Strategies and best ways to speak in public

Strategies and best ways to speak in public By: MarĂ­a A. LĂłpez Venegas

Content To the reader .............................................. 1 Objectives ................................................. 2 Get to know your audience ........................ 3 Breaking the ice .......................................... 6 State clear objectives and outline .............. 8 Clothing ..................................................... 12 Body Language or Gestures ...................... 14 Feelings ...................................................... 17 Rehearsal is essential ................................. 19 References ................................................ 21

To the reader...

Welcome! My name is MarĂ­a LĂłpez.

Here you will find strategies and tips to improve your speaking skills.

Speaking in public is not a skill that everybody has.However, there are ways in order to improve every day.

Be ready to learn from the most basic as your audience to the most complex as it is the rehearsal.

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Objectives The reader will be able...

To improve their speaking skills To acquire new knowledge about what makes a good speaker To apply the knowledge acquired in their daily performance To identify their audience more specifically To design objectives and outlines correctly To express themselves with the appropriate 2 body language and clothing

Get to know your audience

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You must know your audience before any speech; you should know the following aspects of your audience.

- Age - Gender - Interests - Is your audience a big crowd or small group?

- Is your topic suitable for your audience?

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Also, take into consideration your objectives for the speech and what is the impact you want to create in your audience with your topic.

One tip I recommend to you in order to know better your audience is by their interests.If you have the opportunity to choose the topic for your speech, try to choose a topic that is suitable for your audience.

For example Audience: teenagers Topics: technology, social media, and bullying.

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Breaking the ice 6

Never forget to break the ice with your audience, this is an excellent technique to connect with your audience and gain confidence.

Some ways to break the ice with your audience is by: - Tell them a joke or a previous experience related to the topic.

- Quotes or phrases.

- A kinesthetic activity, make them move!

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State clear objectives and outline

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Objectives are the most important part of any speech; you must always take into consideration your type of speech.

Types of speech a. Informative Principal function: Leave an audience better informed than they were before you began. b. Persuasive Principal function: To persuade an audience of a case that, before you began, had either never occurred to them or to which they had been actively hostile. c. Inspiration Principal function: To inspire the audience to do something that they had previously not considered doing or had been refusing to do, or occasionally, to carry on doing something.

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After taking into consideration your type of speech, you can start with your outline and objectives. The best way to create objectives is by using the “Bloom’s Taxonomy”.

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Creating an outline might be considered for a lot of people, an unnecessary step for a speech or composition. However, it is incredibly important in order to connect ideas.

On your outline, you add the type of audience, specific and general objective or purpose, your central idea, thesis statement, introduction, body, and conclusion.

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Clothing 12

When you present your speech, you are the central point of it and this is the reason why you as a speaker must take care of the clothing you wear.

Clothing: Be careful of the clothes that you wear on your speech.

- Try to use dark clothes.

- Use shirts without neckline and avoid very short skirts.

- Don’t use a lot of jewelry because it might make uncomfortable sounds that interrupt your speech.

You want your audience to be focused on the topic you provide, not on the clothes or accessories you wear.

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Body Language or Gestures 14

- Muletillas: We all have words that we repeat very often on a sentence, we can call them also “muletillas� This is a factor you must control on every speech, try not to repeat that word very often because your audience might get distracted.

- Gestures: Gestures are important, by your gestures your audience is able to know how you are feeling. Control your gestures as much as possible; try to always keep a neutral gesture on your speech.

- Control your tone of voice: You want your audience to understand you, try to keep a neutral tone of voice. Not screaming but also not whispering.

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- Movements: At the moment of your speech try not to move everywhere, avoid your hands in the pocket of your pants and don’t walk all over the room. Unless it is necessary to explain the topic to your audience.

- Never say sorry: Don’t apologize to your audience at the moment of doing a mistake.

If you apologize, your audience will know that you are nervous and that shows lack of confidence. If you forget about something, just improvise.

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Feelings

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You might feel a lot of pressure or nervous before any speech. Try to control your feelings. This is very important in order to show your audience confidence at the moment of talking.

Some tips you can use in order to avoid feeling nervous: - Don’t do a lot of eye contact with your audience, you might feel intimidated.

- Think you are in front of a lot of friends talking about your favorite topic.

- Practice your speech until you feel confident about it.

- Drink a tea or a pill to control your 18 anxiety.

Rehearsal is essential 19

Rehearse is always important for any speech.

You can rehearse your speech with a friend or in front of the mirror. Rehearsal in front of the mirror will help you to improve your posture and gestures in your speech.

Try to rehearse your speech as many times as needed.

Sometimes we forget certain things of our speech because they might be difficult to memorize.

An excellent tip is doing small flashcards with the most important information of your speech, in this way you won’t miss any detail.

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REFERENCES Collins, Philip (2012). The Art of Speeches and Presentations: The Secrets of Making People Remember What You Say: A John Wiley and Sons. 1st Edition

Beebe, Steven A. & Susan J. (1999): Public Speaking: An Audience-Centered Approach. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

4th Edition.

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