These are some books that may contain useful material on public speaking. They really aren't comprehensive or even representative, they are just entries that occurred to me to record.
| GENERAL | |
| TMI | The first place to start if you are a Toastmasters member. High quality, low price. |
| Dale Carnegie | Dale Carnegie courses are much more expensive than Toastmasters but the books are good. I once calculated that the cost of a Dale Carnegie course would pay my Toastmaster's membership fees for the next 30 years. |
| Samples of Great Speeches | |
| Project Gutenberg |
Many of the great writings of the world, free online. Want to read what Mark Twain wrote? Want to read "Mark Twain's Speeches"? Or his Want to read that moving work by Goethe Sorrows of Young Werther (in translation) but don't want to pay for it? Need to quote Shakespeare? Richard Lovelace? Leo Tolstoy? |
| The World's Great Speeches edited by Copeland and Lamm, published by Dover, ISBN 0-486-20468-5 | The text of great speeches. A useful source of quotes and examples. |
| Bartlett's Familiar Quotations | Organized by topic, indexed by author. Great way to find a pithy quote to illustrate a point. |
| Technical Support | |
| UPI Stylebook | A style book is what a writer who works for an organization uses to work in the format of that organization. In this case writers for UPI use the UPI style book. It includes information on consistent capitalization, punctuation, word usage, etc. This is a convenient reference on English usage. |
| AP Style book | The Style book prepared for people working for the AP Wire service. Every major news service has their own style book. Find a service you like the style of and go to a book store for their stylebook.
Interesting story: Judy Boynton, Charter member of Cheshire Toastmasters and professional writer, first mentioned using a stylebook to me. She said she used the AP stylebook. I went to the book store and the UPI Stylebook was a buck cheaper so I bought it. I still wonder what would have happened to my writing if I'd bought the AP version instead... |
| Business | |
| Say it in Six by Ron Hoff | Mr. Hoff starts by arguing that TOO much time is lost in unproductive meetings because people don't come to the point and get things said. He feels any argument can be made in 6 minutes. This choice of number interests me: in Toastmasters most of our speeches are 5-7 minutes long. His time is right in the middle of our span. Is this an example of convergence or did he learn it from Toastmasters? |
| How to Run a Successful Meeting in Half the Time by Milo O. Frank | How to efficiently run a meeting. When to run a meeting and when not to. What makes a meeting effective as well as swift. |
| How to get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less by Milo O. Frank | How to get your point across before anyone can let their attention wander. |
| Humor | |
| I'll Be Sober in the Morning: Great political comebacks, putdowns and ripostes, edited by Chris Lamb ISBN 978-0-9723829-4-6 | Political humor that is not controversial since it dates back through history. The title is the retort from a Churchill joke. |
| The Best of Good Clean Jokes by Bob Phillips ISBN 0890817693 | Finding jokes suitable for a wide audience can be challenging. This book advertises itself as clean jokes. |
| A Prairie Home Companion Pretty Good Joke Book ISBN 1-56511-979-7 | Another collection of clean jokes |
| Comedy Writing Secrets by Melvin Helitzer ISBN 0898795109 | How to write comedy |
| What to say when...You're Dying on the Platform by Lilly Walters ISBN 007068039-6 | How to handle things going wrong. |
| Parliamentary Procedure | |
| Robert's Rules of Order (Newly Revised, 10th edition), by Henry M. Robert III, Harper Collins Publ. Nov 2004 | The definitive statement on parliamentary procedure for organizations in America. This is much more accessible than you'd think. |
| Site of Certified Professional Parliamentarian Jim Slaughter | One of many sites on parliamentary procedure. This one recommended by Joe Zafian during his TLI presentation on the Presiding Officer. |
| Toasting | |
| Toasts by Paul Dickson | A good sample of some simple toasts. |
| Using Technical Presentations Tools like PowerPoint | |
| Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds ISBN 0-321-52565-5 | How to properly use Power Point effectively. (Note I hate power point presentations, so do a lot of experts cited in the introduction. But according to the author it's not PowerPoint's fault, it's how it's used. Garr shows how to make simple, fast moving, un-boring power point presentations. |
| Presenting a Speech / Acting skills | |
| Taking Center Stage: Mastering Public Speaking using Acting Skills You Never Knew You Had by Deb Gottesman and Buzz Mauro | How to get in front of an audience, how to get comfortable, etc. |
| Acting techniques for Everyday Life by Jane Marla Robbins | Look and Feel confident in Real life using techniques developed by actors |
| Writing Not exactly writing of Speeches but still useful | |
| Sometimes the Magic Works by Terry Brooks ISBN 0-345-45828-1 | General advice on writing, particularly fantasy fiction market. He summarizes writing as: Read, Read, Read, Outline, Outline, Outline, Write, Write, Write, Repeat. Which pretty much sums up any area of endeavor. |