Practicing Speeches: Voice

Series Summary

People have been making speeches in front of groups since mankind has been able to communicate. Public speaking refers to giving speeches with the intention of informing audiences about certain topics or persuading listeners to agree with various opinions. From U.S. presidents to members of the local Rotary Club, speakers utilize public speaking skills when addressing audiences. Though public speaking styles have changed over time, the basic elements are timeless. In learning to speak in public, we obtain relevant skills that enrich our ability to communicate clearly in other social situations as well.

In this free video series, professional speaker and communications instructor Tracy Goodwin offers tips on public speaking, explaining the skills and training necessary to practice ahead of time for a speech. Tracy will teach you how to come up with ideas, hone your content, and construct and study an outline. She will also advise you about timing, recording and giving your speech. Also included in this series are tips on eye contact, anticipating criticism, voice quality and nonverbal communication. Tracy will maximize your speech preparation time, while giving you valuable lessons that are universally applicable to all public speaking situations.

Video Transcript

"Alright, as we are listening to our tape or watching our videotape of our practice, the last thing that we have to take a listen for is our voice, and what did we do with our voice in our presentation? And these are some of the things that you can take a look at. Were you enthusiastic? Did your voice have inflection? Did it have a change of rate, change of pitch, change of speed, volume? Did you sound passionate and enthusiastic with your voice? Expressiveness--did you color certain words? Do you make emphasis? Do you drive home certain points? How expressive are you with your voice? Spontaneous--are you speaking to your audience as if you're in the moment? You're having this conversational style. We're talking, we're spontaneous, we're reacting. And fluency, how do your words flow? How does the speech flow out of your mouth? Is it kind of choppy or does it flow? And these are the things that you want to make sure that you do when you're speaking, is be enthusiastic, expressive, spontaneous and fluent."