Practical Public Speaking Tips
How to Excel at Public Speaking
Public speaking is something most people dread. Besides imagining people in their underwear, there are measures that you can take than will lessen the terror of standing in front of an audience.
Bud Moynahan, Master Road Scholar and Road Agent from Rye, gives presentations for budgeting purposes. He says it is easiest if you go prepared. He knows his budget better than anyone else and knows he is the best qualified to answer questions about it. About nervousness, Bud says, the “butterflies go away as you start to talk, if you know what you are talking about.” If you do not know the answer to a question, it’s best to be honest and say you don’t know.
Know Your Material
Prepare thoroughly for your presentation. Keep it simple. Do not confuse the audience with too much material or too many figures. Make certain the relationship between figures and facts is clear. When you use numbers, round them off. Use visual aids (more on that later).
Nervousness is Normal
All speakers are nervous to a certain extent: control nervousness so it is not distracting. The more confident you are the more effective you will appear. Practice enough to become familiar with all aspects of your topic but not so much that you become dull.
Do not become your own worst enemy by expecting perfection--perfect speakers are dull. Audiences want to be informed, persuaded, and entertained (or some combination of the three). Do not create a self-fulfilling prophecy by expecting to do poorly.
Before you give your presentation, warm up by speaking to someone. Do this so your voice will be warm and natural. Also, discreetly move your head, face, and body so your muscles will be relaxed.
Improving Credibility
Audiences accept speakers when they have no doubt the speaker knows more than he or she is saying. Also, when the speaker respects other by responding to questions positively. To increase your credibility: maintain eye contact with the audience, be sincere, mention your expertise, and share commonalties with audience. Ken Roberts, Master Road Scholar and Road Agent from Alton, believes honesty is the best policy. When decisions are called for, he tells the audience the truth about all aspects of the situation and lets them decide what to do.
Analyze the Audience
When preparing for your presentation, think about the possible reaction of your audience. Consider their knowledge of topic, attitude, values and beliefs. Keep in mind their educational levels, occupations, economic value, and age. Maintaining eye contact will help you to analyze audience's reaction to what you are saying and make adjustments, if necessary.
Organizing the Speech
The purpose of the introduction is to gain the audience’s attention. Keep the introduction short. To get the audience’s attention use mechanisms such as: a quotation, rhetorical question, story, promise of profit or benefit, or startling statements. These tools establish understanding, purpose, and familiarization.
The body of the speech should create a clear picture and develop the main points with smooth transitions between them.
In the conclusion, do not introduce new materials. The purpose of the conclusion is to summarize. Use the same tools here as you would use in the introduction. Keep the summary short and use a memorable line in the closing.
Practical Persuasion
Sometimes it is necessary to give a speech of persuasion. Methods of persuasion are:
A logical appeal is one that uses supporting evidence and materials;
An ethical appeals are based on the audience’s attitude toward you;
An emotional appeal is useful to reinforce the logical appeal calling upon human motives.
Speakers are more persuasive when the audience: likes, trusts, and has confidence in the speaker, and the speaker shows conviction. Eye contact is important. The speaker should stand close to the audience, and use lively, natural gestures, speak with enthusiasm, avoid nervous self-touching, and make use of facial expressions.
A persuasive speech is organized in the following manner:
Get the audience’s attention,
Convince them of a need,
Demonstrate your solution to the problem,
Present your proposed plan of action.
Mentioning the pros and cons is beneficial. Describe the problem and then the solution. Present the advantages and disadvantages demonstrating that the advantages are greater than disadvantages.
Improving Your Delivery
To improve your delivery, act natural. Audiences listen more eagerly and react more favorably if they like you. Pay attention to your appearance and avoid distracting mannerism. Use a variety of language in conjunction with simple and appropriate words. Try to avoid technical terminology. During your presentation, pause for: punctuation, effect, emphasis, climax, reflection and conclusion. Repeat points you want people to remember.
Visual Aids
Visual aids help to create impact because they graphically illustrate a point. They assist with the audience's retention because people tend to learn better visually than orally. To be effective, they must be visible, accurate, clear, easy to read, and simple.
Use aids to create an outline by providing an easy method of introducing or summarizing the main points of the speech. Show aids only when talking about them: otherwise they are distracting. Visual aids create a change of pace since they help to break up delivery into effective divisions
Conclusion
Before you do your next presentation, take some time to think about the purpose of your presentation, this will clarify what you need to say. Keep the speech simple. Consider your audience, practice, decide what how visual aids will help and remain calm. Calmness will help to establish your credibility and make the entire process go a little more smoothly. Good luck!
Visual Aids
Ever wonder where and how to get visual aids?
Most copy centers can help you create overhead transparencies, or you can create your own by buying transparency film at an office supply store. There are different types of film to use with a copy machine or computer printer.
Software packages are available to help put presentations together. Some popular software packages are: Powerpoint, Harvard Graphics, and Persuasion.
If you need slides of applications you can check with the vendor who would provide the product. Most vendors would happily supply slides if it meant a sale for them later.
If you have any other questions, call the UNHT2 Center. Kathy and Dave have access to great looking graphs and other materials. We would be happy to help in anyway we can.
Source:
Karam, Thomas, Ragsdale, James, Can We Talk?, University Press of America, Inc., Lanham, Maryland, c. 1994