I’m doing a speech on public speaking (heh), and I just wanna know what some of you think are good tips for speaking. Also, any methods that would help someone who’s not particularily fond of speaking in front of people to not be nervous would be helpful.
Thanks in advance!
This may help to distract your audience a bit and allow you relax since you will know something they don’t until the end.
Get an odd,shiny,or otherwise interesting object and place it on the podium facing the audience. Simply place it there and do not refer to it at all during your speech. Your audience will be looking at it wondering WTF the whole time and expecting you to somehow work it into the speech. When you are done simply inform them it was there as a gimick to keep them interested.
A guy did this during a Dale Carnigie course I was at and it worked like a charm. Our instructor thought it was a great gimick too.
Other tips:
I suppose I could go dig out my old binder/workbook from the course. I’ll check back later and see what other tips you get.
Start with some humor, maybe humor about you feeling nervous. “I was scared about coming here, cuz I’m afraid of speaking publicly. Hell, I get scared talking in front of the bathroom mirror. But then again, that bastard keeps on interrupting me.”
Try and find a “voice”–are you gonna be chatty, or formal, or enthusiastic? Enthusiastic would be the coolest, if you could pull it off–few people realy LOVE public speaking, and one that did would be interesting to listen to.
Have note cards, but not the whole thing written out. Practice it from those note cards. That way you sound natural but stay on task.
3)Have some bigish “chunks” of speech neaar the end that you can add or leave off depending on how the speech goes, and how time is.
5)Do not, under any circumstances, try to make more than three points. No one will listen to more than the first three points in a speech about oral sex, let alone public speacking. You ALWAYS lose the audience o nthe fourth point. If this means leaving out some really brilliant stuff, so be it. You will use the material in some other speech.
Remember that it is your job to HELP your poor audience. Thier natural inclination is to spend this time having fantasies about the person sitting in front of them, and you have to convince them to listen instead. Tell them what your three points are right from the start. When you move to your second point, mention it. Mention it again when you get to your last point. As you finish each point, summarize it. This does several things: First, if they have gotten distracted, it allows them to get back on track. Second, it tells the audience that you are orginized, and this gives them faith that you are worth listening to. Lastly, when they are getting tired it reassures them that they are near the end.
Practice practice practice. Practice leads ot confidence, and confidence is the key to effective speaking.
Haha, Totoro, I think I’ll use that! 
I like the gimmick idea too. Thanks, I just got two new tips
A silent pause is fine… it does not have to be and should not be filled with “ahh or ummm”
I’m glad you like the gimick idea. Looks like you got plenty of excellent tips so all I have left to say is.
Good luck. Oh ya, and let us know how it went.
Some fine advice already.
Hope this helps:
Start by introducing yourself and your subject.
Try to look at the audience every so often. It makes each of them feel that you’re talking to them individually.
Vary your voice a little. A monotone is boring. As Whammo said, a pause is fine.
An occasional gesture is fine, but too many are distracting. Decide what you’re going to do with your hands (lean on lectern / clasp behind back / etc)
Pitch the vocabulary and humour at the audience. A sermon is very different from a stag night!
Watch out for repetition.
It’s not as difficult as you think - but practice helps. Lecture your pet. (They won’t give you any hassle!).
Practice on your family + friends.
Watch out for repetition.
You might need to time it, if there are other speakers.
Keep it as short as possible. Leave them wanting more (comedians and stage acts do this).
Great advice, all around.
Biggest help I’ve found is talk about what you know; it lends confidence and is a real boon for believablity. Since your speech is about public speaking, how about touching on how much it’s hated and feared? Seem to recall it ranks right up there with fear of dying.
Since the key is connecting to listeners you have an instant “in” right there. Maybe set up a “death clock” you could refer to; play it for laughs-that-illustrate if you get in a pinch.
As usual, Manda Jo offers excellent advice: keep it short and focused–and practice, practice, practice. You may feel foolish doing it but somehow it imprints on your brain. It can mean salvation at crunch time; your mind might unexpectedly go blank and your mouth dry but the right words will come out anyway.
Good luck with it–and have fun. Most people really aren’t that critical, y’know?
Veb
you will hear a lot of people say to look around the audience, right above their heads. This can’t be further from the truth. If you can see your crowd (like, there is no spotlight in your eyes), then make tons of eye contact. It makes the people you are speaking too much more comfortable, and you’ll feel the same way.
Totoro gave some great advice. If I’m giving a speech, it always makes me feel more at ease if I start with getting a laugh. Then again, I always feel more comfortable with people if I’m making them laugh (I’m a laugh whore).
Also, practice enough so the cue cards are just acting as a “comfort blanket”. You don’t want to be depending on them (that’s gotten me in a pickle, before). If you drop them, you want to be able to just go on and not sort them out.
If you learn the speech well enough that you have it memorized, then you can think about how you’re saying it. It’s often more how you tell a speech that keeps the audience interested than what you’re saying. If you’ve grown comfortable with it, and think of it as more of an anecdote (though a long one) than a speech, you’re set. Though, it depends on the speech. If you’re presenting factual information, you don’t want to be too casual. However, I’ve found that some of the best speakers just seem like great story tellers.
You might try picking out a few people in the audience to speak directly to. It’s the old trick of talking to one person (one person is easier than a crowd), but that looks strange. If you pick out three of four people at different points, then you can look from person to person. Instead of talking to a crowd it’s like you’re talking to a few people.
Good luck with your speech. Hope everything goes well.
as jerry seinfeld put it:
in america, the fear of public speaking outranks the fear of death.
that means that if you were at a funeral, most people would prefer to be in the coffin, rather than giving the eulogy.
try having a beer or two before you go up (NO MORE THOUGH! )
On the few occasions where I’ve toastmastered (and if there’s a better way to spoil enjoyment of a dinner, I don’t know what it is), I’ve always reminded people of the three unbreakable rules of speechmaking:
Stand up, so that everyone can see you.
Speak up, so that everyone can hear you.
And be brief, so that everyone will like you.
On my own, I’ve found that my left hand will flutter around when left to itself, but that’s easily cured by putting it in the pocket, making you look cool and relaxed to boot.
S. Norman
You guys are great! furiously scribbling I’ve got at least 5 great ideas :). Anyway, I like the ‘be brief’ comments, but I can’t be. The speech has a five minute minimum. Even without all your advice, I can make it over that with ease, but the best thing is that my subject material helps me present 
.
You’ve had some great advice here…
My $0.02:
speak slowly. If I hear someone speak in public I can often tell how much experience they’ve had from the speed of the delivery (experience tends to be inversely proportional to speed, to some extent).
record yourself practising, and listen to it. Repeat (2) until your taped delivery is how you thought you sounded.
try and enjoy it. Apart from your vocal delivery, there’s about a gazillion hints your body’s going to give to all but the most dumb audience member, telling them how confident/happy/whatever you feel.
don’t fidget, esp. with your hands. Decide where they’re going to go and keep them there. Lecterns are good for this. As a student we were videotaped giving 5 minute monologues on our favourite subjects. Watching yourself trying not to scratch your nose/ears or whatever was a salutory lesson.
Good luck…
Have good posture, with your weight fairly evenly on both feet. If you slouch, your audience will take you less seriously. If you have a lectern, rest your hands on it, but do not lean on it. Keep your hands out of your pockets.
As Xerxes said, speak slowly. People tend to speak faster when they’re nervous, and it shows. Slow down and relax. Don’t be afraid to pause for a moment to let a point sink in. There’s no rush.
For god’s sake, don’t memorize your speech. Reciting a memorized speech makes you sound stilted and ridiculous. You do need to know the subject matter, but not every word you’re going to say. However, if you do decide to memorize your speech, then practice it until your delivery sounds natural. then practice it some more.
Know your audience. What kind of presentation are they looking for? Do they want in-depth detail, or just an overview? Is it a formal speech or a casual talk?
Avoid use of slang or other inappropriate language.
I have to disagree with putting any distracting objects on the lectern. It’s a gimmick that keeps the audience’s attention, but you don’t want a gimmick keeping their attention. You should keep their attention. A gimmick will work only once, whereas good speaking skills and good speechwriting will work always be useful. (However, in this case, the gimmick would actually tie in to your speech…but I still think it’s a bad idea)
Use notecards if you are presenting more information than you can comfortably remember. Do not, under any circumstances, write out your entire speech and bring it on stage with you. Notecards should be an outline of the major topics of your speech, just enough to remind you where you wanted to head next. You shuld know the information well enough to merely need a reminder. (If I were giving this post as a speech, my notecards might say POSTURE, SPEAK SLOWLY, DON’T MEMORIZE, etc. The writing on note cards should be large enough that you can easily read it.
Use real examples and personal anecdotes to engage the audience. How does the information affect the audience? How does it affect you? A bit of narrative will change your speech from a dry presentation of facts to an interesting story.
Know how your speech is going to end before you start. If you have a list of points you want to make, great, but how are you going to finish? “Well, that’s my last point…I’m done” doesn’t work so well. You want something that brings all the information together to a central focus, and at the same time comes to a natural stopping point.
I hope these ideas are helpful to you. Sorry if I contradicted other folks, but I can’t resist adding to the general confusion.
If you’re in the habit of saying “uh” or “um” or other meaningless sounds during pauses in your words, then practice your speech in front of a friend.
Give him or her some kind of bell, or noisemaker, or buzzer or something. Instruct your friend to make a noise every time you say “um.” This will help you make yourself more conscious of saying “Um.”
(After being a Toastmaster for a few years, I can’t listen to any speaker who says ‘um’ for very long without going NUTS. I was at one conference where the speaker would let out several “Um’s” and clear his throat into his microphone between every five to seven words. It was pure torture.)
Also, your friend can time your speaking and let you know when you’ve reached your time limit. Tell the friend your target time, and then have him or her choose a couple of practice runs where they give you an early “time’s up” signal so you can practice abbreviating the end of your speech.
Again, the only way to prepare is PRACTICE - we can’t emphasize this enough. There is absoultely no substitute for practice when it comes to public speaking.
Don’t look over their heads, as someone has noted already, unless you’re in a very large room and quite high above them. If seeing all those faces and eyes will make you nervous, put your eyes slightly out of focus so that you can’t actually see their eyes, and talk to the blurry faces. Make “face contact” with those faces, skipping around the room from face to face whenever you’re looking out (which will be most of the time.)
Don’t memorize or over-rehearse. Do know your stuff, know all the points you want to cover. Try saying things different ways, different orders, etc. when you’re going over your material, to see if one approach is a better fit than another.
If you’re going to be taking questions, make sure you can anticipate them. Get someone unfamiliar with your subject to spring some on you.
It kind of depends on how large your audience is.
One thing that worked especially well for me was to divide the gallery (roughly sixty students) up into quadrants, then pick from each quadrant one especially attractive face of the opposite sex. As I spoke, I periodically switched from one quadrant’s target person to another quadrant’s. A few times when I relaxed enough, my gaze wandered from the target person to people around her. The teacher thought I was making eye-contact with everyone in the class, but in a nearly thirty minute speech I think I made eye-contact with no more than eight to ten people.
It also got me smiling (appearing relaxed and confident, though I was anything but that) during the speech. That also kicked up the grade.
If making eye-contact with dozens or hundreds of people would be daunting to you, try that method. Good luck!
I’m going to go against a piece of traditional advice: the worst thing a nervous speaker can do is try to start his speech with a joke. If the speaker is already nervous, he’s probably not going to be able to tell a joke well. And if the joke bombs (which is likely) the speaker starts off on a bad note which makes him more self-conscious than he already was.
If you’re nervous the best way to start a speech is the simplest: give a brief introduction to what you’re going to say and then say it. (Example: “Hello, my name is Little Nemo and I’ve been asked to give a speech today on public speaking. One of the most commonly given pieces of advice to public speakers is …”)
Another useful and obvious piece of advice is that if the speech will be followed by questions from the audience, you should try to determine what some of the questions might be and have an idea of how you’ll answer them.