1. Eight common opening methods
Whether the opening statement is successful or not will largely affect the success or failure of the speech. The basic requirement for an opening statement is to be concise and attractive.
There are 8 common types of opening remarks.
1. Story-style
Story-style opening is to start the speech with a story or event that is closely related to the topic of the speech. The story or event must have characters and details.
For example, the opening remarks of Sichuan Zhou Guangning's "Save the Children" speech:
The "Xinmin Evening News" on May 24 last year disclosed the fact that a fourth-grade primary school student needs to Bring eggs that your parents have peeled off their shells to school to eat. One time, the parents forgot to peel the eggs and almost choked the child. He looked at the eggs left and right, not knowing how to eat them. As a result, the original eggs had to be brought back. If you ask him why he doesn't eat eggs, the answer is simple: "How can I eat if there are no seams?"
Zhou Guangning started the news report by saying that a primary school student cannot peel eggs, bringing the audience into the theme of his speech. : The whole society should pay attention to cultivating children's ability to live independently and the courage to overcome difficulties.
Story-based openings can easily attract the audience's attention and require relatively simple language skills. Therefore, story-based openings are especially suitable for beginner speakers. For example, in a speech class exercise at a university in Hunan, the speech was titled "When I Entered the University Gate". A college student began his speech like this;
You will definitely remember such a legend: There is an Arab A magical cave containing 40 gold, silver, treasures and pearls and agate stolen by big thieves. As long as you master a spell, the cave door will open automatically. One day, a man named Alibaba accidentally learned this mantra. He opened the door to wealth and became extremely rich.
The speaker started with a well-known Arabic legend and compared the university gate to the gate of wealth of knowledge, which achieved a good speech effect.
Story-like openings should avoid complex plots and lengthy language.
2． Opening and clear-cut style
Get straight to the point, explain the intention or theme of the speech in concise language, and then develop arguments and explanations in the main part. This kind of opening statement can be called the opening statement.
The clear-cut opening is suitable for more formal and solemn practical speech situations, which requires the speaker to have good summary ability. The famous badminton player Han Jian used a clear-cut opening statement in his report speech after returning from the honour:
Dear leaders, dear comrades:
I have been engaged in badminton since I was 17 years old. It has been 14 years since I started exercising. In these 14 years, I have had successful experiences. There have also been lessons from failure; there has been the joy of being a world champion. There was also the pain of defeat. Today, I don't want to show off how I "passed five levels and killed six generals", but I just plan to seriously talk about "Zou Maicheng".
3. Humorous style
Humorous style is to use humorous, witty language or examples as the opening remarks of a speech. It can make the audience feel relaxed and happy and quickly enter the role of the recipient of the speech.
In November 1965, American friend Ms. Anna Louise Strong celebrated her 80th birthday in China. Premier Zhou Enlai specially held a grand birthday banquet in the hall of the Shanghai Exhibition Hall. Premier Zhou's opening remarks were:
Today, we celebrate the 40th birthday of our good friend, the American female writer Ms. Anna Louise Strong. (The birthday wishers at the banquet were puzzled by the new term "40 Gongsui") In China, the word "公" is twice as long as the quantifier that follows it. 40 kilograms is equal to 80 kilograms, and 40 male years is equal to 80 years old.
Premier Zhou's ingenious explanation aroused laughter among hundreds of birthday wishers, and Ms. Strong also shed tears of joy.
A humorous opening should avoid vulgar jokes or vulgar language. For example, a grassroots cadre gave a situation report to young workers:
"Today, I will tell you about the situation. How is the situation? It's a lice on a bald man's head - it's obvious. Who is blind? You dare not say that? But some guys just don't want to do anything. They just want to put money in their pockets. They don't even want to eat pork, but they want to eat snakes, fish, etc. Things like bastards. Those who smoke are those with buttocks, and those who drink tea are from Longjing and Hujing. , then you can’t drink from Goujing and Maojing? You still scold your mother all the time! You are a heartless guy who picks up the bowl to eat meat and puts down your chopsticks to scold your mother. "
The purpose of this cadre's speech is not wrong. It aroused bursts of laughter from the audience. But this kind of laughter is precisely the audience's ridicule at the speaker's vulgar and vulgar language. This so-called "humor" not only destroys the value of the speech topic, but also devalues ??the speaker's personality in the minds of the audience.
4. Quotation type
Speech opening remarks can also directly quote other people's words to provide the necessary foundation and background for developing your own speech topic.
For example, the opening remarks of the speech titled "Let Life Shine in the Pursuit" are:
The African American educator Benjamin Mays has an intriguing saying: "The tragedy of life is not It's about not reaching the goal, it's about not having the goal you want to achieve." This is very reasonable.
The cited materials used as opening remarks generally must meet two basic conditions:
First, the cited materials have strong generalization, persuasiveness and appeal.
Second, the quoted material comes from an authority, celebrity, or person who is very familiar to the audience. The speaker uses the authority effect or the effect of relatives and friends to arouse the audience's attention.
In some cases, the speaker does not even have to disclose the source of the quoted material. The speech titled "Never Forget the National Humiliation and Revitalize China", which won the third prize in the Hunan Provincial College Student Speech Contest, did not explain the source of the quoted materials in the opening remarks:
I remember there is such a famous saying: "A person The trauma will only be painful for a moment, but the shame of a nation will be remembered for thousands of years. "
5. Suspense style
Suspense can arouse the curiosity of the audience and prompt the audience to enter the speaker's theme framework as soon as possible.
An old gentleman first asked the audience at the beginning of his speech: "Where do people grow old?" (The audience answered one after another, some said that people grow old from their feet, and some said that they grow old from their brains. , the atmosphere was very lively). The old man finally answered by himself: "I think some people start from old age." The whole audience burst into laughter, and the old man Jier explained: "Some cadres do not go deep into reality and spend all day soaking in the sea of ??knowledge. It's a sin to sit down and talk about it. It has to bear the weight of the upper body and rub against the bench. It's tiring. In this case, isn't the butt the youngest? "
This old gentleman? Before criticizing bureaucracy, he first used a question to create the first suspense and aroused the interest of the audience; then he used an unexpected answer to create the second suspense, making the audience laugh. Waiting to unravel the suspense, thereby effectively controlling the audience's thoughts and emotions.
Objective suspense is a special form of suspenseful opening. Before a Japanese professor gave a speech to college students, facing the chattering and chattering college students in the audience, he did not rush to announce the topic of his speech, but took out a black stone from his pocket and said, "In Japan, Only I have this piece." When the students stretched their necks to see what was going on, the professor explained that he brought this stone back from the Antarctic expedition and started his lecture on the Antarctic expedition.
There are two points to note when using a suspense-style opening: First, do not rigidly convert common-sense questions that everyone knows into suspense; second, do not deliberately whet the audience's "appetite." This may arouse the audience's dislike of the speaker.
6． Powerful style
A powerful or opening statement is to moderately exaggerate the content to be discussed or to render it from an angle that ordinary people have never imagined, so as to attract the audience's attention.
An American broadcasting company began a popular science speech promoting the role of radio: "Did you know that the tiny sound of a fly walking on a glass window in New York can be transmitted by radio to Central Africa? And it can make it amplify the sound as amazing as Niagara Falls. "This radio speech uses an angle that ordinary people cannot imagine and will not put into practice, forming a powerful opening statement.
Certain phenomena in life that are typical but not universal can often become good material for powerful opening remarks. For example, a speech given by a medical graduate student:
Students:
Have you heard such a piece of news? After the traditional Chinese medicine produced and developed in my country spread to Japan, after their research, it has surpassed China in some aspects! Some Japanese scholars even stated that once they completely surpass China in this aspect, they will rename "Han Medicine and Chinese Medicine" as "Oriental Medicine". What do you think when you hear this news? Aren't you surprised? Don't you feel anxious? Don't you feel that our "national treasure" is facing serious challenges?
However, it should be noted that the powerful opening cannot be exaggerated to avoid creating mysterious and shocking negative effects.
7. Lyrical style
Lyric style opening remarks draw lessons from poetry and prose forms, and use gorgeous rhetoric and surging passion to guide the audience into a poetic realm of speech.
Lyric openings are often used in speech contests, but some well-conceived practical speeches also often use lyrical openings. For example, former Secretary of State Edward Everett, who is almost as famous as Lincoln in the history of American speeches, delivered a speech at the dedication ceremony of the Gettysburg National Cemetery on November 19, 1863:
Standing in the Clear Under the long sky, as far as the eye can see, we can see the vast fields that have been peacefully resting after people have worked for many years. The majestic Allegheny Mountains loom in front of us. The graves of our brothers are at our feet. I really don’t dare to use them. My insignificant voice breaks the infinite silence arranged by God and nature. But I must carry out the task you have given me, and therefore I beg you to show me mercy and compassion.
Everett's speech brought the audience into a beautiful, majestic, solemn and solemn atmosphere at the beginning.
Lyric opening remarks can easily fall into vagueness and abstraction, so novice speakers should choose them carefully.
For example, the following class speech exercise - "When I walked into the university campus":
I am a cow. When I walked into the university gate, I saw a green pasture; I am a ship, when I walked into the university gate, I docked in a refueling harbor; I am a piece of ore, when I walked into the university gate, I was thrown into a blazing furnace; I am A baby swallow, when I walked into the university gate, this place became the pillar for me to practice my wings; I was an unformed statue, when I walked into the university gate, I came to the sculpture field where sculptors live in groups.
I am me. When I entered the university, my life began a new voyage!
This speech exercise seems to be very smooth from the choice of words and sentences to the use of rhetorical devices. However, as a speech, the audience feels that it is not ideal. The reason is that the speaker uses the lyrical style of prose poetry to only give The audience brings a vague metaphor and symbol, lacking the clear theme intention and vivid detailed description that the speech should have, so that the full text is more suitable for "watching" rather than "listening". Like this exercise, blindly pursuing rhetorical splendor while ignoring specific content is a common mistake made by some beginning speakers, especially college and middle school students.
8． Chit-chat style
The chat-style opening gradually introduces the topic of the speech through topics unrelated to the topic. Its main purpose is to quickly establish a friendly relationship with the audience during the opening phase and eliminate barriers or hierarchical differences. This is often used in the speeches of certain celebrities and authorities.
For example, Gorky's speech at the All-Soviet Writers' Congress in 1934:
Dear comrades, I feel that when Gorky's name is mentioned here, some adjectives are often added: " "Great", "Tall", "Long" etc. (Laughter)
Gorky's humble and funny opening remarks greatly enhanced his relationship with other writers.
In 1986, Mr. Tang, a famous Chinese literary critic, went to give lectures somewhere in Shaanxi. Mr. Tang said at the beginning:
...I haven’t given lectures for a long time, and I speak with a southern accent and a northern accent. I am from Zhejiang, grew up in Shanghai, and came to the north to work. People in the south don’t recognize that what I speak is Mandarin; people in the north don’t recognize that what I speak is Mandarin. I am homeless!
Mr. Tang’s self-deprecating opening remarks did not have the slightest air of a scholar, and the audience admired Mr. Tang’s personality and knowledge even more as they laughed.
The chat-style opening is not suitable for use in speech contests and other occasions, nor is it suitable for young speakers, because after all, it shows the speaker’s unique identity, and at the same time, it is easy to cause confusion in the speech. nonsense.
The above eight types of opening remarks do not summarize the rich and colorful opening remarks. There are often crossovers between the various types of opening lines. Speakers can create a variety of opening remarks by carefully designing them according to the time, place, person, event, and emotion.
The following types of opening remarks are taboo: lengthy, apologetic, offensive, showy, and vulgar.
2. Six effective concluding remarks
Napoleon said: "The key to determining the outcome of a war often lies in the last five minutes." And the part of the speech that can leave a deep impression on the audience , often also the ending. Without a good ending, a speech is just a flower without fruit.
There are 6 common ending types.
1. Climax
The sublimation of the theme and the rendering of the emotional atmosphere are all at their best at the end. This ending can be called a climax.
In 1946, after Mr. Li Gongpu and Mr. Wen Yiduo were killed one after another, more than 6,000 people in Chongqing held a grand memorial meeting. Mr. Wen Yiduo's third son, 14-year-old Wen Lipeng, delivered a speech on behalf of his family. Wen Lipeng's grief-stricken speech was interrupted many times by the crowd's cries, applause and slogans. Wen Lipeng finally said:
My father was killed. Some people spread rumors that it was the Communist Party who killed him. Someone from somewhere killed him. Some people said it was my father. Killed by a friend. I wonder why they didn't just say that it was my brother who killed my father! (The crowd is extremely angry, and the applause is deafening) My father has been dead for half a month, and the murderer has not been caught yet. Now I ask everyone to help me, and we demand the abolition of the spy organization! (The whole audience burst into roars of "We demand the abolition of the spy organization")
The end of Wen Lipeng's speech aroused the anger of the crowd to the highest level, "putting the climax at the end", which is what most podiums say Structural principles followed consciously or unconsciously.
2． Summary
The summary is a summary and summary of the entire speech content at the end.
For example, the speech titled "If I were the Director of Personnel" (speaker Zhang Xuequn) put forward the speaker's views and assumptions on the reform of the personnel system, and finally ended the speech with a summary:
< p>Talents must be recruited in a proper way, talents must be used in a proper way, and talents must be supported in a proper way. This is the reform implementation plan after I became the director of the personnel department.The summary ending is easy for novice speakers to master, but it should be avoided from forming a simple repetition of the content of the previous speech.
3. Yuyun style
Someone once asked Lin Zexu, who had been an honest official all his life, why he didn't leave some money for future generations.
Lin Zexu replied: "If your descendants are like me, what will you do with the money? If your descendants are not as good as me, what will you keep the money for?" Lin Zexu's euphemistic and implicit answer has an endless aftertaste, which makes people feel his clean and honest moral principles and life in repeated aftertaste. values. This can be called a typical Yuyun question and answer method.
The rhyme ending in a speech also expresses the theme in implicit or leaving room for language, so that the audience can be enlightened in the thinking after the speech or complete the theme conclusion of the speech.
A middle-aged intellectual woman in a certain city confided in the "March 8th" Women's Day symposium about all the troubles she encountered in pursuing her career, and finally ended her speech with one sentence: " I am not the only person in this world who has these troubles!" The speaker did not analyze the social root causes that hinder women from achieving career success, nor did she propose what measures should be taken to solve these problems, but her concluding words aroused the attention of everyone present. The cries of women representatives also attracted the attention and attention of municipal party committee leaders to these issues.
In 1924, Mr. Lu Xun delivered a speech entitled "Before Talents" at the Alumni Association of the High School Affiliated to Beijing Normal University. The ending of the speech was:
The comparison between soil and genius is, Of course, it is not enough, but if you are not a very difficult person, I am afraid it will not be easy to do; but everything depends on labor, and you are more sure than a genius who waits for his talent. This is the great thing about soil, and it is also the place where there is great hope. And there are rewards. For example, when beautiful flowers come out of the soil, people who look at them can appreciate them with joy, and the soil can also appreciate them with joy. It is not necessary for the flowers themselves to be refreshing and happy - if the soil also has a soul.
Mr. Lu Xun used vivid metaphors to let young people draw their own conclusions: work hard to cultivate the soil for genius.
4. Aphorism
A sentence with simple language, rich connotation and educational significance is a motto. The aphoristic ending condenses the speaker's thoughts or conclusions on the topic of the speech into one or two aphorisms, so that the audience can be deeply enlightened and educated.
Patricia Henry was a famous politician during the American Revolutionary War. On March 23, 1775, Henry delivered a speech known as "the fuse of the American Revolution" in the Virginia House of Representatives. The last part of the speech expressed the sentiments of a great patriot with shocking momentum and decisive words. Haoran Zhengqi:
It is useless to avoid reality. Gentlemen will shout: Peace! Peace! ! But peace is there? In fact, the war has already begun, and the strong wind blowing from the north will send the clang echo of weapons into our eardrums. Our compatriots are already on the battlefield, why do we still stand and watch? What do you gentlemen wish for? What do you want to achieve? Is life so precious? Is peace so sweet? Even at the price of chains and servitude? Almighty God, stop this! I don't know how others will behave in this struggle, and as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Henry's battle cry "Give me liberty or give me death" became a famous battle motto during the American Revolutionary War.
Creating aphorisms is not necessarily the exclusive preserve of writers or thinkers. Speakers can create their own mottos as long as they can deeply grasp the topic of their speech and convey rich thoughts through extremely concise sentences. For example, the famous badminton player Han Jian's speech titled "Hold up your chest in the face of failure" ended with his own dialectical understanding of failure and success:
I know very well that I may fail in the future. It's miserable, but I'm not afraid, because those who are afraid of failure will never succeed!
5. Call to action
The call to action ends with highly inspiring words calling people to take action. Some campaign speeches end with "Please vote for me" which is a typical call to action.
The action you call on the audience to take can be either a specific action or an abstract and general behavior. For example, Mr. Wen Yiduo said at the end of "The Last Speech":
We must be prepared to step out of the door with the front foot like Mr. Li, and never be ready to step in again with the back foot! (Long and warm applause)
Mr. Wen Yiduo used the metaphor of "the back foot is not ready to step into the door again" to call on people to be ready to sacrifice at any time.
Huang Yuanquan’s speech titled “Sweeping Out Ah Qism” ended in an even more abstract way:
Students and friends, for the sake of the strength of our motherland and the prosperity of our nation, let us We completely wipe out Ah Qism!
6． Blessing style
Blessing style endings are very common in various ceremonies, ceremonies and meetings. In terms of content, congratulatory endings can be roughly divided into types such as wishing success, wishing happiness, wishing health, wishing friendship, wishing wealth, etc. For example, when Commander-in-Chief Zhu De celebrated his 60th birthday in 1946, Zhou Enlai ended his birthday message with:
The people wish you a long life! The whole party wishes you eternal health!
The congratulatory ending generally has a fixed formula and is relatively easy to master, but it is not easy to come up with new ideas while fitting the scene.
For example, when President Nixon visited China in 1972, he gave a toast at the thank-you banquet:
...I ask everyone to raise a glass with me, for Chairman Mao, for Premier Zhou, and for us. Cheers, peoples of both countries, to the hope of our children that our generation can leave them a legacy of peace and harmony!
Nixon’s toast was not only a general ceremonial blessing to the Chinese leaders and the Chinese people, but also spoke highly of the leaders of the two countries, including himself, from the perspective of historical peace. future generations, efforts and contributions to peace.
The above six ending types cannot cover all speech endings, but no matter what type of ending, they have only one purpose: to leave a deep impression on the audience.