Public Speaking

Be a better Speaker

Speaking in public can be daunting, but there are so many situations where this skill is required, that it's important to not shy away from it. These skills come in to play within roles such as:

• a Master of Ceremonies
• when presenting at a seminar or conference
• a teacher or communicator in public
• a broadcaster on radio, TV, social media or elsewhere
• holding staff meetings 
• running events

Effective public speakers are:

• confident 
• enthusiastic
• concise
• able to read a room and pick up audience cues 
• adaptable
• self aware

Why not develop your confidence in public speaking by taking this course today!

Lesson Structure

There are 9 lessons in this course:

1. Scope and nature of public speaking
   • The nature of public speaking
   • The scope of public speaking
   • Context influence the nature and scope of speaking
   • Critical factors in public speaking
   • The ultimate message
   • Speaker/listener relationship
   • Channel
   • Feedback
   • Interference
2. Writing and preparing speech
   • Words! Words! Words!
   • Clarity and confusion
   • Reorganising words leads to different results
   • Questions
   • Rhetoric and rhetorical devices
   • Speech preparation
   • Speech organisation
   • Outline
   • Purpose
   • Subject statement
   • Development
   • Sample outline
   • Other imporant factors to consider
   • Attention
   • Transitions
   • Orientation
   • Conclusion and summary
3. Presentation and delivery
   • A speech
   • Volume, pitch, tone
   • Projection (volume)
   • Voice
   • Vocal health
   • Dealing with nerves
   • Body language
   • How to present a speech
   • Visual aid and media
   • Types of visual aids
   • Reasons for and against the use visual aids and media
   • For visual aids and media
   • Against visual aids and media
4. Toasts and entertainment
   • Speaking for entertainment and toasting
   • Toasts
   • Content and focus
   • Timing
   • Humour
   • Body language
   • Voice
   • Master of ceremonies (MC)
   • Focus
   • Paying attention to the audience
   • Use of humour
   • Voice and body language
   • Story, script, and narrative
   • Preparation
   • Vocal technique
   • Adding character
   • Body language
   • Types of speeches
   • Introductions
5. Debate and presenting argument
   • Introduction
   • What is rhetoric?
   • Ethos, pathos, and logos
   • Ethos: persuasion by character
   • Pathos: persuasion by emotion
   • Logos: persuasion by reason or logic
   • Persuasive context
   • Rhetorical triangle
   • Constructing an argument for speech or debate
   • Logic, fact and fallacy
   • Constructing an argument
   • What is a logical fallacy?
   • Critical thinking
   • Persuasive speaking
6. Lecture and informative speech
   • Know your subject
   • Fact check
   • Questions and answers
   • Use elements from other areas of public speaking
   • Important points about fact-based presentations and educational presentations
   • Structuring a lecture or informative presentation
   • General educational lecture
   • The socratic method
   • Hands-on lectures: practicals, activities, and exercises
   • The role of vulnerability
7. Evaluating a speech
   • Introduction
   • Quality and evaluation
   • Anonymous or not?
   • Feedback
   • Ways to examine the quality of a speech/ speaker
   • Evaluating a toast or entertainment speech:
   • Evaluating a debate or argument:
   • Evaluating a lecture or informative speech:
   • Regaining confidence after a poor speech
8. Question speaking for broadcast media
   • Introduction
   • Broadcasts
   • Rhythm of speaking
   • Slang and colloquial speech
   • Filler words
   • Developing a speech for broadcast media
   • Radio and podcast or sound recordings
   • Sound recordings
   • Television and film presentation
   • Media interviews and speaking on panels
9. Project: prepare and deliver a speech
   • Why is problem based learning important?
   • Project aim
   • Learning outcomes
   • Problem definition
   • Your speech
   • Discussion questions
   • Team structure and mode of interaction
   • Final pbl submission

How Can You Improve Your Public Speaking?

A big part of improving public speaking will always be experience, but it's important you do not gain experience in "bad" habits. If you do not understand the principles that underpinning good public speaking, you risk setting bad habits in stone.

This course helps you lay the foundation - understand the right way to approach public speaking - appreciate the principles and techniques you need to know … then you can develop your own style and with experience, get better and better.

A speech is not only the words used but the way they are said, that communicates with an audience. Imagine a historian giving a talk about the plague in the Middle Ages to a group of teenagers. They stand at the front of the stage or classroom, reading from their notes in a slow, monotone way.  

Now imagine a historian standing at the front of the students giving a passionate and interesting talk about the plague. They have images on the screen behind them. They might even go for dramatic music. They might do a real performance. 

Which performance do you think would be of more interest to the students?

Volume, Pitch and Tone
What we say is important, but how we say can be just as important.  We can change the way words are perceived by such things as changing volume, or taking a pause, even for as little as a second. 

Inflection is the modulation of our tone and pitch when speaking. It changes the way we speak. Monotone is when everything we say is at the same tone. This can sound dull and boring. If we vary our tone, pitch and loudness, this can make our speech more interesting. This should be natural and appropriate, not just for the sake of it. For example, suddenly talking louder for no reason is not very effective. Talking louder to emphasise a really important point could be effective when making a specific point.  We tend to modulate our speech to give meaning.

For example, a rise in pitch at the end of a sentence is usually seen when asking a question. Say the following few sentences in monotone and then how you would normally speak when asking a question.

• Would you like milk with your coffee?
• How often do you go running now?
• Do you find public speaking difficult?
• Can you see differences in the way in which you are speaking when using monotone compared to how you would normally ask a question?

Projection (Volume)
Projection, or the volume of the speaker’s voice, is another key aspect of public speaking. Just like tone or pitch, the projection a speaker uses should vary throughout their speech. The projection of a speaker’s voice should always be loud enough so the whole audience can hear your voice clearly, but not so loud that you are yelling at your audience. Volume of the voice should increase as one shows passion or excitement in their speech, and volume should come down for emphasis when the speaker is coming to an especially important point. Lowering the voice for important points can help create a “leaning in” effect, such that the audience becomes more intent and focussed. 

Pitch
Vocal pitch is the high or low frequency of sound that your voice produces. Women naturally speak at a higher pitch than men. A higher pitch in voice can indicate you are about to say something funny, or that you are angry or in a heightened emotional state, if your stress levels are high. In English, a higher pitch at the end of the sentence indicates a question is being asked. Your voice is likely in a lower pitch of your voice if you are calm or saying something serious or making a statement. We are more likely to want to listen to a voice that is mostly in a lower pitch but does not stay in the same pitch for too long. We can likely all remember a speaker or teacher we had that was very monotonous and spoke at the same pitch with the same tone the whole time they spoke. Or the speaker that repeated the same pitch pattern finishing every sentence with a higher pitch like a question. It can be very dull listening to a disengaged voice. An engaging voice changes pitch and tone for emphasis, from time to time. 

Tone
The tone of your voice will set the mood of the gathering. Tone in the voice is also called the timbre, or the colour of your voice. You audience will have the first clue of what you are going to talk about, the seriousness, the emotion that might be involved, and the way the audience listens will be determined to some degree by tone. For each emotion there is a matching vocal tone, this is how we differentiate when someone sounds happy compared to when someone sounds sad. There is also a different tone for various kinds of speech. A motivator will speak to inspire people, an educator is speaking to inform and engage, a coach is speaking directly and assertively, and a friend might speak to chat and informally. The tone is the purpose that we can hear in the voice. Knowing this you can be intentional about the tone you use when you speak.