A Public Speaker Is Also A Teacher!

A good public speaker is also a good teacher. Teaching involves first acquiring information, then organizing it in a logical, easy to understand manner, and finally presenting it clearly and convincingly to others. That is what a good speaker does, too.

Build on Prior Learning

Effective teaching builds on prior learning, using it as a foundation. Likewise, a good speaker endeavors to ascertain what his audience already knows, and uses that as his starting point. He then adds information which enlarges on and adds to what the audience knows and accepts already.

Logical Flow

Starting with the foundation, essential information is added in a progressive manner. The sequential manner in which concepts are introduced is critical, since acceptance of each concept depends on how well information presented previously was understood. One point should therefore lead directly to the next.

A good speaker, like an effective teacher, allows no gaps in understanding, because he loses part of his audience with each gap. To illustrate the need for continuity: Suppose you were in business attire, and needed to cross a small stream to get to a meeting. How delighted you would be to find large, flat stones rising from the stream bed, perfectly positioned to allow you to cross from one side to the other! Proper sequencing of points has a similar effect on an interested audience.

Comparison of Ideas

Effective speaking, like teaching, involves associating one idea with other, showing the relationship between them. Known concepts are used to introduce the unknown.

If the ideas are similar, comparisons are used. Since no two ideas are exactly alike, the ways in which they parallel each other are highlighted, and if there is a significant difference between these two similar ideas, this distinction is made for the sake of clarity.

If the ideas are primarily dissimilar, contrasts are made. Stress is laid on the ways in which the new idea is markedly different from the old, familiar idea.

By these means, ideas which are already familiar to the audience are employed to define new ideas. The new idea is easily understood when familiar ideas are used for comparison or contrast.

Use Word Pictures

Word pictures, such as illustrations, are usually used to make comparisons vivid and colorful. While a verbal comparison requires searching for words which fill the bill precisely, a good, appropriate illustration cuts to the chase and makes the connection crystal clear.

A good illustration can also stir emotions at the same time, which makes the illustration and the point it illustrates easy to remember, and hard to forget. After all, the best teaching is worthless if no one remembers it afterwards! The same is true of a good speech.

Your Voice Is Crucial In Public Speaking

How you use your voice in public speaking is crucial. Research shows a full 37% of an audience's first impression of a speaker is based upon the speaker's voice. It happens in seconds. What your voice does is every bit as impactful as what the rest of your body is doing.

Your Voice Needs Life

Most of us have had "conversations" on the phone with voice-recognition computer systems. It can be a little unnerving because the voice on the other end has no life to it. It's just repeating what it was programmed to do. A similar effect happens when a speaker is either just reading a script or rattling off memorized lines and not actually talking to the crowd.

When a voice has life, it has a personality behind it. That personality has emotions, intentions, and agendas. It can portray spontaneous happiness, sadness, nervousness, excitement and more. It can even showcase a person's honesty or dishonestly. So be transparent and sincere in the way you speak to an audience.

Your Voice Betrays You

In our voices are subtleties that convey many things we're often not even aware of. All these physical manifestations are a reflection of what's going inside ourselves. If you're feeling negative or less than enthusiastic about your presentation, your voice will reflect that. So check your thoughts and attitude before you step up on the stage. Your voice, like many other parts of your body, will be expressing much about you.

Your Voice Needs to be Dynamic

One trick to making your voice more interesting is to vary your range and pitch. Women especially in the broadcasting industry are taught this. The next time you're able, listen closely to an established female news anchor. Chances are you never really noticed the dynamic vocal fluctuations, but all the good ones employ the technique.

Broadcasting professionals use their voice in ways so that listeners are focused on the content. They use subtleties that don't draw attention to the actual vocal techniques. Your voice is the platform for the message, as well as a vehicle for your personal feelings about the message, but it should never distract from the message itself.

Start your sentences with your voice about where it is in a natural speaking tone, but then as you work your way through the line, use tone and pitch to stress points. End your sentences lower than when you start. This will create distinct breaks between thoughts and sentences.

The last thing an audience wants to hear is a mono-tone person who has no variance in his or her voice. Such a person sounds dull, boring, and not at all passionate about the message. This doesn't mean deliberately exaggerating different tones of voice, and yelling rarely works on stage. The idea is to enhance, not to be phony. Be natural, but more animated than you'd be when talking one-on-one to someone under normal circumstances.

Your Voice Needs Feedback

The best way you can improve your voice is to listen to recordings of yourself. If you have video feedback, listen to just the audio portion of it. Whenever I hear myself in a recording, I cringe, because it just doesn't sound like me. But it's crucial that you know how you sound to others. Remember that your own voice is vibrating around inside your head and it doesn't sound the same to others.

Your Voice Needs to be Loud

One of the most effective techniques I ever learned was the importance of being able to speak loudly and clearly, but without shouting. You need to speak at a higher volume than when talking in normal conversation situations. This will shed a huge I'm confident light on you from the get-go. You'll want to do this even when in a small conference room. It grabs interest and gets people to listen. When you first start practicing being louder, it'll feel uncomfortable. But doing this will immediately cause people in the room to focus their attention on you.

It's painful trying to listen to someone who's speaking in a volume that's difficult or impossible to hear. Such a person gives the impression that he or she is uncomfortable and would rather not be speaking--which is often the case! When you convey that kind of message, your audience ends up agreeing with you. People don't want to strain to listen to you, and won't make the effort for long. So speak up! Speak like the confident public speaker you are who knows exactly what message you want to deliver to the audience.

Kelly Libatique is a professional speaker, technical trainer, and author. He holds a Master's in Education and a Bachelor's in Psychology. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Anne and two sons.