Public Speaking Series, Part 4

Up to this point I have posted three principles.  The fourth principle is that there are certain non-negotiable rules.  It doesn't matter when or where or why or to whom or about what you speak, these apply.  There are are rules about context, content, and delivery.

1. Rules about context

(a). Never exceed expected or given time limits. If you are given twenty minutes, you are given twenty minutes and should take eighteen, not twenty-five. Audiences are very perceptive about (and sensitive to) speakers going overtime. The old saying is “He who thinks by the inch and speaks by the yard should be dealt with by the foot.” As I read recently in an article on toasts at weddings, “no one has ever complained that a speech was too short.”