Public Speaking:

7 Secrets of Great Public Speakers -Article

By Ranju Kumar Published 01/19/2008

The major secret of great speakers is that they do not think about themselves during a talk. Great speakers prepare and practice before the big event and when the big event comes, they think about their audience. 

At its core, public speaking is not about your image or ego. It is about communicating a message and that means connecting with an audience. 

Here are seven ways of creating an experience that will wow audiences and make sure they come away with your message: 

1. Respect Your Audience.This means you view your audience as your equals. You neither look down on them nor crawl before them in hopes of winning their approval. You make some effort to find out what information they already have. That way, you can offer a presentation that gives them something new and does not insult their intelligence. 

2. Listen to the Audience. Communication is a two-way street. Even when you are the only one talking, your audience will communicate with you through facial expressions and body language. Listen to these communications, so that you can give the audience what they need. If you see a lot of confused looks, slow down, back up and repeat your last statement. If you see sleepy body language, speak up, use gestures and visual aids to inject energy into the room. 

3. Maximize Learning. The most effective speeches cover enough material to be engaging, but not too much. Ideally, you should make three to five clear points, but never more than seven. Give an overview of the main points in your introduction and a recap of them in your conclusion. The rest of your material should be facts that accurately support those points. If you can state the main points concisely, your audience can learn them. 

 
4. Speak Their Language.In most cases, the shortest, most direct words are the best. However, there are some situations that call for academic, technical or other jargon. Even in the most academic settings though, listeners appreciate easy to remember words and phrases. Unless you are a comedian with a very tolerant audience, absolutely avoid profane or crude language. 

5. Make Them Comfortable.Make the audience stiff and unresponsive by memorizing your speech. As much as possible, speak as if you are having a conversation with a very comfortable friend about something you care about. That does not mean being loud and obnoxious: it means you capture the feeling of sharing something you are excited about. If you think your topic is not exciting, do some work to identify why it is important. This helps your audience feel comfortable with you and enthusiastic about your topic. 

6. Show Them What You Are Talking About. Use high-quality visual aids to help drive your message home. It does not need to be complicated. For instance, a talk about the life of Benjamin Franklin would benefit from something as simple as his portrait. Other aids are PowerPoint slides with a minimum of text listing your main points or slides of art prints.

7. Be Honest. When you give a presentation, you are trying to change something about your audience like increase their knowledge, change their beliefs or habits and convince them to take a particular action. A great speaker does any or all of that by giving an ethical speech. That means you avoid plagiarism, falsehood or exaggeration. Even in a persuasive speech, you never try to force, coerce or deceive. What you want is to teach and convince with clean, logical argument and concrete evidence. 

Connecting with an audience is an art with foundational rules like any other art. You have learned these seven methods in just a few minutes. You can devote a lifetime to mastering them and so become a truly great public speaker. 

Article Source: http://www.discoveryarticles.com/articles/66872/1/Public-Speaking-7-Secrets-of-Great-Public-Speakers/Page1.html

How To Prepare A Professional Presentation Or Speech

How To Prepare A Professional Presentation Or Speech

Submitted Friday, November 24, 2006 

Submitted by: Jonathan Farrington

As with all things in life, the quality of the preparation affects the final outcome and this is certainly true when it comes to planning and preparing a presentation.

I have experimented with a number of methods over the years but I do believe that the simplest are usually the best.

The Collection:

Over a period of time think all round the subject and note down on a large sheet of paper or indeed several sheets, everything that comes into your head about the subject of your presentation. This is rather like a personal brain storming session and should be done roughly, in the order in which the thoughts occur; do not attempt to write a speech at this stage

The Central Theme:

This second method requires you to decide on the exact message you want to get across and writing it down in one simple sentence. Then you think all around the sentence, scribbling down the ideas as they come to you - this method is almost identical to ‘mind-mapping

Before selecting or rejecting any idea, it is important to decide:-

• Who are my audience?
• How much do they know already?
• How much time will I be allowed?

Having taken account of the answers to those three key questions, it should be possible to answer one further one -

• What do I want to say?

This is the stage at which you can decide your headings and sub-headings and put them into a logical order. Your structure then begins to take shape. Essentially you go back to the notes you made during the ‘ideas’ stage and select which ones you wish to use - and then put them in the right order.

Remember you probably will not have time to tell your audience all you know about your subject – after all this is not an ‘information dump’ Use only what is relevant and what can be dealt with in the time at your disposal – this may involve a ruthless reduction exercise.

It is suggested that if possible leave the speech, once written, for 24 hours. Then re-read and revise, removing any jargon or unnecessarily flowery phases or faulty reasoning.

The actual notes that you speak from can be the final draft of the speech but this will normally cause you to read most or all of the presentation and the audience will find this dull.

It is much better, therefore, to read the final draft and put it to one side. Then, without referring to it, write short, key-word notes or, if you are very experienced, headings only, on to numbered post-cards.(Numbering your cards will prove to be an invaluable exercise in the unlikely event you drop them half way through your presentation!)

You can now re-look at the final draft to check that you have included all the major ideas on the cards, but be careful, the chances are that if you forgot that idea when making out the cards, you will forget it when you make the presentation.

And Finally -Final Notes:

Unless you are a very good actor with a phenomenal memory, do not dispense with notes by memorising a speech ‘parrot-fashion’. Unless your audience are ornithologists, they do not want to listen to a parrot! Also, it is easy to lose your way when giving a memorised presentation and easier still to lose an audience.

Copyright © 2006 Jonathan Farrington. All rights reserved

Jonathan Farrington is the Managing Partner of The jfa Group http://www.thejfagroup.com. To find out more about the author, read his latest articles or to subscribe to his newsletter, visit: http://www.jonathanfarrington.com

You can now also read his weekly blog for dedicated sales professionals: http://www.thejfblogit.co.uk

5 Super Tips to Get Rid of Your Public Speaking Fear

How to Overcome Public Speaking Anxiety or Fear
By Charles Wilson

I have seen many people around who most of the times hesitate to make a public speech. Many of the times it happens because those people really have fear in their minds for public speaking. I have personally experienced the feeling of inferiority or fear of not having much knowledge about the topic of speech. These are the major reasons for having public speaking fear. And after a lot of hard work and continuous practice I managed to overcome my public speaking fear. Here are my 5 super tips for you people who want to get rid of their public speaking fear.

1) Don't get scared to make mistakes: Yes when it comes to public speaking you are bound to make some minor or major mistakes. But it is the part and parcel of public speech. Don't be afraid of doing mistakes during your public speech. Only thing is that you should learn from your mistakes and try not to make those next time when you are presenting. Even if you make a mistake during your speech then don't get panic and try to remain calm and cool which will definitely help you to present yourself in a better way. 

2) Be creative and select your topic which you are most passionate about: When you are going to present yourself in public speaking, it is the primary thing that the topic of the speech should be the one which you know very well and you have a real passion about that topic. Because when you are going to speak about that topic then your heart and mind will produce the most effective and most creative presentation you have ever presented. This is very important as you already are very confident and well knowledgeable about the subject and your audience will also take keen interest in your presentation. 

3) Build a strong, positive attitude in yourself: When it comes to any kind of public speech it is mandatory that you should have the requisite confidence in yourself and you should have a s strong belief in your abilities. This will only come when you will look at yourself as a most knowledgeable and highly positive person in your life. So it is the most important factor in making your public speech successful and without any fear. 

4) Practice in front of your mirror: This is the most successful idea behind making your public speech successful. This activity will really boost your confidence because you have already rehearsed what you want to speak in front of your audience. And this is the most successful technique which many well known speakers were using it. This is the most important confidence building method I have ever seen in my life. Believe me after 4-5 practice sessions in front of your home mirror; it will tremendously increase your confidence and belief in yourself. 

5) Use props creatively during your presentation: This is truly confidence boosting method. You get enough time to calm your nerves and build confidence in yourself as you effectively use props during presentation. Using PowerPoint slides and other props gives your audience visual aid to make them comfortable with the topic and that can also increase the interest of your audience in the topic and most importantly it gives you enough time to prepare yourself with the next points to be delivered which also reduces the fear and nervousness in your mind. 

By applying these simple tips you can easily overcome your public speaking fear and can confidently present yourself in front of your audience.

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Takeaways 
 Don't get scared to make mistakes
 Be creative and select your topic which you are most passionate about
 Build strong positive attitude in yourself