Speech Tips...

We all have, at some point of time, sat engrossed in a crowd… listening to the words of the man on stage. And we all have applauded when he finished and agreed unanimously, that he was awesome. Most of us differ from how we reacted after this. Some went home content, some found themselves taken with the speaker’s charms… and the rest of us wondered how we ourselves could reach his level of excellence.

And the good news is, it isn’t impossible… it can be done and quite easily too. By following a few simple pointers and undergoing a little bit of grooming, we can all overcome our stage frights and be more than confident regarding speaking at any occasion whatsoever.

To begin with, it is essential to learn to differentiate between a public speech and a one-on-one interview. Even the greatest of conversationalists can go to ground by muddling up the two and making the wrong approach. While the correct approach for both share a few points of commonality, there are some key differences. The first of them is the matter of contact.

When you speak to one man… you have to devote all your attentions on him alone. Looking anywhere except at his eyes is likely to be interpreted as a sign of nervousness or being unsure. But, when you address a larger audience… you must never stare at any one point for longer than a few seconds. Your eyes must constantly rove among the people you are speaking to, to create the illusion that you are in fact communicating with each of them on an individual basis. It is quite understandable that for someone unused to the stage… this might be quite difficult. It does happen that the distraction causes the speaker to lose the train of his thoughts and become temporarily incoherent. After all, where would even the best of us be if we were aloof to the wink of a fair dame in the throng?

The trick to work around this… is to avoid making any direct eye contact till we reach a greater level of confidence. So… we look at people’s foreheads. The one whose forehead we glance at thinks we are looking at the one behind him… and vice versa. And the problem of contact… is solved.

Now, we come to the actual art of speaking itself… and make no mistake it is an art form. There are several things that require be done depending on some variable factors. The topic on which we are about to speak will determine how we shall modulate our voice. The issue will decide if we will be slow and thoughtful, forcible and emphatic… or cynical and sarcastic. Each of the forms of address is best suited to its own group of subject matters and is rarely mixed with another in anything apart from dramatic oratory. Usually, the inexpert combining of these is taken as a sign of over dramatic misdirection to cover up for the lack of substance to the speech. So, better is to just stick to one form.

Our audience should also play a role in deciding what language we intend to use. The presence of college goers or adolescence let’s us be more innovative and colorful in our speech, while the presence of senior citizens or office employees should cause us to make the speech more formal. But, at the end of the day… it’s what we say and not how we say it that counts. And in that… we have to be rock solid.

We have to portray an aura of supreme confidence and belief in whatever we say, no matter what our own thoughts on the matter are. We have to make our audience believe that only our words are sane… and to think differently is folly. The arguments we provide must blow away any and all opposing ideals… and we must pretend as if it already has. "Tell them what you going to tell them, tell them. Then tell them what you just told them"