The Essence of Public Speaking Series

This series was born out of the authors' desires to provide speakers with brief, yet thorough information on specific topics in the world of professional and public speaking. From storytelling to technology, from speechwriting to earning money, The Essence of Public Speaking Series has been endorsed by Toastmasters International, one of the largest and most influential public speaking groups in the U.S.
"These excellent books are ideal for [those] who want to offer practical ideas about the wonderful world of paid speaking...and are also ideal for those who want to speak to promote their professions, careers, or causes. The Essence of Public Speaking books are easy to understand, and simple to activate."

Dottie Walters
President, Walters International Speakers Bureau
Publisher, Sharing Ideas Magazine for Speakers
Author, Speak & Grow Rich

New for 1999!

Choosing Powerful Words: Eloquence That Works

Ronald H. Carpenter, University of Florida

Choosing Powerful Words examines the importance of word choice and language in the public speaking process. A scholar and keen observer of political speeches, Carpenter offers his skilled insight into the power that words can wield and uses numerous examples as support. Choosing Powerful Words offers a lucid explanation of why certain arrangements of words are more effective than others. In addition, this text looks behind the scenes at famous and infamous speakers who have molded American life to illustrate the possibilities of powerful speaking.

New for 1999!

Delivering Dynamic Presentations: Using Your Voice and Body for Impact

Ralph E. Hillman, Middle Tennessee State University

While important ideas are any speech's most vital requirement, they can be either given life by a skillful delivery or obscured by a poor delivery. Professional speaker and university professor Ralph Hillman offers a methodology for both beginning and advanced speakers to use their voice and body to enliven any speech. This concise text provides detailed information about, insight into, and suggestions for improving one aspect of the speaking process -- the one that often has the biggest impact: delivery.

New for 1999!

Involving Your Audience: Make It Active

Karen Lawson, Lawson Consulting Group

Conditioned by video games, television, computers, and experiential learning activities, today's students have shorter attention spans and need to be involved. The most successful speakers are those who recognize this and adopt a more interactive approach to delivering their message. Yet, the ability to involve the audience in a more active way requires a different skill set than many speakers -- veterans and novices alike -- have mastered. In Involving Your Audience, international consultant, speaker, and writer Karen Lawson provides a practical, hands-on approach to using interactive methods to increase audience impact and ensure speaker success.

New for 1999!

Motivating Your Audience: Speaking From the Heart

Hanoch McCarty, Hanoch McCarty and Associates

Written by a skilled motivational speaker and educator, this concise, helpful text illuminates the methods of motivating people to change. Students will learn how to gear their words to audiences that hold certain values but need encouragement to live them, to find the best materials for the speech, and to present them with passion. With a focus on both the process of motivational speaking as well as internal and external issues, Motivating Your Audience: Speaking from the Heart offers a wealth of stories and practical advice for speakers at all skill levels.

New for 1999!

Speaking for Impact: Connecting with Every Audience

Shirley Nice

In her book, Speaking for Impact: Connecting with Every Audience, Shirley Nice offers a lifetime of practical advice to all who have ever experienced feeling out of touch with an audience. Whether a small or a large group, a classroom, a sales meeting or a formal presentation, this book reveals the essentials for getting your message across with impact. Speaking for Impact begins by showing each student how to identify his/her own unique impact potential. With a vibrant and colorful style, the text then shows how to identify the similarities and differences within audiences and gives specific guidelines for reaching everyone in both diverse groups and those made up of a range and variety of people. Drawing from her own experience with hundreds of groups, Nice challenges students to examine the changing nature of today's audiences and the new demands put on speakers. Nice's concluding counsel explains how to create an atmosphere of safety and space and energy for the dynamic connectedness that produces maximum audience impact.

Speaking for Profit and Pleasure: Making the Platform Work for You

William D. Thompson

This brief, yet thorough guide is perfect for readers who are interested in advancing their careers or improving the ways in which they present themselves. This book offers a realistic look at the world of public speaking, from corporate trainers and motivational stars to beginning luncheon speakers.

Using Stories and Humor: Grab Your Audience

Joanna Campbell Slan

From the apparently "spontaneous" story that's planned well in advance to an entire presentation that is a story, the author demonstrates how professional speakers use stories and humor, and shows how readers can use these elements to add polish and appeal to their own speeches and presentations. Readers will find a wealth of step-by-step ideas, tips, worksheets, and exercises to help you make effective use of stories.

TechEdge: Using Computers to Present and Persuade

William J. Ringle

With today's ever-changing technology, often presenters and speakers alike are caught off guard when their computer malfunctions or their microphone squeaks during a speech. This helpful guided tour will cut months“if not years“off a reader's learning curve; they will find plenty of valuable material here, including the tricks that set well-prepared presenters apart.

Writing Great Speeches: Professional Techniques You Can Use

Alan Perlman

In these pages a seasoned speechwriter reveals his trade secrets -- from analyzing the needs of an audience to leaving them with a satisfying sense of closure -- as he guides readers through the process of planning, writing, and honing an outstanding speech.

Speaking Your Way to the Top: Making Powerful Business Presentations

Marjorie Brody

Readers will learn about the homework they should do before they give a presentation. Interested in client meetings? Conference speaking? The author describes what it takes to make each one successful. But that's not all. She also provides dozens of ways to summarize and remember the most important ideas, including planning sheets, quick reviews and lists of tips and techniques.

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