Google Alerts for Speech Research

Here’s a quick way to research your speech topic – use Google Alerts. While most people will use the Google Search engine when working on a speech, most of that information is old. It could be years old, months old or at least weeks old. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get the very latest, hot off the press, what’s happening now news! Well you can if you use Google alerts. First, if you haven’t already setup an account with Google, you do have a Gmail account don’t you? Then just go the Google Alerts site and enter in the terms you want to search for on a once a day, as it happens, or once a week. Now the alerts will come to you email address automatically and your speech will almost write itself – NOT. At least now you’ll have some up to date information and stories you can use to backup your main speech topic. Give it a try. It’s FREE.

KISS – Speaking and Health Care Reform

Keep It Simple Stupid

Winston Churchill has a great quote which most speakers and politicians need to remember.

“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.”

Most speakers and politicians ramble and try to cover too many points in their speech or bills in Congress.

The recent Health Care Reform bill (text), according to my word processor has 454 pages and 170,000 words. That is one long and complicated bill.

Here’s one small paragraph:

“Parity in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorder Benefits- To the extent such provisions are not superceded by or inconsistent with subtitle C, the provisions of section 2705 (other than subsections (a)(1), (a)(2), and (c)) of section 2705 of the Public Health Service Act shall apply to a qualified health benefits plan, regardless of whether it is offered in the individual or group market, in the same manner as such provisions apply to health insurance coverage offered in the large group market.”

Possibly a combination “Doctor of Philosophy and Logic and Lawyer” combined might be able to figure out what this one small paragraph is trying to say, but I can’t.

I also read one page and it took about three minutes. 454 pages x 3 minutes = 1362 minutes . Divided by 60 = 22.7 hours. So if you read eight hours a day for 3 days you could read the entire bill.

Most people have trouble remembering 10% of a ten minute speech. How much are they going to remember of a 22.7 hour presentation?

To congress and speakers remember the KISS principle.

Keep It Simple Stupid.