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Public speaking tips

Hi everyone,

As part of my course (although it's not assessed as such, not in terms of marks towards my degree anyway) I have to give a 10min presentation on Friday, but I HATE and am very bad at public speaking. Does anyone have any tips on how best to go about this presentation? I've done all the work on it, including powerpoint and my own notes to go with each slide, ect, it's literally just the matter of delivering it to 100ish people.

Any help is MUCH appreciated!

Reply 1

unknownking321

Imagine that the audience members are naked. :yes:

Reply 2

President_Ben

Watch a video of a public speaker you admire. Watch it several times and make notes. Copy what they do.

Reply 3

jeffercake

Hi

I had to do my first lot of public speaking last year, in my first year of my Access course.

I got lots of advice, and I feel that my presentations went really well!

These are my tips:

* Prepare. This means, make sure that your powerpoint is in the right order (Yes, Ive seen people who fumble about because their powerpoint is ****ed up). Try and do your presentation in front of a friend, or record yourself on video/audio. Make cuecards and number them. Ensure you have all your props.

* Go first. If it's possible to do so, then volunteer to go first. This makes your teacher think you're confident and brave! Also, once you have seen everybody else's presentation you will get more nervous about your own as you start to compare them, before you've even done it!

* LOOK confident! Move around, give eye contact, scan the room, hand gestures... etc You can LOOK confident, even if you arent feeling confident inside.

* Dont ramble. Think about what you are going to say before you say it. No one will notice the two seconds you take to breath and think - they will notice the rambling stutter though, if you try and speak too quickly.

* Think about what questions people will ask at the end. Think of some answers you can give. Always ask if there are any questions.

* Give a handout. Print off a handout of what you plan to talk about, and some resources you have used. You can use it to detract attention away from yourself - as the other students read your handout, they wont be looking at you.

* Remember your bibliography.

Good luck!

Reply 4

Alexr115

Original post by StrawberryFlip

You are probably not as bad as you think at public speaking!!

I do a fair bit of public speaking, some to large audiences some to small. I prefer large audiences because at least if you are on a stage you are a fair distance away.

First and foremost, practice. You cannot practice enough times. Secondly, take it slowly, most peoples' natural reaction is to rush through and when you're listening it just sounds like a garbled mess. so take your time.

Make sure you maintain eye contact with the audience if you practice enough you won't need to keep referring to your notes, just a quick glance every now and the to refresh your memory.

Stand up straight and keep your head so your voice will naturally travel around the room.

If you do slip up, don't worry, take a few seconds to compose your thoughts and carry on.

Finally, just enjoy it :smile:

* LOOK confident! Move around, give eye contact, scan the room, hand gestures... etc You can LOOK confident, even if you arent feeling confident inside.

Hand gestures aren't necessarily a sign of confidence it depends on the point of the speech. They're useful for political speeches and if you are directing your audience to something but for others they're not as helpful.
Personally I would avoid hand gestures as it can be distracting and people may focus on your hand movements rather than what you are saying. Try and keep as still as possible, if you are reading from a script put a notepad underneath so both hands are holding it. If i just need to use one hand I put one behind my back and use the other for holding something or changing power point slides

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 5

angelscape

I just had a major presentation so here are some tips:

1) Go through your script over and over again to familiarise yourself with it
2) People tend to get anxious when presenting and speed through their presentation like a bullet train. Tell yourself to speak slowly and coherently in your head.
3) If you're afraid to look the audience in the eye just look at their foreheads
4) Pick 3 members of the audience, one on the extreme right, one at the centre, and one on the extreme left to concentrate on (probably speak 2-3 lines to them) to give the impression that you are scrolling through the audience
5) Hand gestures help a lot in engaging the audience and aiding the audiences' understanding of your presentation, so you might want to plan what kind of hand gestures to do and when exactly to do them
6) Psych yourself up and be really confident about it
7) Rehearse in front of the mirror a few times
8) Smile and enjoy the presentation :smile:

Hope this helps, all the best!

Reply 6

jeffercake

Original post by Alexr115

Personally I would avoid hand gestures as it can be distracting and people may focus on your hand movements rather than what you are saying. Try and keep as still as possible

I disagree.

When I mentioned hand gestures, I didnt mean great big crazy actions.
Hand gestures make the speaker feel more confident, because they are moving, they are free, they can hide shaky hands.
Standing still looks ridiculous. Your body should be relaxed, and you should feel able to move around. It looks natural.

Each to their own, Iguess.

:smile: