Speech Tips

[SomeGuy]

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.

[Dace De'Briago]

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.

[Sir Goulum]

Originally posted by SomeGuy: 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.

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

[SomeGuy]

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]

[Felix The Assassin]

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

[Sir Goulum]

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

[Aelia Jusa]

Originally posted by SomeGuy: 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.

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.

[Bungleau]

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!