The Perfect Speech: An Emotional Roller Coaster
“Many of the best talks have a narrative structure that loosely follows a detective story. The speaker starts out by presenting a problem and then describes the search for a solution. There’s an ‘aha’ moment, and the audience’s perspective shifts in a meaningful way.” This advice comes from Chris Anderson , curator of the TED Conference, which since 1984 has brought scientists, innovators, and extraordinary individuals to the stage. (...) Anderson has coached countless TED speakers for their presentations and is therefore frequently asked what makes a truly great speech. One of his most important recommendations is to think of every presentation as a story and to build it around a narrative structure. But what narrative structures are there—and which ones actually work? Here is a brief overview. The Classics Many of the classic structures for speeches and presentations will be familiar to you because you have encountered them in countless talks. There is the report , in which fac...
