Art Of Great Speaking

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!

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Which is better logic or emotion for effective public speaking?

A few would-be speakers are basically emotionally collapsed while they keep hold of a stand or table whilst they mouth uninteresting platitudes that might even make their fond mothers sleepy.
Lots of people, frequently very intellectual ones, fear feeling, conceivably simply because they believe emotion might distort thinking or even exaggerate truth. This also might occur when logical thinking is side-lined whilst uncontrolled emotion takes over the field. How convincing is a real crackbrain screaming his propaganda in bughouse square, or, a quiet-spoken John Casper generating comments which merely reveal his opinionated ego?
Effective emotional speaking isn’t the excessive babbling of a distorted mind or subtle sarcasm from a warped personality. It’s not the worthless antics of a fanatic, but nor is it the stiff-backed pass-me-a-cold-weiner kind of mumbling the intelligentsia so often serves from a speaker’s platform.
Maybe if a devotee of this “dead on their heels” tribe could see himself as he truly is on the stage, or much better still, if he could sit in his own tormented audience and need to endure his
own tortured talk, he may determine to have mercy on his audience and do some thing about his dull speaking personality.
An additional typical attitude is that feeling has departed with the wind, that it belongs with the past, much less learned generations. Cold logic, the scientific technique, is all we require in this atomic age. “The thought will be the factor,” said an emotionally lazy college student lately. “Why, I envision Patrick Henry said ‘Give me liberty or give me death’ about as I’m saying it now.” (In a who-gives-a-hoot manner).
But based on history, “Henry arose with an unearthly fire burning in his eyes. He began somewhat calmly -but the smothered excitement began to play much more and much more upon his face, and thrill within the tones of his voice. The tendons of his neck stood out white and rigid like whipcords.”
And John Roane, a spectator, reported that when Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death,” he suited the action to the words by a blow upon the left breast with his right hand, which appeared to drive a dagger to his heart.
This speech was charged with intense feeling, but the whole subject material additionally indicates logical thinking along with a powerful appeal to reason. It discloses the mind and heart of a noble, honest, sincere statesman instead of a low cost politician having emotional fits to attract attention to himself.

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My previous post on stories in public speaking highlighted how important they are. They do need to have real human drama to keep your listeners engaged.

Now getting back to the daily news: McSimpson Elected Fire Chief. So what? It is merely a routine item. Wait until Mac begins chasing after fires. Then maybe he will be fascinating good enough to read about.
But here’s one that may be interesting: Attorney Fined for Shooting Newsboy.
It is morbid, but different. One wonders why it occurred.
Reading the piece, however, revealed that the title is the most interesting part of this story. The attorney said the shooting was an accident. And the boy lived.
That’s all there was to it. There was really no drama, no conflict, little action. No real human interest. Therefore the speaker passed it, realizing a story should be a lot more than strange or unusual to be beneficial.
Here is one a couple of pages over: Hidden Mike’ Found in Auto Trunk.
This does not sound unusually interesting, and the heading does not indicate exactly what the story is about. But it hints mystery. So he read:
Dover, Ohio – Farmers at nearby Newcomerstown were telling a good story today about a “hidden mike.” “Mike,” a coon hound owned by Kenneth Welch, was hidden accidentally for ten days in the trunk of an automobile.
The dog leaped into the trunk when Paul Miller was making a delivery at Welch’s farm, and Miller closed the trunk with out realizing “Mike.”
Welch made several searches for the dog and advertised his loss.
Miller said he used his car daily while Mike was in the trunk and even made one trip returning to the Welch farm. But he never heard a bark.
A bit fragile when found, “Mike” came around rapidly when given water and food.
This is an unusual bit of real life which might be used to reveal that treasures can be unseen right at a individuals feet – the theme of Acres of Diamonds, a speech by Russell Conwell, that audiences paid a total of approximately seven million dollars to listen to.

If you like this brief post on stories for public speaking please let me know by leaving a comment and if you didn’t please let me know how it could be improved. Speak in a few days.

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.

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