With public speaking there are several techniques that can take a scared novice through to competent speaker quickly and easily.

Structure
A lot of speeches are awful simply because the speaker didn’t put enough time into preparing the speech. Without this forethought speeches easily get off track and very boring.

A basic structure that will carry you through every informative speech you will ever give as a beginner is this:

1. Tell them what you are going to tell them - introduce what the speech is about. This is essential because most of us are very poor at contextualizing. If people have to figure out what the speech is about then by the time they’ve done that much of the message is already lost.
2. Tell them - give the body of the speech in a short and precise manner. Wherever possible, tell it like a story. Outline the things involved, describe how they interact together and what the final result of that interaction is.
3. Tell them what you’ve told them - summarize what the speech is about. Briefly go over the key points once again and emphasize your conclusion again. By doing this, if anyone got lost or stopped paying attention part of the way through, they can still get a lot of benefit from what you have said (and they will appreciate you doing this).

Practice
After a lack of preparation on the structure of the speech, the next worst mistake that most people make is not to practice and rehearse the speech. As a beginner, this is essential. Without practice, speakers tend to meander and either go way over time or else cut it inappropriately short because they can’t remember what they are supposed to say.

Once you have structured your speech, you can write it out in full if you wish. Next reduce the speech to a few keywords, phrases or concepts that will convey the essential points of the speech. Often what we write doesn’t sound so good when spoken so practice describing and explaining these concepts verbally. Make a note of the time that it takes you to go through the speech at a moderate pace. Shorten or lengthen the speech to meet the time requirement. It’s always better to go slightly under time rather than over time.

When you are familiar with the speech and can remember the structure and the key points, stand in front of a mirror and practice the speech. This might feel awkward to begin with but you need to see how you look when you give the speech because this is how the audience will see you.

Voice
Speak loudly, speak slowly and speak clearly. We naturally speak better when we are upright so practice standing up. Breathe deeply from your abdomen and not from your chest. The deeper breathing will relax you naturally too.

Stance and Gestures
Stand upright with your feet shoulder width apart, or more so if this feels comfortable for you. This will give you a stable stance and conveys a confident posture. If you have a tendency to slouch then use the ‘tea bag tip’. Imagine that a piece of string is attached to the top of your head and that someone is pulling it up, like a tea bag. This automatically gives you good posture and a tall stance.

Along with speaking loudly, slowly and clearly, see if you can use natural gestures to emphasize the meaning or importance of key points in your speech. Again, do this in front of a mirror. You need to see whether your gestures are bold and confident or feeble and half-hearted.

When practicing at home in front of a mirror, I recommend doing some extreme exaggerations of voice, stance and gestures. You can really push to the boundaries of your capabilities in a safe fashion and in doing so you will notice that some of what you do actually looks, sounds and feels much better than how you would do it normally. Grab hold of those points and tone them down a little bit so that they feel comfortable. You have now improved your capability and your competence - well done!

Backup Preparation
This is something that few people do but it can give you a whole lot more confidence prior to doing a speech. What you want to do is to think about what might go wrong and then prepare for it. On one level you can think about what you would do if the whole thing turned into a personal disaster. If it did turn into an embarrassing failure how you would handle yourself afterwards?

The best thing to do is to accept the result and to quickly commend yourself for having the courage to start and then forgive yourself for not doing well on this particular occasion. You might replay the event over and over again in your head and you might feel bad about it but look for what you could better the next time around.

If it all goes wrong and you can’t remember what you are supposed to do because you feel too nervous then here are a couple of things you can do:
Stop and pause and check your notes. Imagine yourself taking the time to reset and to get with the game plan again so that you can continue in the best possible fashion.
If you think it will take you more than a moment to compose yourself again, then being honest and explaining yourself is often the best policy. Say something like, “I am sorry but I’ve lost myself. I need a moment to recover.” This is a courageous thing to do and people will respect you for it. They know what it’s like to speak in public and they will be on your side.
Imagine yourself doing this and recovering gracefully and then practice them when you practice your full speech.

If you can truthfully say to yourself, “Whatever happens, I can handle this,” then you have created a safety net for yourself. You can go ahead and give a speech and know that you have given yourself the best chance of performing well through thorough preparation.

In part three, we’ll take a look at how to prepare yourself prior to the speech and how to perform the speech well.

If you have enjoyed this article then please digg it, using the button below next to the words ‘Share and Enjoy’ so that other people can benefit - thanks!