparation and delivery will be easier for you and your audience will receive the gift of listening to a well-organized presentation!
“Let thy speech be better than silence, or be silent”. – Dionysius Of Halicarnassus
Looking for professional services to help you significantly increase your influence with your audiences? Contact DiBartolomeo Consulting International (DCI) at info@speakleadandsucceed.com or (703) 815-1324