Public Speaking
Addressing a live audience is called public speaking. It is a skill that
requires utmost care while speaking live as we cannot ‘undo’ things if ones
delivered to the audience. Traditionally, it was done face-to-face with a live
audience but nowadays it includes any form of speaking to an audience. The
method of speech may be formal or informal.
It is used for many different purposes like motivation, teaching,
persuasion, entertainment, etc. A speaker must be knowledgeable and confident
to face the audience and handle the queries.
Requirements for Public
Speaking
Public speaking demands clarity in thoughts, vision, and purpose of the presentation. The speaker must have an excellent knowledge of content and the language to win the confidence of the audience and build rapport with them. For effective public speaking, a speaker must have confidence, clarity, and fluency.
These are also called the three pillars of public speaking.
- Confidence
Confidence and attitude play an essential role in public speaking. Nervousness indicates either the speaker is lying or not sure about the content. Some people are good communicators but they cannot address an audience, they lose confidence. The speaker will be low in confidence
• If he doesn’t prepare well
• If he wouldn’t rehearse many times
• If he fears stage
• If he lacks knowledge of the topic, etc.
A public speaker can easily enhance his confidence if he follows the following tips-
• Be prepared
• Be yourself
• Don’t try to be perfect
• Avoid haste
The importance of confidence in public speaking- Confidence helps a speaker in many ways-
• to create an everlasting impression.
• To be taken seriously by the audience.
• To kill nervousness and stage fear
• To build a good rapport with the audience
• To win the presentation
• To be a very good speaker
Remember, convincing people is definitely not an easy task. But the situation becomes easier when you are confident enough to not only convince others but also, make them listen to you with rapt attention and also act accordingly.
2. Clarity
The clarity in speech means the quality of being without doubt and easily understood. Clarity means a clear message. If a speaker is not clear, there is a greater chance of disengaging the audience.
How to achieve clarity
- Do deep research for content preparation
- Break monotony
- Be simple in language & avoid jargon to be more engaging
- Make a point clear with repetition
- Classify the content into small concepts and guide the audience
- Make connections with what your audience knows
- Use the art of storytelling to connect with your audience
- Use audio-visual aids so that people understand and remember
- Influence people by focusing on benefits and consequences.
The importance of clarity in public speaking- Clarity helps a speaker in many ways-
• It connects the audience to the speaker.
• It also brings greater understanding.
• It engages the audience.
• It makes speech flawless.
• It speaks the intention of the speaker.
3. Fluency
Fluency in public speaking means speaking without unnecessary pauses and fillers (like ‘uh’ hum’ etc.). Fluency includes speaking easily, reasonably, quickly, and without pauses between words or sentences. It is crucial in public speaking to impress the audience. It is also an important component of public speaking.
How to bring fluency
- By practicing the speech
- By controlling the speed of speech
- By understanding paralinguistic features –pronunciation, articulation, stress, etc.
Importance of fluency in public speaking- Fluency helps a speaker in many ways-
• It brings connections between the points.
• to produce continuous speech
• to deliver comprehensive content to listener
• to maintain the communicative ideas more effectively
• to maintain continuity, and smoothness effortlessly in speech production
No comments:
Post a Comment