Effective Presentation Skills

Certainly there are occasions--among them, the opening of Congress, the presentation of a sore question before a deliberative body, or a historical commemoration--when it may seem not alone to the "orator" but to all those interested that the chief thing is to express certain thoughts in precise language--in language that _must_ not be either misunderstood or misquoted. At such times oratory is unhappily elbowed to a back bench, the manuscript is solemnly withdrawn from the capacious inner pocket of the new frock coat, and everyone settles himself resignedly, with only a feeble flicker of hope that the so-called speech may not be as long as it is thick. The words may be golden, but the hearers' (?) eyes are prone to be leaden, and in about one instance out of a hundred does the perpetrator really deliver an impressive address. His excuse is his apology--he is not to be blamed, as a rule, for someone decreed that it would be dangerous to cut loose from manuscript moorings and take his audience with him on a really delightful sail.