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Know the needs of your audience and match your contents to their needs. Know your material thoroughly. Put what you have to say in a logical sequence. Ensure your speech will be captivating to your audience as well as worth their time and attention. Practice and rehearse your speech at home or where you can be at ease and comfortable, in front of a mirror, your family, friends or colleagues. Use a tape-recorder and listen to yourself. Videotape your presentation and analyze it. Know what your strong and weak points are. Emphasize your strong points during your presentation.
When you are presenting in front of an audience, you are performing as an actor is on stage. How you are being perceived is very important. Dress appropriately for the occasion. Be solemn if your topic is serious. Present the desired image to your audience. Look pleasant, enthusiastic, confident, proud, but not arrogant. Remain calm. Appear relaxed, even if you feel nervous. Speak slowly, enunciate clearly, and show appropriate emotion and feeling relating to your topic. Establish rapport with your audience. Speak to the person farthest away from you to ensure your voice is loud enough to project to the back of the room. Vary the tone of your voice and dramatize if necessary. If a microphone is available, adjust and adapt your voice accordingly.
Body language is important. Standing, walking or moving about with appropriate hand gesture or facial expression is preferred to sitting down or standing still with head down and reading from a prepared speech. Use audio-visual aids or props for enhancement if appropriate and necessary. Master the use of presentation software such as PowerPoint well before your presentation. Do not over-dazzle your audience with excessive use of animation, sound clips, or gaudy colors which are inappropriate for your topic. Do not torture your audience by putting a lengthy document in tiny print on an overhead and reading it out to them.
Speak with conviction as if you really believe in what you are saying. Persuade your audience effectively. The material you present orally should have the same ingredients as that which are required for a written research paper, i.e. a logical progression from INTRODUCTION (Thesis statement) to BODY (strong supporting arguments, accurate and up-to-date information) to CONCLUSION (re-state thesis, summary, and logical conclusion).
Do not read from notes for any extended length of time although it is quite acceptable to glance at your notes infrequently. Speak loudly and clearly. Sound confident. Do not mumble. If you made an error, correct it, and continue. No need to make excuses or apologize profusely.
Maintain sincere eye contact with your audience. Use the 3-second method, e.g. look straight into the eyes of a person in the audience for 3 seconds at a time. Have direct eye contact with a number of people in the audience, and every now and then glance at the whole audience while speaking. Use your eye contact to make everyone in your audience feel involved.
Speak to your audience, listen to their questions, respond to their reactions, adjust and adapt. If what you have prepared is obviously not getting across to your audience, change your strategy mid-stream if you are well prepared to do so. Remember that communication is the key to a successful presentation. If you are short of time, know what can be safely left out. If you have extra time, know what could be effectively added. Always be prepared for the unexpected.
Pause. Allow yourself and your audience a little time to reflect and think. Don't race through your presentation and leave your audience, as well as yourself, feeling out of breath.
Add humor whenever appropriate and possible. Keep audience interested throughout your entire presentation. Remember that an interesting speech makes time fly, but a boring speech is always too long to endure even if the presentation time is the same.
When using audio-visual aids to enhance your presentation, be sure all necessary equipment is set up and in good working order prior to the presentation. If possible, have an emergency backup system readily available. Check out the location ahead of time to ensure seating arrangements for audience, whiteboard, blackboard, lighting, location of projection screen, sound system, etc. are suitable for your presentation.
Have handouts ready and give them out at the appropriate time. Tell audience ahead of time that you will be giving out an outline of your presentation so that they will not waste time taking unnecessary notes during your presentation.
Know when to STOP talking. Use a timer or the microwave oven clock to time your presentation when preparing it at home. Just as you don't use unnecessary words in your written paper, you don't bore your audience with repetitious or unnecessary words in your oral presentation. To end your presentation, summarize your main points in the same way as you normally do in the CONCLUSION of a written paper. Remember, however, that there is a difference between spoken words appropriate for the ear and formally written words intended for reading. Terminate your presentation with an interesting remark or an appropriate punch line. Leave your listeners with a positive impression and a sense of completion. Do not belabor your closing remarks. Thank your audience and sit down.
Have the written portion of your assignment or report ready for your instructor if required.
Advanced Public Speaking Institute. Free Articles on Public Speaking. Include:
Allyn and Bacon's Public Speaking Website contains five modules that help you prepare your speeches.
The Art of Public Speaking by Stephen E. Lucas, from Online Learning Center, McGraw-Hill. Listen to Top 100 American Speeches. Includes PowerPoint Tutorials, Bibliography Formats (in PDF), Questionnaire Maker, Glossary, Speech Evaluation Forms, Worksheets.
Art of Speaking in Public by Mahavir Mohnot, India. Contents: Speaking in Public Confidently, Checklist for a Good Speaker, Tips to Prepare Your Speech, How to Deliver a Speech, More Tips for Effective Speaking, Formal Speeches, Motivational Speech, Rhyme & Chime of Public Speaking, Links to Famous Speeches: John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mark Anthony, and Nehru.
Better Public Speaking & Presentation - Ensure Your Words Are Always Understood by Kellie Fowler, from Mind Tools. Being prepared: Guidelines for Thinking Ahead: Ask yourself: Who? What? How? When? Where? Why?
Big Dog's Leadership Page - Presentation Skills by Donald R. Clark. Contents: Introduction, The Voice, The Body, Active Listening, Nerves, Questions, Preparing the Presentation, Habits, Tips and Techniques for Great Presentations, Templates.
Brian Carter's Public Speaking Tips. Public speaking resource with articles, tips, sample topics, and speech examples.
Business: Public Speaking from The Sideroad. Includes:
Don't Burn Your Toast by Gary Drevitch, FreelanceDad. Advice: No need to stress over a big speech. Brainstorm. Know your audience. Get it on paper. Enter laughing, leave 'em crying. Timing is everything.
Effective Presentations by Erin B. Lindsay. UCLA Sponsored Research. Includes practical tips on effective slide presentation such as: Seven words a line, seven lines a slide.
Elements of an Effective Speech by Lenny Laskowski.
Gifts of Speech: Women's Speeches from Around the World. Browse alphabetically By Last Name, or browse chronologically By Year (1948-1979) to view Featured Speakers and their speeches.
How to Be Great at Public Speaking and Get Paid for It by Tom Antion.
How to Conquer Public Speaking Fear by Morton C. Orman, M.D.
Oliver Law of Public Speaking: A closed mouth gathers no feet. From The Laws of Life.
On the Job: Public Speaking Tips - Twelve Steps to Great Presentations by Elise Bauer.
Oral Presentations from University of New Brunswick, CA.
Presentation Helper. Help and advice for your presentations.
Presentation Skills for Emergent Managers by Gerard M Blair. Presentations viewed as one of the first managerial skills needed by an emergent manager. Fnd out what a presentation can do for you.
Presenters University Archive - Articles on improving your presentation skills. Tutorials give you step-by-step "how to" instructions to add special features to your next presentation.
Presenting Smart: Keeping the Goal in Sight by John Windsor.
Public Speaking by Mr. Meeks, English Faculty, Arcanum High School, Arcanum, OH. Speakers who are ill prepared tend to be nervous. Nervousness leads to anxiety and forgetfulness. Anxiety and forgetfulness lead to nervousness which leads to anxiety and forgetfulness ... The answer is to understand public speaking and learn how to control your feelings so as to make a good showing.
Public Speaking - The Art of Speech Making. Hints and tips on public speaking, public speaking nerves and anxiety. From Impact Factory - the home of presentation skills, leadership development and communication training.
Public Speaking Fears from Uncommon Knowledge. Other articles include: Public Speaking Anxiety, Exercise: Responding to Public Speaking with Calmness, not Fear, Avoiding Major Public Speaking Mistakes, Dealing with a Difficult Audience and Tough Questions when Speaking in Public, Public Speaking Preparation, Public Speaking Tips.
Public Speaking Tips. 10 tips for effective speaking from Character Counts! (CC!) Josephson Institute of Ethics.
Speaking Tips by Stephen M. Fournier. Contents: General Tips, Opening and Closing, The Speech Body, Body Language, Vocal Variety, More on Voice, Nervousness.
Speaker Tips: Change Your Attitude to Fight "Stage Fright" and The Three Fundamentals of Selling Your Message: Persuading your audience without tricking them by Ron Sathoff. (Scroll down page to view articles).
Speech & Video - Great Speeches. Some 589 speeches available from the History Channel. Hear the Words that Changed the World. Listen to Audio. Vast collection of speeches drawn from famous broadcasts and recordings of the 20th century. Categories: Politics & Government; Science & Technology; Arts, Entertainment & Culture; War & Diplomacy.
Speech Topics Help, Advice & Ideas - The Speech Topics Guru Lists with 1,150+ topic ideas and tips, how to guides, tutorials and other speech writing guidelines and information.
Speeches: Presentation from About.com. Use these tips and techniques to help with your speech presentations.
SpeechTips.com. Free guide to speech writing and public speaking. Step 1: Planning, Step 2: Writing, Step 3: Delivery.
Strategies to Succeed in Public Speaking from School for Champions. Includes: Overcome the Fear of Speaking to Groups by Ron Kurtus, A Short Guide to Effective Public Speaking by Stephen D. Boyd, Succeed by Studying Great Speeches with links to great speeches from 1800s to 2000s, Strategies to Succeed in Writing, and more.
Toastmasters International: 10 Tips for Successful Public Speaking. World Champions of Public Speaking - List of winners from 1938 on, Toastmaster International District Web Sites. Find a Toastmasters Club. Began in 1924 at the YMCA in Santa Ana, CA, Toastmasters International today has 220,000 members in more than 11,300 clubs meeting in 90 countries.
