On Ways of Making an Effective Speech

Public speaking is an effective way for expressing feelings and conveying ideas, it also can forge ties of friendships, have a tacit understanding and spur on a favorable atmosphere with our audiences in a short time. You’re likely to speak to large audience in a variety of situations. All these require your vivid and fluent eloquence and firm reaction capacity.

We all admire speakers who can casually deliver a humorous ,intelligent and well-reasoned talk apparently without effort. It may appear effortless but, what we see is the culmination of months or years of hard work and practice. Good speaking is not effortless, although to be effective, it should always appear so. It’s a skill which can be learnt. You can learn to select essential points to persuade successfully, structure a talk so that your listeners will follow you easily and not be bored, hide nerves and uncertainty and slow enthusiasm and sincerity. In addition, you can learn to develop interesting speaking voice, make natural gestures and good eye contact. Nobody is born a good speaker. Remember what Emerson said: “All the great speaker were bad speakers first.”

I. Getting ready for the speech to satisfy the audience’s expectations

Before entering upon his speech, a neatly dressed speaker would be a trifle approved by the audience when he walks to the rostrum confidently. Otherwise, the speaker would be in an awkward position in case his speech lacks substance or he is fainthearted. So success or failure in a speech hinges on preparation.

You may find it difficult to believe,but even the most accomplished performers on stage suffer from nerves. Some of the symptoms of stage fright are palpitating heart, stuttering, shortness of breath and trembling voice and so on. How could you have coped it better? Just acknowledge its presence without any dread. Just think about the feeling and try to put it outside yourself. I know it’s not easy but the more you try, the less frightening it will become. Now I’m going to suggest a number of techniques which you can harness your neverous energy. Practice——the best defense against failure. Read aloud several times in front of a long mirror so that you can become familiar with every point of your talk. Remember to continue to the end of it on every pract ice session, because you don’t want to have an over-rehearsed first half and a poor, stuttering second half. Find out as much as you can about the venue, seating arrangements, lightening & equipment, so that you feel comfortable with it.

The style of the speech fall roughly into memorized speech, extempore one and impromptu one. You’d better rehearse in advance to have an intimate knowledge of each item when you’re going to make an extempore speech. Otherwise, he would remain tongue-tied and completely forget the materials gathering laboriously if he should appear on the stage. In addition, you should recite famous remarks and idioms you quote and do not fabricate at all. A true impromptu speech arises with no preparation time, although you can sometimes anticipate the occasions when you may be asked for your views. (So it hinges on your learning and practice at ordinary time.) If the situation might occur, plan how you would respond. Remember that every day of your life you are speaking without preparation, so you know you have the ability to do so. Do not say “I am a non-eloquent speaker” or “I am seized with