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There is an old saying that states:

There are two types of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars.

Even the best public speakers can experience nervousness.

Key learning points

Speaking in public can be daunting. There are some things that you can practise to help you become a confident at delivering a speech.

By working on your performance skills, your voice, and your planning, you can become a speaker to challenge the very best.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
— Carl W Buehner

Speaking in public needs to have elements of performance. We speak differently, stand differently, gesture differently in a speech than we do in everyday conversation. Getting this performance right can make someone remember our words for a lifetime.

Stance

The way you stand is essential in speaking clearly. Stand up straight with good posture, looking ahead at your audience to best project your voice. It is natural to move when you talk – but this can be distracting. The most powerful speeches happen when the speaker is almost motionless.

To help keep your feet still, plant your feet firmly and flat on the floor in line with your shoulders. Straighten your legs and lift your chin.

Silence

Silence is powerful on many levels when delivering a speech. A well-placed three second pause can help you:

• create a moment of reflection for the audience
• create a moment of drama in your delivery
• take a deep breath

Signals

When speaking in public, there are gestures you can use to signal to the audience. Some common gestures are:

• Hands out and open – this can be used to emphasise a question or the delivery of information.
• Beat gestures – these can be used to emphasise points when building your argument. Keep your hands open and move them to ‘beat’ the points or words as if beating a drum in the air. Always avoid making a fist through as it can come across as aggressive.
• Depict your ideas – when explaining something, for example, moving your hands apart to suggest something big.

If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.
— Winston Churchill

One of the most important things to remember when delivering a speech is that your passion for the topic will be more obvious to the audience than anything else. The audience will be able to see, hear and feel your passion through your facial expression, your voice, and your emphasis.

Facial expression

Your facial expression is important. If you smile, your audience will smile. If you frown, your audience will pick up on that mood. The best expression for speaking is a neutral expression, followed by a pause when you want to emphasise a point. Make your point, close your mouth, and pause for two or three seconds. Then continue.

Your voice

There are two aspects to control in your voice: pace, and volume.

• Slow your pace when:

  • emphasising a point
  • numbering facts
  • using emotive language

• Quicken your pace when:

  • building to your conclusion
  • undermining the views of the opposition
  • telling an anecdote

Volume is about how loud you speak. You can vary the volume according to the categories above – often speaking quietly works well with a slower pace.

When speaking it is normal to look at the person you are talking to. In public speaking this is not always possible.

The way to address this is to aim your speech at three different points in the room: the middle left, the middle right, and the centre of the back of the room. Adjust your viewpoint after 30 seconds of speaking.

Your face, therefore, will move around the points of the room like a compass - west, east, north, south - as your notes will be in front of you too. This movement of your head will keep your audience engaged as they will be watching to see if you are going to look in their direction and you will look interested and engaged.

If you have notes, put them in front of you and do not hold them. Instead, put your hands either behind your back or either side of the lectern (reading stand). This is the ideal position for speaking because your voice will be projected upwards and outwards. It will also help you to look up.

Grasp the subject, the words will follow.
— Cato The Elder

Memorising a speech can be effective if you are confident in your ability to perform it in a way that sounds genuine. If you are unable to memorise your speech, it is a good idea to use notes instead of a full script.

Notes can be written on small cards and you can move through them as you move through your speech.

On each card, put the most important point that you need to get across to the audience. Often notes are most useful when they record a statistic, a quotation, or line of argument that you really want to make clear.

Using notes with elements of memorised speech instead of a script allows you to look up at your audience more often. This helps with engagement and projection of your voice; when we read from a script we often lower our chin and don’t look up.

The best way to help you memorise is to know your topic inside out. Exploring your thoughts and feelings – as well as the facts – in detail will mean that your speech comes from a place of genuine belief and understanding.

Keeping to time is important when you give a speech. Often you are given a specific amount of time to speak and you might even be cut off if you run over. Equally, it is embarrassing if your speech is too short and you end up filling time by repeating yourself or trying to come up with new ideas on the spot.

When you are nervous you may rush your speech and suddenly a speech that was supposed to be three minutes long turns into one minute of gabble. Equally, live talks can take slightly longer than when you practise, due to your nerves and, more positively, when the audience reacts, for example, with laughter or applause.

To make sure this doesn’t happen, set a timer that you can see and, as you practise speaking, note down the time that each section takes, for example the introduction, main points and conclusion. Then when you give your speech, you will know if you are speaking too fast and you won’t end up having to rush towards the end to fit everything in.

Whenever you get the opportunity, rehearse and share your speech with a friend, family, members of your household or at school with a teacher or classmate.

Record yourself so you can evaluate your own performance. Do certain words make you stumble? If so, change them.

Find someone you trust to video you, or give your speech to yourself in front of a mirror, so that you can see how you move as well as how you sound. Try out different gestures or facial expressions.

Remember your stance: stand strong with your chin up, and your hands behind your back unless you are deliberately gesturing.

Before you deliver your speech in front of an audience, practise. This helps to:

• Fix the order of your speech in your mind
• Work out the approximate timings
• See what needs improving or changing