How to Prepare for A Better Public Speaking

Public Speaking is a soft skill or the process or act of performing a speech to a live audience that requires excellent communication skills, enthusiasm and the ability to engage the live audience you are addressing; which may be a small group of people, face-to-face, a single person, virtual meet or the presentations in your organisation, national conference or event, formal or informal.

The skills and ability to speaking in public are required regardless of the size of the public you are addressing. Due to the evolution of public speaking is modernly viewed as any form of speaking between the speakers and the audience. Traditionally public speaking was considered to be a part of the art of persuasion or convincing. The act can fulfil purposes comprising to inform, to persuade, and to entertain. But according to the speaking situation speaker can utilise methods, structures, rules and whatever he can do.

Public Speaking was developed in Rome and Greece. Thinkers from these places influenced, developed and created an evolutionary history of public speaking. Evolution of technology transforming the art of public speaking through the new technology of the period such as videoconferencing, multimedia presentation, and much more nontraditional platforms evolving with time.

 Uses of Public Speaking:

Public Speaking is purposely structured with three public purposes: to inform, to persuade and to entertain. With these purposes Public speaking can fulfil the purpose of transmitting information, telling a story, motivating people to act or encouraging people. Realizing when public speaking is most powerful and how it should be performed suitably is the keys to understanding the significance of it.

Contenders with dominant public speaking abilities are in demand for the many occupations that require the ability to speak to a group of people. Well-prepared speakers are highly valued by employers and tend to earn leadership positions and important client contact roles.

People whose job involves communicating, teaching or persuading will do a satisfactory job if they have public speaking skills.

Public speaking for business and commercial events is done by professionals and they can be hired unassisted, through representation by a speakers bureau, or by other standards. Public speaking plays an enormous role in the professional world. It is believed that 70 per cent of jobs include some form of public speaking where there are buyers or audience.

Some of the best Public Speaking examples which are evaluated years after for their delivery follow:-

  • Pericles’ Funeral Oration in 427 BC addressing those who died during the Peloponnesian War
  • Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in 1863
  • Sojourner Truth’s identification of racial issues in “Ain’t I a Woman?”
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Washington Monument in 1963.

Some of the skills for a powerful public speaking:

People can join a club or some courses which provide public speaking in their courses and teach how to speak in public. People needed some of the good practice for a powerful public speaking quality. Some of them include: 

  • Effective Introduction is much needed thing.
  • Grabbing the attention of the audience with a powerful opening.
  • The use of gestures with your word flow.
  • Control over your voice is what public speakers do for effective speaking.
  • Vocabulary, register, word choices are vary from topic to topic.
  • Speaking notes, pitches are important.
  • Developing a relationship with the audience is important for a good understanding between you and your audience.
  • “Show of Hands Method”,If a question is decided by a show of hands, people vote on it by raising their hands to indicate whether they vote yes or no.
  • Extemporaneous and Enthusiastic Delivery of speech.
  • Efforts to Reach the Hearts of audience.
  • Effective use of questions related to your topic.
  • Articulating clearly while speaking.
  • Understanding the needs and priorities of a potential audience of conference attendees.
  • Controlling your performance anxiety.
  • Creating attractive PowerPoint slides with the right amount of detail.
  • Drafting an evaluation form that attendees are likely to complete. It will help you to prepare better for next time.
  • Handing out copies of slides in advance to minimize note-taking demands on the audience.
  • Maintaining eye contact with the audience and providing an energetic, animated physical presence.
  • Memorizing enough content so that the speech does not come off as a reading of notes.
  • Modulating vocal tone to emphasize important points and avoid monotonous presentation.
  • Organizing a logical flow to a speech.
  • Preparing examples that are relevant to the experience of the expected audience.
  • Providing compelling evidence to support themes.
  • Rehearsing the presentation and revising rough spots.
  • Researching information about the latest trends in an industry before presenting at a professional seminar.
  • Restating critical points at the end of a speech to cement key concepts.
  • Reviewing feedback and modifying the approach for talks in the future.
  • Summarizing the topics to be covered at the beginning of a lecture to provide context for attendees.
  • Telling stories to illustrate points.
  • Timing the speech in advance to make sure it meets the allotted time.
  • Using humor to enliven a talk.

Professional public speakers frequently engage in constant training and education to improve their skill. This may include seeking guidance to improve their speaking skills such as finding good storytelling skill, learning how to effectively use humour as a communication tool, and continuously researching in audience area of interest.

Why is Public Speaking is Important in workplace?

  • Win Over Your Crowd:- No matter the size of crowd in front of you — whether at a social gathering, business meeting or large audience at a conference — being able to speak publicly is a very important asset. Only thing to win the crowd affectively is public speaking. Because words we speak are the thing, that can be understand by anyone.
  • You can Motivate Others:- To motivate people, Public speaking is the opportunity to motivate your listeners to make a change. It could be anything, to stop or start something, try something new, or reach their goals. This is what DharmaGuru do while they speak about Dharma.
  • Inform People about your information:- When you have information to share, you don’t want it to be boring while presenting. You want people to listen! It can be done with public speaking skills to inform people about your information that matters by using great public skills and they listen to you and more likely they will understand the information.
  • You can Boost Confidence:- If you want to boost your self-confidence, Public speaking repeatedly will help you. Every time you speak, you gain a bit more confidence as you see your ideas and yourself were well-received by your audience.
  • Get your Personal Satisfaction:- Control over crowd by your words is greatest level of satisfaction. The first time can be very nerve-wracking, after the first time, you will keep getting better and better at public speaking and will get great personal satisfaction from this skill at the end it will be a great win.
  • Develop your Critical Thinking:- It will make you sharp, need to think critically, like your audience, you have to read them, you have to control the situation created by you. When preparing and conducting a speech, you will increase your critical thinking skills by working through problems, imagining positive and negative consequences, and finding solutions .It will develop your thinking capacity in a critical situation.
  • It will Improve your Communication Skills:- When you practice public speaking, you are practicing both verbal and nonverbal skills by using word and gestures — and both will improve while presenting your thoughts. And you will express your thoughts by protecting your thoughts and yourself and while doing this you will communicate with your audience through your thoughts. The more you speak out, the better you get at communication.
  • You will Learn to Argue:- Public Speaking is what convincing your audience for arguments by speaking your mind. Presenting an argument in any situation will develop your control over arguments. Public speaking helps you form better arguments, and you can increase your arguing skills even more through public speaking by engaging in Q&A with your.
  • Be a Better Listener:- before speaking with someone, we must listen to them. It will give you a understanding about them to speak with them. Attending conferences as a speaker means you will also listen to other speakers. As you listen to other speakers, you will have a greater appreciation and understanding about the situation and the listeners as a speaker yourself.
  • You can Make the difference: -Every public speaking opportunity you come across is a time to spread you influence for the greater good. You have the opportunity to see the world like you want. Take the advantage and change the world.
  • You can Reach people fast:- Instead of waiting for your message to spread by word of mouth, social media, or print media, put yourself in front of a huge audience and you’ll instantly inspire many. Your reach will be direct. Who will be influencing, influencing in front of you.
  • Your message comes to life:- Written information is not useful in all the cases, if you really want to make a difference in the world, you need to campaign. For your good will you have to speak publicly. This is what our prime minister is doing.
  • You can change the things: The changes you want to see in the world can been seen through public speaking.

Improve Your Public Speaking Skills

  • Preparation is the key.
  • Accentuate the positive.
  • Invest in your
  • Get in touch with youron-stage persona.
  • Get comfortable with the environment.
  • Pay attention to your
  • Start with a smile.
  • Start off with a story.
  • Watch for feedback and adapt to it.
  • Be yourself, don’t become a talking head—in any type of communication.
  • Grab attention at the beginning, and close with a dynamic end.

Things To Remember While Giving The Speech

  1. Eye contact with audience.
  2. Move your view from one to another, in all direction to the large audience.
  3. Try to Talk while speaking, don’t read
  4. Your voice is a tool and people need to hear it. Make sure you are speaking loud enough so that you are heard.
  5. Body language is very important while addressing a crowd.

How to Prepare For A Better Public Speaking

  1. Be prepared before speaking.
  2. Do research on the topic:
  3. Outline or write it out while preparing for a public speaking event..
  4. While preparing, read your speech out loud. It will help you to feel it.
  5. Practice in front of group.
  6. Pump yourself up for a better performance. Such as, listen to your favorite music on the way, or go for a run in the morning.
  7. Most important thing is to use the power of knowledge.

Practice does not make perfect communication, like you and your mom. Good communication is never perfect, and nobody expects you to be perfect. However, putting in the requisite time to prepare will help you deliver a better speech. Hope this article will help you speak in public.

 

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