Art Of Great Speaking

Do you use word whiskers in your public speaking?

The behavior of expressing “ur, uh, mm,” or some other noise similar to a grunt other than a word, contributes nothing to the meaning of a speech and can easily become extremely maddening for audience members.
These vocalized breaks, word whiskers, or conversational burs occur like a worthless habit (as dry washing the hands) or when a speaker is sparring for words. Perhaps subconsciously feeling he or she must be speaking some thing continuously he / she tosses in the “urs” and “ahs” while he / she is thinking of what he / she will say next. In these kinds of cases the remedy can be a vivid knowing of the behavior and constant alertness to stop it.
Recording and replaying a speech or two will probably point out whether or not a presenter has the practice of saying “uh” or not. As well as giving someone a dollar every time he is overheard saying a vocalized pause will quickly break him, 1 way or another.
An additional weak personal tendency, evident sometimes in speaking, is physical indirectness or “very poor eye-to-eye contact.” A few speakers manage to prefer looking out a window or perhaps at the floor instead of at somebody in the audience.- This may be due to intense shyness, insufficient practice, or possessing little interest in the subject or audience.
The real “contact” in verbal communication of course comes from the speaker’s mind and soul. His / her eyes are just the devices” by which his / her feelings and thoughts are portrayed. When he or she is deeply serious about a subject and enthusiastic to share this topic the mental and emotional communication is vital and strong. Under these kinds of circumstances eyes aren’t shifty or evasive. They’re positively communicating! At the same time a speaker talks he / she ought to be looking straight at someone. And he / she ought to give all sections of his audiences around equal attention.
An appealing speaker typically, however, not all the time, moves around some as he speaks. A bit of this affords interesting variety by changing the actual physical picture. If it is overdone or simply to grab attention to the speaker, however, the effect could impede communication.
A valuable maxim of effective bodily action is doing what comes naturally with regards to ideas that are being portrayed. Muscles, along with the intellect and voice, ought to freely express those concepts.

If you want tips and techniques to be an effective public speaker check out our e – letter by letting us know your details in the box to the right.

How are your gestures when you give a speech? What do they say about you?

Some speakers seem to believe that gesturing is a lot like having red hair or the measles – either you have the capability to gesture or you don’t, and very little may be done about it.
But gesturing is as natural as walking and as easy as counting to 3. The challenge is that people have merely walked and counted to 3 far much more frequently than they have gestured whilst giving a speech. But how well could an individual walk if he had been using a push chair all his life?
Whilst people will gesture as many different ways as they walk there’s a fundamental principle in gesturing which, when practiced, will probably make this activity much more understandable and easier to do.
Each gesture, regardless of whether or not it stresses or describes a concept, has three distinct parts: 1. The approach, 2. Stroke! and 3. The release.
For instance when a girl slaps a boy she draws back her hand, (approach), Wham! (stroke), then she lets her hands fall to her side, (release). Or a baseball pitcher winds up -approach, throws – stroke, then releases his hand.
Whether gestures are made with the hands (in almost any position), the head, face, shoulders, or feet, the principle is the same – approach, stroke, release.
Some speakers simply make a weak approach, leaving their hands hanging in the air without a stroke or release. Some make the approach and stroke but no release. Still other people merely start an approach without finishing it.
Gestures should be produced positively, with reason and confidence. Naturally, weak, uncertain, timid bodily action leads to an audience to feel that a speaker is unclear about his ability, probably not well prepared to speak, and generally ineffective as a persuader.
When gesturing a person’s whole body should work as a unified method of communication. A speaker should “lean into” his gestures instead of throw out his hands like leaves falling from a tree, or as though he had been a mechanical man loosely connected at the wrists. Also he should encourage large curved movements instead of short, angular, jerky ones. Let a speaker reach up and out in all directions, freely using the cubic feet of air about him.
Naturally effective gestures will match with the meaning of speech material. Sometimes a conflict occurs, as the time the priest announced, “When the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there!” As he talked he pointed emphatically straight down! But he didn’t mean that in any way!

What are your gestures like? If you want to be a more confident speaker enter your details in the box to the right and get tips and techniques to speak with confidence and persuasively to any size audience.

Here is an example of using an interesting story about Harry Houdini for effective public speaking.

An illustration which specifically interests a speaker can be an effective one for him to use in a speech. Following, is a story about Harry Houdini which a speaker listened to and enjoyed: The great magician, Harry Houdini, pressed his nose against a window on a passenger coach, and looked anxiously for the truck that would bring his luggage from a local theater to the railway station. The conductor had shouted, “All aboard!” And it was time for the train to start out chugging away. “Please hold the train a few moments for my baggage,” said Houdini. “Nothing doing,” replied the conductor. “This train leaves on time.” “But you can’t start without my luggage!” cried the magician. . Oh, no?,The conductor thought in another way. He declared he couldn’t hold the train for anyone. “You can not leave without my luggage,” declared Houdini, a lot more determined than ever. He then rushed to the entrance and departed the coach! Passengers wondered what he would do – appeal to the station agent? Shortly word came back that a man had run down in front of the engine, flung his entire body all over the tracks, and grasped a rail so tightly nobody could pry him loose. They continued to wait for Houdini’s baggage! The speaker employed this story to illustrate how determined a person may be. An effective speaker chooses his material with consideration, just as a big league baseball player thoroughly selects a bat. Babe Ruth would certainly never have become the home run king if he had batted with a broom handle. In the same way, a speaker will never become a “big leaguer” on the platform if he uses weak, unexciting material. Being truly interesting calls for more time and effort than being unexciting. But definitely the results warrant the effort and time. An able speaker is consistently watchful for unusually interesting material and that he doesn’t wait to use it freely. Instead of using poor stories which incite just a sleepy “so what?” from listeners, he chooses material that induces an involuntary “WHAT! SO?” and expresses it in a way which causes listeners to say, “More – please reveal more!”

Hope you enjoyed my series on using stories in public speaking. If you want to learn more please sign up for my newsletter to learn more tips and techniques for effective public speaking.

The spectators at a game of basketball game can be transfixed by it or sometimes they couldn’t care about the outcome.

Similar situations may define speaker-audience relationships. Upon one occasion the speaker is deeply enthusiastic about making points and discussing them with his listeners. Listeners respond to his ideas. They listen attentively as they do not wish to miss a thing he says. They have fun at his humor, feel sad when he relates a heartbreaking story, or tingle with anticipation as the speaker’s material and attitude directs.
The feeling goes “round and round.” From speaker to audience, returning to the speaker, also, the spirit of empathy becomes stronger because individuals in the audience catch it from one another. George M. Cohan designated this tendency for emotion to spread, “the contagion of emotion.” When an audience has shared interests, in keeping with the speaker’s, and when an auditorium is well-filled with people sitting shoulder to shoulder, empathy is far more likely to happen than when a speaker is failing to effect springs of interest or when there are wide-open spaces between dispersed listeners.
When mutual empathy is being experienced by a speaker and an audience a definite physical effect is clear in both. Listeners may even lean forward with wide eyes and parted lips when the speaker pictures a thrilling event. They’re alert physically and mentally, in a state of readiness to receive every idea.
The speaker is likewise alert, fully alive and so on fire with ideas and feelings. Physically he is just like an professional shortstop all set and eager to pounce upon any ball that comes in his direction. Observe a ball player whose spirit is completely in the game. He is not standing listlessly or dejected like a commuter who has just missed his train. Neither is he stargazing or daydreaming about last night’s date. Alertly he is on his toes desperate to contribute his entire self for triumph.
Such an athlete is not stiff or tense like a totem pole or collapsed like an exhausted tap dancer. He is relaxed but his condition is a relaxation of readiness rather than the relaxation of total unconcern. He has got muscle “tone”, the sort of relaxed alertness a speaker needs. There is tremendous gap between being relaxed and collapsed!

My next post we’ll see what happens when the speaker appears not to care.

If you would like to know how to speak with confidence please sign up for my newsletter and receive tips and techniques direct to your in box,

What stories do you tell when you are public speaking? And where do you get them from?

Certainly newspapers are just one source of material for speeches. Countless magazines and books are stuffed with human interest stories. Literature, history,as well as biography are fertile fields. A speaker should read plenty of biographies, searching for human interest to assist his speech subject. The principle of selection is significantly the same regardless of the source. Have a preference for material that puts a man rather than a bird in the tree, the kind that is unusual, but quite credible. Seek out real human interest, unusual action, drama, or suspense.
Speakers ought to avoid old chestnuts which have been “cracked” too often.
Not too long ago during a public speaking class, for examplea speaker used Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the new world to illustrate courage and determination. Listeners seemed to be uninterested, probably since they had heard this particular story so frequently it had grown to be trite. The tale of Fridtjof Nansen’s battle for three years on the ice in search of the North Pole, or Mary Lyon’s determination to build a school for women would have been just as remarkable plus more fascinating because, although these stories are old, they are not nearly so well-known as Columbus’ ordeals. The average listener has not heard them from the first grade to the current moment. So many people have talked about Columbus! He needs a rest.
Effective speech material is a lot like gold -when you find it. A chat, a sign on the highway, a joke overheard, anything at all read or heard, or illustrations other speakers use can be great ideas which can be used in other speeches.

I hope this short post has got you thinking about they types of stories to relate when public speaking. If you want to kept up to date with tips and techniques for confident public speaking please enter your details and receive them direct to your inbox.