Personal narrative. A narrative is just another word for story. If you’re asked to tell a story about yourself, find out if the intention is to use something that’s happened to you in order to teach a lesson, convey a moral, offer inspiration or simply to entertain. Informative speech. There are two kinds of informative speeches: process and expository. If you’re charged with doing a process speech, the idea is for you to explain how something is done, how something is made or how something works. You take your audience step-by-step through the process. If your speech is meant to be expository, your job is to take what might be a complex subject and break it down into sections as a way of educating your audience about the topic. Persuasive speech. If you’re meant to persuade, then your job is to convince your audience to adopt a particular way of thinking, a belief or a behavior that you advocate for. Ceremonial speech. Ceremonial speeches run the gamut from wedding toasts to eulogies, from graduation speeches to farewell addresses. Many of these speeches are intended to be short and the focus is often on entertaining, inspiring or increasing the audience’s appreciation for someone or something.
Read the newspaper. If you can find a way to link your speech topic to something that’s happening in the news, you can highlight the relevance of what you have to say to your audience. Translate numbers. Using statistics in your speech can be impactful, but they can be even more meaningful if you translate them in a way the audience can understand. For example, you could say that worldwide, 7. 6 million people die of cancer every year, but to make it more relatable, you might want to follow it up by saying that that number represents the entire population of Switzerland. Express the benefits. It’s a good idea to let an audience know exactly what they’ll get out of your speech, so that they’re primed to listen. If they’ll learn how to save money, tell them. If the information you’re about to share will make their lives easier in some way, make that clear. If they’ll gain a new appreciation of someone or something, let them know.
Outline. When you outline, you’re simply organizing and structuring your speech as a series of points. [9] X Expert Source Patrick MuñozVoice & Speech Coach Expert Interview. 12 November 2019. For example, if you were giving the speech mentioned above: “I want my audience to learn the four things they should look for when buying a diamond,” you might designate one point for “Cut,” one for “Color,” one for “Clarity” and one for “Carat. " Under each of those points, you’d offer your audience more information and detail. Outlines can be written in complete sentences or they can be a series of abbreviated phrases and reminders. Another approach is to begin by writing complete sentences and then transferring your outline on to note cards on which you abbreviate those sentences using just the words and memory prompts you need. Script. One reason that it makes sense to write out ceremonial speeches is because the words you choose to express yourself in these kinds of speeches are particularly important. You’re meant to inspire or entertain or pay tribute to someone, so saying exactly what you mean and have prepared increases your chances for success. Pull out your old English textbooks and review things like similes, metaphors, alliteration and other kinds of figurative language. These kinds of devices can add to the impact of a ceremonial speech. Beware one pitfall of the scripted speech: having a page full of words in front of you can cause you to fall into the trap of simply reading from your script without every looking up, making eye contact or engaging with the audience in any way. Thorough practice should help to eliminate your chances of falling into this trip.
Introduction. There are two things that most good introductions include: an attention-getter and a preview of what’s to come in the speech. Give an attention-getter. The most important thing you must do in your introduction is to grab your audience’s attention. [11] X Expert Source Patrick MuñozVoice & Speech Coach Expert Interview. 12 November 2019. You can do this in a number of ways: ask a question, say something surprising, offer startling statistics, use a quote or proverb related to your speech topic or tell a short story. Take the time to figure out how you’ll grab your audience’s attention–it’s easier to get them hooked in the beginning than to try to get them interested as your speech progresses. Offer a preview. Think of a preview as kind of the “coming attractions” of your speech. Plan to tell your audience the main points you’ll talk about in your speech. There’s not need to go into any detail here; you’ll get to that when you come to the body of your speech. You can write a preview that’s simply one sentence in length to cover what you need to say here. Body. The body is where the “meat” of your speech resides. The points you outlined or the information you scripted make up the body. There are several ways to organize the information within the body of your speech–in time sequence, in step order, from most important point to least important point, problem-solution, to name just a few. Choose an organizational pattern that makes sense based on your speech goal. Conclusion. There are two things to accomplish in your conclusion. This is not the place to introduce any new information; instead, the idea is to wrap things up in a way that’s memorable and definite. Give a summary. One of the ways an audience remembers what a speech was about is through intentional repetition. In your introduction, you gave a preview of what you’d be talking about. In your speech body, you talked about those things. Now, in your conclusion, you remind your audience what you talked about. Simply offer a brief review of the main points you touched on in your speech. End with a clincher. A clincher is a memorable, definitive statement that gives your speech a sense of closure. One easy way to do this is to write a clincher that refers back to what you said in the attention-getter of your speech. This helps bring your presentation full circle and provides a sense of closure.
Don’t write everything you plan to say on your slides. We’ve all suffered through speeches where the speaker did little more that read off of his or her slides. That’s boring for the audience, and they soon disengage. Instead, use word charts to preview, review or highlight key information. Remember, the sides should be a supplement to what you’re going to say rather than an exact copy of it. Make your slides readable. Use a font size that’s easy for your audience to read and don’t overcrowd your slides. If your audience can’t see or get through the material on your slides, they won’t have served any purpose. Use animations sparingly. Having graphics fly around, zoom in and out ,and change colors can be engaging but can also be distracting. Be careful not to overdo the special effects. Your slides should be a supporting player rather than the star of the show.
Leave yourself time to practice. If you’re given to procrastinating, you could find yourself with very little or no time to practice before you deliver your speech, which could leave you feeling unprepared and anxious.
Look at your audience. Almost nothing does more to keep an audience engaged than eye contact from a speaker. As you rehearse your speech, be sure to look at the family members or friends who’ve agreed to be your audience. It takes a bit of practice to be able to look at your outline, script or note cards, capture a thought or two and then come up and deliver that information while looking at your audience. It’s yet another reason why rehearsal time is so important. If you don’t have the opportunity to practice in front of people, be sure that when you do rehearse, that you say your speech aloud. You don’t want your speech day to be the first time you hear the words of your speech coming out of your mouth. Plus, speaking out loud gives you a chance to double-check and correct any mispronunciations, practice articulating your words clearly and confirm the timing of your speech (We speak more quickly when we simply recite a speech in our heads).
Clench and release. Ball up your fists really, really tight and hold for a second or two and then release. Repeat this a few times. You can do the same thing by squeezing the muscles in your calves very tightly and then releasing. With each release, you should feel a reduction in your adrenaline-induced symptoms. Take deep breaths. The adrenaline in your system causes you to take more shallow breaths that, in turn, increase your feeling of anxiety. You need to break the cycle. Take a deep breath through your nose and allow the air to fill your belly. Once your belly is full, let your breath fill and expand your ribcage. Finally, allow your breath to move fully into your chest. Open your mouth slightly and begin to exhale starting first with the air in your chest, then the air in your ribcage and finally the breath in your belly. Repeat this inhale-exhale cycle five times.
Negative thoughts are incredibly powerful–one estimate is that you need five positive thoughts to counteract every one negative thought you have, so steer clear of them.
