Since Dale Carnegie wrote The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking, other teachers have taken his lead in the school of public speaking.
With online tutorials, and a Toastmaster’s club around every corner, improving your communication skills today is as easy as, well, A-B-C.
I thought I’d let Carnegie’s wife, Dorothy, finish this final column. Her words, like Carnegie’s formulas, are as apt and predictive today as his methods are.
In 1992, in an introduction to his book after his death, she wrote Carnegie’s basic philosophy is “effective public speakingÉ is the revealing expression of a human personality.”
She went on to explain, “It is through speech that we assert our distinctivenessÉ it is through the quality of our speech that we best express our own individuality, our essence. When we are unable to say clearly what we mean our personality is blocked off, dimmed out and misunderstood. And now, as never before, in an atmosphere of international tensions, fears, and insecurities, we need the channels of communication among peoples kept open.”