卡耐基演講·一、將題材限制在一定的范圍內(nèi)

選好演講的題目，下一步就要確定該題目所包含的范圍，并且做到不越雷池半步?？蓜e妄想去講一個包容萬千的話題，那真是徒勞而無益的事情。有一個年輕人想講兩分鐘，可是定了一個題目《公元前500年的雅典戰(zhàn)爭》，這簡直就是癡人說夢話。他才講完雅典城的建造，時間就到了。他想在一場談話中包含太多的東西，最終只能以演講失敗而告終。當然這是個極端的例子。我曾聽過許多講演，都因為范圍不確定，結(jié)果因同樣的原因——涵蓋太多的內(nèi)容和論點，從而無法抓住聽眾的注意力。為什么會這樣呢？因為人的注意力不可能一直跟隨一連串單調(diào)的事實。如果你的講演聽起來像是世界年鑒，你就根本無法抓住聽眾的注意力很久。選個簡單的題目，例如《黃石公園之旅》之類的，那么多數(shù)講演者都會十分熱心的，對于園中每個景色都想說上一些，不肯遺漏半點東西。這樣聽眾就會被帶著，漫天遍地，由這一點奔至另一點。最后，能夠記住的，只是些模糊的瀑布、山嶺和噴泉。如果講演者把自己限定在公園的某一方面，例如野生動物或是溫泉，這場演講該會變得多么令人難以忘懷啊！這樣，在演講中便可以有時間描繪生動的細節(jié)，使得黃石公園以鮮明的顏色與無窮的變化栩栩如生地展現(xiàn)于聽眾的眼前。Once you have selected your topic, the first step is to stake out the area you want to cover and stay strictly within those limits. Don't make the mistake of trying to cover the open range. One young man attempted to speak for two minutes on the subject of "Athens from 500 B.C. to the Korean War." How utterly futile! He barely had gone beyond the founding of the city before he had to sit down, another victim of the compulsion to cover too much in one talk. This is an extreme example, I know; I have heard thousands of talks,less encompassing in scope, that failed to hold attention for the same reason-they covered far too many points. Why? Because it is impossible for the mind to attend to a monotonous series of factual points. If your talk sounds like the World Almanac you will not be able to hold attention very long. Take a simple subject, like "A Trip to Yellowstone Park." In their eagerness to leave nothing out, most people have something to say about every scenic view in the Park. The audience is whisked from one point to another with dizzying speed. At the end, all that remains in the. mind is a blur of waterfalls, mountains,and geysers.How much more memorable such a talk would be if the speaker limited himself to one aspect of the Park, the wildlife or the hot springs, for example. Then there would be time to develop the kind of pictorial detail that would make Yellowstone Park come alive in all its vivid color and variety.

這個道理用于任何題目都準，不管它講的是銷售術(shù)、烤蛋糕、減免稅賦或者是飛彈。開始之前，先加以限制和選擇，把題目縮小至某一個范圍內(nèi)，以便適合自己講演的時間。This is true of any subject, whether it be salesmanship, baking cakes, tax exemptions, or ballistic missiles. You must limit and select before you begin, narrow your subject down to an area that will fit the time at your disposal.

在短短的不超過五分鐘的講演里，只能期望說明一兩點而已。就算30分鐘的講演中，演講者若是想包含四或四個以上的主要概念，也是很少能夠成功的。In a short talk, less than five minutes in duration, all you can expect is to get one or two main points across. In a longer talk, up to thirty minutes, few speakers ever succeed if they try to cover more than four or five main ideas.