Have You Mastered These 10 Public Speaking Skills?
Posted: Monday, August 20, 2007
by Jonathan Steele
Jonathan Steele Company
How skillful are you at pubic speaking? Have you mastered the public speaking skills?
If you want to master public speaking, then you need master the public speaking skills. There are dozens of skills required in a talk. These skills are an essential part of the art of public speaking and are especially important in persuasive speaking. How do you measure up in just 10 of the skills?
Informative to the Audience
To be informative to the audience it needs the all important 'what's in it for me' factor. It also needs to go beyond just facts and figures. The information needs to be massaged in a way the audience can use it.
Know the Make Up of Your Audience
Seemingly obvious, this is often overlooked. For instance, you would think that you will speak to doctors differently than people without a health care background. However with all the information overload doctors deal with, most want the common version, the one they will share with their patients. Know how the audience will best receive the material you deliver.
Introductions that Capture Attention
The introduction is the key that unlocks the door of the mind so that what you say might be listened to. It is essential that the words used and the way they are used are effective in capturing the attention of the listener. Although this may seem one of the more basic speaker skills, it is in reality one of the most important.
Accurate Pronunciation
Imagine listening to a great speaker who constantly mispronounces words. Will you wonder if it is because he did not know. If he did not know, then how credible is everything else he has to say.
Words Clearly Spoken
Like pronunciation, clarity is essential. Whach-y-all-do-in (what's you all doing) may be acceptable when we are with friends, but when speaking into a microphone, it can be annoying to the audience. A lack of clarity can result in sound that you would not want to use in public. Even worse, slurred words are the sign and symptom of a stroke. Someone may call 911 not only to rescue the audience, but mistakenly (as far as the stroke is concerned) to rescue you.
This is one of the public speaking skills we may take for granted but also may get us in trouble.
Fluency
Fluency refers to the flow of your thoughts. The speech that is fluent sounds like a harmonious whole rather than several small and fragmented pieces of thought tightly tucked together.
Avoiding Word Whiskers
In addition to the common word whiskers, and uh, and uh and uh would be the venerable, 'and now.' Or sometimes just plain 'now.' Speaking in Spanish a common word whisker is 'therefor.' There are many other word whiskers, 'you know.' Using them once can in some instances be acceptable. Using them over and over is distracting and annoying to the listener, uh, and now you know.
Pausing
Pausing can be for emphasis or for effect. It is a speaker skill that is often underused. Pause mid sentence to emphasize a particular word or part of the thought. Pause before making a bold statement or to emphasize the statement. Pause no less than one second and not much longer than three. This is one of the more difficult of the speaker skills to master and be natural.
Sense stress
Putting the right stress on the right words or right part of the section of a talk is an art that needs practice. Inexperienced speakers will be found giving sense stress to more than one part of a sentence or in more than one part of a thought being shared.
Enthusiastic Presentation
Did you know there are two kinds of smiles. One is a put on or Pan Am Smile and the other is a real smile. Enthusiasm can be just like the smile. It can sound put on or it can sound real. Learning how to master the real is essential for great speaking. Mastering this along with other speaker skills will make a talk come alive.
These are only overviews of 10 of the many speaker skills. To master public speaking means to master the public speaker skills. The ultimate practice will come in front of an audience. Learn them, practice them and once proficient, you will have attained speech mastery.
To become a great public speaker requires mastering the public speaker skills. These skills are what add flavor, variety and dynamics to a public speech. They require practice in order to master them. They are an art. Master all the speaking skills and you will be a master of public speaking.
If you would like to learn more about mastering public speaking visit the speakers skills page at
Speechmastery.com
Enthusiasm begins with a smile. Would you like to know more about smiles? Then consider the section...Do you know what a real Smile is?
Jonathan Steele, RN is a part time Nurse, artist (paintings, sculpture in steel, and abstract photography), public speaker, speaking coach, part time faculty at Northampton Community College and Webmaster of Speechmastery.com
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