Customer Reviews

Toasts and Forms of Public Address for Those Who Wish to Say the Right Thing in the Right Way (Large Print Edition)

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This is a free Amazon book that is well-worth reading because it fulfills its purpose. It offers good advice on how to speak well. It is written in an easy to read fashion, with many examples and anecdotes. It examines introductory dinner speeches, the value of a good story and how to use it, after dinner speeches, including how it and toasts started, how to make effective toasts, responding to toasts, and holiday speeches, among others. He offers advice, such as how to handle a situation where a person planned a speech, is scheduled to give it after another person, and that person delivers a speech that is far better than what he can give. The author assures his readers that even accomplished speakers will gain from his ideas.

The author, for example, tells how ancient barons would have many people at his feast. They would eat and drink and, then, go into another room and sleep off the food and alcohol. When they awoke, they returned to the dining hall for more drinking. The problem was what to do next. They didn't have TV, so they developed the practice of the after-dinner speech where one or more of the diners would get up and entertain the group. If they ran out of speakers they would have someone offer a long toast. Thus the original purpose of the after-dinner speech and toast was to fill time and entertain. Today, most people feel that the purpose of the speech is to inform the listeners and they think that the shorter the after-dinner speech the better it is.