卡耐基演讲·三、多举实例

在鲁多夫·弗烈区的《畅达的写作艺术》一书中，有一章的第一句是：“只有故事才能真正畅达可读。”鲁多夫·弗烈区接着用《时代》杂志与《读者文摘》来作为例子。他说，在这两份雄踞畅销排行榜首位的杂志里，没有一篇文章不是纯粹的记叙，没有不慷慨大方地缀满了趣闻轶事。对于当众演讲和编写杂志而言，故事具有驾驭人注意力的力量。这一点没有人可以否认。In the Art of Readable Writing, Rudolf Flesch begins one of his chapters with this sentence:" Only stories are really readable." He then shows how this principle is used by Time and Reader's Digest.Almost every article in these top-circulation magazines either is written as pure narrative or is generously sprinkled with anecdotes. There is no denying the power of a story to hold attention in talking before groups as well as writing for magazines.

诺曼·文森·皮尔牧师的讲道，曾通过收音机和电视机被无数的人们接受。他说，在讲演中他最爱举出实例，作为支持自己论点的材料。他对《演讲季刊》的采访人说：“使用真实的例子，是我知道的最好的方法。它可以使一个观点清楚而有趣，更有说服力。通常，我总是同时使用好几个例证来证明每一个论点。”Norman Vincent Peale, whose sermons have been heard by millions on radio and television, says that his favorite form of supporting material in a talk is the illustration or example. He once told an interviewer from the Quarterly Journal of Speech that" the true example is the finest method I know of to make an idea clear, interesting, and persuasive. Usually,I use several examples to support each major point."

阅读我的书的读者，也会很快发现我同样喜欢用有趣的事情来概括总结出要点。《人性的弱点》一书中的法则，列出来只有一页半，其余的两百页里都是故事和例证，它们给人们指出使用这些法则的方法。Readers of my books are soon aware of my use of the anecdote as a means of developing the main points of my message. The rules from How to Win Friends and Influence People can be listed on one and a half pages. The other two hundred and thirty pages of the book are filled with stories and illustrations to point up how others have used these rules with wholesome effect.

那么，讲演中怎么样做才好呢？概括起来有五种方法：要人性化、个人化、翔实化、戏剧化和视觉化。How can we acquire this most important technique of using illustrative material? There are five ways of doing this: Humanize, Personalize, Specify, Dramatize, and Visualize.