5. We bring our characters to life through some of the verbs we use.
Fred casually sauntered into the boss’s office VS Fred rushed breathless into the boss’s office. Please note I am taking a lesson from the brilliant Mark Brown who taught us in a recent EDGE lesson about the importance of adjectives and adverbs.

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Public Speaking: Nervousness is good!
If you’re nervous when you get up to speak, good! It’s the price you pay for being a race horse instead of a cow. As long as you’ve done your homework, nervousness gives you nothing to worry about and much to be grateful for. When you rehearse and you prepare, nerves are evidence that you care. They give you energy to spare, and help you fill the air with your passion and your flair.

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Montaigne (1533 –1592), a wise and entertaining Frenchman, wrote this as he contemplated the education of children. As we contemplate our education as speakers, let’s follow his advice. The disciplined forms of argument can make us rich, powerful, and persuasive.

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Surprise guest Bill Clinton said, “Ed Bradley was a brilliant, insatiable, curious traveler on a relentless quest to get to the bottom of things. He was like the great jazz musicians he so admired. He always played in the key of reason. His songs were full of the notes of facts; but he knew to make the most of music you have to improvise. We’ll never forget what his solos were: the disarming smile; the disconcerting stare; the highly uncomfortable stretches of silence, the deceptively dangerous questions, and the questions that would be revealing, no matter what your answer was. Watching him was mesmerizing — because you knew you were watching a master at work.”

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