Posts Tagged ‘Public Speaking’

Public Speaking Emphasis And Emulating Lincoln

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
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You need to show some caution in the language you use in public speaking to make sure you don’t upset your audience,

Seasoning your speech with a appropriate slang expression or inventing a phrase may add interest and color to your presenting. But avoid the “youse guys” or poolroom style of speaking. That may add color, as well, but the wrong kind of color for an typical audience.
A slight grammatical error or a mispronounced word will not kill a spirited speech. An occasional flaw in speech marks a speaker as being human. A number of mistakes, however, will distract hearers. So studying English grammar is helpful because most people can make sufficient mistakes accidentally to give us the human touch. Comprehending all of the fine points of grammar may not be required, yet everybody should learn to speak without making grammatical errors that stand out just like a black eye on a blonde.
Continuously attempting to express life-like ideas and feelings while reading aloud will make a speaking voice more expressive. Read out loud from the classics or the comics, from the Bible, plays, the news, poetry – anything, constantly making the thoughts live.
An additional way to put effective vocal expression into speaking would be to emphasize the key words in a sentence.
Pay attention to this statement: A child caught ten fish in the city lake. As “child” and “ten” are the most important words and phrases within this sentence they ought to get more vocal force compared to other words.
However look at this sentence: The man threw a bag of gold into the city lake. In this instance the element of interest isn’t who, or how many, but what and where.
A little thought and practice will enable a speaker to form the habit of “punching” or “squeezing” essential words when he speaks. Abraham Lincoln did. When he spoke, the conjunctions and prepositions flowed easily – however when he came to a key phrase he stressed it. This emphasis requires increased spirit along with more vocal force.

Lincoln took the time and effort to season his speeches appropriately. When you are public speaking, don’t think you should. This will help to make you an exceptional presenter and speaker.

Don’t Use too Much Force In Public Speaking

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
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As with most things, force in public speaking can be abused and lose its effectiveness.

At times force is misused, like when a speaker feels he must stress everything in his presentation. Thus he uses as much force when talking about a bag of peanuts as he or she would when telling of a crazy elephant’s rampages. This produces a monotony of force. It is somewhat like putting an exclamation point after every sentence on a page or shouting “Wolf!” when only a mouse has shown up.

A radio news commentator at one time exclaimed, “It’s happened! Yes, it’s happened at last! They’ve finally done it!”
Naturally his claims got attention. Listeners wondered exactly what had occurred. Had yet another war been announced? Had taxes been decreased?
The commentator continued, “Yes, it’s happened! They’ve raised the price of an ice cream cone from a nickel to a dime!
What a catastrophe!
This speaker’s force kept attention and interest, but certainly listeners felt let down emotionally when they discovered he had linked so much tragedy to a fragile ice cream cone. Be reasonable with hearers’ feelings but do not think twice to excite them in vital, sensible ways.
Another error, common regularly for young presenters, is the practice of rushing with words, rushing to the conclusion of a presentation. Obviously there is no one proper rate for any person to talk, but a speaker should remember that words, like bullets from a rifle, are fired only once. They are not respoken or reread and too much rushing may not give an audience time to get the full meaning of the speech. This is especially true when a speaker’s material is rather complicated.

I’ll post more in a few days on using your voice in public speaking to maintain and get interest from oyur audience.

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Public Speaking Variety

Thursday, March 10th, 2011
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In public speaking the pace or speed of your speaking is important, especially the variety of it

Read the sentence below silently. Then read it aloud, trying to picture with your tones, face, and body language exactly what took place:
The ancient automobile chugged as though each turn of the wheel could be the last. But slowly, very slowly, it crept up the mountainside.
It reached the top and then began down. Faster, and faster, and faster, it went. On and on it rushed just like a blurred black streak to the turn at the foot of the mountain. Then suddenly the automobile swerved from the road and crashed into a big tree!
While you speak about the trip up the mountain your rate of speaking will certainly be slower than once you talk about the sprint down. This demonstrates an important aspect of variety, change of rate, or variation in speed during a speech.
When an idea calls for a change of rate, vary the speed of your speaking, not robotically, obviously, but in keeping with the natural concept of the idea that is being expressed. When you talk about a fast thrilling game of football, make the players move with your voice and manner. But if you talk about idle sheep in a field, naturally your voice is going to be lazy and slow. It is as fundamental as that, but many speakers totally neglect this important principle of variety and say everything at about the same rate.
When you say, “The car crashed into a tree!” make it sound like a crash, nothing like a kid peeling a banana. This is another essential kind of variation in speaking – force, or lack of it.

I’ll be writing more in my next post about variety in public speaking to capture the audience’s attention. If you want to learn more about speaking with confidence please check out the resource here: speaking with confidence

Adding Variety To Your Voice In Public Speaking

Sunday, March 6th, 2011
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Variety in your voice helps to keep your public speaking interesting. No-one likes listening to a dull monotone voice.

Thoroughly feeling a talk puts interesting natural variety in a speaker’s tones. And how refreshing variety is! Change, change, CHANGE. Appropriate variety holds interest, stimulates thinking, and revives an audience’s spirits.
Using variety is not a new idea. About two hundred years ago, William Cowper, a poet, said, “Variety’s the very spice of life.” And although this truth is time worn, some speakers still do not realize its value or surely they wouldn’t continue torturing audiences with monotony.
Variety’s The Very Spice of Life. Keep this truth handy and use it when you select and arrange materials for a speech. Also, when you practice, make that speech “live” through vocal in¬flection, variation of force, rate, and bodily action.
Get variety in your speaking by coloring your vocal tones with feeling to match your ideas.
Say, “The knife was sharp,” and as you speak, feel a sharp, bright blade cutting your finger.
Now say, “The old ax was dull.” And picture yourself sweating while trying to chop a tough green log with a rusty, ragged-edged ax. Feel the hopelessness of ever chopping that green log with a dull ax. When a speaker can mix a generous portion of feeling with his thoughts, his words will surely be expressive. Usually a dull, monotonous speaker is one who gives little thought and no feeling to the ideas he expresses.

If you think about what you are going to say it will help to variety to your voice. By caring what you are saying will help you be more expressive in your public speaking. It you want to find out more on confident public speaking please enter your details on the right and receive a 7 day course on confident public speaking plus hints and tips.

A Tip For An Interesting Public Speaking Voice

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011
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My previous post on public speaking voice was about don’t be boring. In this post here is tip to help put more feeling into your public speaking voice.

Speakers can put restful variety into their speaking by thoroughly feeling the ideas they express, and by willingly letting this feeling show freely in their tones.
Seeing mental pictures of expressed ideas will help a speaker put expressive color in his tones. For practice, say, as you toss an imaginary handful of feathers into the air, “Light as feathers.” Mentally see the light feathers fluttering in the air. Feel and show the lightness in your tones and speaking manner.
Now say, “Heavy as lead,” as you mentally see yourself seriously struggling to lift a big- bag of lead. Suit your bodily action to the thought as you say the words. Do this several times. As you say these words is your vocal tone different than it was when you said, “Light as feathers?”
Say “smooth” and make it sound smooth. Say “rough” and and notice the difference.
A speaker once told about the wash rag his mother used on him when he was a child. He paused and then said, “ROUGH,” as if a garden rake was being pulled over his face. Although this was only a simple thought, the speaker’s manner of expressing it gave variety to. his tones. It was very effective.
The tragic fact is that some speakers show no variation of feeling in their tones. They say everything alike. We are all too familiar with that type of talking.
Lively tones spring from a lively interest in life. So many effective speaking habits stem from that basic principle of being deeply interested in what we say and having an eager desire to share this interest. Will a speaker who is highly enthusiastic and excited about his subject ever speak in monotones? How could he?

To help you:- take an interest in life and practice using your voice to reflect what you are saying you will have a more interesting public speaking voice without thinking when in front of an audience.