What is Public Speaking?
Public Speaking is the art of conveying a message in a structured, deliberate manner intended to persuade, inform, influence, or entertain an audience.
Every speech must have a main goal. The goal could be either to persuade, inform, influence, or entertain the audience. The best speech is a combination of all four, but one should be the backbone of the speech. For example: 60% persuasion; 10% information; 10% influence and 20% entertaining.
Every serious speech should have some humour. – Trevor Ambrose
Structure your speech
The opening, body and closing should be clear to the audience. Moving from the opening to the body and from the body to the closing should be smooth.
A speech’s structure is the most important aspect of any speech. Make it easy for your audience to follow along with a good layout. Yes the audience will be able to understand the speech better, but it also helps the speaker to give the speech in a structured manner.
The best way to give any speech a structure is to have an opening; a body and a closing. Think about an analogy of flying in an airplane to a destination. The runway is like the opening of the speech. Purpose is to get the plane off the ground quickly. The flight is the body of your speech. To make it as smooth as possible, include headings and subheading. The landing is the closing of the speech. It is short and brings everything to an end.
What is the purpose of the opening, body and closing of a speech?
Opening – The opening is to get the audience’s attention. It creates expectation and sets a tone for the speech. Give the opening of the speech 10% of the speech time.
Body – The body is to elaborate on the speech topic. Most information is shared in the body to persuade, influence, inform or entertain the audience. The body should normally take 80% of the total speech time.
Closing – The closing is to reinstate the key points and bring the speech to a conclusion. The closing should normally take 10% of the total speech time.
Opening
The opening is a lead up to the body. It is important to have relevant information in your opening that will compliment your body. For example: If you start your speech with a quote, make sure that the quote relates to what you want to say in the body of the speech and that the quote is not just something nice to say. Quoting a famous author in your opening can also give you credibility.
Body
Include headings and subheadings in the body. Transition between the headings and subheadings should be easy for the audience to distinguish.
Closing
You need to inform you audience when you are ending off your speech. Prepare your audience for landing. Put your audience in a mindset that you are reaching the end of your speech. There are many transition phrases you can use to let the audience know you are wrapping up the speech. Here are a few examples:
· So, in closing…
· Let me summarise the key points for you…
· To end off …
· In the last five minutes of my speech I am…
· I want to leave you with a final thought…
Do not loose your audience through your speech take them with you to the next point with transition phrases.
From: ChangingTools.Com Pty Ltd
Public Speaking Coaches
© ChangingTools.Com 2009
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