COMM 300: Public Speaking Notes

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3.5 rules on speaking

• 1. Know your message
• 2. Know your audience
• 3. Tailor your message to fit the audience

• DO NOT TRY TO START WITH A JOKE!

How do you start? You must have a SO WHAT statement!

Elements of a Successful opening

• Arouse audience interest
• Relate topic to audience concerns
• Establish your credibility
• Preview the main points
• MUST HAVE A BOTTOM LINE
• You might start with:
  • Ancedotes
  • Quotes
  • Interesting statistics
  • Scenarios
  • Stories
  • Pictures

Body

• Craft sentences for effect
• Logical organizational model
  • People listen most at the start and the finish
• GIVE EVIDENCE!
• Direction signals
  • Interal previews

Close

• People listen more at the beginning and the end
• SIGNAL ENDING: Use word "finally" or some word to signal end
• Refer to and summarize your main points
• Refer to your opening
  • Give closer, if you started w/ a quote, refer to that quote at the end.
• End with impact
  • Call to action, give a challenge, etc.

Ded

• DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH THE CAMERA!
• Your body language (DON'T ROCK)
• Your facial expressions
• Kinesthetic emphasis - what is this?
• 5 ASPECTS OF DELIVERY
  • Eye contact
    • Hold eyecontact between 2-4 seconds
    • divide room into sections
    • Avoid:
      • Looking over people's heads
      • Addressing the ceiling / floor / notes / visual aids
      • Ignoring part of the audience
      • Only addressing the most powerful person in the room
  • Voice volume
  • Vocal variation - change sentence length like writing
  • Gestures
  • Stance
• Appearance
• AN AUDIENCE WILL JUDGE YOU
  • 7% by what you say
  • 33% by how you sound
  • 60%your appearance
  • Avoid problematic gestures
    • hands clasped in front
    • hands clasped in behind
    • clutching one arm
    • the podium clutch - move around

Notes about other speakers

• YELL, almost - talk VERY loudly
• talk slowly
• work on hand gestures (and very them)
  • syncronize hand gestures with emphasized words in sentences (5 / sentence)
• Make eye contact, and sycronize eye contact with lines (2 people / sentence)
• DON'T move when you have an important point