Hey guys. Posting form school. In my Agriculture class I am giving a speech... about Twinkies. ( www.twinkiesproject.com ) More so over the Twinkie Project. Anyway. I finished the speech, but I'm not happy with it, Mr. Harrington and some other teachers game me some advice. I've decided to re-do the entire thing. I was wondering if any of you guys could give me a few suggestions/tips/advice/do it for me. If it would help I can post the speech.

[ 02-09-2005, 12:28 PM: Message edited by: SomeGuy ]

I'm sure many here (including myself) would be more than happy to offer you some constructive criticism/advice to help you improve your presentation. [img]smile.gif[/img]

But I won't do it *for* you. [img]tongue.gif[/img] ;)

Post it up so we can take a look-see at what you've got. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Hmm... Speeches... I just came back from school being a spokesperson fo a group of British teachers, and I think I can lend you a few tips. First, noone likes long, dry speeches that are only to the point. Add humor, add feeling, it doesn't matter what subject you're presenting. If you're forced to improvise, say the very first thing that comes to mind. Emphasize the meaning of a sentence, not the structure. And never, never look in a blank spot on the wall. Eye contact with just one person in the group will make the whole group feel like you're talking to them all, and will help them listen. Just don't stare at one person for more than 10 seconds or more.
Hmm... I think that's about all you need to know for now- Maybe I'll post more later.

Hiya SomeSweetGuy! :D I'm sure, alot of people here would help. That's the kind of place IW is! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Something that helps for me is know the speech nearly by heart in a way that you know what you'll say and that you've practiced how you could say it but not so much that you'll don't know what to say if you say it a little bit different. If you're allowed keep all your text with you so you feel a bit more sure. Unless it's not the problem. Always try to keep talking.

Did you speak from a script, palm cards, or by heart? Did you have visual aids (e.g., overhead transparencies, powerpoint slideshow)? Was it the content or your delivery that was the problem?

The best speeches are not read from scripts or learnt word for word by heart. This sounds staged and can be very boring. It is most interesting for your audience, and actually the easiest for you, to know lots about your topic and have general points that you want to make that you can speak on, rather than preparing every sentence word for word. It's easy to get flustered and if you only know prepared sentences, if you forget exactly what the next line is, you can be really screwed. If you know generally what it's all about you can easily recover if you lose concentration, or are interrupted by a question or something. It's also hard to write a speech that doesn't sound like you've written it, because we tend to use much longer sentences when writing than speaking, and different vocabulary - if you just have points you want to make and speak about them you will sound much more natural.

If you have visual aids, they should never have full sentences on them and you should never just read directly from them. Slides should have the general points - the essence of what you're talking about - which helps you remember, and gives the audience direction, and you elaborate. If you can put information on a slide in diagramatic or tabular form, that is always easier and more interesting for the audience as well.

If you're doing quite a long speech, or have a few different sections, it's useful to do summaries of what you've talked about so far throughout, to remind the audience of where you've been and where you're going next. Of course it's also really important to have a clear introduction so the audience knows exactly what you'll be talking about and what points you're going to make. There's nothing worse than listening to a speech when you have no idea where they're going with it.

Hope that's useful [img]smile.gif[/img]

my advice is...don't chew bublegum while presenting..i learnt this the hard way [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

It is also good to try to identify your own style. It can be difficult to do, and it can't really be taught, but a apeech delivered at the correct speed with the correct rhthym, using appropriate oratory devices can be very interesting to listen to. Its the difference between a well written, original essay and those that follow guide lines or writting frames. They can help greatly, but ultimately impead the very best performance.

A lot of people, but not you, cos you're just posting the one-liner to continue the SpamQueen legacy [img]tongue.gif[/img] :D :D

Speaking of speeches, I'm doing one tomorrow too. It's for a project (involving the next generation of wireless networking technologies - nyah nyah I know what you guys'll be using in 5 years' time [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] ). It's kinda scary cos we're going to London for it with some people from my research group and I've gotta do this speech about a technical subject to all the other partners (some are professors!, some industry partners). I should be ok though, as I know what I'm talking about - although I do tend to do the staring at a blank spot on the wall thing that Bozo said not to do :D It makes it easier to continue if you're not worried about how bored or shocked whatever the audience looks.

Also, as Aelia said NEVER try to learn the speech by heart. Have slides if it's a presentation or notes if it's a "speech speech". Use them as guides, but role-play your way through the whole thing. Know the subject, then it doesn't matter what you say, it'll be correct :D This is what I do - I practice a speech before I give it, but it's slightly different each time I give it as I think of stuff on the spot etc.

Know what your talking about, and don't read word-for-word off the sheet. Make lots of eye contact. And make sure that it's easy to understand, but not like Gr. 2 writing. ;) [img]smile.gif[/img]

I guess I should've given some more insight. Let's see, the speech has to be between 6-8 minutes long, point deducted if under/over time limit. Mr. Harrington said I have to memorize it, and I won't have to worry about making too much eye contact. It won't be in front of an audience, just a few judges. Am I the only person here in FFA? [img]tongue.gif[/img] I've decided not to post a copy of the speech, as I've decided to re-do the entire thing. I wasn't satisfied with my first draft.

What I usually do it first of all make a rough list of things that I need to talk about.

Then I put them into a sequence.

From this sequence, I add examples and further points that I think need discussing.

I write a little bit about each point, along with facts and figures that I think are relevant to the discussion.

Then I read up on the subject again, concentrating on all of the points that I have decided to talk about. This leads to a final refinement of the speech order and notes - specifically the inclusion of key phrases that sound good and should be included.

And thats where I stop. I now have a good idea of what I want to talk about and when in the speech I need to mention certain items. If I get lost at any point, I can just glance down at my notes and I have an immediate idea of where I am in the speech and what I need to talk about next.

You might want to give yourself a timed runthrough to see how you get on. Are you running over or under on the time? Do you find that some of your speech areas are lacking? If so, build them up.

Now that you've got a total overview of your speech rehearse it to yourself once or twice in your head, then once shortly before giving the speech.

All going well you should deliver a blinder. Always remember to be confident and enjoy yourself. You arent on trial and your tutors want you to do well as much as you want to do well yourself.

Your judges are your audience, though. Anyone you're presenting it to is your audience.

I KNEW that Sir G, I meant audience as in a large crowd, since that's what audience is usually associated with. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Rule number 1 of public speaking, Think of your audience as naked!

Ok, ok, just making sure. [img]tongue.gif[/img] You should have eye contact though. [img]smile.gif[/img]

You still need to worry about eye contact. In fact, eye contact is especially important when you have only a few people because it will be fairly obvious if you are not looking at anyone when there is only a few people to look at at all. In front of a large audience, you can kind of gaze about the group and it looks like you're making good eye contact, even if you don't actually catch anyone's eye. But don't focus on just one person - it will make them uncomfortable and the others will feel left out lol ;) . I would suggest scanning your eyes over all the people, occasionally resting on one person for a little while, then moving on again.

It's a shame you have to memorise your speech - there wouldn't be that many situations where you'd be making a speech in the real world where you couldn't have notes or slides so I dunno what the point of that is. Probably just to make you sweat all the more ;) . Even though you can't have notes though, that doesn't mean you should write an entire script and learn it by rote. Still just write main points and practice talking about them. Do time yourself when you practice, as someone suggested. Time yourself doing your speech exactly as you will be doing it - in front of the mirror is good. But do give yourself a bit of leeway timewise - often people speak much faster when they're actually doing it than in practice through nerves. 7 minutes would be safest.

Will the judges have copies of your speech? If not, then don't memorize it. Instead, memorize the outline and know what you're going to talk about at each point.

I give 5-7 minute speeches quite frequently in Toastmasters. You can't cover a lot in that time, so you have to choose your words wisely. You've got time for an intro (one minute max), body of three points (a minute apiece), and a conclusion (again, another minute, summarizing the speech and wrapping with a call to action). Some may point out that there are only five minutes there -- when you give it, the others will show up [img]smile.gif[/img]

One important thing: do memorize your conclusion. If you start running out of time, wrap up whatever you're on and start the conclusion. People remember most what you start with and what you end with... so make sure the ending counts.

One of the tricks I've used for speeches I actually care about is to record myself giving it, and then play it back. I then speak along with it, just like singing to the song on the radio. That gets me familiar with the material and also helps identify spots where what I wrote just doesn't flow naturally from what I recorded. I note those, correct the speech text, and rerecord it. My record was rerecording on six straight days... [img]smile.gif[/img]

Do that and you'll be ready to give the speech.

Good luck!