How to Gesture During a Speech

Series Summary

Good writing is an important skill used in a variety of media. Whether it's writing a meeting agenda, a toast, or a magazine article, the ability to effectively communicate to a large audience stems from knowledge and execution of proper writing techniques. With such knowledge comes an understanding of the distinct differences in writing styles between creative writing, journalism, technical writing and informal writing. In this free video series, a playwright provides tips for writing a number of different works, including novels, children's books and fantasy stories. Take these writing skills to college and learn how to get a college diploma, how to choose between colleges and how to change schools. With these tips on writing and higher education, anyone can write a book and anyone can take their creative life to the next level.

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Laura Turner, and today we're going to talk about how to gesture during a speech. Hamlet advises the players in Hamlet by Shakespeare that they should not saw the air with their hands when presenting a speech. You should not when you are speaking to a crowd of people you know, use hand gestures all the time, because people are not going to concentrate on what you're saying. They're going to concentrate on you know, your hand gestures. So what I would advise you to do is to use hand gestures only to drive home specific points. This is actually a pretty good - in this room - old fashioned hand gesture that's supposed to signify giving a fact. And you'll see people use this hand gesture. So whenever you are using your gesture, people will sort of listen to that point a little more because they're watching you move in connection with that gesture. So if you use it sparingly people are going to listen to you. There's also that other thing that I wanted to mention was if you're watching an insurance salesman on TV. They usually have lots of gestures. You know, come to me, you know for your insurance. You know let's do this, and they point at you and they have very sort of marked out pinpointed places where they gesture. I wouldn't suggest to go so far as to you know say I am the person you should vote for and it's me, you know to use the same gesture over and over again because that's going to look mechanical. Try to make it natural, try to sort of just use it when you need it. When you want to drive home that point. But don't say to yourself, I have to use that same gesture every time, you can mix it up a little bit. Be creative with it. Also practice in front of a mirror. You could even tape yourself and then watch yourself later, if it's a really big speech that you need to get into. So that's my advice for gesturing during a speech."