Speaking Tips for Young Speakers
Yr 7 Oral Presentation Speech Skills
It is said that the two most common fears are Death and Public Speaking. Read to get rid of your fear of Public Speaking!
Have you Ever Suffered from These Symptoms?
Nerves
Unless you where born a natural public speaker then most likely you would have been nervous to speak publicly. But no problem there are some steps you can take to over come these nerves. Read Speaking tips.
Harsh Stares
Sometimes when you are up on the stage you get stuck because what looks like many critical eyes starting at you thinking that is going to be so bad. But really its not.
Um and Ah
Have you ever found your self umming and ahhing when you can't think of anything else to say? Well there are some simple tips that will help you lose this habit. See pause in the 3 P's.
Speaking Tips
Using palm Card
A palm card is a small piece of cardboard that speakers use to bullet points on what they are going to say. Never right you whole speech on palm cards because you will end up just staring at them and speaking in a monotone. Also number your palm cards
Memory Tricks
Using some simple memory tricks to remember you speech can help with presenting it. Assosiate points with symbols or situations for example if you were talking about education you may want to picture a classroom.
Maintain Eye Contact
It is important to Maintain eye contact, but make sure you move your eyes around the room not just look at one person. If that becomes to scary look just above the audience just enough so it still looks like your staring at them.
And don't forget to just be confident!
The Three P's
Pace
It is important to speak with a good pace and not to talk too fast so no one understands you or not to speak to slow so people lose interest. Try and keep at the same pace. Also it can be an effective tool e.g. if you are emphasising speed you may want to speak fast but not for too long.
Pitch
Sometimes if you speak in a monotone or finish every sentence with a higher note than the one before then it can get annoying and sometimes boring. Try and use pitch effectively don't stay at the same note move your voice around.
Pause
Pauses have to main uses in Public speaking, for emphasis and instead of saying um or ah. If you pause after each point (but not for too long) then the audience will have time to take in what you just said. If you use a pause instead of saying um or ah it will help your speaking and make it look more professional.
The Three A's
Using the three a's you can help you make the audience remember the point of the speech in a catchy way.
Alliterations
The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected word. E.g. Ralph’s reindeer rose rapidly and ran round the room.
Acrostics
A poem, word puzzle, or other composition in which certain letters in each line form a word or words. When you spell out a word vertically and put a sentence to each letter to describe that word.
Acronyms
A word formed from the initial letters of other words e.g. ASAP for As Soon As Possible.
Structure of the speech
Introduction
At the beginning you should grab the audiences attention. State your point of view and your arguments. Don't forget to to signpost. Signposting is when you tell what you are going to talk about very clearly. You can also through out your speech.
Body or Points
This is where you explain your points and use example to prove them. It is best to use 3 examples because 2 seems to little and 4 seems to much. Link back to main idea.
Conclusion
This where you should sum up all of your point and conclude your points. End with a bang, something that you repeat throughout your speech to help your audience remember.
Other Tips
- Make your idea better than the others, speak strongly
- Build a relationship with the Audience, by using emotive language, include them by saying things like "We can make the difference."
- 1 minute speech = 100 words ... 2 minute speech = 200 words ect
- Focus your speech with a purpose and give it a title
- Humour can lighten people up
- What you talk about should match your expression
- Use your hand to emphasise, use props
- No hand outs until end
- Don't stand still, you've got a whole stage use it