We all find or can find ourselves sometimes in a position of talking to a group of people. This talk may be short or long; it may be a five-minute talk to introduce a speaker to the audience, or a thirty-minute speech on an important business matter. Whatever the length of time spent on the speech, if you are asked to give a talk you must take it as a compliment.
If you have been requested to make a speech, it means that the man making the request and many others with him believe that you are a man of ideas and experience which will be of value to the listeners. But it may be that you do not feel confident to talk to the group as effectively as you would like to. The reason, as you know, is that a good speaker always prepares his speech before he comes to the rostrum. He also knows the method and technique of giving a talk well. Here are some of Public Speaking Tips.
Preparing you’re talk
There are people who can speak effectively before a group with not any initial preparation, but this can be true of only a few lucky ones and that too on occasions when they are speaking on topics of general interest only. Speaking before a group of knowledgeable businessmen requires methodical preparation of you’re speaking. It is a folly to go unprepared before a group of such people. It is, therefore, necessary first to;
Collect and organize Material
This is the most important step towards the preparation of a good effective speech. Books from a library can be of immense help. Magazines, Newspaper, internet; and journals will add to your information. An interview with a specialist can also give you facts you want to include in you're talking, but it will a good precaution not to include any information which is not authentic and not supported by an authoritative source.
Take some notes as well; jot them down on a note paper. You can begin preparing you're talking with the facts you already know. Later you can add personal observations or experience to explain and illustrate important points and facts
Make Outlines
You must rewrite your speech in outlines. It is very useful to work. You note, arranged according to main ideas and in order of, they’re relative importance are the material for preparing your outline. Make Outlines are such important thing before public speaking.
Hold Interest
The success of you're talking will depend largely on how much you are able to hold the interest of the audience. You must have variety in you're talking. Anecdotes, personal experiences and relevant examples add greatly to the value of a speech.
If possible you talk should also have some kind of suspense. Difficult ideas should illustrate with the help of charts and graphs. When you prepare you're talking, consider how best you may hold an interest in the audience.
Do not Read, Converse with you’re Audience
We have all listened, at one time or other, to speakers who stand before they’re audience ignoring their hearer, not even looking at them but they’re eyes glued only to they’re notes. This cannot be called a talk. It does not communicate. Such a speech may well be delivered in an empty hall. A written talk is of value when you practice your presentation.
It will enable you to fix all important points in memory. Having memorized each idea, you can use only brief notes. Many good speakers use this method. They prefer speaking from brief notes or points, not from a fully written speech. They believe that their speech will not sound well if read from a written manuscript.
Practice Hard Before Public Speaking
The only way of acquiring the skill for delivering a natural speech is by practice. As you practice, if you find yourself speaking in an affected or unnatural manner, immediately check yourself. Imagine yourself standing before your audience. Talk loudly enough for all to hear you clearly. Make slow movements, and do not use hand gestures too many times. Practice talking in front of a large mirror.
Practice hard and continue until your words flow from you naturally from idea to idea, even without the aid of your brief notes. You have prepared you're talking and it is now time to deliver it. If you keep before you the following tips, they will help you make you talk sound natural, effective, and eloquent.
Control you’re voice volume
We all know how dissatisfied the audience feels when they cannot hear what the speaker says. You should never allow this to happen to you. The easiest way of avoiding it is to ask you’re hearers at the start of you’re talk if they can hear you clearly.
Look at your Listeners
The best way of making you’re listeners feel that you are not delivering a speech but actually talking and conversing with them is to look directly at them. Never make the mistake of gluing your eyes to you’re written manuscript. Look at the middle section of the audience, then at those to the right and the left. As you continue in this way, the listeners are sure to feel that you are talking to each of them.
Objectionable Mannerisms
You may not even know if you have any objectionable mannerisms. Seek the help of you’re friends. Ask them to watch you speaking and then report. If you clear you’re throat or wet your lips frequently during you’re speech. A speaker who has even one such annoying mannerism cannot talk effectively to his listeners.
This is especially true of beginners who toy with keys, pens, pencils or they’re notes because they are nervous. By doing so, they distract the attention of they’re listeners. Don’t carry small objects with you to the rostrum. Just concentrate on you’re message; you will do well if you have made good initial preparation.
Observe you’re Audience
Observe the look of you’re listeners while public speaking. If you see, as you are delivering you're talking, that there faces have started becoming blank. this is the signal that they are being bored by you’re speaking and that you should try to boost there interest. You may tell them, at the right moment, an interesting anecdote or a short story which may also illustrate you’re the point.
The End
At the end of Public Speaking, you need to watch your last words. It is a sign of inexperience to hurry through the last words of you’re talking as if to get rid of them. Your speech must seem well founded at the end. It is a pity, indeed, to spoil a good, well-prepared talk by a careless finish. You must not rush through your final lines. Keep up the volume of your voice and good timing till the end.
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