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District: 41

Feb/2014 – Vol 8

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

1 Editorial – Page 2

2 District GovernorsMessage- Page 3

3 Interview - AvinashAgarwal, CC, CL – Page 6

4 Interview - Shalini Sharma- Page 8

5 The Quotations approachto Evaluations - Page 11

6 Toastmasters in USA -Page 12

7 Enrich your writing skill -Page 17

8 Learn the art of TechnicalCommunications - Page 19

9 Contributors – Page 22

TOASTMASTERS INTERNATIONAL

NEWSLETTER

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Umesh Agashe, CC, ALBEditor–Newsletter,2013-14Toastmasters InternationalDistrict 41

If you would like tocontribute in e –Newsletter, or havesuggestions forimprovements, pleaseprovide your insights, emailyour views, feedback,suggestions at

agashe.umesh@gmail.com

Editorial

Umesh Agashe, CC, ALBEveryone has a story to tell, and especially in Toastmasters, we all have ourown interesting stories. As the contest season is approaching, most of us areworking hard on writing that ultimate script for the International SpeechContest. Some of us are also devising ways to evaluate in the best possibleway. Contest is the fastest way to reach the next level, to learn more and toexperience more.

We are happy to present (re-print) interviews of last year’s Districtchampions in International Speech Contest, & Speech Evaluations Contest.We are sure that these interviews of winners will inspire you to broadenyour imagination, and dream big.

Regarding dreaming big, can you imagine, one of our very ownToastmasters, Ramakrishna Reddy V N, reached the district level in theInternational Speech Contest in USA? Read his experience of participatingand winning in a country not his own.

You might have attended some training programs on speech evaluations orthought about strategies to present winning speech evaluations.Chandrashekar D P from Hyderabad has presented many approaches tospeech evaluations in the form of quotes. Read his ‘The QuotationsApproach to Evaluations’ to quickly understanding 9 approaches forpresenting fabulous speech evaluations.

So many of us find it difficult to think about topics for the speech, andactually write down the speech, but as we complete projects inToastmasters, we gradually enhance our writing skills. If you too find itdifficult to write, learn how you can gradually enrich your writing skills inToastmasters. Read an article by Jahnavi C, who has recently published herfirst book, you can get ebook version on amazon, please click on name ofthe book to know more about it Ctrl+Alt+Del “Transform your problems intoaccomplishments”.

Irrespective of our profession we are surrounded by technology in our day today life. In the digital world, communicating technical information is animportant skill. We talked to veteran Toastmasters Anuraag Awasthi. Learnfrom his interview how one can acquire skills of technical communications inToastmasters.

All the best for contest season.

Keep communicatingUmesh Agashe, CC, ALBEditor, Newsletter, District-41

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Prasad Sovani, DTM,District Governor 2013-14,District 41, ToastmastersInternational.

He is a communicationevangelist. By professionhe is a corporate trainerand has successfullytrained many students totheir satisfaction in India,Singapore, and Brazil.

You may write to him atprasad.sovani@gmail.com

Dear friends,

I recently visited Doha, Qatar at the invitation of the District 20 Governor, inorder to train their District Officers. While I enjoyed the legendary ArabianHospitality, I took notes on how things are different there.

Qatar is part of District 20 which has 8 countries. Qatar has one divisionwith 45 clubs and 8 areas. When I asked them why they had so many clubs,they said it made the job easier to manage less district officers and 5-6clubs per area was manageable anyway. I realized that most districts in theworld have a larger number of clubs per area and larger number of areasper division and probably that's why their budget is never challenged! Canwe replicate that? I wonder…

My training program was held in a 5 star hotel that hosted 165 people. (Thiswas a public performance, which was supposed to raise funds for them.Looking at what they spent on me, I doubt if they raised a substantialamount.

Their system is as follows: 8 AGs (Area Governors) are put into pairs andone pair gets to plan one event. In this way, they plan 8 events in the year,with each AG taking joint responsibility to plan two events. Besides mypublic performance training, they had also arranged my talks at a sponsor'svenue on some topics relevant to corporate training and another at ICAI,Doha Chapter, since the members are influential when it comes tosponsorship from their companies. {ICAI=Institute of Chartered Accountantsof India}. They raised and hope to raise good amounts for their divisionconference as well as the District Conference.

Their division conference is attended by 700 people and the budget is morethan 35-40 Lakhs. The budget for their district conference runs into crores.They do not reimburse anyone for the annual conference yet people spendan amount equivalent to Rs 40-50 thousand per head per conference. Theevents are usually in 5 star hotels or larger auditoria and all turn up in suits.The gifts given to me were superb too and I can send photos to you all.

The club meetings too have formal dress code (suits) and due to that theIndian embassy loves this group and invites them for all functions whensenior officers visit. The Indian Ambassador and 3 embassy officials weremembers of TMC at one time. When the Indian PM (Prime Minister) visitsDoha, these TMs are invited for the functions held in honor of the PM. Themedia loves these guys and covers all their major events.

They had hosted me in a big hotel, but I was worried about their spendingand requested to shift to someone's home and that way got to know moreabout the people there. I was privileged to be hosted by PDG, PRA SunnyVerghese who has been in Doha for over 38 years. He has a photo withsome Prime Ministers of India when they visited Doha. He was recentlyinterviewed for being one of the top 50 influential persons in that country.

Each Indian Ambassador visits Sunny and in fact when the Ambassadoraddresses the Indian community elsewhere, he strongly recommendsToastmasters to them.

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By the way, the population of Qatar is 18 Lakh, of which Qataris nationals are only 3 Lakh while thepopulation of Indians is around 11-12 Lakh. So most of the clubs are full of Indians and majority of themembership is ethnic Indian. The things they do are easily possible for us to duplicate as well.

Let us see what we can learn from them and what can be easily practiced here to elevate the status ofToastmasters in India:

1. Dress code and its importance in elevating the status of Toastmasters. I believe there are 3-4 clubsin our district which enforce strict dress code. My club even has a fine for violation. Can all theclubs try to move in this direction? That will elevate our status as well as boost confidence of ourspeakers. I remember my first CC in Singapore (Called CTM), when my mentor insisted that Ideliver each prepared speech in a suit. The weather used to be hot and humid, yet I used to carrymy suit in a bag to the meeting place. That boosted my confidence and I quickly got rid of anynervousness. I still love to wear suits to my club meetings. These days, the opportunities to wear asuit are reducing and TMC can be a good excuse to wear one!

2. Meetings starting AND ending on time. While many clubs start meetings on time, (mine chargesfine for the late comers- , we do not still have professionalism in ending on time and running eachsegment as per allocated time. We don't stop guests from entering later in the meeting as well, aslong as they wait till the speech gets over. My home club has decided to raise the bar and end themeeting on time. The meeting can easily be run by the minute-to-minute agenda and bar latecomers. Meaning, guests who come between 4.55 and 5.55 will be allowed entry only during thebreak at 6 pm and those who come later than 5.55 will not be allowed to attend at all. They canjoin for fellowship later on!

3. Number of clubs per area / division. We have to change this as the current system forces us tospend a lot on travel. If we have fewer areas and divisions, we will reduce travel budget as well ashave more budget for club support. Plus we will save time and other resources involved in runningthe semi-finals.

4. They have Assistant Division Governor E & T who coordinated with me entirely and I met theDivision Governor only when I went to the venue. Each Area and Division has council whichfunctions, Area & Division work like district. (Assistant Division Governor E & T, Assistant DivisionGovernor Marketing etc, Area Secretary, Area PRO etc) All these guys work!

5. Events are mega large! They once invited 3 World Champions in Public Speaking in one Districtconference and that was possible due to sponsorship. Even for my session, they got sponsorshipsfrom 2 companies. Their district conference committees do not ask for any subsidy and raise all themoney within their own divisions. The registration amount of their May conference is 200 $, but thereal cost per head is 1000 $. The other 800 $ comes from sponsorship within the city ofconference. The Division conferences are large (700+ attending, running over 2 days) since theyare in seven different countries.

6. Moving back to Qatar, they have indeed made TM a good brand name there. Even school kids knowabout it thro' Gavel's club. My neighbour on the flight knew about it since he was a championspeaker in Gavel clubs many years ago. I met my college friend in a non-TM setting, whose sondid not know about Gavel, but when I explained, he said, "Oh Toastmasters!"

By the way, let me add one more case study. I too believed at one time that we should not waste moremoney on rent of venue etc. My Rotary club used to meet in a humble venue costing 10000 Rs per 52meetings in a year. I had a brain storming session with someone who was an advisor to Symbiosis and headvised me on how to elevate status of my Rotary club. We moved to a luxurious venue with rent of60000 Rs directly and we got a donor who donated Rs 18 Lakh for a project instantly. He had visited ourhumbler venue earlier & declined to help. But with the new venue, he got confidence in our abilities. Ourmembership grew 3-fold that year. (In that year, my Rotary club implemented projects of value greaterthan cumulative value of projects in the first 7 years of its existence). Now, we regularly get such donors!

Can we learn from these members who have the same genes as us? Can we move in the direction ofbetter punctuality, better dress code, better PR, better venues and better commitments for events? Please

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respond with your comments and the challenges that you foresee. Feel free to share your feelings andplease respond even if you do not agree with the above thoughts.

I am sure we can! I had a meeting of TM club leaders from Pune after coming back, in which I asked themwhether they are ready for it and astonishingly, ALL of them said they want to elevate the status of theirclubs like this and the club committees are thinking of how to implement this.

They may start with a step-by-step approach. For example, the punctuality of minute to minute agendawas followed immediately. The step of stopping members who come late can be implemented afterannouncing about it for over a month. The dress code can be implemented on a trial basis for firstmeeting of each month for now and then increased later.

We are also starting with a fine of Re.1 for Ah counts, but this will be only for those who wish to becounted after completing their Competent Communicator (CC) at least. The club has fines of Rs. 30 eachfor violation of dress code, punctuality and phones and that has elevated the status already. The definitionof dress code is formal wear (suits for gentlemen). Fine for punctuality will become from 4.30 pm formeeting starting at 5 pm and then "No Entry" when the meeting starts.

Can other clubs join in this effort to have an elevated status for TM in India? If we can do that, we will getlot of funds for sponsorship. We will get requests for membership from Who’s Who in the country and oneday, we all will become—Who’s Who in the country!

May all of us be featured on the cover of TIME magazine!

-Prasad Sovani,District 41 Governor, 2013-14

Prasad Sovani at ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) Doha Chapter

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An interview with thewinner of the District 41International SpeechContest held in Hyderabadon 18th May 2013. AvinashAgarwal presented aspeech titled “Burn YourBoats”.

He has completed hisBachelor of BusinessManagement, followed bya PG Diploma in Marketing& AdvertisingCommunication from St.Xavier’s, Mumbai. He hasworked as a Copywriterand Conceptualizer (forExperiential Marketing andBranding Campaigns)

We wish him all the bestfor the final round ofInternational SpeechContest. You can sendyour comments toavi.794@gmail.com

District 41 - International Speech Champion

Avinash Agarwal, CC, CL

Q: Please tell us in brief about yourself. How and when did you joinToastmasters?A: I joined Toastmasters in Bangalore back in 2006, during my college days(it was a part of our regular curriculum) Though it's been 7 years, I did takea couple of year-long breaks in between. But that's the best part aboutToastmasters, isn't it? The community always welcomes you back with openarms, no matter which part of the world you are in.

Q: How did you start preparing for the contest? Have you presentedthe same speech across all the levels (Club to District)?A: I used 2-3 different speeches from the Club to District level, inconsultation with my mentors. We've learnt that the effect of a speech isvery different with different audiences, at the club contest and at the districtcontest it's crucial to adapt accordingly.

A funny thing is, I was about to discard the speech 'Burn Your Boats' in favorof my last year's District speech 'One More Round' because that had receivedmore favorable reviews. But, I didn’t and it all worked out for the best!

Q: Please tell us about your mentors. How important is the role ofmentors while preparing for the highest level (District level)?A: This is something I've seen with many speakers. We often undermine orunderestimate the importance of a great mentor. The little 'nuts and bolts'that they tighten in the speech gives it the winning edge.

I wouldn't have gotten half as far as I have if not for my mentors and theirinvaluable contribution- in particular Punita Singh Ma'am with her hawk-eyedinsights and my club mentors Amit Kumar and Kunal Khanna! This is for you:)

Q: Darren LaCroix stressed on rewriting your speeches? How manytimes you do that? Was there any specific process you followed?A: I think Darren was spot on (no surprises!) when he said, 'Great speechesare not written, they are re-written'. He stressed on the importance ofrewriting and polishing your speech after every delivery. Over time, we godeeper into it and nearer to perfection.

I don't have an exact count of the number of times I rewrote this speech, butthis has been in progress for over a year (i used it in the contest last yeartoo). And each time I revisit it, there were little changes. So yes, it has beena long process of polishing and trying to perfecting this speech. This means,obviously, there’s still a long way to go!

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Q: Humor was one of the strong points in your speech? Do you think humor always wins incontests?A: Victor Borge once said, "Laughter is the closest distance between two people". I think that line sums itall up :) Humor breaks the tension and brings you closer to your audience, at the same time making evena serious message more effective and memorable.

Q: Please tell us something about your stand-up comedy experience.A: The reason I started stand-up comedy was because it scared me! That was again learning fromToastmasters. I think it's a great exercise for any speaker to perform in front of a LIVE audience with thechallenge of making them laugh. It's the best feeling in the world :)

Q: How is Toastmasters helping you in your professional life?A: Toastmasters actually changed my career (I know it sounds like a cliché!) in more ways than one. Iquit my regular job this February and am working as a Stand-up Comedian, Writer, Public Speaker andTrainer. Thanks to this wonderful family, I literally 'Burnt my Boats' :)

Avinash Agarwal, CC, CL getting coached by Darren LaCroix

Darren was spot on (no surprises!) when hesaid, 'Great speeches are not written, they arere-written'.

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This is an interview withthe winner of District 41Evaluation Contest held inKolkata on the 3rd and 4thNov 2012.

Shalini Sharma is memberof Deloitte HyderabadToastmasters Club.

When we asked her acrucial question“Evaluation for impressingthe judges or expressingyourself?” she candidlyreplied that evaluation wasfor improving the speech.

You may write to her atshalisharma@deloitte.com

Evaluate to express and not to impress

TM Shalini SharmaQ: Tell us in brief about yourself? How and when did you joinToastmasters?A: I work for the Consulting practice of Deloitte and through campusinterview I got recruited for this profile.

In my Post-Graduate days I was an avid debater and visited many colleges totake part in Parliamentary Debates. That is where my interest in publicspeaking grew and I wished to continue it even in the corporate world.

Toastmasters came as a blessing when I heard about the Deloitte HyderabadToastmasters Club. It helped me keep alive my love for public speaking andalso provided opportunities to attempt forms I never thought I will.

I joined almost immediately, as soon as I heard about the club and I plan tobe a Toastmaster for a long time to come.

Q: How do you think that Toastmasters helps you in your personallife?A: Toastmasters is like one big family. Some of my closest friends areToastmasters.

The joy of meeting and getting to know people from different walks of lifehas made a whole lot of difference in the way I socialize and interact withpeople. I have imbibed qualities such as listening, rationalizing and evencommunicating better in my day to day life.

Q: How do you think that Toastmasters helps in your professionallife?A: I can list many ways in which Toastmasters has made me a betterprofessional. Be it the confidence while giving presentations, the team-workthat goes into running the club, multi-tasking between club activities andclient work or the network of like-minded individuals, Toastmasters offers alot to learn from.

Q: How did you feel after your very first evaluation in Toastmasters?A: Delivering the first evaluation was unnerving without doubt. I wondered ifmy suggestions really helped the speaker at all. I remember taking feedbackfrom some of my fellow Toastmasters in the room after the meeting andeveryone encouraged me saying that with some practice I could be a goodevaluator.

One of the senior Toastmasters even suggested that I take part in theEvaluation contest. That was an encouraging start.

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Q: Out of all the evaluations you have done in Toastmasters (Club-Meetings; various Contests),when did you feel that you had a major breakthrough in evaluation?A: One Evaluation that I learnt a lot from was the one at Division level (Divisions F and H). It introducedme to speaking in front of a large audience; I competed with some of the best Evaluators from Hyderabadand learnt a lot from observing the way they delivered their evaluations. It was at the Division level that Idiscovered the evaluation style that suits me best.

Q: How did you prepare yourself for the District-level Evaluation Contest?A: Right after I won at the Club level evaluation contest, I tried to do as many evaluations as possible. Iwanted to listen to as many different types of speeches as I could and analyze them in many differentways. I attended all the Area-level contests of Divisions F and H (except two) and observed the differentapproaches to Evaluation.

I watched videos online and spoke to some senior Toastmasters to get a perspective of how an evaluationmust be delivered and what aspects of a speech must be observed. Between the Division and District levelcontest, I shifted my focus from giving evaluations to what goes into making a good speech. I evendelivered a speech during this period.

Q: How did you feel when you were announced as the winner of the District Level EvaluationContest?A: It was overwhelming. I was in disbelief for a few seconds but the cheer all around me helped meabsorb it almost instantly and it was an incredibly happy moment for me to walk on to the stage toreceive that trophy.

Q: Tell us what one can do on a consistent basis in order to become a good evaluator?A: The primary aim of an evaluator must be to help the speaker to improve (even if it is just by oneaspect). It is important for an evaluator to identify the core purpose of the speech and the reason why itwas delivered to be able to suggest further improvements.

Some speeches are meant to be simple and some need exaggeration and recommendations should begiven accordingly. Evaluation is the best way to keep in touch with your analytical side.

Performing at least one evaluation a month will not only help in progressing in our CL tracks but also ingaining more experience as an evaluator.

Q: Who mentored you for the District Level competition? Apart from mentors from where didyou get help?A: I received help and encouragement from a lot of Toastmasters of Divisions H and F. Some of them areTM Rajnish, TM Sita, TM Muddassir, TM Shashank, TM Harsh, TM Padma, TM Rajasekhar, TMChandrasekhar, TM Anoop, TM Khalid and many more.

Even Toastmasters from other Divisions like Deepak Menon and TM Mario shared few words of advice. TheToastmasters from A.P. at Resonance were the biggest pillar of support. They helped keep my cool andcheered me on at every step.

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Q: In a competition, what should one do? Should one evaluate to express himself/herself or toimpress the judges?A: Evaluations are neither for the evaluator nor for the Judges. It is always for the speaker to improve thespeech.

The notable difference between delivering an evaluation during a meeting and a contest is to focus on thedelivery. The level of analysis and recommendations require a lot of focus in every evaluation you presentbut for a Contest, an evaluation must be presented like a speech itself with a beginning, body andsummary and that is the only bit done to impress the speaker, audience and judges.

The content should help the speaker to improve. Keep it brief but specific and focus on the most importantareas of improvement.

11The Quotations approach to speech evaluation by Chandrashekar D P

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Toastmasters in USARamakrishna Reddy V N shares his experience of participating & winning inInternational Speech Contests in USA, click here to connect with him.

As an IT software professional, going to US is a dream come true. I wanted to go to US in 2008. But myVISA got rejected. To add some spice to life, I tried to find a girlfriend. It was hard so I foundtoastmasters. I liked it but didn’t take it seriously. Again VISA was applied for in 2009. Again rejected. Youmight think I would have been dejected by now… No, my participation in toastmasters became serious. In2010, my VISA got approved. And that year I reached the humorous speech district finals. My passion wasso high I delayed my US travel because of my district finals. I reached final 6 but didn’t find a place in thetop three. I felt so bad. Then, I went to US in Dec. 2010. Work in the US is very different from working inIndia. 8 hours of work in the US is almost equivalent to 16 hours in India. Life went on like this for around8 months.

Once the euphoria was over, I could not resist searching for a toastmasters club. It was interesting that Ifound a toastmasters club at my client location at Aetna. I attended meetings amidst a global audience.Americans, Polish, Chinese, Africans, Koreans, and of course Indians! It was a fantastic experience. The2011 Fall- Humorous contests were round the corner and I could not resist participation. So I took part in2011. People gave me looks like ‘Show me what you got’. Even though it is a terrifying thought tocompete against the native speakers, I was cool because of the thought that I am a district level speakerin 2010! But you know what? I lost at area level. I was really mad. I wanted to prove myself. So Iparticipated in 2012 International Speech Contest. I crossed area and went to division.

(L to R) Joan Post, John Taz Cannon, Marc Campos, Kate Olsen, Ramakrishna Reddy

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Meanwhile I joined an advanced club, Central Connecticut Advanced Toastmasters. This was aturning point in my journey as I met Jerry Aiyathurai. Some background on Jerry. He has been adistrict champion quite a number of times and also a Finalist in World Championship. His mentoringchanged my whole perspective towards public speaking. Even though I used to feel proud that I hadmentored many club members in Infosys Pune, Jerry showed me what speech writing is all about. Heshowed me what mentoring is all about. I was not sure if I would get the same value even from a paidcoach. Once, I even said to him, ‘I don’t know what I am going to give back to you’. He smiled and said,‘Rama, you know what? You should not give back… you need to give forward’. And I remember thiswhenever I see a sincere Toastmaster.

Coming back to my contests, I went to divisions of International speech in 2012. I thought I won thedivisions. But I came 3rd. My madness reached new heights. I was sitting in my car in the parking lot witha heavy heart. I called up Jerry. Jerry spoke to me for more than an hour to console me and encourageme. I geared up again and participated in humorous speech contest in 2012. I again came 3rd inDivisions. That’s it. Enough is enough. I wrote an emotional email to district leadership that ‘there is nofair judgment; would this happen if I had been a native speaker?’ ‘I don’t feel like participating anymore’,or ‘Give me a chance to be a test speaker in the evaluation contest in district conference’ (conference wasscheduled in a few weeks). I was behaving like a child. When I think about it now I begin to smile. But Iwant to mention the maturity and awesome leadership of District 53. Val Albert, LGET for District 53 couldhave easily brushed me off. But you know what she did? She wrote a big email consoling me and inspiringme to not quit participating in contests. She kept looking for an opportunity and recommended me toDistrict 64 (New York State).

Ramakrishna Reddy, President of Central Connecticut Advanced Toastmasters Club

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LGET for District 64, Kate Olsen was another person. I met too many awesome people! She called me andrequested if I could be the test speaker. Not only that, she took care of conference fee, and stay at hotel!Kate truly rocked. On the first day of D64 conference, I was the only Indian yet I felt very much at home.They were so kind and friendly. They appreciated my speech and I had loads and loads of fun. In thatconference I met Dana Lamon 1992 World Champion of Public Speaking. He is a living marvel. Inspirationsprings when you just see him on stage. He was blind but he was well educated, happily married withkids, was a district judge, professional speaker, and author. He achieved so much in life that people withall the abilities can only dream for.

I came back as a rejuvenated person. I decided to participate in 2013 International Speech Contest. Icrossed Club, Area, and Divisions! Wow. Now, things were really getting charged up. One feedback I gotwas that my Indian accent was something some native speakers could not understand. I reached out toexperts. I reached out to more than 6 to 7 champion speakers. Jerry did not mentor me for this contest.Why? I will tell you later. One kind hearted soul agreed to help me. It was none other than DilipAbhayasekhara. His calendar is booked almost every day yet he coached me free for two completesessions. He was world # 2 in 1992 and past International President of TI. He suggested I go for aprofessional voice coach. I paid $200 dollars for a 1 hour session for a professional voice coach. You mightthink I am crazy. Well, you are right. But you know what? That money was worth it. She pointed out themistakes I had been making for so long. She almost decoded my whole speech and helped me enunciateit in the right way. After all this, I was ready for the final game. I competed against the 7 best speakers inDistrict 53. My speech went well. I liked it. But I came third but I was not mad. You know why? BecauseJerry Aiyathurai won the contest. Yes, he also participated in 2013 Intl speech contest and we plannedthat we would meet in district finals competing from different divisions. It happened and it was more of acelebration. 2 speakers among top 3 in the district were from the Central Connecticut AdvancedToastmasters and I was very proud because I was the President of the club!

One core thing that kept emerging for me was that I was too obsessed with winning. The moment I tookmy eyes off the win, and concentrated on my message and my speech, it took wings. It does not matterwhether you are speaking in US or in India, if you put your heart in your speech, you will emerge withflying colors.

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Enrich your writing skills atToastmasters - Jahnavi Chintakunta, CL shares how we can

enhance our writing skills at Toastmasters. She has recently published her firstbook Ctrl+Alt+Del “Transform your problems into accomplishments”.

Whether you want to prepare an essay for your B school admission, write a business mail to persuadeyour client to buy into your new solution, write a technical paper or write to your manager about yourproject status, writing in business environment is inevitable. Good news is that Toastmasters canimprove our writing skills similar to how it improves our speaking skills. Out of the 10 project speeches inToastmasters Competent communicator manual, 7 projects (CC2,3,4,7,8,9, and 10) are related to writing.Once we start applying the rules we learn in Toastmasters to our writing, we can be a better writer. Hereare key takeaways from Toastmasters which improves our writing skills.

1. Organize your Content: Like the audience listening to your speech, readers also tend to getdiverted if the content is not in a proper order. So, organize your mail content in the way we learnin CC2 (Organize your speech).Structure your content with a proper opening, body and conclusion.Let’s say you are drafting a mail to your client, explaining some issue about an application andyour proposed solution for that, structure can be as mentioned below.

a. Opening: Mention the issue in crisp (First few sentences of your mail should give a brief ideato the reader on what the entire mail is about).

b. Body: Write the details of the issue(Why it happened, how it happened, reasons etc)c. Conclusion: How can you solve the issue (What do you want the reader to do after the mail.

Example, is it to inform or do you want reader to provide a suggestion or do you wantreader to approve something)

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2. Keep the Content Short: Though, there is no timer to show you a red flag when you areexceeding your content, readers sigh at the sight of very long business mails. You don’t want totest their patience do you? So, get to the point in your content. Don’t go beating around the busheither in an apologetic way or self-appraising way. Go straight to the point like we learn in project3 - (get to the point).Make it clear for the reader about what you are trying to say.

3. Use Simple Vocabulary: No reader wants to read a highly sophisticated business mail wherehe/she has to refer to the dictionary every now and then, to understand the content. So, usesimple meaningful words to convey your message. Select clear, accurate, words that bestcommunicate your ideas. Every word should add value and meaning like we learnt in project 4(How to say it).

4. Support your content with Factual data: If you are writing a technical report, whitepaper orwriting a book which requires you to have vast information on the subject, then do your researchfor your information the way you do it for project 7- (Research your topic). You may requireauthentic information or statistics in your content and you can derive this from internet, librariesetc. Well researched information will add credibility to your report/book. A picture speaks athousand words. So, use graphs, Pie charts etc. to present your statistics like you do in yourproject 8 (Get comfortable with Visual aids).

5. Persuade your reader: Now, here comes the crux of business writing. If you want to persuadeyour client to buy into your new solution or ask your manager for his/her approval, then draft yourmail like you do it for project 9.(Persuade with power). Mention the advantages the reader willhave by following your approach. Use your logic to drive the point home. Use all the techniquesyou have learnt in steps 1 to 4 above to keep your mail clear, simple, organized andunderstandable. A mail well written with appropriate facts, logic and language will inevitablyconvince the reader.

6. Extrapolating the rules to creative writing: Creative writing can be seen as an advanced levelof writing, where we bring to life dormant thoughts coupled with imagination. All rules mentionedabove apply to writers as well. Apart from providing you the skills to nurture your creative writing,Toastmasters gives you the stage to experiment your thoughts. So, present your ideas in yourspeech and get the feedback from your audience. It will give you a good estimate of what you canexpect from your readers, if the speech is converted in a blog.

So, go ahead, sharpen your writing skills by applying the rules learnt at Toastmasters.

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This is an interview withDr. Anuraag Awasthi,DTM. He is a multi-facetedpersonality with richcorporate, governmentand academic experience.He has served industry insenior leadership positionsin global organizations likeIBM, HCL, Bharti AirtelGroup, Nihon Unisys etc.in India and manycountries like Japan,France and Thailand.

His areas of Interestinclude Software QualityAssurance, SoftwareTesting, BusinessCommunication, SEI CMMImplementation, ManagingPeople, and Training &Development.

You may write to him atanuraag_awasthi@hotmail.com

Learn the art of Technical Communications inToastmasters

Dr. Anuraag Awasthi, PhD(ComputerScience) PhD(Management), DTMQ: When and how did you join Toastmasters?A: I had wanted to improve my public communication skills and had comeacross this forum sometime in 2007. I did attend a meeting as a guest butcouldn’t continue due to time constraints. However, I kept getting Agendas ofsubsequent meetings which kept me in the loop. Finally, I managed to join inJanuary 2009.

Q: Please brief us about your profession and about books and articlespublished recently.A: Though I have 25 years of experience in IT industry in senior positions invarious functions, presently I run my own Training and Consulting firm,where we provide consulting services in the areas of HR Processes, EmployeeEngagement, Process Improvement and Information Security. Besidesconducting public workshops on topics like Soft Skills, Project Management,Six Sigma, Communication skills using NLP etc., I am also a visiting professorwith several universities, teaching MBA, MS and M.Tech students.

I have written following books :Co-author of book ‘101 Great Ways to Compete in Today’s Job Market’Co-author of ebook ‘Public Speaking Tips from the Pros’Co-author of ebook ‘Public Speaking Secrets from TED Talks’ (to bereleased in Feb’14)Book ‘Engage to Succeed’ (to be released in May’14)

I have also Published 30 Articles & Research Papers in National/InternationalJournals and Conference Proceedings.

Q: How do you think Toastmasters has assisted you in your journeyas a technical communicator?A: Toastmasters help build public communication skills and develop thosebasic skills which can be used by a communicator in all fields – technical orotherwise. Earlier on in my career I was a very shy person. Though I hadstarted conducting technical sessions and making presentations, these wereby observing others and learning on the job. After I joined toastmasters, Ibecame aware of basic technical adjustments which make a difference in theoverall quality of the presentation. The audience might not notice them, butthey make a perceptible difference in the preparedness, quality ofpresentations, and confidence in handling queries, time management etc.

Today I find the level and quality of my presentations far better than before.I have been commended on my presentation skills wherever I havepresented. For example, any presentation must start with the audienceanalysis, their level of understanding about the topic, the occasion, and useof appropriate language.

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Q: In Toastmasters, we learn traits like “Connect with the audience”; “Choose the right words”,“Pay attention to details” and many other such traits. Which of these have helped you,especially in technical presentation?A: Toastmasters modules cover almost all aspects of technical communication. Some of the things onelearns to be more conscious about come from Competent Communicator Manual, and a few advancedManuals. For example:

Technical Communication also has a beginning, body and an end, and must have smoothtransitions. The beginning and end are extremely important.Start with the audience in mind, their mix, knowledge of the subject (beginner, advanced), sizeetc.We can make our communication richer by using visual imagery, giving examples to make theconcept easier to understand.The language should be free of jargon and easy to understand as per the level of the audience.The technical communication must have a purpose, and be focussed.One should try to include elements like humour, stories, statistics to maintain the interest andmake the presentation richer.Learn body language to understand audience reaction.Keep in mind the acoustics of the place, use of visual aids, possibility of demonstrations,interaction with the audience, duration of the session etc.The PowerPoint presentation, if used, has its own set of Do’s and Don’ts in terms of the amount oftext on each slide, font size, use of images etc.

Many of these I was using earlier as well, but based on gut feel and observing others. With Toastmastersknowledge these elements became more structured.

Q: One of the challenge Toastmasters encounter in the beginning is writing their speeches, doyou think we gradually enhance our writing skills as well in Toastmasters?A: Absolutely. Writing for ‘eyes’ and for ‘ears’ are two different things. The language used and theembellishments used in a speech are different from a written text meant to be read. When we startpresenting speeches, it becomes imperative to write them down to ensure we don’t miss on any objective.With each speech this habit enhances our writing skills.

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Q: For enhancing technical communication with the help of Toastmasters what one can doapart from choosing Advance Manual – Technical Presentations?A: Apart from choosing the Advanced Manual – Technical Presentations, one can also take following steps:

Choose the topic wisely. One should have sufficient knowledge of the subject area covered to beable to handle audience queries intelligently.Choose any technical or audio-visual aid with care.Use any AV aid to enhance the speech only as an ‘aid’. They should not become the focus ofspeech.The basics of a good speech like structure, smooth transitions, simple language, purpose, vocalvariety, humour, still matter no matter how technical a presentation.For a non-technical audience, the language and the examples must be such that they can easilyunderstand the underlying concept.Provide any supporting material like diagrams, notes, tables if these can help the audience.Use less text, and more visuals.Use a conversational tone, which is less ‘I’ centric.Leave sufficient time for audience interaction.Take feedback from the audience about good or bad aspects.Practice, practice, practice in or outside a toastmaster meeting before the D-day.

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Contributors

Umesh Agashe, CC, ALB

Chief Editor, layout, design & productionagashe.umesh@gmail.com

Sita Ravinatula, DTM

Co – Editorsita.ravinutala@gmail.com

Jahnavi Chintakunta, CL

Co – Editorjahnavi.c07@gmail.com

Beena Mandrekar, ACS, ALB

Co – Editorbeena.mandrekar@gmail.com

This is a monthly e - Newsletter of District 41 - Toastmasters International. The sole purpose of this e - Newsletter is to sharesuccess stories of fellow Toastmasters, activities at district level and spread the brand of Toastmasters. This e – Newsletter is a

result of efforts by many contributors. If you would like to contribute in e - Newsletter or have an idea for content or suggestions forimprovement in e - Newsletter, please write to agashe.umesh@gmail.com