Toastmasters,

You have been coming to the Fairleigh Early Birds Toastmasters (or elsewhere) meetings for some time, maybe couple of months or even a couple of years. But you keep asking yourself: I go to these meetings, but I don't see any improvement. Why do I need to wake up at 9AM on a Saturday? I'm never going to improve It's not working for me.
What's wrong?

You have to change your strategy! It's never going to work for you. Like the saying goes, if you always do, what you've always done, you will always get, what you always got. Is that not the case with you? You've been doing the same thing over and over, right? See, that's the problem! You have to change your way, you have to adjust the way you speak, the way you prepare, the way you give impromptu speaking.

What's more, you have to keep changing it throughout your life!

I believe you can keep improving your communication skills throughout your life. This is a lifelong skill development. By coming regularly (or somewhat regularly) to the meeting you're doing the most important thing: you're practicing. But practicing what? You need to practice new skills!

How do you acquire new skills? You should watch other speakers and try to imitate them. That's one way. Second, read articles on getting better as a speaker. Read books on improving your communication skills. Then, make those changes and practice your new skills. This is challenging but interesting and fun. This way, you will get those butterflies because you're not used to doing it the "new" way. But you know what, that's how you improve!

If you get onto this path, you will become a better speaker, better communicator. You owe it to yourself. You've found Toastmasters, now you have to keep taking those small steps and you will keep improving.

We keep improving one step at a time, but make sure it's not always the same step. :-)

Stanley K
VPE

PREPARATION

• “For every minute of speaking I spend at least one hour of preparation” – Winston Churchill, highlights the importance of preparation.

• Public speaking requires preparation in the same way as an athlete requires preparation for a sporting contest. You have to practice like most things in life.

• A speech is the developing of an idea, opinion, and belief.

• Select a topic you are familiar with or have strong thoughts on.

• Always carry a pencil and paper with you and jot thoughts down when they come to you ie brainstorming. You can jot down the main points of a good speech in moments.

• Write the speech out fully to get the feel and timing.

• Fine tune and write out ie sort out the necessary and the unnecessary.

• Practice the speech on to a tape. Listen back, correct it and time it.

• Have speech prepared at least a few days prior to presenting it. Listen to your speech (eg on a walkman) a couple of times a day leading up to delivering the speech.

• Condense notes into key words, ie point form only – it’s a speech not a reading, spaced out on A4 or small cards. If you are using cards, number them.

• Practice your speech often. Put A4 faces on a wall to simulate an audience.

• Your last rehearsal should be as close as possible to speech delivery time. Moments before is best.

SPEECH STRUCTURE

• There are 3 types of speeches, to inform, to persuade/inspire/motivate and to entertain.

• A speech should always have an opening, body and closing. You tell them what are going to tell them, you tell them and you tell them what you told them.

• An opening should have an “attention grabber” and a closing should have a “call to action” or “memorable statement”.

MAKE “THE BUTTERFLIES” FLY IN FORMATION

(Public Speaking terminology for taking steps to feel confident and to settle nerves)

• Acclimatise yourself to the room and where you will speaking from before your presentation.

• Dress well and appropriate to the audience.

• Get to know your audience. Greet them as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to friends than strangers.

• Have your speech thoroughly prepared. Know it backwards.

• Make sure that the preparation includes that it will be obvious to the audience what your one main message is. They have to be able to walk away knowing what it was.

• Memorise your opening.

• Don’t apologise for your speech or for your nerves. The audience will be hoping you succeed. Just have the intention of doing your best.

• Take yourself seriously if you want your audience to. Speak with conviction, enthusiasm and sincerity.

WHAT AUDIENCES LIKE

If the speaker is prepared, committed, comfortable (confident and not fidgety) and interesting.

VOICE

• Be yourself, don’t try to be anyone else.

• There needs to be vocal variety ie volume, pace, tone and pausing for the message to be believed and interesting.

EYE CONTACT

• You engage the members of your audience with eye contact.

• You make the audience feel welcome and important with eye contact.

• When you engage audience in eye contact they think you are sincere, friendly, credible and honest. This will help your message be believed.

• With experience learn to hold eye contact rather than give “glancing” eye contact.

• When speaking to a large audience give normal eye contact to who you can rather than glancing eye contact to everyone.

HANDS

• Hand gestures should match the spoken words.

• Never put them in your pockets because you can’t use them

• Rest your hands lightly on the lectern, they are ready to be used to enhance the speech.

• Don’t grab the lectern because this restricts their use.

• Don’t concentrate on your hands when you are starting Public Speaking, they will start to talk naturally with experience.

UHMS & AHS

• It’s almost impossible to eliminate them altogether but too many is distracting.

• When you speak without ahming the mind is forced to think quicker, thoughts spring to mind quickly and seemingly from nowhere, confidence increases and body language starts happening naturally.

• Try to pause more and uhm less.

• Don’t worry about “ahms” until you have delivered a few speeches and have started to feel comfortable in giving eye contact.

In sport, those who get off to a good start usually continue on in the same vein.  Eg Leyton Hewitt 7-6 in first set of the 2001 US Open Final against Sampras and Essendon in the 2000 AFLGrand Final against Melbourne. 

It’s the same in presentations.  Get off to a good start, your confidence rises, you win the audience and you set the pattern for the presentation. 

The following are ways to get off to a good start: 

Prior to Presentation 

• Prepare and know the speech well.  Competence leads to confidence. 

• Check that the venue has all the equipment you need and that it works.  Check this hours before rather than minutes before.  Don’t rely on other people to check.

• Re-check equipment and set yourself up 15 minutes before. 

• Humm a song to yourself so the first words utterred sound pleasant to you.  This will give you an extra shot of confidence.

• Stand where you will be presenting from and ask someone to check that the audience will be able to hear and see you OK and for you to know that there are no lights shining in your eyes etc.

• Hand out your card &/or your brochure yourself to members of the audience as they arrive.  Members of the audience will have an opportunity of meeting you which will increase their trust of you.  You are then in a position to mention audience member’s names during your presentation which will strengthen your relationship with the audience.  It’s easier to speak in front of friends rather than strangers.

• Humm a song to yourself as close as possible to speechtime.  This will make your voice sound pleasant and strong and will provide you with a shot of confidence.  (humm one song a day to increase the strength of your voice)

• Prior to being introduced try to obtain a position or wait in a position close to where you will be presenting from.  By being able to look out at your audience for a period prior to your presentation, you will acclimatise.  If you are going to suffer from stagefright it’s better if this happens prior to you being introduced.

• Memorise your opening, word for word.

Prior to First Word of Presentation Uttered

• Remember the audience’s perspective.  They haven’t been instructed to barrack for you because you are terrified, they have been told that you are the expert.  You are in control, they are relying on you – not vice versa, they want you to inspire confidence.

• Be ready to shake the MC’s hand prior to the finish of the MC’s introduction (unless you want a lot of applause making your way to the lectern). 

• Don’t be rushed, take your stance before uttering a word.  This is much more dignified than rushing into the start of your speech.  This means to take the comfortable stance you have experimented with, at the same time placing your notes (numbered pages / cards if more than one) on the lectern.  The stance should have a firm, unwavering lower hEalf of the body rather than twitching, moving feet and knees.  You should be standing tall.  If you are very nervous do all the above anyway, it’s better to look confident and speak nervously than to look nervous and speak nervously.  Emulate how a confident person would stand.

• Pause after taking your stance to command attention and authority. 

• Obtain eye contact with one person on one side of the room, pause and at the time of obtaining eye contact with a second person on the other side of the room, then commence your opening.
   

First Words of Presentation

• A strong opening is vital.  The opening sentences should be memorised word for word.   

• If you know all of your equipment is ready and working and the opening goes exactly to plan this will reduce your nerves, lift your confidence and create a solid platform for the rest of your speech / presentation. 

• If you need the audience’s approval, incorporate something into your opening which involves them, thereby breaking the ice for you.  This will help settle you down. 

• A perfect opening is vital.

Source: www.youthsspeak.com.au

Types:

  - To Inform

  - To Persuade / Inspire / Motivate

  - To Entertain

Parts:

Opening = Tell them what you are going to say (the purpose)

Body = Tell them

Closing = Tell them what you said

Opening

Should contain:

• Acknowledgement of audience eg Mr MC, Ladies & Gentlemen.

• An Attention Grabber.

• The purpose of the speech ie the point of it all, this has to be clearly understood by the audience from the word go.

• The Acknowledgement can be before the attention grabber or said after it ie for impact. 

The objective of the Attention Grabber is to catch immediate attention and arouse the audience’s interest in your speech subject.  An Attention Grabber needs to be short, sharp and to the point.  Examples of Attention Grabber’s are:

• A startling question, rhetorical question or a challenging statement.

• A display of an object or visual.

• A quotation, illustration, or story.

• An attention-getting generalisation that relates to the speech subject.

AVOID

• An apologetic statement.

• A commonplace observation delivered in a commonplace manner.

• An unrelated story or joke.

• A non-startling question such as “Did you ever stop to think…?”.

• A long slow-moving statement or story.

A rhetorical question Attention Grabber could be for example “who would like to make a million dollars in the next year ?”, this is more effective than “I have a good idea to make money”.  It can be a quote eg “you’re going for the ride of your life” (Malcolm Blight – ex St Kilda Football Club coach, pre 2001 season), this is more effective than “I think you (the supporters) can look forward to a few good years”.

Body

It’s what you want to tell them ie the body of the speech.

There should be a few main points (select MUST KNOW points first), avoid having too many and make them strictly relevant to the purpose of the speech.  A 5 to 7 minute speech should only have 3 or 4 main points.  Perhaps one main point per minute.

If the purpose is to persuade include a point that refutes possible arguments against your argument.  This shows you have considered the possible arguments against your argument which will give the speech more credibility.

The main points should be in a logical order eg Speech is titled “I play golf for Relaxation”.  Main points are:

• Length of time played.

• Easy access as there are many golf courses.

• No reliance on others as can play by oneself.

• Examples when it has relieved stress.

• Argument against others who think golf is expensive by favorably comparing cost with other popular sports.

If you are speaking about something deadly serious, lighten it up (not frivolously) by including one lighter main point.

Main Point / Sub-Points

You can adopt the 2 sub-points to each main point method:

i) State the main point  (main point)

ii) Explain the main point  (1^st sub-point)

iii) Give an example or anecdote or state statistics to highlight / reinforce / substantiate main point and to give the audience a clearer picture of the main point.  Always provide source of statistics for credibility purposes. (2^nd sub-point) 

(you may want to have a 3^rd sub-point which would be to state the main point once more to be clearly understood)

Joining Phrase

You can start each main point by using a Joining Phrase which states the purpose of the speech eg for a speech with the purpose to inform that the speaker’s next holiday will be to go to Rome:

Main Point 1 - I’m going to Rome (for my next holiday) because I love the ambiance…

Main Point 2 - I am going to Rome because it’s not expensive…  

Main Point 3 - I’m going to Rome because I want to practice my Italian, e vero (it’s true)…

Main Point 4 - People will say I am wasting 2 days travel time by going to Rome, however… (Joining Phrase is used in the body of the sentence on this occasion)

The use of the joining phrase:

• Keeps the speaker on track as to the purpose.

• Keeps the audience on track as to the purpose.

• Makes the audience aware that a new main point is being introduced.

• Has strong speech impact ie the repeating of the point of the speech over and over.

• Lends itself to vocal variety ie the joining phrase can be said in an assertive manner with more volume.

• Makes preparing and remembering a speech easier.  It is particularly useful when not having a lot of time to prepare a speech.

Closing

Has 3 parts ie a summary, a call to action (for “to persuade” speeches) and a memorable statement.

Summary = Tell them what you have told them in one or two sentences.  Don’t introduce new material.

Call to Action = only applicable in a speech “to persuade” eg for a speech encouraging people to become real estate agents - “get on the phone tomorrow and enroll in a course to learn to sell real estate!”

Memorable Statement = eg for a speech to inform about going to Rome for your next holidays -  “I work hard, I deserve my holidays, I’m off to Rome, arriverderci!” 

A Memorable Statement can be a rhetorical question, a story, a quotation or illustration that emphasises the purpose of the speech.  It’s important that the speech has a strong finish.

Source: www.youthsspeak.com.au

Introduction

Perhaps the above is not reality however the ability to “think and speak” on your feet will be a tremendous asset to have in your business and daily life.  Eg meetings, presentations, supervising staff, interviews.  To successfully communicate your ideas in these situations you must be able to organise your thoughts quickly and present them in a clear and logical manner. 

The best way to be able to respond effectively to an unexpected request such as this is to practice, like most things in life.  You can always practice to yourself eg look around you and speak to yourself for 60 seconds on the first noun you see written.   

In each session of this course you will deliver a short impromptu speech, usually with the objective of it being from 60 to 90 seconds. 

What is Impromptu Speaking

What is Expected

• A good/dry sense of humour is good – a laugh from the audience settles everyone, but no sarcasm or anything else that risks offending or insulting your audience.  Don’t risk getting them offside.

• Don’t speak about what you don’t know ie don’t pretend, but at the same time don’t apologise for not knowing eg you can say “I don’t know but what I do know is…”.

When are you likely to be asked to speak Without Notice 

• At a staff meeting when you are asked to give an opinion or report on something without notice.  This is an opportunity to display your knowledge and competency.

• When your manager asks you, one on one, for an opinion or a report without notice. 

• When people learn that you are a member of a Speaking Club or have completed a Public Speaking Course.  So anticipate a speaking request.

• At social functions to celebrate a birthday, anniversary, wedding etc.  If you are a close friend of the guest(s) of honor, anticipate a speaking request.

• A business or sports function. 

• It is unlikely you will ever be asked to speak about something you are not familiar with. 

How to be Ready 

• Have standard responses or general strategies.  Refer under final sub-heading “Some other Predetermined Strategies for successful Impromptu Speaking”. 

What to do when you are asked to give an Impromptu Speech

Make sure you understand the question and make sure you answer it.  For clarity you can ask that the question be repeated.

Pause to be able to think.  If this is during a seminar, to enable you to momentarily think about the topic, you can: 

• Recognise the MC and the audience by saying for example “Mr MC , fellow colleagues, clients”.

• Restate the question.

• Think about the question as you are rising and stepping behind your chair.

• Respond saying “this is (not) something I was expecting to be asked / that’s a very good question”.

• Recognise it’s relevance or appropriateness or lack thereof.

• When stuck for words use: “that reminds me of”, “however what I do know and would like to say is..

• All of the above.

Appear to be confident, don’t be rushed, try to emulate how the confident person would react.

Rise with confidence.

Organise your thoughts.  Take a moment to determine your answer ie the main point of your answer, then support this view with 2 or 3 reasons.

Structure the mini-speech ie by having an Opening, Body & Closing.

Have a strong closing.

Some other Predetermined Strategies for successful Impromptu Speaking

Follow the PREP Method: 

• state your Point of view.

• give Reason for point of view.

• Explain how point of view came about.  Give your experience or other real life experience if possible.

• summarise what you said and repeat Point of view.

Follow the PPF (Past, Present, Future) Method:

• Start with “there was a time when…”.

• Develop with “But now we find that…”.

• Close with “In the future I expect…”.

The 3 Important Things Method.  Start with “There are 3 important things that come to mind about this subject…”.  This hopefully gives you a good start and you can start to think of some things while you are saying it.  If you think of one thing you have something to go on to and hopefully other thoughts will happen along the way.  If they don’t just say you forgot what they were, very confidently.

The Pros / Cons Method.  Start with “There are 2 sides to this argument…” and continue on, or start with  “I firmly believe that…but on the other hand”.

The 6 Question Method.  Ask yourself:” Who, What, When, Why, Where & How” as you are speaking to jog your memory.

Source: www.youthsspeak.com.au

When you engage audience in eye contact they think you are sincere, friendly, credible and honest.  This will help your message being listened to and believed.

• You make the audience feel welcome and important with eye contact.  The audience members know you know they are there ie good eye contact is like saying, “I know you are there, and I am speaking to you and you are important”.

• You can maintain the audience’s attention with eye contact.  This is particularly important in long technical presentations.  You can also use eye contact to wake up an audience member.

• With experience learn to hold eye contact rather than give “glancing” eye contact.

• Learn what is an appropriate length of time to maintain eye contact.  Maintaining eye contact on one person for too long may make the recipient feel uncomfortable and embarrassed.

• When speaking to a large audience give solid eye contact to a handful rather than glancing eye contact to everyone. 

• Your eye contact should include everyone and everyone equally.  There is a tendency to fix eye contact on dominating audience members or an audience member who has asked a question.

• Don’t become predictable with where your eye contact is going and don’t concentrate your eye contact on one small section of the room or one side of the room for too long (particularly when you might be using eye contact to keep people’s attention in a long presentation).

Source: www.youthsspeak.com.au

(assuming a non-work speech) 

• Talk about yourself, or a part of your life – failures as well as successes as we can all more readily relate to human weakness stories although we are inspired by success stories.  The more personal you get, the more interested the audience will be.

• Select a topic you are familiar with or interested in, particularly a subject that you have strong views on – life is difficult enough so select a topic you know. 

• Select a topic from your interests ie hobby or from your employment. 

• Draw on your own experiences or experiences of family / friends eg something that has happened to you, your past holidays, something you do each day. 

• Select a topic relevant to the audience.  If you don’t know your audience – find out.  The topic can be an audience need or of general interest to them. 

• Ascertain the audience’s level of knowledge on the subject to know your starting point.

• Know precisely the point you want to make. 

• All of the points made in the speech should relate directly to the overall point you are trying to make. 

• Once decided, don’t change the topic close to the delivery of the speech date.  Go with what you have and do the best you can with it.

• Research topic using any means eg library, Internet etc. 

• If you are advancing arguments that can be supported by statistics, do so and quote the source.

Source: www.youthsspeak.com.au

“For every minute of speaking I spend at least one hour of preparation” -- Winston Churchill

Importance

The American communications guru John Maxwell claims that there are 4 things that an audience won’t forgive you for, and one of these is not to be prepared (the others are not to be committed, not to be comfortable and not to be interesting).  It’s imperative to be prepared.

Public Speaking requires preparation and practice the same as in other areas of life eg sport.  If you don’t prepare and practice it, you can’t expect to deliver a speech as well as you might.

Prepare Early

Prepare early and not at the last minute.  There are no problems with preparing a speech early and leaving it.  It will take little time to refresh your memory, all the hard work has been done.  A benefit of preparing it early is that you are unlikely to leave it completely.  You will occasionally go through it in your mind which means you will get to know the speech thoroughly.  Ideally you will have decided what you want to say several days prior to delivering it.  This will leave you these days to go through it in your mind, under no pressure of time.  A thoroughly prepared speech gives you the best chance of delivering a speech well and this in turn enhances your general speaking confidence.

Steps in Preparing a Speech

The first step is to plan the timing.  In the Tutorial on Speech Structure you learnt that each speech should have an Opening, Body and Closing.  If you have been allocated a 5 minute speech, allow 30 seconds for the Opening, 4 minutes for the Body and 30 seconds for the Closing.  Allow 1 minute per main point, this means 4 main points are needed. 

The second step is to select a topic (refer to the Tutorial on Selecting A Topic).  Select it and write it down.  Make sure the topic is specific and not general eg “my next holiday” and not “holidays”.

Once the topic is selected jot down a general plan of how the speech may be shaped without specifics eg:

Main Point 1: I’m not going where I’ve been in the past, name the places.
Main Point 2: I’m only going where I can afford to go, name possibilities.
Main Point 3: List desired attributes of a holiday destination.
Main Point 4: Announce where you are going and what you will do there. 

Brainstorm jotting down any other main points for consideration and all sub-points, which are directly relevant to the topic, and that you would like to include in your speech.  It’s a good idea to carry paper and a pencil with you at all times because sometimes ideas for a speech come at any time. 

Put together and structure the speech, in point or abbreviated form, as per the tutorial on Speech Structure and consider a joining phrase (for the example above it could be “for my next holiday…”).  You may think of this as your first draft. 

Speech Notes

Remember that you are delivering a speech, not a reading.  At the time of delivery, the speech notes to be used should be in point form on one piece of paper or on small cards able to fit comfortably in the palm of your hand.  Point form means a key word or key words to serve as a prompt for you to remember the main or sub-points.  If you use cards, number them, in case you drop them.  If you will be using a lectern, an A4 sheet will fit comfortably on the lectern and not be noticeable.  However if there is no lectern, cards should be used.

How you arrive at the speech notes in point form may depend on your experience.  The inexperienced speaker may want to write the speech out completely, make adjustments and then break it up back into point form.   In fact writing the speech out is a good idea as it can give you a better feel for the speech.  Remember that everything in the speech should relate directly to the topic.

Practicing the Speech

Once in point form, start practicing it.  Never try to memorise the entire speech word for word, that is courting disaster.  No matter how little preparation time you have, always try to practice it out loud at least once.  Practicing to yourself is good but you will tend to go a lot quicker than out loud.  Remember that you have a time constraint and particularly if you are speaking at a seminar you shouldn’t speak beyond your allotted time.

Find a target in front of which you can practice at least once eg friend, spouse etc.  This will always be more difficult than speaking to yourself and you will certainly find out the parts of your speech you know well and parts you don’t know well.  For the other times, stick A4 faces on the wall and speak to the faces.

Memorise the Opening, main points and sub-points of the Body, and the Closing.  Go over these when you are spending non-productive time eg washing the dishes, driving home from work.  Memorising the opening is vital as it is imperative that the speech gets off to a great start.

When you are very confident that you know your speech, rehearse it in your mind backwards ie in the order of: Closing, final main point etc.  This will guard against knowing the start well but the end not so well if you have a habit of practising the start without often arriving at the end.

The last rehearsal should be done as close as possible to the time of actual delivery.  It’s good that it sits on your brain percolating.  Go through it in your mind just prior to delivering the speech.

Audio Tape your Speech

I strongly recommend that you audio tape the speech.  On listening back you will become aware of areas that you thought were clear but that you now think an audience may have difficulty understanding.  Also you may become aware of words which aren’t pronounced well, areas where it may be appropriate to pause and areas where you are rushing perhaps because there is too much information.  If you are to err on providing less or more information, err on providing less as the speech will usually take a little longer than it took practising.  It seems to happen that way. 

After settling on your speech you can listen to your speech on a walkman from time to time.  This will assist in thoroughly knowing your speech and it is not as hard work as saying the speech to yourself.

Remember (your speech but also the following)

• Make 2 copies of your speech in case one is misplaced on your way to or at the speech venue.

• A well prepared speech that is delivered just as you want it will provide you with a lot of confidence.

• A not so well prepared speech can be a demoralising experience.

Source: www.youthsspeak.com.au

John Maxwell, the renowned American communications expert, believes that there are 4 things that an audience will never forgive a speaker for:

1.If the speaker is unprepared.

2.If the speaker is uncomfortable (not confident and fidgety).

3.If the speaker is not committed (not speaking with conviction).

4.If the speaker is uninteresting.

The following are some of the ways a speech can be made more interesting and also ways that will give you a greater chance of retaining the audience’s concentration.  These are some speech attributes that have an impact on the audience:

In time, the audience will remember how they felt and not what they heard.  So be nice to them.  Treat them as you would like to be treated.

• Have structure to your speech ie opening, body, conclusion.

  - The opening has to include the whole point to the speech.  If you get into a car you want to know where it’s going.  Just like that, an audience wants to know where the speech is going.

  - The Opening should have an attention grabber to get the audience’s attention immediately.

  - Eg “You are in for the ride of your life” attributed to Malcolm Blight the ex coach of the StKilda Football club.  He could have said, “Supporters can look forward to some reasonable years ahead”.
   

• Make the audience feel important eg engaging eye contact, mention audience member’s names, introduce yourself before the presentation to get to know them.

  - A non-threatening method to meet the audience is to hand out business card / program / brochure prior to a presentation.
   

• The purpose of the speech is absolutely clear:

  -Make sure that the audience member walks away in no doubt what the point of the speech was.  To assist towards this end, use joining phrases to start each main point.  For example if the speech is to inform the audience that you are going to Rome for your next holiday, start each main point with:  “I am going to Rome because…”.
   

• Extraordinary Happenings

  An audience will be more interested in your dinner last night with the Martians than what you had on your toast for breakfast.
   

• Confidence

  - A confident speaker inspires an audience.  Keep speaking to enhance confidence.
   

• Real life experience

  - This arouses audience interest, even more so if it is your real life experience you are sharing.
   

• Clarity of image

  - Use examples, anecdotes, hand gestures, body gestures etc to help the audience have a vivid picture of your idea.
   

• Relevance to audience

  - Ballet training may not be an appropriate subject to an audience of Hell’s Angels bikies.
   

• Story / speech with suspense, twists, surprises

  - Obviously if the speech is a story where the ending cannot be told at the  start, then don’t do so.  However in the opening, set the scene for the audience.
   

• Human weakness

  - Eg an audience is impressed with hearing stories of human weakness.  We can all relate to them.  Eg the time you arrived back at work intoxicated to find a message on your desk that your boss wanted to see you immediately.
   

• Enthusiasm / Passion

  An audience is impressed with a speaker who likes what he’s talking about and is happy to show it.  An audience will be let down if you don’t give it everything you’ve got.
   

• Animation

  - An audience will be persuaded more with body language than words.
   

• Vocal Variety eg, volume, speed, tone, pause, a pleasant voice

  - The audience will lose interest quickly if the speaker doesn’t sound interesting.
  - Humm one song a day to make the voice more pleasant and stronger.
   

• Make Vivid descriptions

  - You can say “it was a nice day” but you are more likely to maintain and arouse audience attention if the description was “it was a day out of the box, the sunshine was continuous and the birds couldn’t stop singing” or you can use “glorious”, “breathtaking” or “fabulous” rather than “nice”.

  - It’s not a matter of exaggerating but a matter of describing with more vividness, more colour.  Paint a picture for the audience so they know better what you are talking about.  The croissant was delectable (it was also nice)

Source: www.youthsspeak.com.au

Visual aids help divert attention away from the speaker.  In a long presentation this is a good thing for both speaker and the audience.  This is because the audience will tire of the speaker no matter how good a speaker is.  One of the principal aims of this course is for the participants to be “under the spotlight” for their entire speaking time ie to build up confidence.  Therefore diversionary tactics such as visual aids are not encouraged, in this course, other than using an object to describe so as to use Body Language.

Benefits

• They Increase Understanding.  Learning occurs more through watching than listening.

• Saves Time.  One picture is worth 1,000 words.  People process quicker information provided visually rather than verbally.

• Information is Retained.  Surveys show that people can digest and retain information from what we read, hear and see in the following proportions:

  •  What we read             10%

  •  What we hear             20%

  •  What we see               30%

  •  What we hear and see 50%

       - People only remember 10% of verbal messages a week after a presentation. 

• Promotes Attentiveness.  People think faster than you speak, so minds can wander when you are speaking.  Visuals help the audience maintain focus on your message. 

• Interesting / Memorable.  Visuals add variety to a presentation and this makes it more interesting and more memorable. 

• Helps the presenter control nerves.  Nervous energy is spent without distracting the audience with fidgety actions such as pacing, rocking, swaying and playing with notes. 

Types of Visual Aids  /  Tips

Whiteboard

• Write in dark colours ie blue, black.

• Make sure writing is readable.

Flipchart

• Useful to use as you can’t see the part of the presentation that follows.

• Make sure the writing is legible.

• Stop talking to audience when you turn your back to flip over.

Overhead Projector

• Make sure unit is working, focused and set up correctly before starting.

• Always have a spare bulb handy.

• Turn off when not in use.

• Speak to the audience and not to the screen.

• Make sure overheads are laid out in correct order before use.

Slide Projector

• Same as overhead projector.

• Make sure slides are numbered in order of viewing.

Video Cassette / Television

• Test video is working prior to presentation.

• Make sure tape is in correct position to start.

• Ensure audio capacity is satisfactory.

Visual

• This can be a large picture, diagram, graph etc.

• Make sure it is positioned so entire audience can see it.

• Do not stand in front of visual.

• Make sure it is clearly visible from the furthermost point in the room.

An Object 

• ie  the object you are speaking about.

• Make sure it is positioned so entire audience can see it.

Handouts 

• It is preferable to hand out at the end of presentation.

• Announce if there are handouts at the start of the presentation.

General Tips 

• Always make sure you are not obstructing the view of your audience by standing -in front of any visual aids.

• Always talk to the audience – not the aid.

• Make sure any text is clearly visible from the back of the room.

• Make sure the aid is relevant to the presentation.

• When using a visual aid with text follow the 7/7 rule:

  • 7 Words per line maximum

  • 7 Words per visual maximum

  • The less words the better

• Use colour to highlight points, but avoid too many colours.

• Ensure that any equipment you are going to use is operating OK, practice it several times and preferably well before the start of then presentation.

Source: www.youthsspeak.com.au

The following attributes will assist in quickly putting your audience at ease.  They are attributes irrespective of the substance of your message, the words you say and the structure of your speech.  These attributes will give you a head start no matter what your message is and how well it is articulated:

• Appropriate dress
  - A well-dressed speaker will inspire an audience
  - Dress to impress but not to intimidate

• An introduction prior to the presentation.
  - Introduce yourself to members of the audience prior to your presentation.  The presentation becomes more personal.  You don’t have to be Mr/Ms Personality to do this.  Think of a non-threatening way of meeting them eg stand at the door as they arrive and hand them a program / business card / a welcoming smile.  Perhaps you could be writing out the name-tags as they wait.  Idle chat starts while this occurs.
   

• Confidence
  - Keep speaking and working on your Public Speaking technique.  This will improve confidence.  Ask different people to evaluate you and give feedback.
   

• Authority / Credibility
  - Be introduced so your credentials are known.  Self praise is no recommendation so write your own introduction and give it to the MC.  This will help the MC and you are more likely to be introduced as you would like.  Before addressing an intimidating audience is no time for false modesty.
  - Speak with an air of authority (however not the knower of all).
   

• Don’t appear rushed, troubled or stressed ie the positive, half glass full approach, no complaining type.
  - An audience doesn’t like to see a mirror image of themselves.  Like watching a film, they want some escape from reality.
   

• Enthusiasm / Passionate / Appears to like what he/she is talking about.
  - An audience finds it difficult not to be inspired by this quality.
   

• Sincerity / Genuine Concern
  - Again, an audience finds it difficult not to be inspired by this quality..

Source: www.youthsspeak.com.au

Body Language includes hand and arm gestures, facial expression (including eye contact which is covered in a separate Tutorial) and any other body movement.  It is all non-verbal communication.  

Body Language in a speech serves 3 purposes.  

1.      It illustrates and emphasises what you are saying in your speech.

2.      It makes a speech more interesting, ie it will assist in keeping the audience’s attention. 

3.      It helps release nervous energy which goes towards settling the nerves.

Actions speak louder than words   /   Seeing is believing

An American University (UCLA) research into communications showed that an audience is influenced by a speaker in the following percentages: 

-     Spoken Words             7 %

-     Voice                          38 %

-     Body Language            55 %

ie incredibly, spoken words account for only 7% of what will be believed.

• So how you say the spoken words is important, in order to get your message across and believed, but even more important than that is your Body Language.    

• An audience will be unimpressed if the speaker is not giving everything they’ve got ie with voice and body. 

• A speaker’s voice and body language should match the spoken word.  He/she should be speaking with everything that he/she has got eg enthusiasm, passion, sincerity, emotion with both voice and body.  For example say out loud:

 This is what I believe

• First say it with no with passion and secondly with passion in the voice and with fully body language particularly the use of arms and facial expression.  Feel the difference?  The audience will be influenced very little on the words alone.  They will be more influenced by the tone of what you say and the body language they see. 

• It’s important to use body language within your range of what is natural.  If you want to expand the parameters of your range, exaggerate and be theatrical while speaking at a Speaking Club. 

• If a speaker is speaking sincerely on a topic but standing stiffly without any body language, the audience will believe what they see and not think the speaker is sincere and therefore ignore the message. 

• The body language should always match the words at the appropriate moment.  The most difficult aspect is appearing natural when first incorporating body language into speeches.  Rehearsing will help but don’t worry if at first you have to force the body language to happen rather than it occurring naturally.  Rehearsing in front of a mirror is a good idea.

• Keeping your hands by your side or resting them on the lectern will have them ready for action.  This is better than having them in your pockets or clenched behind your back where they aren’t in a position to be ready to start working.      

• Avoid pacing, rocking, swaying, or leaning / slouching on the lectern as this will be distracting to the audience, a sign of nerves and will prevent the upper body from using body language.  If the bottom half of the body is moving, the top half of the body (the important half) will not be able to spring into action naturally.  Practice finding a stance that is comfortable.  If it is comfortable for you then the audience will also find it comfortable.  Except when you want to walk from one place to the other, keep from the hips down unwaveringly still.   When you have increased your confidence from speaking in front of an audience several times, you will find that your hands, arms and body will start to move naturally.  This is less likely to happen if there isn’t a solid platform (ie bottom half of the body).

• Don’t be afraid to make large, bold gestures.  The larger the audience the larger that the gestures and body movement needs to be in order to be effective.

Gestures 

Gestures are the use of hands and arms to illustrate your words.  There are 4 main groups of gestures: 

Descriptive Gestures

Used to clarify or enhance.  They help visualise size, weight, shape, location, function, direction etc.

Emphatic Gestures

- Moving forward a clenched fist suggests strong feelings, such as anger or
 determination
- Hit your fist into your open palm to show importance or urgency
- A folding of arms illustrates strength and determination 
- Clasping your hands together in front of your chest conveys unity
- A forefinger pointed towards the ceiling means listen to me
- Show your clenched fist to urge action. 

Suggestive Gestures 

These are symbols of ideas or emotions. 

- An open palm suggests giving or receiving.

- A shrug of the shoulders indicates ignorance, perplexity or irony.

- Comparison and contrast can be illustrated by either moving hands in unison or in opposite directions.

Prompting Gestures

These prompt or evoke a desired response from the audience.  If you want your listeners to raise their hand, applaud or perform some action, you’ll enhance the response by doing it yourself as an example. 

Facial Expression 

Your face communicates your attitude, feelings and emotions.  Don’t be scared to look angry, look disappointed, to smile etc.  In particular, smile.  Smiling conveys warmth and sincerity and makes the audience more receptive to what you are saying.

Settling Nerves

Use your nervous energy, particularly at the start of your speech when you are more nervous, to making controlled body language.  This is a better way than fidgeting with papers, adjusting items of clothing, pacing etc.  It will not be distracting for the audience and will help get your message across. 

Source: www.youthsspeak.com.au

The following are outlines of Speech Structure samples. You can use the structures as outlined or use a combination of them.