Alan Perlman was the Director of Executive Communications at Kraft Foods, and
he wrote a book that has wonderful advice about ceremonial speaking.
He said that ceremonial speeches should interpret an event, and I'd like that.
You should explain to the audience why they're gathered there, really.
Sure, we're gathered at this fundraising kickoff because it's an event, and
that's what you do.
But what does it mean to raise money for child homelessness.
Now I see this interpretation role as relating directly to those three functions
of epideictic rhetoric that we discussed.
When we interpret an event for an audience, we're defining ideas and
creating a community through eloquent language.
But that interpretation requires a solid understanding of the occasion,
audience and topic.
Now, you might remember we discussed a rhetorical situation back in
the first course of this specialization.
If you don't remember here is a reminder.
The rhetorical situation is made up of the specific blend of opportunities and
constraints you face in a particular speech.
The topic, your credibility, the audience, occasion, so on and so forth.
A good speech is one that responds well to it's rhetorical situation.
Now for a ceremonious speech, you want to find the right fit, so
I think you should walk through your rhetorical situation.
So first off, occasion and setting.
What is it that's bringing the audience together?.
This will probably be the reason for the speech in the first place, but
pay heed to that reason.
So let's say you're introducing a speaker.
Well, introductory speech.
Your job is to provide background on the speaker, but not to talk about you.
Not to give us every little bit of the speaker's resume.
Just enough for us to understand what they're going to be talking about.
If you're giving the best man speech at a wedding,
your job is to provide a light but loving set of comments.
If you know the event's going to be a formal awards ceremony,
you know you gotta take a more serious attitude in your comments.
So you just need to think about your role in the larger event.
And I would say just as important as occasion is the audience.
Who are they and what are they expecting?
Knowing that could help.
I've misread more situations than I can count.
I've done somber eulogies where everyone was expecting something lighthearted.
I've done lighthearted,
fun introductions when a way more formal one was what was called for.
And every single time I've screwed up, every single time,
it's because I got caught up in the preparation and
the writing and I didn't spend enough time thinking about that particular audience.
And as I'm thinking about that audience,
I'm thinking about audience experience as well as expectations as important.
What is that audience going to be exposed to before I step up there?
Right, so if I'm the tenth person presenting an award I want to know that.
When you're doing an intro speech, you should always keep it short.
But when you're doing an intro speech and hour deep into like a 90 minute ceremony,
you have a moral obligation to keep it short.
People are tired, okay?
Now, in order to know this,
I'm going to ask the person who invited me to that talk.
I'm going to press them for details.
I want to know who's going to be there, what are they expecting,
how long is that ceremony going to be running.
So then finally we get to the topic.
Knowing what we know about the occasion and the audience,
what's appropriate to say on this topic.
What's going to be inspirational for that audience?
What values are relevant in this case?
And I'd say perhaps also think about what values can't be discussed.
So, for example, let's say you're presenting an award to a community member.
He's earned it, he's a great worker, but he's known for being pretty irritable.
You can't go on and on in your speech about his mild nature.
That's just off the table unless you're making a joke about it, right?
You can maybe talk about his dedication, you can talk about his focus,
those are positive spins on irritability, but you have to stick to reality.
Okay, so occasion, audience, topic, these data points, you should take
under advisement and all this reflection is just to give you information.
You're not bound by it necessarily but
they are vitally important bits of information.
And I think it's very easy to start writing without thinking about
the rhetorical situation but don't.
The speaking landscape is littered with examples of people who forgot to respond
to their rhetorical situation.
You've probably sat through some of these, right?
The best man speaker at a wedding who wanted to be funny but
ended up making everything awkward.
Or the introductory speaker who went on and on and on and wouldn't shut up.
Here's a case that I like.
The journalist,
Chris Hedges gave the commencement address at Rockford College back in 2003.
Now in his speech he spent the vast majority of his time talking about
the Iraq war, denouncing the Iraq war.
That's what was in the news.
But he said like nothing about the graduates that were sitting in front
of him.
And as a result, the speech went about as bad as it can get.
He was booed, the audience walked out.
It got so bad, they had to close the campus, they shut down the campus and
they had to escort him off.
And later in a talk had just said well, this is probably one of the factors,
that speech was one of the factors that may have cost him his job at
the New York Times.
So the speech certainly had an impact, he wasn't a boring speaker.
Now maybe he knew that the reaction was going to be bad, but
his goals to talk about the war superceded his needs
to respond to that particular audience and occasion.
And if that was his decision that's fine, okay?
It was a deliberate choice.
Stick to deliberate choices.
You should make a decision about what to do in a speech, but
only after you reflect on your rhetorical situation.
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