The Basics of Effective Speech Communication

1. The Basics of Effective Speech Communication Or “How to look fabulous behind the podium”

2. 2 Basic Components of Speech • Content: What you say Your thoughts, words, ideas, argument, rhetoric • Delivery: How you say it Gestures, expression (vocal/facial), movement, tone, fluency, eye contact, etc.

3. Getting Started:(It’s not as hard as it seems. Honest!) • Understand the assignment • Analyze your audience • Develop the speech content • Organize your speech • Fine-tune your rhetoric • Practice the darn thing! • Practice it again. Now, let’s look at these individually…

4. Understand the Assignment • What is the purpose of the assignment? • Are you being asked to inform, persuade, entertain? • What are the length requirements? • What kinds of sources should be used (if any)? • Who is your audience?

5. Analyze Your Audience Consider their demographics: Age? Race? Religion? Education? Gender? Socio-economic status? How will your audience likely react? Hostile, supportive, or indifferent? How much do they know about your topic?

6. Develop Speech Content Determine your main points. Decide what support you will use—examples, anecdotes, quotes, facts, etc. Determine how much background info/detail your audience will need. Make the significance of your topic clear and relevant to your audience. Identify sources when appropriate.

7. Organize Your Speech Determine the organizational pattern which best fits your speech: chronological, spacial, climactic, or topical? Make sure you have clear transitions to help the audience follow your speech.

8. Word the Speech Consider occasion: academic speeches are more formal in tone and elevated in language. Speeches told for entertainment are generally more conversational and personal. Consider audience demographics: your language/word choice should reflect the audience’s experience, taste, and expectation.

9. Now let’s focus on your Delivery!

10. Vocal Delivery

11. Monitor Your Rate • Your words should be fluent and well-paced: not too fast, or too slow. • Remember, you speak faster when you’re nervous! Consider that when you are timing yourself during practice (you DO practice, right?) • Also consider that accents affect rate (for example, Southerners/Westerners tend to speak slowly; Northerners/ Easterners tend to speak quickly). Determine your audience and adapt accordingly.

12. Enunciate Clearly This tends to accompany the southern accent problem, but can apply to anyone with a regional accent or ethnic dialect. Here are the most common offenses: • gonna, wanna, kinda, shoulda: melding a word + “to” or “of” • goin’ ; comin’; askin’: dropping end consonants like “g” in “-ing” • “stahted” (started); “pahted” (parted); “haht” (heart): dropping the “r” sound—often occurs in accents that are Southern, New England (esp. Boston), or Asian in origin.

13. Vary Your Pitch This will help you to add more expression in your voice, as well as keep you from lapsing into monotone. You don’t want to sound like….. Or

14. Project Your Voice • Speak up! Ladies, don’t be timid; Guys, don’t mumble. • Consider the size of the room and how loud you will need to be for the people in the back to hear you. • But don’t shout. That’s just weird and awkward for everybody. • Be sure to keep your pitch strong—especially at the end of a sentence so your words don’t trail off………

15. Physical Delivery

16. Dress Appropriately • Simple and conservative is best, especially for professional and/or academic settings. • If you want to be taken seriously, dress the part. • To do otherwise shows a lack of respect for yourself and your audience. Oh my! Don’t they look professional ?!

17. What NOT to Wear: • Tank tops-- or anything that reveals your torso, cleavage, or your cool new belly piercing. • Jeans. You’re giving a speech, not wrangling a cow. • Low-rider pants or skirts. (See #1 above) • No baseball caps or jaunty little fashion berets. Ever. • No super-high heels. Trust me on this one—you will teeter and fall. • No flip-flops or sandals. • No obnoxious colors/prints that are distracting or hypnotic. • Nothing with a logo, name, or character on it. • Plaid sports jackets or ties with hearts, Bugs Bunny, etc., on them. • Jewelry that dangles, jangles, or is otherwise distracting. • Anything that might be considered tacky.

18. Watch Your Posture! Mom might be annoying, but she’s right: Stand up straight! Other posture-related faux pas include: • Leaning on the podium • Swaying/rocking back and forth • Standing with your hip or foot out to one side

19. Don’t Forget to Gesture • Put down those stupid note cards! • If you must hold note cards, don’t wave them. • Take your hands out of your pockets. • Stop playing with your hair, rings, hands, etc. • Release the podium—you are choking it! • Vary your gestures so you don’t look like a muppet.

20. Animate Your Facial Expressions • You’ve got facial muscles—use them! • Animating your facial expression often helps your vocal expression as well. • Work those eyebrows! They are vital in showing expression. (Unless you’ve had Botox… then you’re in trouble.)

21. Some final tips for speaking confidently: • Know your speech (not memorized but very familiar) • Practice! Practice! Practice! • Be aware of how you react to stress (playing with hair, swaying, gripping podium, picking nose, etc.) • Project confidence (not cockiness) even when you don’t feel it. • Don’t get flustered if you trip up-- Pause, take a breath, collect your thoughts, whisper a prayer, and keep going.

22. ……Now you can go To this !! From this …

23. Thanks to Sonya Davis for this wonderful powerpoint.