How to Present a Captivating Speech
Presenting a successful speech to an audience requires much more than just the ability to speak. A presenter must be able to capture the audience's attention from the beginning and keep it the entire way through the talk for the material to be retained. To do this, the speech giver must captivate by using exciting voice, reducing other distractions, and displaying pertinent visual aids.
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Instructions
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Write your speech so it contains elements of a story. This means it must have excellent flow as it segues from one section to the next. Begin with exposition of key characters and end with a satisfying conclusion of the tale. This conclusion is the takeaway you want your audience to retain. People are used to reading books, periodicals and newspapers this way. Writing your speech in the same manner will help listeners better replay the key points.
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Speak with passion and excitement in your voice. Do not be monotone. Injecting passion and genuine excitement into your speech will get the audience members also excited. They will be more likely to pay attention instead of falling asleep, which can happen if you speak like a drone.
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Keep sentences short. If you speak in long, run-on or compound sentences which are hard to follow, the audience members will fail to understand your main points. They also may lose interest and stop paying attention.
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Use verbal illustrations. If you have a story or interesting scene wrapped into your speech, take the time to lay out the details for your audience. Engulf them in a new world outside of the lecture hall, so they may feel they are actually at the scene of the story.
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Practice your speech at least 10 times before presenting it. Spend some time practicing alone so you can mess up and start over again as necessary. Then, spend time practicing in front of an audience; select people of the same demographic as your true audience will be later, such as businessmen or students. At this stage, you must continue even if you make a mistake.
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Refrain from using notecards whenever possible. Cards give the impression the presenter is unprepared, and this encourages the audience to drift off. Additionally, it is hard to speak in a captivating tone when reading directly from a card.
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Visual aids, such as PowerPoint presentations, overhead projections or poster boards, should remain as simple as possible. Limit yourself to one main graphic device, such as a photo or chart, per slide. Do not cram multiple lines of small text onto one slide that's hard for the audience to read. Use color photos and charts instead of black-and-white graphics to capture the audience's attention.
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References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Goodshoot/Getty Images
