The Guide to Public Speaking

The Planning Stage.

  • It is important to establish a clear focus for your speech to make it as impactful as possible. What is the main thing you want your audience to learn from your speech? Write this down in a specific, focused statement. This is your thesis.

  • Your target audience is who you are giving your speech to. Be as specific as possible when writing this out. Think of the following guiding questions: How old is your audience? Where are you giving this speech? If it is in school, which class? What are your audience’s interests? This will help you create a speech that will make your audience understand your thesis in the most effective way.

  • Now that you know what you are talking about and who you are talking to, it is time to find out how to do that. A well-developed, effective speech is one that is highly researched. Use the “How to Research” page to help you. Write down all of your research, including arguments that support your thesis and counter-arguments. It is important to understand all sides of your topic.

  • This step is very important to create a clear and organized speech. 1) Write your thesis at the top of your outline. 2) Write your target audience below it. This way, you will remember them while creating your speech. 3) Next, write down why your topic matters. Why should your audience care about your thesis? 4) Using the research you gathered, write down the first main reason that supports your thesis. 5) Write down the research that supports this reason, like a quote from an article or paper. 6) Write down your second and/or third reasons with research that supports them. 7) Write down a counter-argument. It is important that your audience understands the other side of your thesis. This will make your reasons stronger. Have research to support this counter-argument. Then, respond to the counter-argument and say why it isn’t correct. 8) Now that you have finished your reasons, restate your thesis and the main points you made in a short and clear way. Basically, what are the main takeaways for the audience? 9) Go back to the very top of your page before a thesis and add an attention-grabber to your speech. This could be an interesting question or context to your thesis. This should make the audience want to listen to more of your speech. You have now created the outline for your speech!

Rehearse.

Practice

First, go through your complete speech out loud a few times with your outline in hand. Then, try to go through your speech without your outline. Write down the essential points of your speech and parts you have difficult remembering on a small paper, like a notecard, that you can use during your speech. Rehearse a few times with your small paper and then, without it. It is perfectly fine to go back and revise your outline as you practice and find ways to improve your speech! The more you practice, the more confident you will be.

Feedback

Practice your speech with a small audience. Pretend like it is the real speech and try not to use the small paper. Get as much feedback as possible from your practice audience. Some questions you can ask are: What is my thesis? Do you have a well-developed understanding of the topic? What are the strongest areas of my speech? What specific areas can I improve on? The most important part is using the feedback to revise your speech. Take detailed notes on the feedback, and make sure to incorporate all of their feedback in your speech.

The Big Day.

Now, it is time to give your speech. Remember, you know your speech better than anyone else! So, be confident and don’t worry about making mistakes because you will be the only person to notice them.

Some speaking tips:

  • Relax! Take a few deep breaths before your speech. Wiggle around. Pretend you are talking to a few friends. This means, talk in a professional tone, but you don’t have to be like a robot. Have a conversation with the audience!

  • Use inflection. This means, talk loudly at some points, and quieter at others (but not too quiet!). Use both a high-pitched and a low-pitched voice. For important sentences and, especially when stating statistics and research, slow down and emphasize your words. Your voice is your tool to engage the audience.

  • If you are using a small paper during your speech, try to only glance at it and not look at it for long periods of time. It might be tempting to rely on it, but remember, you know your speech!

Reflect.

An important way to get better is by learning from your past experiences. After you finish your speech, write down a reflection on your speech. Have a little conversation with yourself. Where do you think you did best? Where could you improve? What do you think you could have done differently? What things will you keep on doing next time? What things will you change for next time? Write down anything and everything that comes to mind about your speech. Your future-self will thank you!