An article on public speaking and presentations by by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE
Whether you're writing or speaking, clichés will weaken your message and
cause your audience to tune out. Here are Fripp's Four Foolproof Tips for
making your point:
- You MUST use original material.
- The audience will forgive you ANYTHING but being boring.
- If someone else has already said it, say it in a completely different way.
- If it's a cliché, throw it out!
Sol Stein's advice in DIALOGUE FOR WRITERS is equally useful for
speakers:
"The majority of novels are turned down, even those written by well-educated
people, because they are cliché-ridden. And so is a lot of popular fiction
that does get published."
He says, "A cliché is a hackneyed phrase -- stale, trite, banal,
commonplace, corny, dull, musty, redundant, repetitious, tedious, threadbare,
timeworn, tired, tiresome, worn-out, boring. If you prefer to focus on just
one definition, it should be 'tired from over use.' Clichés weaken your
message, having little or no effect on the reader.
"Words have power. Words strung together in clichés have lost some or
all of their power. Clichés are a sign of a tired mind that settles for a
well-worn rut instead of climbing to exciting new heights. Your job as a
writer is to energize people, not put them to sleep."
When I was conducting a two-day speaking school in Los Angeles, a
handsome, well-spoken student gave an eloquent talk -- but it was all
rehashes of material from motivational books he had read. Everyone had heard
the messages before, over and over. No one felt any connection to the
student. Everyone was bored, yet he had lived a fascinating life that his
audience wanted to hear about. So I asked him to describe his life, starting
at the beginning. I call this the "once upon a time" technique. As he spoke,
he became excited, and his audience did too. Within his reminiscences was
fresh, stimulating original material that could become the core of his
message.
Have confidence in your own viewpoints. Tell your story on paper or on
tape. Then go back and prune out any clichés that have crept in. Replace them
with invigorating new phrases, forceful enough to make your message memorable
and your audience riveted.
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