Pre-reading I: Public Speaking

By Zarmayana Nur Khairunni, 1306464732

As social beings, humans cannot be separated from the communication. Communication

needed to give them notice to others about their opinions or contents of one's mind.

There are two types of communication, one-way and two-way. One form of one-way

communication is public speaking. Public speaking is one-way communication that is

performed in front of many people. However, most people cannot do public speaking

easily. There are psychological problems such as nervous and afraid, problem with the

content or materials, and attitude when doing public speaking. Therefore, this article

will discuss tips and practice about how to success in public speaking.

The first important thing in public speaking is prepare the materials. There are many

ways to gain the material such as personal knowledge, proven experience, or research.

From many resources of material, we should choose one that will be of interest and then

see valuable information that we want to share to public. Yet, that is better if we collect

more material than we will need and collect the support material too. Supporting

materials are such as authoritative statements, statistical facts, historical data, or

humorous anecdotes. After we have all material, we need to arrange it. The content or

material must be compiled chronologically, spatially, logically, and topically.

Chronological means as it happens, in order of sequences; Spatial means how it relates

to other things; Logical means move from one point to another; And topical means in

order of importance to audience.

After have the materials, we may need some notes. Having notes with us is the safest

way to give a speech, especially a long speech or one filled with important points. In

spite of that, we cannot read everything in the notes. We bring the notes only for our

reminder, not to read it at all. In that notes, we can write how we talk and write the main

idea or main point with very large font or underline words we want to emphasize.

Beside that, we can give our self-written hints in the script that give us directions in our

speaking. In other words, we have a small note cards printed with abbreviated notes,

lead-in phrases, important words or statistics and other cues. After that, we should

making practice hot to use the notes in front of the mirror or recording it and evaluate

our performance.

In practice, because public speaking are using voice, we should control our voice and

determine what kind of impression that we want to make. Impression is one of the

important things in public speaking. We should make clear articulation and

pronunciation, so that the audience will understand clearly. Beside that, we should

control our pitch (tone of voice). Correct breathing will help us achieve a lower pitch, to

a point. In addition, it is better to avoid inflections, especially inflections of sarcasm;

these inflections usually do not play well and can sound whiny and annoying. Then, our

pace should be slower and more deliberate in public speaking. For make sure about

voice control, we can practice our speech by recording it or talking in front of the

mirror.

After control our voice, we need to control our gesture. It is a normal thing if we got

panic or feel anxiety in front of a group of people. Yet, sometimes those things make us

doing some weird gesture unconsciously. A natural reaction, yet totally unnecessary and

more importantly, it sends the wrong message to our audience. Therefore, we must

practice to control our gesture. Hand and arm movements can reinforcements of the

words and ideas we are trying to convey and a non-verbal representation of how we

feel. If we control and use our hand and arm correctly, it will help us enhance our

message and make us appear confident and relaxed. Right gesture will give right

message.

There are three types of gestures that we can use with confidence to convey our

message and enhance our stories. Symbolic Gestures communicate words, numbers,

position; Descriptive Gestures communicate an idea or movement; And Emotional

Gestures suggest feelings. Symbolic gestures such as a raised hand signals for a stop, a

thumbs-up showing agree, three fingers for the number three, and pointing to show a

position – up, down, behind, beside. Descriptive gestures such as spreading hands apart

to show length, using hands to show a shape, swaying hands to show a flow of

movement. Emotional gestures such as a clenched fist to show anger or convey the

sense we are hiding something and hands clasped to show pleading.

ReferencesBurke, C. (2015). Public Speaking Tips - How to Use Gesture. Retrieved September 10,

2015, from Art of Communicating: http://www.artofcommunicating.com.au/public_speaking%20tips/body%20language_gestures.html

Mackness, T. (2003). Speech Preparation. Retrieved September 10, 2015, from University of Michigan's Ross School of Business: http://webuser.bus.umich.edu/Organizations/umbstoastmasters/file/members/prepare/Speech_Preparation.pdf

UROP staff. (2015). Find Projects and Apply: Public Speaking Tips. Retrieved September 10, 2015, from Massachusetts Institue of Technology: http://web.mit.edu/urop/resources/speaking.html#vis