UWP 001

Zifeng Li

Literacy Narrative

Speak a key out

In my high school, it had been a common scene that at every morning, students stood

on the playground row by row like a bunch of soldiers but with low spirit, yawning and

looking at the ground. We all stood there, while listening to the man on the high iron

platform in front of us. That man always stared at his draft and just poured out the words

to us like a speaking dummy modal. We, at least myself and everyone around me, didnt

really care or want to care about what he was saying. We just listened to him passively and

had no memory of any of the words when we headed back to our classroom. I knew the

material was about us, like how to get a better grade, how to have a better life or whatever,

but those words were missing something. They were missing a key to our willingness to

pay attention, to listen actively with our mind, which made this speech a mandatory 20-

minute waste of our time every day.

Although I was sick of attending such an activity, when I, as a member of the student

union, got the privilege to be that man on that high platform to give a speech, I,

surprisingly, was looking forward to have such an opportunity to express myself to

hundreds of my classmates. My given topic is about why we should always have good

courtesy. This was the first time for me to write a formal speech for so many audiences, so
I wanted to make my speech impressive and perfect. I spent a lot of time looking up for

examples of how good curtesy makes people successful and many advises on how to

maintain good courtesy. When I started to write the speech draft, I used as many writing

techniques I had learned as possible, from using the proper and logical article structure to

focusing on the main idea to scrutinizing every word choice to make them fluent and

accurate.

I thought if I had used all my knowledge from my writing class and put enough effort

into writing this speech, I could be different from the man I used to listen to and I could

make my classmates to pay attention. But the truth is, while I was reading my draft standing

at the high iron platform, I felt I was the same man doing the same thing as before: letting

all the student standing on the playground, yawning and being bored. I became the man

that they were passively listening to and sick of.

This was the moment when I realized that what Im doing was not giving a speech, but

simply reading one of my essays to a bunch of students who still had a whole days classes

to passively listen to. My audience was not teacher who would carefully analyze my

structure or my word choice and then give me a grade. What they were seeking were some

connections and a moment of sympathetic chord with my words and this was what I had

missed. I even didnt make any eye contact to my audiences. Instead, I was just looking at

my draft, focusing on my own perfect piece of writing, and also building a wall between

this high iron platform and another world beneath it, just like every other man standing
here.

After this experience, I realized that a formula doesnt exist for appealing to an

audience. This prompted me to seek the essences to this art of speak. I then started to watch

speech videos and TED talks. I found that a good speechmaker always makes speeches a

mutual communication. By using eye contact, body language, and change of tone,

professionals can always make the audience feel that this is a conversation they are

involved and let this be the beginning of making connections. Besides, the professionals

are all convincing in a certain way. The key is, let the audiences have a sympathetic chord

by writing the words serving for their feelings. If I want them to embrace my idea and do

what I want them to do, my words should firstly give them what they would agree on and

most importantly, what they want and need to hear. Then I can use this as an access point

into their mind, like a key slipping into a lock.

I then proved my theory. My next speaking opportunity came when I represented my

class to give a speech in an election of an honorary title (a title that shows this whole class

is excellent at every aspect). Normally, the candidates would step to the front of a big

meeting room in our school, reading a list of all the other honorary titles or awards their

class had won before and stated this is why we deserve this tile too and please vote for

us. Listening to the long and boring items and expecting nothing more, the voters would

just follow their heart and write two classes number without further thinking. (That was

what I did when I was a voter). But this time, I changed the pattern. While I was writing
my speech, I didnt mention any of those past awards because I know they were tired of

hearing that, and I cant bore them too. Instead, my words were all about my own devotion

and faithfulness to my class, and I also asked them to recall their first time coming into the

school and how their own classmates and teachers had transformed every one of them into

a better person. I said, This is what I would call an excellent class and you should all vote

for your own class. During the speech, I recited all of my words without the draft, looked

at all the students the whole time and was also receiving the signal they transmitted to

change the tone of my speaking like this was a conversation. After the speech, the majority

of the voters did listen to me and vote for their own classes and guess which candidate they

all put into their second blank of their votes.

Except for the obtaining the knowledge, learning how to give a speech and having the

opportunity to practice and explore it myself was the second best thing Ive ever

experienced in my high school. I learnt the most delicate secret of giving a successful

speech is to give my audience what they want first. I have to win their attention by making

this connection and thinking on their behalf. This is a threshold of communicating by

speaking because it is either they follow my thoughts and totally accept my every idea or

none of my words are ever counted and remembered at all. If I can open that lock of their

mind by giving what they want, then I can plant anything I want in their heads.