Public Speaking

Effective Tips To Improve Public Speaking Skills

August 29, 2013 by editor Leave a Comment

Public speaking fear is one of the most commonly reported concerns across all ages. Listed below are some public speaking tips and hints which will help youngsters and adults conquer their anxieties and strengthen their public speaking capabilities.

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Practice Speaking First Related to Something You Know

For starters, presenting casual practice session opportunities referring to something the speakers already know can help quite a lot. In a school, every assignment for public speaking would profit by starting with a day or two when each kid picks a topic on a every day activity and presents it before their peers. It could be a story about a sport they play or an explanation of a daily routine. The familiarity makes the speaking experience exciting and easy.

Thoroughly Know Your Subject Matter

This advice applies both to adults and to kids. Even before you begin writing your speech, take all the time and effort required to understand everything possible regarding the topics of your public speaking activities. The more you learn and know about a topic, the more comfortable you can be when you finally stand in front of others to explain and expand upon the subject.

Keep the Subject and Length Appropriate to the Age Group

Although adults may be required to talk about a range of sub-topics and will sometimes be speaking for many minutes or even hours, public speaking for kids need to be tailor-made for their age and ability. If a broad public speaking topic has to be addressed by students or young people, consider breaking up the speaking assignment into smaller sub-topics so that it is not overwhelming.

Practice like You Play, Rehearse like You Will Speak

It is an old sport adage that an athlete needs to practice the same way that he or she will play. The same thing is true when preparing for a speech or other public speaking activities. Take the time to create an environment similar to that of your presenting venue when you are rehearsing. Try to find a mirror or think about taping yourself so you can see how you present yourself. By far the most important piece of advice is to speak using a relaxed, slow and smooth delivery, even when rehearsing.

Know Your Speaking Space

Nothing minimizes nervousness more quickly than familiarity. This applies not only to your public speaking topic, but also to the place you will present. If at all possible, visit the place where you will be speaking. Check for possible issues and concerns like stairway and tricky microphones. Arrange for adaptations if you are a very tall or very short speaker. Take a look at the technology if a computer or projector is a part of the plan. Figure out where you must stand and what to do while awaiting your turn.

Relax Just Prior to the Speech

Maybe the worst thing you can do immediately before speaking is to keep running your speech over and over in your head or even continuing to rehearse in your room or office. A better approach is to read, watch some television, play a game, or anything that relaxes you. Take a walk, or take a nap. You know yourself best – work off nerves, or take deep breaths to find your center. Walk up to the podium with something fresh and new to share, and you may have the viewers in the palm of your hand.

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Public Speaking Anxiety: Tips To Overcome Fear Of Public Speaking

August 29, 2013 by editor Leave a Comment

Here are 10 public speaking tips that will help you if you have to deliver a speech and aren’t used to getting up and speaking in front of an audience.

The ten tips below will help you conquer your fear

1) Preparation

Preparation is vital when you have to speak in public or make a presentation, especially if you suffer from the fear of public speaking. To overcome your anxiety you do need to give yourself the best opportunity to perform well by preparing well.

This will involve practicing your speaking into a microphone at home on your pc or some sort of recording device like a mobile phone and becoming comfortable with the sound of your own voice. Familiarizing yourself with the material you intend delivering is also important and will give you reassurance about your speech or presentation.

2) Work on your posture

Stand tall when practicing your speech and stand tall when you are delivering your speech. The sound of your voice and delivery will be so much better when you stand tall and you can test this yourself at home-record yourself sitting in front of your pc and make a similar recording immediately afterwards from a standing position.

You will see a qualitative difference as your posture is vitally important in your delivery and in your confidence in the sound of your own voice. The best way to stand tall is to imagine that there is a thread coming out of the top of your head pulling you upwards.

3) Breathing

Your breathing is a huge factor in how you sound and the feedback from the sound of your voice will instill you with confidence if you sound cool and confident.

You can only do this by ensuring that your breathing is deep and relaxed, not shallow and fast. I would say from my experience that working on my breathing was the single biggest factor in my overcoming my public speaking anxiety.

Really work on sucking air into your diaphragm and remember to do this prior to your delivery.

4) Speak slowly

The vast majority of people, especially those who suffer from public speaking anxiety, speak far too quickly. I am guilty of this myself and the only way to counter it is to practice. If you are a fast talking, fast thinking person like me then you will have to really work to slow it down.

Even though it may sound alien to you to other people it will sound perfectly normal if you have always been prone to speaking too fast.

5) Pauses and voice inflection change

When you are preparing your speech or presentation make sure that you inject plenty of pauses into your speech and color your speech with changing the inflection of your voice. There is nothing worse than a flat, monotone delivery which will ultimately sap your confidence.

Your pauses should tie in with your breathing to ensure that you are speaking on the out breath, not on the intake of breath.

6) Speaking on the out breath

This tip is crucial-you do really have to work on speaking as you breathe out. The expulsion of breath (see tip on breathing at 3 above) as you speak will give your voice a lovely strong projection.

7) Pitch

A low pitched voice is much more pleasant to listen to than a high pitched one and emits a signal of confidence to your audience. Your pitch will again be tied in to that most important tip above about your breathing. Remember-deep, shallow breathing is the order of the day.

8) Stay focused on the topic at hand

Be very clear about the topic you are going to address; and then make an outline that has the topic, the supporting points and the conclusion. This is especially important if you have a limited time to get your point across.

9) Use a sense of humor

As long as it appropriate, everyone likes a little bit of a laugh when they are listening to a lecture or a presentation. Humor helps to lighten the mood and also helps the speaker connect with the audience. Humor can be a joke to open your speech, a light-hearted story, or a funny prop.

10) Tell a story to illustrate a point

It is not always effective communication when a speaker merely states a fact or relays some information. It is much easier to make a point if you have a story that illustrates the information and then show how it applies to a real situation. For example, if you are talking about new safety rules in the workplace, tell a story about what happened to an employee who saved a life by following them.

Public speaking secrets. Nerves and public speaking are perfectly natural and understandable-controlling those nerves and ensuring a confident appearance and presentation is perfectly achievable with a little training and not allowing your problem to defeat you.

You will eventually discover that there are no hidden public speaking secrets but sound, rational principles such as those outlined above. Effective public speaking and overcoming anxiety in public speaking are eminently achievable goals when you take the right steps to tackle your problem.

Click here for more information on how to overcome public speaking anxiety.

Speaking In Public: 5 Public Speaking Tips

August 29, 2013 by editor Leave a Comment

Public speaking is one of the number one fears among everyone from high school students to experienced business professionals. Getting up in front of a crowd and giving a speech or other presentation strikes fear in the hearts of even those who are otherwise confident. There are some ways to get past the fear and giving a successful presentation, though. Here are some tips for public speaking:

1. Preparation
Make sure that you are prepared. This does not simply mean having your index cards on hand and a bottle of water at the ready – though those are important, as well. Don’t wait until just a few days before your speech or presentation to begin preparing yourself. Learn your presentation by heart, so you can continue without skipping a beat if you happen to drop your notes or forget them at home. Check your supplies the night before. Make sure you have your notes and anything else you might need so you won’t panic the next morning.

2. Stay in Control
Gain control of the audience as soon as possible. Make them laugh or have them participate in a question that applies to your subject in the presentation. This will immediately place you in a position of control. It will also make your speech more memorable.

3. Speak to Someone
The most frightening part of public speaking is the fact that it is in front of a crowd of people. Even the most seasoned of public speakers get a chill down their spine with confronted with a hundred people staring at them in silence, expecting them to make a coherent presentation. Forget that you have a crowd there. Choose one person out near the center and make your presentation to him or her, pretending that there is no one else in the room.

4. Use Visual Aids
If you are the only thing the audience has to concentrate on, you are the only thing they will be paying attention to. However, if you have visual aids – such as handouts and pamphlets or a PowerPoint presentation, for example – their eyes be on you much less. You can also refer them to the visual aids and relax in those moments of not being watched.

5. Own Your Feelings
Trying to pretend that you aren’t nervous is not going to work when you’re sweating and your heart is pounding. Ignoring how nervous you feel is not going to make it go away, and neither will dwelling on it. Acknowledge to yourself that you are having some anxiety about your presentation and get on with it.

Public speaking doesn’t have to be a ride on the adrenaline roller coaster. Keeping these tips in mind and preparing yourself sufficiently for the presentation go a long way in helping you to speak confidently in public.

Click here for more information on how to be more confident speaking in public.

Speaking in Groups

February 10, 2010 by editor Leave a Comment

Speaking well in a group is not everybody’s cup of tea. But there are many people who have mastered the art of speaking in groups. You might have noticed how fluently and flawlessly some people speak in a group. They are so well at speaking in public because they eradicated the fear of public speaking from their mind very early in their lives. They conquered their fear and moved forward. If you feel nervous while speaking in public then you must make an effort for exterminating that fear out of your live. The effort for eliminating the fear of speaking in groups has to come from with in you.

Speaking in groups is not very difficult if you can some how manage the confidence and stamp out your fears. For the first time you will have to just speak no matter right or wrong. You just concentrate on speaking what you feel like saying. You can try out your hand for gaining confidence by speaking in front of your family members and friends. They will boost you up and you will gain confidence. Speaking inn groups is very important because at some point in life you will have to speak in public. You cannot always avoid speaking in front of people.

Do not just avoid such situations, face them and become a confident individual. Just make an effort now of speaking in groups for not regretting in future. Speaking is something that we all do every second. So speaking in public should not be a big deal. Just wipe out your fear of committing a mistake and gain confidence for speaking in groups.

How To Overcome Fear of Speaking in Public

October 12, 2009 by editor Leave a Comment

Public speaking is one activity with which many few people are comfortable. You might have noticed people shivering before going on stage. The nervousness that accompanies with public speaking is faced by almost everyone on this planet earth. But there are some who fear of speaking in public so much that they cannot even utter a single word in front of 5 people. This fear which does not allow a person to express what he wants to needs to be eradicated from life because it is hindering the process of self expression. There is a vast difference between nervousness and this fear of public speaking. A nervous person can easily speak in front of large majority of people by gathering confidence but with fear he will keep quite and will not say anything.

This fear of speaking in public makes a person extremely introvert and shy. This shyness and recluse if not eradicated from life leaves a person solitary for his entire life. Fear from anything is bad because it does not allow a person to live his life to the fullest, hence any fear needs to be fought and finished. In the following paragraphs you will read about how to overcome this fear of speaking in public from life.

Become determined that you have to come out of the shell and discover new limits of life. They day you will decide that you want to live a fearless life that day you will take your first step towards eradicating the fear of public speaking.
Start facing your fear. Remember a head of fear is victory. Start speaking in front of mirror. Speak making an eye contact with yourself and complete whatever you want to say. When you feel comfortable speaking to yourself then try the similar process with your parents. Speak in front of them and make an eye contact as well. Make sure whatever you want to speak you complete it. Even if you stumble while speaking do not hesitate to complete your speech.

After attaining a good comfort levels with your parents make sure you open up in front of your friends. This will be changing point for you. If you will comfortably speak in front of your friends then you can be glad that you have partially overcome your fear. Now actively participate in competitions and speak actively in a group. Slowly you will forget about your fear and will successfully overcome it.