I highly recommend this book!

Well written and well organized. The cover and the Editorial Review are honest reviews-refreshing. Book is neatly broken down into three parts. 1. Why People Speak 2. Growing as a Speaker and 3. The Business of Speaking. Chapter 7 (Avocational Speakers) is a wonderful review on how to take the first steps toward getting known as an excellent speaker and being in demand as a speaker locally. It evaluates the process in excellent detail and lists in Appendix F Some Associations That Engage Unpaid Speakers. A particularly targeted audience of this book is how to use Toastmasters International as the jumping off point and were to find other coaching and training. Then, how to step out of that organization to further develop along the path toward considering making money from public speaking. Different than other "Get Rich Quick by Speaking" books, he does not glamorize the process to sell a book. There is no wasted time on the subject of how the rich and famous can make money speaking. The book is devoted to finding a way to profit if you simply get good at speaking. He covers why you need to be an expert on something of interest to get chances to speak. The book helps you sort through the process of finding the topics, audience and eventually get paid. One book lists the currently popular topics for paid speakers and says do one of these topics. This book encourages you to find your own topic and work toward finding the audience that will pay for it. This task is covered in considerable detail. In a prior reviews of authors sponsored by Toastmasters International the books can be a disappointment. This one is not.

Very good review of internal medicine. the questions are well-written, reflecting not only classical clinical cases but also more complex ones. It helped me to better understand the content of "Color Atlas and Text of Clinical Medicine".

I was well into the book still wanting to say: "No tell me about the BIG impact trick." Then I realized the book was full of technique and ideas from every possible angle. Scientific, artistic, graphics, lists, logic, emotion and even down to: "It's something like this." I would be amazed if there was an angle about impact that is not in this book. The book is easy to read but I will be reading it again and again. Sometimes the smallest insight opens the biggest doors. My only complaints would be that sometimes the word selection is weak or wrong and some poor sentences slipped through the process or were wrongly slipped in by an editor at the last minute. Sometimes the author is high handed with branding some techniques as losers. You will know where she stands when you read this book. I am very happy I found and read this book so early in my quest to find expert help on public speaking.

This book is an excellent source of practical and understandable information for families dealing with children with ADD. The writing style is such that parents are able to understand the information about some of the more complex issues discussed like neurofeedback. There are many other techniques for parents and families to use daily to help these children while at the same time maintianing a positive approach and building the child's self esteem. This is a book that any parent would want to include in their reading about the subject of ADD. In fact it would be a good book to choose as the first book to read on this subject. It will help to clarify much of the other information parents are offered.

The A.D.D. Book offers hope and solid practical advice, while at the same time, not describing A.D.D. Children as diseased. This book offers a view of ADD kids that gives them hope to be happy, successful adults. The interventions go way beyond the simplistic drug approach of some "experts" on ADD, including neurofeedback, a non-drug approach which can work better than drugs.

This is one of several books with a more positive slant on ADD/ADHD, with others by Thom Hartmann and Lynn Weiss also viewing ADD without the pathologization you see in writings of folks like Russell Barkley.

This very readable book is a thorough overview of how to recognize and treat attention problems. Sears of course is a prolific comentator on caring for children. Linda Thompson is respected for her work treating attention disorders, and runs the largest ADD center in Canada. Particularly useful is the Chapter describing Neurofeedback. Many families searching for help with unmanagable problems are finding this approach yealds amazing benifits. The chapter is intelligent, thorough, yet easily understood. As a provider of Neurofeedback services, I recommend this book highly to clinicians who want their patients to understand A.D.D. and Neurofeedback, and to the parents, spouses, and friends who want to help.

The book is more about how to run the business of speaking for a living than about motivating your audience. The title and editorial review are extremely misleading. If you are the verge of making good money from speaking I recommend this book. If you are a cold person and you need help faking it till you make it this book may help. If you need to be reminded that being in business for your self, you are the only one that cares about the fine, but important details this book will help. Right now I am looking for books that help improve the first few dozen speeches. This is not one of the books I would recommend but I did read it from cover to cover. Who knows somebody might pay me to speak. If so I would re-read this book.

the distillation of many years' speaking experience, this book gives you a very clear picture of how to do a motivational speech or keynote address. One of the best books on this subject I've ever read.

I found this book when looking for something above the many "basic" presentation skills books that are out there - and this book delivers.
Ralph covers the various voice qualities in detail, and the impact these qualities has on audience perception. He covers how to add more variety to your voice via rate, pitch and volume - each are covered in detail along with when to vary these for effect.
Ralph also covers how to support your voice, and then goes into the technical aspects of voice production and phonetics (via the International Phonetic Alphabet - or IPA).
The book finishes with tips on dress, movement, eye contact, external factors, health and practice. It also includes 27 exercises designed to improve your voice and overall presentation technique.
Overall this book provides much information that can help take your presentation style to the next level.

I purchased this book expecting it to cater to someone beyond University level. However, the contents clearly cater for high school level learning and therefore provided little value to me. If you are looking to strengthen your technical and analytical skills look somewhere else. If you want basic training, give it a try.

This insightful book proved worth its weight in gold. A must read for any entrepreneur looking for serious funding.

Dry and overly technical. As an aspiring lawyer and an armchair orator, I didn't find very much that I could readily apply to the nuts and bolts of my speech writing or delivery.

Great Wine makers provide pleasure to the palate, but my ears are in ecstasy thanks to Carpenter. If you are like me I did not understand antitheses, metaphors, point and counterpoint. I just enjoyed these techniques in a great speaker. Now I know how to add these great tools to my speeches and communications. This book opened up areas of speech writing I did not know existed. Having written thousands of pages of business reports I can't go back and do it over, but within hours I was applying these excellent new tools.