 The fear of public speaking  The word come from the Greek root “glossa” (which means ‘tongue’) and the root “phobia” (which means ‘fear’)

 This is the Top Ten List of Global Fears:  1. Fear of public speaking (Glossophobia) 2. Fear of death (Necrophobia) 3. Fear of spiders (Arachnophobia) 4. Fear of darkness (Achluophobia, Scotophobia or Myctophobia) 5. Fear of heights (Acrophobia) 6. Fear of people or social situations (Sociophobia) 7. Fear of flying (Aerophobia) 8. Fear of open spaces (Agoraphobia) 9. Fear of thunder and lightning (Brontophobia) 10. Fear of confined spaces (Claustrophobia) 

Realize how the audience really feels

Your audience wants you to commit fully to your role as speaker…

Practice makes perfect.

Breathing

Small Exercises

“Look with favor on bold beginnings.” -Virgil

 Gain the attention of the audience  Create rapport between the speaker and the audience  Provide reasons for the audience to listen to the speaker  Set the expectations of the audience.

set the audience’s expectations…and then surpass them!

The audience has several questions that they want answered within the first few minutes of your talk… 1. Who are you? (experience) 2. What are you going to talk about? 3. When will you be through? 4. Where is this talk going? 5. Why should I listen? 6. How are you going to make this interesting?

Start with a quote from a famous person, inspirational source, or lyrics from a song. Keep it short but powerful. Pause briefly for effect when you are done.

Offer a proverb. Folk sayings, old wives' tales, or words of wisdom from your country or that relate to your experience with the project that people can relate to provide a meaningful bridge to your speech.

Ask a rhetorical question.. Make sure the question is an interesting or startling one to catch the attention of your audience. Perhaps even one that is the opposite of what the audience would expect.

Issue a challenge. Riddles, puzzles, case studies, and other problem solving activities grab hold of listeners' minds. Promise to deliver suggested options by the end of your presentation.

Create a word picture.. Using sensory imagery, describe a heart-tugging or mind- teasing scenario that immediately engages the audience. Bringing real or imaginary characters or a scene to life in a verbal sketch that takes just a minute or so can have a powerful effect on drawing in your listeners.

Quote STARTLING statistics and facts - hard evidence that cannot be debated because it is proven by logic and science. Audiences are apt to believe a speaker who uses credible facts as evidence. They tend to listen to a speaker who opens with this type of information, especially if it is unusual information.

Tell a story or anecdote- Everyone loves stories, especially if they’re real, personal, and relevant. Paint a picture, but keep the story fairly short and make it connect to your speech.

Using a historic event. Historical references make you look smart and put your topic in perspective. Make sure that the event connects to your speech and that you have your facts RIGHT!

 In 1875, the former slave opened his talk to the business establishment of Atlanta with this line: “Gentlemen, one-third of the population of the South is of the Negro race.”

 On July 4, 1852, he opened an address in Ohio by saying: “Pardon me—why did you ever invite me? I and the people I represent have no reason to celebrate this day.”

 He opened his address to a white audience in 1854 with these remarks : “There was a time when our people covered the land as the waves of a wind-ruffled sea covered its shell- paved floor. Now that is a memory, a mournful memory.”

 August of 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial: “Fivescore years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation…”

Before you even begin a speech, you need to know what your bottom-line message is that you want to leave with your audience. Figure out whom you are trying to reach and what message you want to send.

Use only one statistic at a time. Relate your statistics to your listeners. “I once heard an actuary describe the odds of one in a quadrillion. He likened that astronomical figure to one human hair among all the heads of the world.” Compare to the familiar: “If we accept % as our perfect goal, we’d have to accept these conditions: two unsafe landings a day at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and 15,000 pieces of mail lost by the U.S. Post Office every hour. “623,000 soldiers died in the Civil War…in other words, the dead of the Civil War exceeded the lives lost in all other wars the United States has fought, from the Revolutionary War to Desert Storm.”

Tell stories for a purpose. Tell personal stories. Tell success stories. TRY OUT STORIES FIRST!

The close of the nineteenth century found a Swedish businessman settling down to his breakfast of kippers, eggs, and bacon. As he sipped his morning coffee, he glanced at the Stockholm Journal. To his astonishment, he found his picture emblazoned on the front page. He read further. It was an obituary! He knew at once that they had confused him with his brother, who had just died in the East Indies, but he had to read what they wrote about him. To his chagrin, he found phrases such as “Merchant of Munitions,” “Dealer of Destruction,” “Peddler of Death” applied to him. Immediately he called for his carriage to take him to his solicitor’s office. There he wrote a new will—a will that established the Nobel Peace Foundation.

 Summarize your speech.  Provide closure.  Make a great final impression, using emotional appeal.

 Cue the audience in advance by telling them when you are getting close: “Turning now to my final point.”  Make it sound like a conclusion: “In conclusion…” “In closing…”  Make the last words memorable: Make them laugh. Make them think. Make them stand up and applaud.

 Refer back to the opening.  Use a quotation.  Ask a question with an implied answer.  Recite a short poem  Ask for help  Tell the audience what to do  Tell a story

Diction and Vocal Variety 47

 Run your tongue in a full circle around your cheek walls across the front of your top and bottom teeth. Repeat 3 times.  Reverse the direction of the circle. Repeat 3 times.  Sweep your tongue as rapidly as you can from side to side across the upper teeth. Repeat at least 10 times. 48

 Always start slowly and carefully.  Make sure the beginning and end of each word is crisp and avoid running the words together.  Repeat the phrase, getting faster and faster while maintaining clarity. If you trip over words, stop and start again. 49

 Red leather, yellow leather, red lorry, yellow lorry.  Sister Susie sat on the sea shore sewing shirts for sailors.  The blue black bug bled blue black blood.  You know New York; You need New York; You know you need unique New York. 50

The high and low range of your voice. 51

Emotional content carried by our voices. 52

How loudly or quietly you speak 53

Speaking pace 54

Are you speaking to me? 55

Napoleon Bonaparte would often wait forty to fifty seconds to begin a battle address to his troops.

Adolph Hitler would fuss with his moustache, mop his forehead, and fidget with his notes for five minutes as he faced thousands of people waiting for his speech.

Queen Elizabeth II, who often needed to stand on a step stool to be seen over a podium, would always pause before beginning her speeches to show she was in control of the crowd.

Stand, Stare, and Command your Audience: Before you speak:  Lock your eyes on each of your would-be listeners  Force yourself before you begin your presentation to say in your own mind each word of your opening sentence.  Every second you wait will strengthen the impact of your opening words.

Let Punctuation Be Your Guide:  For a period in your speech, wait 2 seconds before continuing.  For a comma, wait 1 second before continuing.  For a semi-colon, wait 1 second before continuing.  For a colon, wait 2 seconds before continuing.  Between the end of one paragraph and the start of the next, wait 3 seconds before continuing.

Take the paragraph format of any speech and transform it into poetry phrase by phrase. This makes it much easier to read and breaks your speech into manageable pieces.

Look down and take an imaginary picture of the words you see. Bring your head back up and pause. Then, say what you have just memorized.

 When you come to a comma, cut the line off!  If your subject is followed by a verb, don’t separate them!  Leave prepositional phrases togther.  Never end a line with “a” or “the”  When you see a period, end the line.

The Gettysburg Address was two minutes long. It was the second speech of the day. It followed a two hour speech by a top headline speaker of the day, Edward Everett.