July 20, 2019
Speech is an art. And like any art, it can be used not only as a platform to not only share your knowledge, but also to express your beliefs and emotions. However, it can be a difficult art to master. For some people, the scariest thing on earth is talking in front of a group of people. I was one of those people until I was in fifth grade, but I had to go on to stage every day to give the daily announcements to 300+ students in the morning. After the first few weeks, I really felt comfortable on the stage and started enjoying my speeches. Later, when I started high school, I really enjoyed talking in front of the class but noticed that a lot of people were still as scared as I was the first time I stepped on stage to deliver the announcements. So if you’re one of those people, or even if you just want to improve your already mastered speech skills, here’s a few tips to make to process just a little easier.
Tip one: Never memorize the speech. Take a different approach to your speech. Try writing down just the basic ideas you want to talk about during the presentation. Understand the basic ideas, and make sure to keep the important details in your mind. That will help you with lowering your anxiety levels of trying to remember every single word, and will prevent the audience from feeling like they’re listening to a robot.
Tip two: Practice your speech in front of a mirror and be your first critique. No one else knows you better than you know yourself. Try giving your full speech to yourself two to three times. After talking in front of the mirror, write down your mistakes on a piece of paper. Refer to those notes afterward, focusing on what you improved on, and what could use some work, to really fine tune your delivery.
Tip three: Nothing is better than a perfect start. Grabbing your audience’s attention in the first thirty seconds is always a great way to make sure you have their full attention, so you can really make sure you deliver every one of your points properly. . Not to mention, wasting time before capturing the audience’s attention, they lose all interest in the speech.
Tip four: Don’t look at the presentation. While observing people’s speeches, I noticed a lot of them tend to look at their presentation/visual, instead of giving the audience proper eye contact. Eye contact is one of the most important things to remember when delivering a presentation. It will help to not only engage the audience, but also make them feel more inclined to absorb the information, as it feels more like you are speaking directly to them.
Tip five: Your voice is the soul of your presentation.Even if your audience is listening to you, the wrong tone of voice may cause them to become bored, or zone out of your speech. To avoid that, maintain a strong, projective voice, and avoid sounding monotone.