The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking

This book along with every other speaking book drives home the point that there is no such thing as a good impromptu talk unless you were very lucky. In reality you work on subjects and material with a plan to use it at some future time. When you are speaking there are many things to watch. If you speak impromptu on a new subject some thing is going to suffer.

Introducing a speaker or presenting an award seems to stimulate reckless behavior much like the cutting desire to hurt people of newscasters. This book explains why this behavior is so short sighted.

Having read a Dale Carnegie book decades ago, I put off reading this book for fear it would be full of positive thinking dribble. This book is completely straight forward in style. It is in textbook format, but it is extremely easy too read. The examples of actual students and successful speakers get a little shallow sometimes. The outstanding thumbnail review of each part of the book is very helpful. I have read 21 books on public speaking. Right now this book is my leading candidate for someone that is only interested in reading one book on public speaking. It just happens to be a very low price.


He gets to the root of the matter.   October 27, 1999
49 out of 50 found this review helpful

I've been a member of Toastmasters Clubs and been trained in all the "fundamentals of speaking" but I'll tell you something: Carnegie's three fundamental principles are all you need. He's the only speaking teacher I've ever read who points out that all the superficial effects, like your voice quality and your gestures and whether you say UM or not, these aren't important. What really matters is that you're speaking about something you really believe and really want to say to this group, and something that you REALLY know, either from experience or intense study.

If you only speak on those topics, all the superficial stuff works out. You communicate. And you'll feel comfortable doing it. Carnegie's three fundamentals are the most important you'll ever encounter on speaking.

I'm the author of the book, Self-Help Stuff That Works, and I'm an expert on the subject, and I'm telling you if you want to help yourself to better speaking skills, study and practice the principles in this book and forget the superficials.


The Most Helpful Book in Public Speaking   July 13, 2000
33 out of 35 found this review helpful

Before I joined Toastmaster International about year ago, I always wanted to speak better in public. Now I am a member of Toastmasters Club, I find this book very helpful whenever I give speeches at our meetings.

The nice thing about this book is that it is full of practical and proven techniques and fundermentals of communicantion and speaking. No elaborate theories, just plain simple but extremely effective ways of preparing talks, short or long, what audience likes to hear about, how to give attention getting openings and closings in your speeches among others.

All these ideas I put them to work right away in every speech. How many times can you read something and use it on the same day?

I strongly recommend this book to everyone not just for public speaking, but for daily interaction between people, jobs and social occasions.


A classic on speaking well in public   June 13, 1999
25 out of 27 found this review helpful

I read this book back in 1972 and it had been around for many years then. It is simply the finest single book I've read on public speaking, and for several years I made my living on the platform. I've suggested it to many people over the years and have never heard anything but compliments.

Someone wrote a negative and mean spirited review of this book, even suggesting it was written by someone else after Mr. Carnegie passed away. What garbage. To give himself creditability he indicated he was a college professor. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't but I also teach at a university and I felt compelled to write this.

Despite what this person says, Dale Carnegie's book on speaking has been in print for many years and sold copies in the millions. This is what I'd call surviving the test of time. The public, by deciding where to spend their money really determines the worth of this book.

If anyone is serious about learning to speak in public, I can't think of a better book to suggest.


The best book I've read on public speaking   May 16, 2000
John Wyatt (USA)
21 out of 23 found this review helpful

As a member of Toastmasters I have access to a wide variety of materials and seminars on public speaking. However, this one book covered more material in less space and in easier terms than all the seminars I've attended. His style is not that of a college textbook - if it were I wouldn't have read it. His style is straight from the hip. I consider this book to be my textbook, with Toastmasters providing the chance to practice what I've read. This book has done more to improve my speeches than the formal Toastmaster's evaluations.