It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It: Ready-to-Use Advice for Presentations, Speeches, and Other Speaking Occasions, Large and Small [Paperback]

Joan Detz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0312243057 | ISBN-13: 978-0312243050 | Edition: 1st

Why do some speakers succeed while many bore their audiences and lose their listeners? Speaking coach Joan Detz has worked with top clients for more than 15 years and has the answers. In this useful and lively book she presents strategies and tips for speeches, sales presentations, brief remarks, job interviews, Q&A sessions, panels, and more -- every situation that requires something to say.

Topics include: organizing your message * finding terrific research * using storytelling techniques * preparing the room * handling technical glitches * working with other speakers * measuring your effectiveness * making the most of your voice * mastering humor * using body language * conquering nervousness * building audience rapport * tapping the power of persuasion.

Filled with checklists, tip sheets, self-evaluations, and practical advice on every page, this thorough and invaluable guide takes the mystery out of our most dreaded experience. This book will help you say it better-whether you're talking to one or one thousand.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

For many people, speech giving is a nerve-wracking but necessary task, and this book provides proven tips, suggestions, and guidance to make the experience successful and to help readers develop confidence and skill for any public-speaking occasion. Detz focuses on preparation, organization, and delivery skills, also discussing the uses of technology, public speaking in unusual settings, dealing with interruptions, health and physical challenges, and evaluation. An appendix gives a useful bibliography of speakers' resources, mostly sources of quotations, professional public-speaking organizations, and web sites. Detz has authored four books on public speaking, most recently How To Write and Give a Speech, maintains a web site at www.joandetz.com, and works as a professional speech coach and motivational speaker. This book is recommended for public libraries and corporate libraries, but those owning another book by Detz or any solid book on public speaking can pass.DDenise S. Sticha, Seton Hill Coll., Greensburg, PA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Joan Detz is the author of How to Write & Give a Speech and Can You Say a Few Words?. A professional speech coach, she advises prominent executives across the country and conducts communications seminars for major corporations. She lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (October 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312243057
• ISBN-13: 978-0312243050
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #45,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It, January 25, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It: Ready-to-Use Advice for Presentations, Speeches, and Other Speaking Occasions, Large and Small (Paperback)

Extremely easy to read. Every point is supported by real life examples or funny bloopers. Because of its simplicity, it sticks and you are more likely to apply it to your next presentation, speech, delivering a status to the boss. It is worth having in the bookshelf as a business reference or for personal situations.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful!, March 30, 2001

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It: Ready-to-Use Advice for Presentations, Speeches, and Other Speaking Occasions, Large and Small (Paperback)

This extremely practical, highly focused book goes through the hands-on details of preparing a presentation or speech. Some of the instructions seem self-evident, but only because author Joan Detz is extremely thorough and recognizes that it is easy to forget these "obvious" tips under pressure. She provides a vast amount of practical information, far more than anyone could absorb at once, but her tips are worth reading again and again. She also includes good self-assessment forms and questionnaires. Many of these venerable public-speaking concepts date back to the Sermon on the Mount, but Detz adds her own spin by emphasizing that the focus should be on the speaker, not on slides or props (downplay the loaves and fishes). The book's power resides in its completeness; Detz seems to have thought of everything, and that is reassuring. We [...] recommend this book to anyone who must make presentations in public, under any circumstances.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Communicating Well How to Communicate Well, July 15, 2007

By 

LEON L CZIKOWSKY (Harrisburg, Pa USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It: Ready-to-Use Advice for Presentations, Speeches, and Other Speaking Occasions, Large and Small (Paperback)

Joan Detz stresses the importance of successful communications. She recommends steps that people should consider in their communications. These considerations include determining what the other party desires to learn, avoiding providing them what they already know unless you may correct misconceptions, weighing what means others wish to receive your communication, and figuring out how your communication will be superior to anyone else's.

She recommends noting useful tips such as: people remember less from larger communications, one should avoid vague and weak opening communications, simplify boring data and make data relevant to other parties, people react better to communications that are offered with confidence, and if one forgets what they are stating to avoid trying attention to the lapse while recalling one's thoughts.