Public speaking, who can relate?

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Delirious

Delirious

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Metroider17
I speak in sunday school for our youth group about once or twice a month, I was wondering how you guys do any public speaking and what preperation goes along with it.

Like if you use powerpoint, how you use it, how you prepare the presentation.

Orally, how do you speak and what methods do you use

Body language, what gestures or motions do you use to get points or emotions across

Face gestures, how do you pose/use your face to the benefit of your presentation

Emotions, both orally and visually (face emotions for example) How would you use these to your advantage?

Just some examples of input I would like to hear

Also, what are some things in general that are good for general public speaking and some things that are NOT good for public speaking.
 
Good to see your not completely scared of public speaking. :)

One (and I think the biggest) thing is to talk to the people, don't read to them.

Know your material, and know it well. Know what you're going to talk about. When you're up in front, don't have a word-for-word script of what you're going to say. Make a sheet with notes on it to keep you on topic, and the notes jog your memory for what you are about to say next, then tell the people about it. If you've no notes to look at (ie: you don't have anything to read) then you'll look at the people and won't have your head down - always a good feature! Also, it's much easier to listen to someone talking than someone reading. Talking is entertaining and enthralling - reading is when it gets boring.

If you've got your face up and looking at the audience, you can gauge their mood and know if they're understanding what you're saying, or even if they're still interested.

As for PowerPoint, use it to back up what you say but don't read your speech from it. It's pointless having it there if you just read what's on each slide word-for-word. Put your key points on the slide and perhaps a diagram or two. Not too much though, or it will look cluttered and distracting.

Which moves me on to my next point - don't have the PowerPoint slides more entertaining than you. Your audience will focus on what's on the slide and tune you out for sure. Moving animations and detailed pictures will distract your audience from listening to you, as will too much text. They might tune out for up to a minute or more while they read everything on your slide, completely ignoring what you're saying.

Another distraction is handouts - if you're providing handouts, don't give them until the end, or your audience will be more interested in what's on the paper than what you're saying.

When speaking, move around a bit. I find it's OK to move a little from one side of the audience to the other (look at some of the best speakers like Tony Robbins, that guy is all over the place!) and feel free to emphasise your points with hand movements and facial expressions. The more entertaining you can be, the more attention your audience will pay.

But, it's important to know your audience as well. Obviously you wouldn't give the same presentation to the Board of Directors as you would to a grade school class, even if you are covering the same topics. Knowing your audience will help you keep their attention. Know what they expect, and how they want to hear it.

It's all about keeping the audiences attention, as if they're paying attention they'll be taking in what you're saying - if they're bored they ain't listening.

A small pause at the end of each topic is good too, it allows you to catch your breath, gather your thoughts and gives your audience time to digest what you've said before you move on.

So remember - know your material and your audience. Talk to them, don't read to them and keep their attention on you, don't allow them to lose interest.

Well, this is what I've found in my experiences anyway. :)
 
Sound points, fc... 👍

I have to give semi-regular presentations in my department as well, and I'd generally agree with everything that has been said above.

For me, the most important thing is to have practiced the talk several times. Knowing what you want to say is one thing, knowing how it actually sounds when you string it all together is quite another. By practicing your presentation out loud, you become alot more fluent and relaxed, allowing you to get your point across better.

Another advantage of practice is to rehearse the timing and speed of your presentation. Keeping to time and not dwelling on one point for too long (usually at the expense of material at the end of your talk, like your conclusions) is essential, and hence you need to run through it a few times. The more fluent/practiced/relaxed you are, the less likely you are to do what most people do which is to go way too fast - a sure fire way of losing the attention of your audience.

As for the other points relating to style etc., I try to do the following: sound enthusiastic, knowledgable and practiced (a boring or unprepared speaker will bore/confuse the audience!), speak as clearly as possible (ensure the back of the room can hear you, face forward and speak as slowly as time (and nerves!) permit...). And if you need a pointer (i.e. a laser pointer), use one but don't over-do it...

Finally, as Der Alta would say, 'Always have a back-up plan'... print out a few acetates, or even be prepared to talk without the visual aids in case things go horribly wrong. It does happen!
 
I think the best advice you can get has been given, I've had to speak infront of 100ish people on more than one occasion, quite a daunting task,, but I can't really say anything more than what's already been said, good luck.
 
Give them eye-contact without looking into their eyes (which will put you off) by looking just over the top of their heads - this gives the impression that you're looking straight at them and they'll pay more attention. Throw in the odd question every now and again too, it'll make them tune back in if they've tuned out.
 
This is all good advice; excellent, in fact.

The only thing I'll say is, if you're using PowerPoint, keep the verbage on the slides to the minimum necessary to summarize what you're saying. If you put too much on the slides, A) the audience will spend a long time reading them, and not paying attention to you, and B) you'll just end up reading the info on the slides more or less verbatim, which is also boring and gives them another reason not to pay attention to you.

NEVER read to the projection screen - you shouldn't be watching your own presentation, and you should be engagin your audience. One trick I use is to leave the laptop open and facing me so I can refer to it like a teleprompter while still making frequent eye contact with the audience.
 
Public speaking is a fact of life. They don't tell you that in school, but it's something that everyone needs to be familiar with and comfortable with because it happens a lot more than you might think - and when it does happen, you need to be ready for it or it's going to ruin your life for a little while. I got over my fear of audiences in the high school band. I performed at recitals in elementary school regularly, and it always scared the crap out of me. By high school, giving lots of concerts playing different instruments, I got used to performing for a large audience. It's funny how people won't feel intimidated when speaking with one or two people. But when you get enough of those people together, even though you might be comfortable speaking to any one of them, it suddenly becomes a big problem.

Anyway I give presentations regularly at work (by regularly I mean weakly, sometimes twice a week). I give myself a hour or two each week to prepare the presentation and be ready to give the talk. There have been times when I've given a presentation almost each day of a given week. I don't have one to deliver today, and I probably won't for a few weeks, but then it'll get back to almost daily. That's a big part of my evaluation as an employee. It's funny, you'd think as an engineer I'd be evaluated on numbers and technical analysis only. But if you can't communicate your results, what good are they? And presenations are one of the best ways to get technical results, because the audience can ask questions. I've been comfortable speaking in front of groups now for quite a few years. It doesn't come naturally, it comes from practice. Practice that is probably best gotten in college courses, where there are limited consequences for failure. Here are a few things I've learned about presenting (and I'll touch on the points in Delerius's original post:

- Don't read. Nobody likes to attend a presenation given by someone who's reading cue cards. The exception to this is if you're a newscaster or the president. In which case you'll have to speak so increadibly often that you won't have time to prepare... and you need to say things just right.

- Give it a practice run. The worse presentations I've given were the result of no preparation. Drawing up slides and talking points is not enough to give you a smooth presentation. You have to have actually try running through your pitch before you know how the words need to come out.

- Never forget your audience This is the biggest mistake I see people make. I've attended talks given by very intelligent people who spoke well and responded well to questions, but who simply forgot who they were talking to. If you don't know who you're talking to/what their interests will be/what their level of expertise is, find out!

- Speak up. It's easy to settle in to a conversational tone during a presentation, but you have to make sure that everyone in the room can hear you clearly or you're not doing a good job

- DO NOT focus your presentation on one person. I've seen this done a number of times. An employee will give a talk to the highest ranking person in the room. That's a big nono, you belittle the rest of your audience entirely and you make your target very uncomfortable. Don't do this under any circumstances. Everyone, even the janitor, who has attended your presentation deserves a little eye contact and needs to hear you.

- Don't clutter your slides. I think Duke nailed this one already, but I'll reiterate that it's important not to put too much verbage on the screen. If the audience sees a screen filled with verbage they won't even try to read what's written, they'll assume there is no time. If you must fill the slide with text, you're going to have to take a long time going through it for the audience to get anything out of it. If you have a very long, complicated slide make sure to walk them through it carefully.

- Vary your tone of voice. One pitch invariably puts your audience to sleep.

- Natural body language is good when speaking, but mostly, be sure to use a pointer of some sort to highlight your points. Don't go overboard with the pointers though. Not everything on your slide is a highlight.

I'm sure there's more. But honestly the best way to learn is to give a talk in front of an audience, and then watch your talk on video.
 
Nice rundown Dan.

I'd have to say the biggest thing is knowing what you're talking about. When you've researched your topic, you will naturally feel confident about the material. Even if you're a bit nervous about the delivery. ;)
 
Lots of good stuff in this thread for people looking to improve on public speaking. Great advice, guys 👍

A couple of things to add:

First, there's a neat trick to speaking. If you force your voice downward at the end of each sentence, you will sound MUCH more respectable, and people will take what you say more seriously. It's hard to explain what I mean in words, but watch the news on TV to get a taste for it. Anchors always lower their voice at the ends of sentences to put authority in their words. Contrast that with an 8th grader, who will typically raise their voice at the end of a sentence, making their statements sound weak.

Second, don't over-prepare. People who rehearse 20 times start to say the same things each time, turning the presentation into a excersise in recitation. To that end, do not UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE write your presentation out in full. (The exception is if you are giving a long speech to an enormous audience). If you write the whole thing down, you WILL try to remember it word for word. For most presentations, notecards with key points written down will be plenty. If it's a Powerpoint presentation, just print the slides and use those as notecards. This will also keep you from turning around and reading what's on the screen.

Third, undercut your time-limit. Most of us give presentations that have a specified timeframe. For me, it's usually 10-15 minutes. People get into the habit of trying to cram too much information into the time allotted. This is completely Powerpoint's fault, as it is too easy to create slides and add information. Focus on the important things. For example, in my lab class last quarter, we gave 10-minute presentations for each experiment. Some people would have 5 or 6 slides dedicated to background information and experimental setup, and would waste most of their time talking about these things, and would then have to zip through the important info, namely results and discussion, in the last couple of minutes.

Unless there is reason not to do so, err on the side of being too short. Nobody cares if you're supposed to talk for 10 minutes, and you finish after 8, but everybody cares if you're still rambling after 17 minutes. I've seen "10 minute" presentations drag on for almost half an hour.

When creating your presentation, a good rule of thumb is that you should spend 45-60 seconds on each slide. However, in the heat of the battle, you'll probably take longer than this. So, for a 10 minute presentation, get all of your information on 6-7 slides. Then of course, practice a few times to see how it goes.

The old addage that practice makes perfect definately applies to public speaking. The more you do it, the less nervewracking it becomes. As the nerves begin to go away, you will start to become *gasp* a better public speaker. Like everyone, I always used to hate having to get up and speak in front of an audience. However, there was one presentation where I was standing up there talking, and I said to myself "hey, this really isn't bad at all". From that point on, I started to become very comfortable speaking, and that has helped me SOOOO much. Confidence goes a long way. I've been told that I am one of the better presenters in my class of 70, and people always say "wow, you look so comfortable up there!". You can't always tell when somebody is nervous, but it's always obvious when somebody isn't.

Human nature makes us nervous and uncomfortable when it comes to public speaking, but there is absolutely no reason to be. I mean, how often do you sit through someone else's presentation and say to yourself "that guy is an idiot, and is embarrassing himself"? Probably never. Once you realize this, you're over the hump, and on your way to becoming a great presenter :)
 
Any tips on how to keep from getting flustered? This is probably my only downfall when asking questions or speaking aloud in front of a class. Like, it feels as if my lips aren't moving to make the consonants, and then I get all jumbled up. Haha. I think it might be that I'm trying too hard to be as professional as possible. In my honest opinion, when I present something for my class, I sound like an adult, whereas others just sound like teenagers. There are many who also agree, until I get somewhat flustered and lose my momentum.

Nothing is worse than turning super, SUPER red, which I have a tendency to do from time to time. ;)

Pressure really sucks.
 
Omnis
Any tips on how to keep from getting flustered? This is probably my only downfall when asking questions or speaking aloud in front of a class. Like, it feels as if my lips aren't moving to make the consonants, and then I get all jumbled up.
Click to expand...

That happened to me when giving a toast at a celebration once. Not a very good situation. My only suggestion is practice and experience. Try to keep in mind that as a person asking a quesion, you'll be out of their minds as soon as you finish talking. They all turn to look at you because you're the one making noise. But the instant you stop talking, they won't remember who asked the question, and they'll even start forgetting what the question was.
 
Back to public speaking...:)

I am taking public speaking now and I came across this in our book
"Don't speak from the throat, but use the diaphragm."

How on earth am I suppose to do that??
 
that means fill your belly up with air and push the air out with your belly. Your chest shouldn't move. You learn to do that in singing/chorus classes. Don't force your throat and chest, force your lungs.
 
How timely, I have to give a presentation tomorrow. Good advice. 👍
 
i have to do an oral presentation at school tomorrow about my power point slideshow.

it's on my USB disc right now which is in my computer
 
I think i'm weird. I bloody love public speaking, cause i'm a attention whore. I don't care if its bad attention or good attention, so if i make an arse of myself up there, i just joke about it later.
 
If it's a type of presentation in which a number of people have to speak; don't be afraid to go first or second. I used to get nervous, so by waiting and waiting, you just make yourself more nervous. By being one of the first, I have less weight on your shoulders, I've found.

I always prefer to go second, unless nobody wants to say anything or go first. That way, I have a feel for what I'm supposed to do.
 
Pupik
If it's a type of presentation in which a number of people have to speak; don't be afraid to go first or second. I used to get nervous, so by waiting and waiting, you just make yourself more nervous. By being one of the first, I have less weight on your shoulders, I've found.

I always prefer to go second, unless nobody wants to say anything or go first. That way, I have a feel for what I'm supposed to do.
Click to expand...

If you're bad, you should want to go first. You don't want to follow someone better than you. Entertainers know this, which is why opening bands are always worse than the headliner, why opening comedians are worse than the headliner, and why the headliner will typically save his best stuff for last.

Going first gives you a much more favorable result as a speaker. Plus, as said above, it gives you less of a chance to get nervous... especially if you know you're going to be watching better speakers than yourself.

If you're really good and you go first, you'll make everyone else look bad. So really you can't lose. Everyone should want to go first.
 

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