MPS Chapter 3
Speaking Confidently & Preparing your first Speech
Recognize that speaker nervousness is normal!!!
Communication apprehension: the perceived fear or anxiety associated with either
real or anticipated communication with another person or persons
Widespread
Fear of speaking in public ranks above heights, insects, financial
problems, deep water, sickness and death
McCroskey’s Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA):
See: http://www.uwstout.edu/faculty/flottemeschk/spcom100/spcom100anxietysurvey.doc
It is ‘normal’ to experience a fairly high degree of anxiety about speaking in public
What is platform panic & how does it affect us?
Adrenaline is suddenly pumped into the bloodstream
Respiration increases dramatically
Heart rate increases dramatically
Galvanic skin response goes up (sweat)
Flight or fight syndrome
Although the body’s chemical and physiological responses to stress may be identical for
everyone, the outward signs of anxiety vary from person to person
Symptoms may include:
Accelerated heart rate, dry mouth, blushing, perspiring, shaking, churning
stomach, increased rate of speech, forgetfulness and broken speech,
nervous mannerisms such as playing with jewelry, tapping fingers,
clutching the lectern
What to do?
Control Speaker Nervousness
Do not make your goal to eliminate nervousness
May be counterproductive:
Nervousness is natural
Attempting to eliminate it is unrealistic
2
Focusing on eliminating nervousness may make you more
nervous
Some nervousness can be beneficial
You can use the nervous energy to enliven your delivery &
give your ideas impact
Don’t tap your fingers—gesture!
Your goal should be to channel nervousness and channel the energy into dynamic,
effective vocal and physical delivery
Learn how to build speaker confidence
Basic tip:
Readiness rituals: e.g. get up early, practice saying the first part of each
main point of the speech while in the shower, get to the speech setting
early and get the feel of the place
Develop your own readiness ritual
Know how you react to stress
Enables you to predict and cope with your physical symptoms of stress
Your dry mouth won’t surprise you
Because you are anticipating these physical symptoms you will be better
able to mask them
How?
Try this:
If you know your hands shake, don’t hold a piece of paper
during the speech
If your voice is likely to be thin and quivery as you begin
speaking, take several deep, slow, but unobtrusive, breaths
before you begin to speak (no loud sighing)
If you get tense before you speak, try some muscle
relaxation techniques
Unobtrusively tense your hands, arms and
shoulders, and then slowly relax them
If you get flustered before speaking, make sure to arrive on
time or a little early—never late
If looking at an audience intimidates you, talk to some
audience members before the speech, and when you speak,
look for friendly faces in the audience
3
Know your strengths and weaknesses
As a public speaker your instruments are your voice, body, mind, and
personality—strive to use them effectively
You will use these instruments together to create and communicate
messages
Honestly assess your strengths and weaknesses as a speaker
Use your strengths to communicate your message with force and
impact
If you are a lively and enthusiastic person, channel that
energy to reinforce your speech physically and enliven your
listeners
If you have a talent for creating memorable phrases, allow
that creativity to help your listeners attend to and remember
your ideas
Etc.
Minimize and avoid your weaknesses
If you are not effective in delivering humor, you probably
should not begin your speech with a joke
You’re risking failure at a critical point in the
speech
Craft your speeches toward your abilities—but you can only do
this when you become realistically aware of your strengths and
weakness
Don’t be too critical of yourself and construct ‘safe’ speeches
because you have exaggerated your weaknesses
Expand your abilities by incorporating new strategies into your
speechmaking
Through thoughtful, measured risk-taking you will develop
as a speechmaker
Know speech principles
If you are confident you have constructed an effective speech, you will be
more confident as you step to the lectern
If you know why you’re doing what you’re doing, you will have more
control over what you’re doing—you will be able to account for your
successes and replay them
Know that it always looks worse from the inside
Because you feel nervous, you focus on your anxiety, exaggerate it, and
become more nervous
4
Remember! Your audience cannot see your internal state
You usually do not look as nervous as you feel—this is where
videotaping and viewing your speechmaking can be a
tremendous help—you may view your speech and think—wow—I
don’t appear to be nervous at all!
In Rhetoric City, it is all about appearances
Appearing reasonable
Appearing interested
Appearing calm
Etc.
IF YOU DON’T APPEAR TO ‘BE’
Reasonable
Interested
Calm
FOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES YOU’RE NOT
Reasonable
Interested
Calm
Etc.
Believe in the video! Believe in the appearance!
Know your speech
Knowing your strengths and weaknesses, speech principles, and your
audience gains you little if you do not know your speech!
If you don’t know what you want to say, you won’t say it!
If you think you will forget, you probably will
The more confident you are about your message, the less nervous you will
be
Do not memorize your speech (can kill your delivery & also lead to uh oh
on-the-spot I forget disasters)
However—you should memorize/know your main points and the
order in which you want to present them
Believe in your topic
You must believe that the audience will benefit in some way from
listening to your speech
5
The more you believe in your speech the more earnest you will be & the
less nervous you will be
If you’re tentative you may be worried that your audience will be tentative
too—not interested in what you’re talking about—this can add to your
nervousness
View speechmaking positively
Cognitive restructuring—based on the idea that nervousness is, in part,
caused by illogical beliefs
If you can restructure your thinking and focus on positive, rather than
negative self-statements, you may reduce your anxiety
Two steps:
Identify your negative self-statements
Replace negative self-statements with positive ones
If you view pubic speaking as a tedious chore, your audience will sense it
from your delivery—and even from your choice of a speech topic
If you view public speaking as an opportunity, your positive attitude will
help you control your nervousness
Thinking positively can turn anxiety into anticipation
Genuine enthusiasm about the chance to speak in public will guide your
choice of topic and will reveal itself to your audience through your lively
delivery
Seek out opportunities to test and develop your communication skills
Volunteer for oral reports
Speak out at organizational meetings
Offer to introduce guest speakers
The positive attitude, coupled with practice and experience, will help
make you less apprehensive and more confident!
Visualize success
Relax in a quiet spot and visualize yourself giving an effective
presentation
Be specific from start to finish (don’t forget the thunderous
applause)
Project confidence
If you perceive yourself acting in a particular way, you will assume you
feel that way
6
If you want to feel confident, act confident
Identify characteristics of speakers who seem confident
Incorporate those behaviors into your own speaking
Displaying confident behaviors will make you feel confident
Test your message
Test your message in front of friends—people who really care and will be
honest with you
After the speech, give them a little quiz to see if they ‘got’ your main
points, if they thought your supporting material was believable, if they
thought your delivery was effective—if it reinforced your message
The more confident you are that your message will achieve the desired
effect on your audience, the less nervous you will be
Practice your delivery
The most effective antidote for stage fright and other calamites of
speechmaking is total, slavish, monkish preparation
You may practice parts of your speech that you’re having trouble with
You may practice your entire speech from start to finish—if you trip up,
do not stop and start over again—keep on going!
Practice in settings laden with distractions (not alone in an empty
classroom
Practicing with the TV on in the background or in your room with
noise in the hallway forces you to concentrate on what you’re
saying and not on what you’re hearing
Assess:
After each speech, assess your performance by asking an answering these
questions:
How did you react when you walked to the front of the room,
turned, and looked at the audience looking at you?
Did you remember what you planned to say?
Did you have trouble finding your place in your notes?
What techniques did you try in your speech that worked? What
did not work?
7
Did you get less or more nervous as the speech progressed?
How did your audience respond to your speech? What did their
nonverbal communication convey as you delivered your speech?
What feedback did you get from your audience following the
speech?
Once you face a problem and determine its cause, you will be better bale
to plan so that it does not occur again
You don’t discover confidence, you build confidence!
Prepare your first speech
Understand the assignment
What am I supposed to do in this speech—inform, persuade, entertain?
What are my minimum and maximum time limits for the speech?
Are there special requirements for the delivery of the speech? If so, what
are they?
Develop your speech content
What is my speech topic and why have I chosen it?
Who are the people in my audience?
What do I want my listeners to know or remember or do when I’m
finished speaking?
Have I selected a few key points that I can develop?
Is everything that I say relevant to my topic?
Do I use a variety of specific supporting materials, such as examples and
stories, to develop my key points?
Will my supporting materials be clear and interesting to my audience?
Do I acknowledge sources for anything I quote or paraphrase from other
speakers or writers?
Organize your speech
Organize Your Speech Introduction
Parts:
What is my attention-getter?
What is my statement of purpose?
What rationale do I provide for speaking about this topic?
How do I establish my credibility to speak on this topic?
What are the points I will cover in my speech?
Organize the Body of Your Speech
Do I have the body of my speech organized clearly?
8
I. What is my first main idea?
A. What will I say about it?
B. How will I summarize it?
II. What is my second main idea?
A. What will I say about it?
B. How will I summarize it?
III. What is my third main idea?
A. What will I say about it?
B. How will I summarize it?
Organize Your Speech Conclusion
What are the parts of my conclusion?
What is my summary statement?
What am I asking my audience to know or remember or
do?
What is my closing statement?
Word your speech (don’t memorize it)
Does my speech sound conversational?
Is the language of my speech correct?
Will the language of my speech be clear to my listeners?
Will the language of my speech be vivid and memorable for my listeners?
Practice your speech
Have I practiced my speech as I actually intend to deliver it?
Have I made my speaking notes concise and easy to read?
Have I recorded my speech and made changes after listening to or viewing
it?
How many times have others listened to my speech, and what suggestions
have they offered for improving it?
Have I timed my speech? Is the average time within my overall time
limit?
What adjustments can I make in my speech if it is too long or too short?
Deliver your speech
Do I change the pitch of my voice enough to create a lively vocal
delivery?
Do I speak with enough volume to be heard?
Do I vary my rate of speaking to match my audience’s comprehension of
what I am saying?
Are my clothing and other elements of my appearance appropriate to my
topic, my audience, and the speaking occasion?
Do I look at members of my audience most of the time I am speaking?
9
Do I look at listeners in all parts of the room?
Do my gestures add emphasis to appropriate parts of the speech?
Do my gestures look and feel natural and spontaneous?
Do my facial expressions show that I am thinking about what I am saying,
rather than about how I look or sound?
If I include place-to-place movement, does it serve a purpose?
Evaluate your speech
What did I do well?
What areas can I target for improvement?
What specific efforts do I need to make in order to improve my next
speech?
Be well-prepared and you won’t be [as] scared!