I attended my first Toastmasters speech contest last Friday. I was there to cheer on one of our members, who, because of previous Toastmasters experience, is at a higher level in the Toastmasters hierarchy than most of us in our new club.

Toastmasters International runs a spring contest featuring prepared speeches (the “International Speech Contest”) and evaluations (in which contestants are judged on how well they evaluate a “target speech”). In the fall, the organization runs “Table Topics” (impromptu speeches on a previously unknown topic) and humorous speech contests. Competitors start at their local club level and work their way up through a series of geographically defined levels.

Our club representative won first place in his portion of the contest — although he had no competition; the other Toastmaster who was scheduled to compete in his group didn’t show up. However, his first-place finish means he’ll go on to compete April 1 in the next level — the Division Contest.

Only three people, in fact, competed in the speech portion of the contest — our rep for his group and two others for another group.

My happy observation was that all four speeches given during the contest (the three competitors, plus the target speech for evaluators) prominently featured stories.

Our club speaker told a story about how, after being told by his father that his family didn’t have enough money for him to play basketball, he got a paper route and raised the money himself (you can see the speech as he delivered at our club). A woman who spoke about everyday heroes told the story of a woman she’d encountered in the Peace Corps in Nepal who helped her community. A competitor speaking about the notion that animals and humans share morality told the story of how complete strangers in Mexico reached out to help his family when they were in trouble. The “target speech” for evaluators was almost entirely a story (dubbed a “sea story” by the target speaker) about an encounter on Puget Sound between a ferry and a much larger vessel.

I am convinced that stories were integral to the success of these speeches. I’m also thinking about other rhetorical devices, especially because an upcoming Toastmasters speech assignment deals with “how to say it.” Bill Wren, a writer-editor, and social-media enthusiast, wrote earlier this year about a very short (less than two minutes) video presentation that deals with storytelling and offers several such rhetorical devices.

The presentation is part of the TEDify effort by Maria Popova, which attempts “to capture [the] common tangents between TED’s incredibly diverse speakers. To connect the dots in order to make the bigger social and cultural points. And, above all, to help the voice of TED echo through ever more inspired minds.” (TED, of course, being a superb series of talks and performances captured on video and made available to spread ideas).

The Evolution of Storytelling (embedded below) is the third TEDify installment, of which Popova says: “exploring the evolution of storytelling — [is] something I feel TED embodies on multiple levels.”

OK, so getting back to the rhetorical devices … Wren notes that the video contains “pairs and sequences of threes.”

Further:

In fact, the opening sentence begins with a sequence of three that concludes with a pair:

“There is a revolution …

1) in the way that we think,

2) in the way that we share,

3) and in the way that we express

3-1) our stories,

3-2) our evolution.”

These pairs and sequences occur throughout the video. (“Our story, our poetry, our romanticism,” and “How to live, and how to die.”) These patterns create the rhythm of storytelling because telling a story isn’t just about the story; it’s about how it’s told.

You’ll notice something else in the video: repetition. “People have been leaving behind footprints, footprints that are moments of self-expression.” This is another very common device, a mnemonic that emphasizes something and helps the audience to remember.

I’m not sure I agree with Wren that the “patterns create the rhythm of storytelling” because I don’t think the presentation itself is a story, but I do believe they create the rhythm of good speech-making.

The video is a feast for the eyes even though the visual portion consists almost entirely of animated typography. The audio is perhaps the most remarkable part because Popova has put together the rhythmic — almost poetic — soundtrack from snippets of voices from TED Talks.

Stories and rhythmic, patterned speech devices are essential tools for engaging presentations.