Word of the Week Wednesday: phatic

This Wednesday’s Word of the Week is: phatic.

Phatic is an adjective used to refer to speech with the purpose of forming social connections of good will and friendliness as opposed to speech used primarily to share information.

I suppose, if you’re forceful enough, you could present a phatic speech that’s also emphatic.

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Special Occasion Speeches: Accepting an Award

The fifth and final project in the Special Occasion Speeches Advanced Communicator manual is: Accepting an Award.

The objective of this project is to accept an award with dignity, grace and sincerity.

I presented the speech for this project after my year as Club President.  We had earned the Select Distinguished Club award.

I accepted the award on behalf of the club.  I acknowledged the work of all the club members and especially the Club Officers.

The main criticism of my speech was that I spent a bit too much time describing the specifics of the Distinguished Club Program criteria, but otherwise, I met the criteria of grace, dignity and sincerity.

 

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Word of the Week Wednesday: omphalos

This Wednesday’s Word of the Week is: omphalos.

An omphalos is a belly-button or navel.  Figuratively, it refers to a central point of hub.

It was also the name of a stone in the temple of Apollo at Delphi which was considered to be the center of the world.

Besides being a cool-sounding word, I like the way something as humble as the belly-button has been extrapolated into the center of all things.

 

 

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Special Occasion Speeches: Presenting An Award

The fourth project in the Special Occasion Speeches Advanced Communication Manual is: Presenting An Award.

The goal of this project is to present a three to four-minute speech that presents an award with dignity and grace and acknowledges the contributions of the recipient.

For this speech, I presented the Ice Breaker ribbon to a member who had completed his first speech project.

In my speech, I congratulated the member for the courage he showed in getting up in front of the club for the first time to give a speech.  I expressed gratitude for the inspiration he provided for our other members who still had their Ice Breaker in front of them, including some who were giving their Ice Breaker presentations that day.

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Word of the Wednesday Triple Play: altiloquent/grandiloquent/magniloquent

This Wednesday’s Word of the Week is a special Triple Play in honor of my completing my last Advanced Communicator Bronze Speech.

The words are: altiloquent, grandiloquent and magniloquent.

These words each mean roughly the same thing: overblown or pompous speech.

They come from the Latin loqui- meaning speech and alti-, grandi- and magni- meaning high, great and big,  respectively.

Of course, each word is also an example of their meaning.

 

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Word of the Week Wednesday: spruik

This Wednesday’s Word of the Week is: spruik.

Spruik (pronounced sprook) is Australian slang meaning to make or give a speech, especially extensively or elaborately; to orate.

This is a perfect word for a Toastmaster: it’s descriptive. It’s unusual. And it’s fun.

I think I might need to have it as a word of the day at one of our meetings.

 

Special Occasion Speeches: The Roast

For the third speech project in the Special Occasion Speeches Advanced Communicator Manual, I was tasked to present a three to five minute roast.

The goal was to use humor and anecdotes to gently poke fun at the guest of honor of an occasion such as an anniversary banquet or farewell party.

For this project, I chose to roast a fellow member of my Toastmasters club and former work supervisor.

I picked one or two of her more salient characteristics and exaggerated the description of them for humorous effect.  I closed the speech on a positive note expressing how those very characteristics make her such a great asset to the club.

As a whole, the speech was very well-received and got a lot of laughs.  The one suggestion I received was to use more vocal variety to enhance the humor of the presentation.