Public Speaking
Module 8: Delivering Your Speech
Vocal Delivery
Breathing
• Breathing controls the quality of sound produced by the voice
• Use Diaphragmatic Breath (breath from your diaphragm)
• ”Stomach breathing” – stomach is pushed out with inhalations
• Produces full, supported sound
• How to build muscle and practice
Lie down on a flat surface with a heavy book on your abdomen
1. Practice pushing the book up with your inhale
2. Practice extending how long you inhale and exhale
3. Count aloud as you exhale and stop when the voice trails off
Volume
• Use a full, loud voice without straining your throat
• Do not yell. Use your diaphragm to power your voice
• Vary volume throughout the speech
Prepare:
• Visit speaking environment, ask friend to sit in the back to test if you can be heard
• Practice diaphragmatic breathing
• Mark intended variations on your speaking outline
During the Speech:
• Watch for audience lens and ear turns
• Visualize your voice as a ball hitting the back wall
Articulation, Pitch, and Rate
Articulation Pitch Rate
How clearly the speaker pronounces The degree of highness or lowness
words of a voice Speaking Speed
• Uses tongue, teeth, and lips • Vary pitch to avoid sounding • Nerves increase speed, so go
• Practice: tongue twisters monotone slower than you feel you need to
• Practice: slide from highest pitch
to lowest and back
TIPS
TIPS TIPS
• Take plenty of breaths and mark
• Mark challenging sounds in the • Use arrows noting to raise or lower them in your speaking outline
speaking outline pitch in speaking outline
• Write ”Slow Down” on your
• Slow down
speaking outline
• Consider when to slow or increase
your speed
Emphasis and Pauses
• Pauses : using brief silences effectively
• Replace vocalizations such as “oh, um, like”
• Allows the audience to process information or emotion
• Emphasis : Inflection that draws attention to important words or phrases
• Helps you sound conversational
• Brings clarity of meaning
• Techniques to add emphasis:
• Increase or decrease volume
• Increase or decrease pitch
• Slow Rate
• Add a pause before or after
Speech Challenges
• Speech Disorder : a condition that causes problems creating necessary speech sounds
• Vocal Habits: Unfavorable speech patterns and habits
• Filler Words
Um, uh, like
• Vocal Fry
Voice creak or rattle when using the lowest vocal register
• Upspeak
“Uptalk” ending a sentence with a rising-pitch, like it is a question
• Breathy Voice
Voice sounds “light” because air escapes while speaking
• Nasal Voice
Air is pushed out through the nose instead of mouth
• Strident Voice
Harsh or strained sound from using your throat to speak, tensing vocal cords
Class Activity: Identify Vocal Delivery Techniques
• Click on the link to watch the speech :
• Hardcastle: Why students should have mental health days
• Take notes of how the speaker uses vocal delivery techniques
• Volume
• Articulation
• Pitch
• Rate
• Emphasis
• Pauses
• Reflect on the tone set and your reaction to the vocal delivery used
Nonverbal Delivery
Personal Appearance
Your appearance is communication
Impact on the speaker: Impact on the audience:
• Boost your confidence • Perceived credibility
• Set the tone for the audience • Audience behavior toward speaker
Plan your appearance to reflect
• The way you want to feel
• The way you want your audience to perceive you
• The way you want the audience to perceive your attitude toward the speaking situation
Class Discussion: Personal Appearance
• What else might be considered personal appearance?
• How do you feel about the “speakers” pictured below?
• What tone do you feel they set?
Movement
Gestures: Moving your hands for emphasis
• Natural, but intentional
• Avoid:
• Fly away gestures
• Over repetition
• Hands in your pocket
Body Movement: moving around the speaking space
• Provides variety for audience, keeps attention
• Begin and end in the same spot – the center
• Must be purposeful
• Avoid:
• Pacing
• Shifting weight
• Nervous habits
Facial Expressions and Eye Contact
Facial Expressions Eye Contact
Using your head and face to reflect and set Connecting with audience members through
tone eye contact
• Best Practice • Best Practice
• Use movement in eyebrows, eyelids, • Connect with individual audience
jaw muscles, head nods and tilts members
• For larger spaces, use more exaggerated • Vary where you look within the
facial expressions audience: left, right, and center
• Smiling relaxes the audience, builds • Maintain eye contact through a thought
your credibility before moving on
• Avoid
• Revealing a mistake through a facial • Avoid
expression • Glancing at the audience
• Cue Incongruence • Reading too much, avoiding eye
contact, looking elsewhere
Practice and Preparation
Mastering the Location
Checklist of Questions:
☑ What is the size of the room?
☑ How many people are expected to be in the audience?
☑ What Audio/Visual technology will be used and who will operate it?
☑ Is there a podium?
☑ When is a possible time to access the room and have a rehearsal?
Actions to take:
• Turn on and run through your A/V
• Tape down and make note of any wires in your path
• Assess number of seats and layout, ask to rearrange if it does not work for you
Mastering the Equipment
AUDIO VISUAL
Microphones Computer Console and Projector Screen
• Turn it on and off appropriately • Plan for a remote clicker or bring your own
• 8-12 inches below your chin • Find all necessary wires and chords
• Wear a belt & a sturdy lapel • If working with a slide operator:
• Tuck wire in • Prepare an outline with slide numbers and cues
• • Rehearse together
Project and enunciate
• Remain calm if a mistake is made
Contingency Planning:
• Backup visual aids: zip-drive, emailed
• Bring your laptop, charger, extra batteries for the clicker, and all chords and wires
• Bring a print-out of your visuals to copy for handouts
• Prepare a summary or have a plan if a video clip does not play or is taken down
Rehearsing
• Begin early so you can experiment, revise, and try again
• Get Feedback
• Use a mirror or record and watch yourself, ask a friend or coach
• Rehearse aloud
• Speak as you hope to when you deliver your speech
• Rehearse all parts of your speech
• Coordinate your visual aids
• Practice nonverbal and vocal delivery strategies
• Imagine an audience to practice eye contact
• Time your rehearsals
• Individual parts and the total speech for consistency and balance
• Leave room for interruptions and questions
• Perform a dress rehearsal
• Test your outfit with the Audio/Visual tech
• Make sure shoes fit well
• Use the same speaking notes you will use during the presentation
Public Speaking
Module 9: Informative Speaking
Informing the Audience
Objectives of an Informative Speech
To help an audience KNOW MORE or gain a DEEPER UNDERSTANDING about a topic
Explaining, Teaching, Describing
Information presented must be:
• Accurate
• Understood
• Relevant and meaningful to the audience
It is NOT to change their attitude or behaviors
The Goldilocks Principle
You must calibrate information to the audience’s level of understanding
If the audience knows very little If the audience is already very
about a topic knowledgeable about a topic
A highly specialized lecture will go Basics about the subject will bore them
over their head
The middle ground builds on what the audience already knows to
Present interesting and digestible information
Meeting Audience Needs based on Pre-Existing Knowledge
Very little
• Create a foundation on which to build new knowledge
• Use metaphors and analogies
Some exposure
• Provide new, interesting information based on what they know
Previously exposed to false information
• Be aware of cognitive dissonance
• Acknowledge misinformation and its cause
• Use sound logic and support
Knowledgeable
• Skip to specifics and details
Mixed levels of knowledge
• Toggle back and forth between basic information and specialized.
• Define necessary terms or concepts
Types of Informative Speeches
Understanding Types of Informative Speeches
Objects : something that has a physical existence
• Audience needs to know WHY they are learning about it
• Example: the iPhone, a camera pill
Concepts : an idea, belief, principle, or theory
• Abstract or general ideas
• Example: Green Technology
Events: occurrence that happens once, rarely, or regularly
• Cultural Artifacts, Current or Historical Events
• Examples: Boston Marathon, Olympics, a holiday
Processes : an action involving a predictable series of changes, phases, or steps
• How something works, is made, or is done
• Can physically demonstrate something
• Example: How to change a tire
Biographical Speeches
• Biographical: a speech about a person
• Living or dead, well-known, or not well known
• Illustrates why the person an exemplar, notable, interesting
• Autobiographical
• An experience you had
• How has the experience impacted you?
• About yourself, but FOR the audience
• How can your audience benefit from your experience?
• How can your story give listeners insight?
Activity: One informative topic, many speeches
• Using the topic of bicycling, brainstorm how is could become the following types of
informative speech:
• Concept
• Process
• Event
• Biography
• Object
Putting Together an Informative Speech
Choosing a Topic
• What topics lend themselves to inform or explain?
• Who is your specific audience?
• Would they be interested in your topic?
• What knowledge might they already have about your topic?
• What might they want to know about your topic?
• What constraints have you been given?
• How long will you have to speak?
• How many sources must you cite?
• Are visual aids required?
• Find the right scope
• Goldilocks Concept
• Speaking Time + Audience’s prior knowledge
Organizing the Informative Speech
Organization Pattern Definition Example
Order of subpoints presented does not 1. Automatic drip coffee makers
Topical matter 2. Manual drip coffee makers
3. French Press coffee makers
Used to explore similarities and Similarities and differences between
Compare/Contrast differences btw 2 or more things Xbox and Playstation
Topic is explained in directional order: Major cities along the Mississippi River
Spatial
Flows in sequential order by time Development of the iPhone
Chronological
Tells the story of a person’s life How Jackie Robinson got inducted into
Biographical the Hall of Fame
Present the steps in order of a process How to create a lithograph
Step-by-Step
The cause/effect relationship of your Causes of a hurricane, effects of a
Causal topic hurricane
Supporting the Informative Speech
What to Evaluate:
• The actual source
• The information within the source
What to check for:
Accurate – free from factual errors or inaccurate statements
• Cross-check data with other sources
Authoritative - source should be reliable, knowledgeable, and credible
• How often is your source cited in other research
Current – timely in relations to your topic
• Have there been new developments or thoughts since the publication?
Unbiased – motivations and agendas for publishing should be neutral
• What other affiliations is this source or author associated with?
Language for the Informative Speech
• Rely on audience knowledge
• Define any unfamiliar terms, concepts, places, and people
• Be careful with obscure or highly technical knowledge
• Define what is necessary
• Use concrete more than abstract language
• Simplify far beyond what you think is enough
• You are already familiar with your own jargon
• Get an outside opinion
