5 Tips to Add Life to Your Speeches!

5 Tips to Add Life to Your Speeches!

Words matter! • The choice of words can make the difference between an interesting speech that we soon forget and a lively speech we remember for the rest of our lives. Here are 5 tips to add life to your speeches.

1 — Involve the five senses • Sight : Instead of saying: «She was sad, » you could say: «A tear glided slowly down her cheek. «

1 — Involve the five senses • Touch : «He put his hand on her shoulder…» could become: «He wrapped his arm around her shoulder. …»

1 — Involve the five senses • Smell : Replace: «He entered in the bakery…» with: «He was greeted by the smell of warm bread when he entered…»

3 — Play with analogies. • «That hockey player IS a real rocket when he’s on the ice. » is an analogy. You affirm that one thing IS something else, in other words, the hockey player IS a rocket.

4 — Go from abstract to concrete. • Use concrete verbs. They create images in our minds that are more powerful. «He pulled out his tooth. » hurts more than: «He extracted his tooth». We can easily imagine ourselves in the dentist chair when you say, «He pulled out his tooth».

5 — Replace generic terms by specific terms. • By using specific terms, you make it so much easier for people to visualize what you are describing. «She saw a bird on a branch» is less evocative than: «She saw a sparrow on a branch».