Public Speaking Basics

You don’t become an amazing speaker overnight. It takes years to develop strong public speaking skills. Some people are lucky enough to gain sufficient speaking skills without much effort. Maybe they’ve always been gregarious. Perhaps they grew up in a big family where speaking in front of everyone was the norm. It’s also possible they were in extracurricular activities like sports or theater where they developed confidence. But most people are not lucky enough to have developed speaking skills without significant effort. The majority of folks require lots of intervention if they want to speak well. A common misconception about speech is that some people are just born to be great at public speaking. This is not true! Nobody is born speaking fluently and effectively. Sure, it comes easier to some than others depending on their predispositions and upbringing. But an amazing speaker gets that way over a long period of time. Speaking well may seem like a normal thing that everybod...

Donald Trump's rise is extraordinary and unprecedented. He beat out all Republican opponents as well as the Democrats’ strongest candidate. He ran a fierce campaign through rallies, interviews, speeches, press conferences, and social media. He said terrible things which only made him more popular.  Media made him out to be a total monster… yet millions of Americans voted for him to be our next president despite having no experience in governing. So what’s his appeal? I noticed a few things about his speaking style that struck me as a speech teacher. I will intentionally avoid getting into all of the controversies and the more offensive aspects of his campaign. In short, Donald Trump’s main persuasive appeal is of strength. I really think that sealed the deal for him. He is, physically, a large individual. The Washington Post recounted his appearance on Dr. Oz’s show where he was said to be 6 foot 3 inches tall and 236 pounds. That’s a big guy. Whenever we see him on...

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...

Chances are that if you are reading this, you are also breathing... It's so basic that we tend not to think about it too much. This may be why people tend to forget to breathe in speech. It's frustrating to have sat through countless speeches and to still see one recurring issue - people rush through their speech while hardly taking a proper breath. It's difficult to watch somebody push through their entire presentation while short of breath. I sometimes want to stop a speaker dead in their tracks and tell them to take a breath! It's hard to focus on what someone is saying if it looks like they're struggling to speak with such short breathing. Don't forget to breathe during your speech. Take a deep breath before you begin. Wait a moment before moving on to each of your next points. Avoid rushing through your entire speech. Breathe deeply throughout your presentation. Give your audience a chance to catch up to your message. Take one deep breath to calm ...