On Delivering an Inspiring Speech

From the very beginning of my public speaking journey, audiences would often tell me, “I was truly moved by your speech,” or “Your speeches easily draw people in and resonate emotionally.” At that time, I realized my speeches did have a certain inspiring power. It felt like an innate talent, but I had never thought deeply about the underlying reasons and details behind it.

This changed recently when a friend and I were discussing a specific question:

I thought this was a brilliant question. As I reflected on it, I realized that the essence lies in my deep capacity to perceive the emotions embedded within words. What does this mean? Let me break it down into two points:

1. The ability to infuse your own emotions into the text. Some people write with strong logic but weak emotional depth. In other words, if you aren’t moved by your own words when writing the script, how can you expect to move anyone else? So, the first step is having rich emotions yourself and the ability to pour them into your writing.

By the way, since starting my PhD in computer engineering, I have often realized that highly rational disciplines like math and computer-related major can easily push you into a state of extreme rationality. Over time, you can become emotionally detached and lose a part of your sensitivity. Because of this, I deliberately maintain hobbies that preserve my emotional depth. For example, I periodically play emotional role-playing games (like Jubensha/script murder games), which allow me to experience other people’s lives through reading and have a good cry. I also like using the app “Hitokoto” (Yiyan) to read short, expressive texts written by others. These practices help me maintain my sensitivity to the emotions in words.

Overall, successfully feeling and expressing the emotions within the text is my absolute first principle for public speaking.

2. The ability to express the emotions from the text. We just talked about putting emotions into the text; the next step is delivering those emotions to the audience.

This is the part I believe can be acquired through practice. For instance, doing lots of speeches to relax on stage, learning body language, mastering tone control, or practicing vocal techniques to find better resonance and make your voice sound fuller. These are things most people can learn and actively do.

Mastering this second point makes you a highly qualified speaker. However, the dividing line between a qualified speaker and a truly inspiring one brings me back to my first principle: the innate ability to perceive and convey the emotions within the text.

These are my thoughts on public speaking from the perspective of an academic. I am sure those who study speech and performance professionally would have different, specialized perspectives!