Quora Answer: Does Watching Good Speakers Present Help You become a Better Speaker ?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Does watching good speakers present help you become a better speaker?”

When you watch a good speaker, it inspires you to strive for that.  You may copy elements of his speech, his rhetorical style.  You may imitate his mannerisms, his pitching, even dress like him.  That may help you take small steps towards becoming a better speaker.  But it will not make you a good speaker, if that is the only thing you do.  In the same vein, watching someone cook a dish, without knowing the ingredients and the process is not going to teach you how to cook it.  You only know what it is supposed to look like when done, but you will not know how to get there.

If you want to be a good speaker, you need someone to teach you how to break down a good speech into its ingredients, and explain to you what makes it good.  You need someone to explain to you the concept of pauses, the use of specific rhetorical devices, the deployment of vocal variety and movement, and even the choice of words and the length of the sentences in a speech.  And then, you need to practice these elements, first separately, and then put it together in a speech, and practice it again, and again, and again, until it comes naturally.  That is how you become a good speaker.