How to Give a Good Speech
1. First, do some online research. Find reliable, useful and interesting information about your topic.
2. Plan what to say. An effective speech must be prepared well in advance. You can write your speech but you should never read it. However, it will be very helpful if you could write a good outline of your presentation.
3. Ask your friend to video your presentation (use your smartphone).
4. You should not think that you have to cram into a speech as many facts as possible. Your audience will not be able to remember them all. Speak fluently, clearly, loudly, and slowly. Pay attention to your pronunciation. Do not rush and do not panic. Make a pause. Give your audience (and yourself) a little time to think. Do not race through your presentation. It is not only you who needs a short rest. Your audience may feel tired and needs a rest too.
5. Use visual means if possible. You can use PowerPoint or handouts but you should not read everything from slides or notes. Show pictures, charts, diagrams or tables but discuss and explain them in your own words. Make your speech simple, logical, step-by-step and clear.
6. Take command. The audience should listen to you. Show your audience that you are holding the floor and you deserve full attention. The speaker who tries to do the job sitting down will not be respected by the audience. You must come out into the open. The audience wants to see as much of you as possible. They will then feel that you are confiding in them.
7. Relax. Even experienced lecturers or orators feel nervous each time they have to give a speech. But they never let stage fright show. An audience feels sorry for a panic-stricken speaker and gradually, listeners lose patience and attention. If you feel very anxious, uneasy and nervous, try to forget that it is you who is about to speak. Imagine that it is someone else, not you are the speaker.
8. Be friendly. Audiences are usually warm and kind to sociable and friendly, happy-looking and joyful speakers. Start with a smile. It switches on and motivates your audience, stimulates their attention. Add humor whenever appropriate and possible. Involve your audience. Keep your audience interested during the course of your presentation. Remember that an interesting speech makes time fly fast; a boring and tiresome speech always seems too long to suffer even if the presentation time is actually not long.
9. Keep eye contact with your audience. Have direct eye contact with a number of people in the audience, and from time to time, look at the whole audience while speaking. Use your eye contact in such a way that everyone would feel involved.
10. Watch your timing. Audiences never forgive and forget speakers who overrun and keep them from lunch. Eleven minutes is the maximum time for your speech. But do not look into your watch every two minutes. If you cannot see a clock on the wall in front of you, twist your watch round to the underside of your wrist for discreet time-checks. There’s a Latin proverb for the best possible advice on timing: “Praestate dicete et tacete” (in English: “Stand up, speak up and shut up”). If you feel, during your presentation, that you are short of time, quickly identify what you should leave out. If you have some extra time, try to identify what things could be effectively added. Always be prepared for something unexpected, unpredicted or surprising.
11. Stand confidently and straight in front of your audience. The most frequent question I get from students is: “What shall I do with my hands?” My answer is: “Take a pencil, a notebook or a book and keep it in your hands. And do not touch your head”.
12. Speak, but never read from your notes or slides. Reading is not the same as speaking. You should communicate with your audience but not with your notes. Eye contact with your audience is of vital importance. When you are giving your presentation in front of the audience, you are performing as an actor is on stage.
13. Speak to your audience, listen to their questions and actively respond to their reactions. Answer clearly and loudly even if the person who asked the question was sitting in front of you and was not speaking loudly enough. You must answer the question, but not only to that person. Your answer must be loud enough to be heard by all people. If the question was asked but not loudly enough, repeat the question loudly. Remember that communication with your audience is the key to a successful and positive presentation.
14. To finish your speech, summarize your basic points in a similar way as you usually do in the Conclusion of a written research essay. However, you should note that there is a slight difference between spoken language and formally written language intended for reading. Finish your speech with an attention-grabbing comment, an appropriate proverb or a famous quote. Leave your audience with a positive and optimistic impression and a sense of conclusion. Ask if they have any questions to ask (answer them, if they have). Express thanks to your audience and sit down.
15. Before you gave your speech, you asked someone to record/video it. So, it was recorded and now you have an excellent opportunity to improve your speaking skills very effectively, by watching yourself. When you are at home, at your own desktop or laptop, you can look at yourself and try to improve in areas that did not go well during your presentation. As you watch, try to pay attention to (and avoid in the future) the so-called verbal stalls such as "um", “mm”, “so”, “well” or "like." Watch your body language. Were you touching your face too often? Were you leaning heavily on one leg? Were you looking at the audience (or into your notes, or at the teacher)? Did you smile (not at all, or too often and too much)? Did you speak clearly all the time? How about your English language mistakes?
Basic Points to Remember
To become a good public speaker, use the following strategies:
1. Plan your speech
2. Practice (you can do it at home when you are alone in front of a mirror, with a friend, or video your speech)
3. Engage with your audience (keep eye contact, be friendly)
4. Pay attention to your body language
5. Always think positively
6. Cope with your nerves (hold a notebook in your hands)
7. Watch recordings of your speeches (when you are alone at home)
8. Practice makes perfect: everybody can learn to speak effectively in public
9. If you learn to speak well in public, it can help you get a good job or promotion in the future. The more you push yourself to speak in front of others, the better speaker you will become, and the more confidence you will have.
Public Speaking Will Improve Quality of Your Life
Effective public speaking skills will enable you to do the following:
1. Think critically. One of the very first benefits you will gain from your effective public speaking skills is an increased ability to think critically.
2. Communicate with colleagues and friends clearly. Many mistakes or misunderstandings often occur because people do not understand your ideas. You can be a person full of great ideas and good intentions, but if you cannot express these ideas clearly, nobody will know them. Good public speaking skills help you to express your ideas well and make them reach the listener effectively.
3. Build success in your professional life. Most company managers claim that they need to recruit people who possess good public speaking skills. Their promotions to the top management positions were related directly to their ability to communicate effectively. Successful public speakers usually have good leadership skills.
4. Conduct effective meetings and present original ideas clearly and efficiently. Organizing and running a meeting can be a very challenging task if you do not have public speaking skills.
5. Build general self-confidence. When you organize and communicate your ideas effectively, you show more self-confidence.
6. Raise your comfort level in diverse social and cultural environments. Social situations allow you to practice your public speaking skills. It is a well-known fact that those individuals who speak well are perceived as better looking.
7. Speak more confidently and positively on the phone. Research results show that over eighty-six percent of telephone messages are communicated through the tone of a person’s voice.
8. Become an effective member of an organization. At some point in your life, you may want to lead or participate in a social or professional organization. Your success within that organization will depend to a great extent on your ability to communicate with a group of people and keep their attention focused on certain issues in order to achieve mutual goals.
9. Establish trust, confidence, and respect from friends, colleagues or employees. Words have power. People often forget what you said but they will never forget how you said it. Your success in dealing with business partners, customers, or even your family members to a great extent depends on your speaking skills. Your ability to persuade people with words will help you to establish trust and respect.
1. First, do some online research. Find reliable, useful and interesting information about your topic.
2. Plan what to say. An effective speech must be prepared well in advance. You can write your speech but you should never read it. However, it will be very helpful if you could write a good outline of your presentation.
3. Ask your friend to video your presentation (use your smartphone).
4. You should not think that you have to cram into a speech as many facts as possible. Your audience will not be able to remember them all. Speak fluently, clearly, loudly, and slowly. Pay attention to your pronunciation. Do not rush and do not panic. Make a pause. Give your audience (and yourself) a little time to think. Do not race through your presentation. It is not only you who needs a short rest. Your audience may feel tired and needs a rest too.
5. Use visual means if possible. You can use PowerPoint or handouts but you should not read everything from slides or notes. Show pictures, charts, diagrams or tables but discuss and explain them in your own words. Make your speech simple, logical, step-by-step and clear.
6. Take command. The audience should listen to you. Show your audience that you are holding the floor and you deserve full attention. The speaker who tries to do the job sitting down will not be respected by the audience. You must come out into the open. The audience wants to see as much of you as possible. They will then feel that you are confiding in them.
7. Relax. Even experienced lecturers or orators feel nervous each time they have to give a speech. But they never let stage fright show. An audience feels sorry for a panic-stricken speaker and gradually, listeners lose patience and attention. If you feel very anxious, uneasy and nervous, try to forget that it is you who is about to speak. Imagine that it is someone else, not you are the speaker.
8. Be friendly. Audiences are usually warm and kind to sociable and friendly, happy-looking and joyful speakers. Start with a smile. It switches on and motivates your audience, stimulates their attention. Add humor whenever appropriate and possible. Involve your audience. Keep your audience interested during the course of your presentation. Remember that an interesting speech makes time fly fast; a boring and tiresome speech always seems too long to suffer even if the presentation time is actually not long.
9. Keep eye contact with your audience. Have direct eye contact with a number of people in the audience, and from time to time, look at the whole audience while speaking. Use your eye contact in such a way that everyone would feel involved.
10. Watch your timing. Audiences never forgive and forget speakers who overrun and keep them from lunch. Eleven minutes is the maximum time for your speech. But do not look into your watch every two minutes. If you cannot see a clock on the wall in front of you, twist your watch round to the underside of your wrist for discreet time-checks. There’s a Latin proverb for the best possible advice on timing: “Praestate dicete et tacete” (in English: “Stand up, speak up and shut up”). If you feel, during your presentation, that you are short of time, quickly identify what you should leave out. If you have some extra time, try to identify what things could be effectively added. Always be prepared for something unexpected, unpredicted or surprising.
11. Stand confidently and straight in front of your audience. The most frequent question I get from students is: “What shall I do with my hands?” My answer is: “Take a pencil, a notebook or a book and keep it in your hands. And do not touch your head”.
12. Speak, but never read from your notes or slides. Reading is not the same as speaking. You should communicate with your audience but not with your notes. Eye contact with your audience is of vital importance. When you are giving your presentation in front of the audience, you are performing as an actor is on stage.
13. Speak to your audience, listen to their questions and actively respond to their reactions. Answer clearly and loudly even if the person who asked the question was sitting in front of you and was not speaking loudly enough. You must answer the question, but not only to that person. Your answer must be loud enough to be heard by all people. If the question was asked but not loudly enough, repeat the question loudly. Remember that communication with your audience is the key to a successful and positive presentation.
14. To finish your speech, summarize your basic points in a similar way as you usually do in the Conclusion of a written research essay. However, you should note that there is a slight difference between spoken language and formally written language intended for reading. Finish your speech with an attention-grabbing comment, an appropriate proverb or a famous quote. Leave your audience with a positive and optimistic impression and a sense of conclusion. Ask if they have any questions to ask (answer them, if they have). Express thanks to your audience and sit down.
15. Before you gave your speech, you asked someone to record/video it. So, it was recorded and now you have an excellent opportunity to improve your speaking skills very effectively, by watching yourself. When you are at home, at your own desktop or laptop, you can look at yourself and try to improve in areas that did not go well during your presentation. As you watch, try to pay attention to (and avoid in the future) the so-called verbal stalls such as "um", “mm”, “so”, “well” or "like." Watch your body language. Were you touching your face too often? Were you leaning heavily on one leg? Were you looking at the audience (or into your notes, or at the teacher)? Did you smile (not at all, or too often and too much)? Did you speak clearly all the time? How about your English language mistakes?
Basic Points to Remember
To become a good public speaker, use the following strategies:
1. Plan your speech
2. Practice (you can do it at home when you are alone in front of a mirror, with a friend, or video your speech)
3. Engage with your audience (keep eye contact, be friendly)
4. Pay attention to your body language
5. Always think positively
6. Cope with your nerves (hold a notebook in your hands)
7. Watch recordings of your speeches (when you are alone at home)
8. Practice makes perfect: everybody can learn to speak effectively in public
9. If you learn to speak well in public, it can help you get a good job or promotion in the future. The more you push yourself to speak in front of others, the better speaker you will become, and the more confidence you will have.
Public Speaking Will Improve Quality of Your Life
Effective public speaking skills will enable you to do the following:
1. Think critically. One of the very first benefits you will gain from your effective public speaking skills is an increased ability to think critically.
2. Communicate with colleagues and friends clearly. Many mistakes or misunderstandings often occur because people do not understand your ideas. You can be a person full of great ideas and good intentions, but if you cannot express these ideas clearly, nobody will know them. Good public speaking skills help you to express your ideas well and make them reach the listener effectively.
3. Build success in your professional life. Most company managers claim that they need to recruit people who possess good public speaking skills. Their promotions to the top management positions were related directly to their ability to communicate effectively. Successful public speakers usually have good leadership skills.
4. Conduct effective meetings and present original ideas clearly and efficiently. Organizing and running a meeting can be a very challenging task if you do not have public speaking skills.
5. Build general self-confidence. When you organize and communicate your ideas effectively, you show more self-confidence.
6. Raise your comfort level in diverse social and cultural environments. Social situations allow you to practice your public speaking skills. It is a well-known fact that those individuals who speak well are perceived as better looking.
7. Speak more confidently and positively on the phone. Research results show that over eighty-six percent of telephone messages are communicated through the tone of a person’s voice.
8. Become an effective member of an organization. At some point in your life, you may want to lead or participate in a social or professional organization. Your success within that organization will depend to a great extent on your ability to communicate with a group of people and keep their attention focused on certain issues in order to achieve mutual goals.
9. Establish trust, confidence, and respect from friends, colleagues or employees. Words have power. People often forget what you said but they will never forget how you said it. Your success in dealing with business partners, customers, or even your family members to a great extent depends on your speaking skills. Your ability to persuade people with words will help you to establish trust and respect.
Watch and Learn How to Speak Effectively
(Click and watch)
How to Start a Speech
Julian Treasure: How to speak so that people want to listen
Martin Luther King, I Have A Dream Speech (short version)
Martin Luther King (full speech)
The 7 secrets of the greatest speakers in history
Amanda Palmer: The Art of Asking
How to Discuss a Topic in a Group
How to Talk about a Topic Intelligently
5 Strategies to Improve Your English Listening Skills
Jobs
PowerPoint Problems
Good Presentations
Taking Notes
(Click and watch)
How to Start a Speech
Julian Treasure: How to speak so that people want to listen
Martin Luther King, I Have A Dream Speech (short version)
Martin Luther King (full speech)
The 7 secrets of the greatest speakers in history
Amanda Palmer: The Art of Asking
How to Discuss a Topic in a Group
How to Talk about a Topic Intelligently
5 Strategies to Improve Your English Listening Skills
Bad Presentations
Watch the first 2-3 minutes of each video and write down the problems with these presentations. What are the speakers doing that make these bad presentations?
Funny presentation training: How many errors can you find? Click HERE to watch.
PowerPoint Problems
Good Presentations
Niall Ferguson: The 6 killer apps of prosperity
Taking Notes
