THE BASICS OF PUBLIC SPEAKING

PREPARATION

 

“For every minute of speaking I spend at least one hour of preparation” – Winston Churchill, highlights the importance of preparation.

Public speaking requires preparation in the same way as an athlete requires preparation for a sporting contest. You have to practice like most things in life.

A speech is the developing of an idea, opinion, and belief.

Select a topic you are familiar with or have strong thoughts on.

Always carry a pencil and paper with you and jot thoughts down when they come to you ie brainstorming. You can jot down the main points of a good speech in moments.

Write the speech out fully to get the feel and timing.

Fine tune and write out ie sort out the necessary and the unnecessary.

Practice the speech on to a tape. Listen back, correct it and time it.

Have speech prepared at least a few days prior to presenting it. Listen to your speech (eg on a walkman) a couple of times a day leading up to delivering the speech.

Condense notes into key words, ie point form only – it’s a speech not a reading, spaced out on A4 or small cards. If you are using cards, number them.

Practice your speech often. Put A4 faces on a wall to simulate an audience.

Your last rehearsal should be as close as possible to speech delivery time. Moments before is best.

SPEECH STRUCTURE

There are 3 types of speeches, to inform, to persuade/inspire/motivate and to entertain.

A speech should always have an opening, body and closing. You tell them what are going to tell them, you tell them and you tell them what you told them.

An opening should have an “attention grabber” and a closing should have a “call to action” or “memorable statement”.

MAKE “THE BUTTERFLIES” FLY IN FORMATION

(Public Speaking terminology for taking steps to feel confident and to settle nerves)

Acclimatise yourself to the room and where you will speaking from before your presentation.

Dress well and appropriate to the audience.

Get to know your audience. Greet them as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to friends than strangers.

Have your speech thoroughly prepared. Know it backwards.

Make sure that the preparation includes that it will be obvious to the audience what your one main message is. They have to be able to walk away knowing what it was.

Memorise your opening.

Don’t apologise for your speech or for your nerves. The audience will be hoping you succeed. Just have the intention of doing your best.

Take yourself seriously if you want your audience to. Speak with conviction, enthusiasm and sincerity.

WHAT AUDIENCES LIKE

If the speaker is prepared, committed, comfortable (confident and not fidgety) and interesting.

VOICE

Be yourself, don’t try to be anyone else.

There needs to be vocal variety ie volume, pace, tone and pausing for the message to be believed and interesting.

EYE CONTACT

You engage the members of your audience with eye contact.

You make the audience feel welcome and important with eye contact.

When you engage audience in eye contact they think you are sincere, friendly, credible and honest. This will help your message be believed.

With experience learn to hold eye contact rather than give “glancing” eye contact.

When speaking to a large audience give normal eye contact to who you can rather than glancing eye contact to everyone.

HANDS

Hand gestures should match the spoken words.

Never put them in your pockets because you can’t use them

Rest your hands lightly on the lectern, they are ready to be used to enhance the speech.

Don’t grab the lectern because this restricts their use.

Don’t concentrate on your hands when you are starting Public Speaking, they will start to talk naturally with experience.

UHMS & AHS

It’s almost impossible to eliminate them altogether but too many is distracting.

When you speak without ahming the mind is forced to think quicker, thoughts spring to mind quickly and seemingly from nowhere, confidence increases and body language starts happening naturally.

Try to pause more and uhm less.

Don’t worry about “ahms” until you have delivered a few speeches and have started to feel comfortable in giving eye contact.

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