How to Make Your Speaking Easier and More Effective

[This document is also available as a pdf file]

Audience Analysis

• Remember that the members of the audience are supposed to be the beneficiaries of your communication.
  
• Don't make too many assumptions about your audience. But you do have to make some.
  
• Figure out the basics. Who are these people?
  • demographics (age, ethnicity, gender mix, etc.).
  • predispositions (hopes, fears, positives/negatives, level of interest).
  • knowledge of/experience with subject/me.
    
• In what kind of setting will they receive this information?
  • large lecture hall or small seminar room or classroom.
  • lighting and sound issues.
  • time of day.
    
• Take into account the "me, here, now."
  • Picture yourself as a member of the audience and ask "How does this message affect me, here, now?"
  • Me, here, now translates into what you as a sender have to offer your audience/receivers—what they will be able to understand, accept, support, consider important—because it matters to them.
    
• Establish cognitive / behavioral objectives for your audience:
  • What do I want my audience to know?
  • What do I want my audience to do

Openings, and Closings

OPENINGS. Stay away from the predictable (Good morning..., Today, I'm here to talk about...). Instead:

• Begin with a provocative question, anecdote, or current event—and how it relates to the content.
• Ask the audience a question
• Set up a problem—and promise that they'll have all the tools for a solution by the end of the class.

CLOSINGS. Many speakers simply talk until the end of the time or beyond it—and say, "I see we're out of time." Instead:

• Plan a rhythm for your speaking—plan to end with content 5 minutes early, so you can summarize, raise questions.
• Set aside a time for questions—and structure that time.

Preparation

You probably can't cover everything you want to in a talk or speech.

• Decide what is essential, what is important, and what is helpful (what would be nice).
  • Cover the first; try to cover the second; forget about the third.
  • Release a little control over the material and rely on the textbook or a list of supplementary readings for the nonessentials.
    
• Set objectives.
  • What do you want to have accomplished at the end of the speech?
  • What do you want the audience to know at the end of the speech?
    
• Plan a speech to cover less than the allotted period.
  • It takes some time to get going.
  • Questions always take up more time than you expect.
    
• Divide the speech/talk into discrete segments and follow the standard speech structure.
  • Divide it both in terms of time and in terms of material.
  • Try for roughly equal blocks, each one on a topic.
  • Unlike in a piece of writing, you should tell them what you'll say, say it, and tell them what you've said.
    
• Speak from notes or an outline, rather than a complete text.
  • It's too tempting to simply read, rather than lecture, from a complete text.
  • Reading also creates a barrier between speaker and audience.
  • Writing up an entire speech is very time consuming.
  • A written speech often becomes a fossil that never gets updated.

Delivery

• Be conversational; speak naturally; be yourself (or your best self).
  • That self may be formal, "laid back," understated, or hyper. Use those traits; don't fight against them.
  • Talk about the material; don't lecture about it.
  • (Talking is easier if you don't read verbatim.)
    
• Vary your pacing and voice.
  • Gauge audience reaction, and
  • Repeat critical points immediately if you sense the necessity.
  • Use your voice to underline and italicize the important points.
  • Pause before new points.
  • Use transitional statements to move to the next idea.
    
• Use gestures to emphasize points.
  • Consider gestures to be a mirror of your voice.
  • Adjust your gestures to the size of the room.
    
• Look at the audience.
  • Try to cover all parts of the room by dividing it into four quadrants.
  • If direct eye contact makes you forget your place, try looking just over a student's head, or between two students (They won't see the difference).
    
• Use language to create pictures.
  • Use metaphors, analogies, and similes.
    
• Observe the techniques of others.
  • Try out in your own talks techniques you admire in others.
  • Like any skill, delivery is not innate, but must be learned

Credibility & Commitment

Although speaking isn't theater, we do know that audience find concepts, knowledge, skills, and ideas most accessible and credible from someone they consider . . . well, not dull.

• Think about antecedent image—perception is often stronger than reality.
• Credibility is enhanced by:
  • Your own sense of comfort and confidence presenting material.
  • Your enthusiasm and interest in teaching.
  • Your research and own ideas.
• Commitment is enhanced by:
  • Relating your own experience, ideas, and feelings.
  • Taking the first person approach, not separating yourself from your subject.
  • Relating your "passion" for your subject.
• Delivery is tied to both commitment and credibility:
  An old UCLA study of effective presentations analyzed 3 elements (verbal, vocal, visual). Here's what it found was important in establishing credibility/believability:
  • Verbal (words you say): 7%.
  • Vocal (how you sound when you say them): 38%.
  • Visual (how you look when you say them): 55%.
    
• Your energy and intensity will move your audience—and help you (them) reach your objectives.

Building Interaction

• Learning takes place best in an active, not a passive environment.
  
• Interaction is a continuous way to
  • Assess the me, here, now.
  • Determine whether or not your content is understood.
  • Share the responsibility of learning more equitably and appropriately.
    
• How to build interaction?
  • Have questions prepared—begin with relatively easy, accessible ones.
  • Work to get everyone involved, even in large groups.
    
• Ask the audience to consider issues with the person sitting next to them/jot down ideas, questions, concerns.
  
• Discuss as a larger group.
  
• Move yourself!
  • Don't scurry back and forth, but don't get locked into one position.

Handling Questions

• Explicitly request and encourage questions.
  • The audience will see that you have a genuine interest in what they're thinking.

• Be aware of how your behavior and comments can set the tone for questioning.
  • A negative response (e.g., "We've already covered that") discourages further questions and may make the audience think you don't really want questions.
    
• Make sure everyone hears the question.
  • Repeat it if necessary.
  • But don't make a habit of simply repeating every question.
  • Ask the audience if they heard the question; then ask the person to repeat.
    
• Clarify questions.
  • Say, "Do you mean that . . . ," or "I'm sorry, I don't understand the question," rather than "Your question isn't clear."
    
• Answer questions as directly as possible.
  • Address your answer to the whole audience.
  • Ask whether you have answered the question.
    
• Be diplomatic when people raise tangential, overly complicated questions, or persistently ask questions just to be asking.
  • Ask them to stop by after the presentation or to contact you.
  • If a someone is simply confused, say, "Let me go over this point a bit more slowly."

Getting Feedback

• Get regular feedback.
  • Ask the audience to spend the last five minutes of class writing down the most important thing they learned that day or one question they have as a result of the talk.
  • Or ask them to write down questions they still have.
    
• Use eye contact as a tool for continuous feedback.
  • If you notice people with questioning looks, stop what you're doing and ask if you need to clarify.
  • If you get no response, go ahead and clarify.

Tollefson/Peterson
UC Berkeley, 2000