BECOMING A BRILLIANT PUBLIC SPEAKER

As members of the society, it’s essential for us to interact and communicate with others to convey information and express our thoughts. There will also be times when we must speak before a crowd. That’s why it’s essential for us to know more about public speaking. Public speaking is a process of delivering a speech in front of an audience. When delivering a speech, a public speaker’s goals must be more than just conveying new information to the audience, but also alter the listener’s emotion and actions with our words. But it’s not that easy to accomplish. Even great speakers still face a hard time trying to move their audience. So, how does one touch the hearts of their audience? There’s a few important components to be noticed other than the power of spoken words:

• Body language

Be mindful with your body movements and gestures, because body language is a non-verbal process of communication that shows your mental, physical, and emotional state. Numerous psychological findings show that body language accounts for as much as 55% of the message received by the audience. That’s why avoid slouching your shoulders and fiddling with your clothes, because your nervousness could be transmitted to your audience. Show a relaxed body posture and smile while you talk to your audience to show that you are calm, open, and interested in them. 

• Tone of Voice

In public speaking, your voice is your instrument to engage and charm your audience. In fact, the tone of voice accounts for approximately 33% of the transmitted message while the actual words you say are responsible for only 7% of communication. This means that our audience is influenced by the sound and quality of the speaker’s voice. That’s why you need to learn to control the tone of your voice and use a variety of voice tones, so that your speech can be more expressive and appealing in order to keep your audience’s attention.

• Visual aids

Psychological studies in the education field had found that approximately 83% of learning occurs visually and only 11% through hearing. So, if the goal of your presentation is to help your audience remember key points from your presentation, then adding some visual elements will definitely be a brilliant choice! A few selection of visual aids that you can use are flip charts, slide shows, handouts, overhead projectors and props.

• Pause

Pausing allows you to listen to your audience and let the silence speak for you. Avoid filling the silence with words such as “uhm”, “well”, and such, because it will only distract your audience from what’s being said. Use the power of pause to give time for your audience to absorb the information given, raise the impact of a statement, and create anticipation for the next statement.

Be sure to keep these elements in mind when you need to present in front of an audience. It can surely help you deliver a memorable speech to your listener!

References

Nikitina, A. (2011). Successful Public Speaking. Arina Nikitina & Ventus Publishing. ISBN 978-87-7681-947-7