Skills for Effective Communication:Public Speaking Skills

  PUBLIC SPEAKING SKILLS ' 'God, that all-powerful Creator of nature and architect of the world, has impressed man with no character so proper to distinguish him from other animals, as by the faculty of speech. "  -Quintilian  As evident by the above quote speech is what distinguishes  man from other animals and it has evolved from mode of basic communication to exhorting people on a particular topic,issue which can be scientific,political,educative etc.In other words speech when delivered in front of an audience becomes public speaking. Public speaking is the process and act of speaking or giving a lecture to a group of people in a structured deliberate manner intended to inform ,influence or entertain a listening audience  Developing  the Public speaking skills involves three stages 1.Planning 2.Preparation 3.Presentation PLANNING: It involves all the aspects of planning required for  public speaking by a speaker which include the following  1.P...

PREPARATION -  Sana Surve  Preparation is the next step after planning. It basically starts from brainstorming around the topic to be addressed by the speaker. The speaker generates number of ideas, seeks advice from experts (if needed) and conducts a research to gather information and factual data regarding the topic. This is a crucial part of the preparation stage as here we make sure that the information provided is valid and reliable. During the research phase itself, the speaker starts making notes and writing the speech. The speech can either be structured or unstructured depending on the expertise and experience of the speaker. For a structured speech, the speaker has to ensure that it is organized in a logical sequence. Right from opening statement to the closing statement, everything has to be prepared meticulously so that the audience gets influenced by the words of the speaker. Once the speech is ready, the speaker can practice alone by looking into the mirror or in...

 Presentation format-  Before you start planning your presentation, find out from the organizers how much time you have and what format they envision for your talk. Will you be part of a panel or will you be speaking alone? Will you be in a regular session or are you the dinner speaker? Do you have 15 minutes or an hour? Do they prefer to leave time for questions? If yes, does that come out of the allocated time you have been quoted? It is important to know what is expected of you so you can be well prepared and not have to scramble last minute to readjust your talk due to unanticipated logistics.Know your audience Get information about who will be attending your presentation. Are all participants experts at the topic or will there be novices present? Is there a mixed group of people representing different backgrounds or is everyone on the same page regarding technicalities? Depending on the audience, you will have to spend some time giving varying degrees of background on t...