Today I’m going to share a very important skill with you—doing table topics.
You may disagree that we are not speakers and we don’t need to do table topics. But think about that, how often you need to say something to express yourself and get help from others? At least once a day right?
No matter you are trying to give fashion advices to your friends or get a project, and it doesn’t matter if it sounds like a big one or a casual talk that people don’t even realize it’s a speech you’re giving. If you’re trying to tell people what you believe and put it into their brain, then it sure is a speech.
In all kinds of speeches, the most frequently-used is table topics, cause you usually don’t get the chance to prepare. A table topic is a talk you make without preparation. The sparkles of great thoughts always come from table topics. That’s the difficult and beautiful parts.
But, don’t you ever think that we can not prepare and good table topic speakers were born being great. We can always get improved if we learn and practice.
Here is a general pattern.
Answer—Reason—Example--Message
Answer. You need to give your answer to this topic so that people would know what you are going to express. And it’s a really attention grabbing opening if your answer is a unique approach.
People will listen to you in the rest of your speech. And if you give a strong message with impact. Congratulations, the listeners will follow your words no matter how good or bad you say. Because people would try to prove you wrong, and it takes close attention to judge a speaker.
Reason. After telling your answer, you need to convince your audience. So you’d better have a good reason. You can ask questions to make them think. You can also expand the topic. Sticking on to the topic itself can be narrow. And this would work best if your can add a little humor.
Example. The best way of giving a reason is making a vivid example. Here’s where you can tell your stories. People are curious about other people’s stories, that human beings nature feature which was written in the gene. And you know your stories better than anyone else so that no one can question you. If you’re so bored that you don’t have any funny story, tell your father’s stories. If your families are so bored then tell stories of your friends. Or you can make up your own stories by graft and transplant. I got this friend of mine who writes thousands of funny stories of her lives which in fact none of them are 100% real. They are not completely made up and that’s the smart part.
Message. At the end of your story, highlight your opinion again. Your opinion is so important, it’s the massage you want to tell people, it’s what you make a table topic for. So, you need to be very careful and appreciate this part. If you give a good and positive message, you are a optimistic person and a negative one conversely.
Follow these four steps, you will make fair table topic, and I believe you will make it excellent if you try more times.