Public Speaking Basics

It doesn't matter how great your speech is written, if your delivery is boring. I see a familiar pattern in speeches. People put lots of work into their outlines, citations, and in formatting their pages correctly. Then they just recite the work they've prepared with a basic and uninteresting delivery. This totally takes away from all that good work they've put into the assignment. Don't neglect delivery. A speech must be well written, that's very important. But equally important is making the delivery interesting and exciting for the audience. Be creative, make your speech different in some way. Give your audience a reason to listen to you. People dread listening to routine presentations. Try something different. Your audience will perk up and begin paying attention to you. Here are some ideas about what that entails. Use multimedia, a brief audio clip or video. Pose relevant questions to the audience. Draw from your prepared points but deliver extemporaneously...

Any worthwhile speech should address the fundamental question of  "who cares?" Your audience could be doing any number of things instead of listening to you speak (and isn’t that what we're all thinking when we're listening?). You must convince them that what you have to say is worth listening to before a crowd of people will give you their full and undivided attention. I don’t mean to make light of any person or any topic. Actually, I think anytime someone is speaking to a crowd, they’ve put a lot of thought into it and it’s admirable that they’re putting themselves 'out there' by presenting their work to other people. I only take issue when speakers don’t clearly convey why the audience should pay any attention to their speech. As someone who has literally sat through thousands of speeches, I can tell you that it’s extremely difficult to listen to someone discuss something that you aren’t particularly interested in or can't relate to at all. Sometime...

Speakers face various challenges when it comes to preparing for a speech. Of all the challenges, perhaps the most overwhelming task is simply the act of getting started! Procrastination may have its place in certain situations but it is a bane to public speakers. You have to put one foot in front of the other and begin somewhere. You don’t have to complete the whole speech in a single sitting. Nevertheless, you must know how to get started! So here are some tips to help you take the first steps towards creating the bulk your speech. 1. Review your instructions, task or assignment carefully. Read this over and contemplate it carefully so you know exactly what your goal is. 2. Create a blank word document on your desktop. Name it “Speech X” if you don’t have any better ideas. (Obviously use pen and paper if you work better that way!) 3. Write down your ideas. Don’t have any ideas? Put down whatever comes to your mind! Free write whatever random thoughts you may be havi...