Ashok BooraKritika VigRavi Prakash Singh Sumanth Singh

Communicating in speech

Who is this book for?Learn to speak wellWhat needs to be done?Speech came first

The Audience

Selecting, planning & arranging the material

Selecting, planning & arranging the material

Thoughtful selectionA coherent patternPreparation is half the battle

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CH-4STARTING,CARRYING ON AND ENDING

STARTING EFFECTIVELY

FIRST IMPRESSIONS ARE LASTING IMPRESSIONS

• There are a variety of starting tactics. Selection can be done on the basis of your

own experience as well as the type of audience.

• A dramatic start with an arresting fact, quotation, or remark.

Something surprising, exciting, disturbing, or plain unusual; something which will make

the audience gasp with admiration, and will sit up to take notice for the rest of the talk.

THE OPENING

• It is sensible to start with the simple matters of fact that the audience need to know.

• A variety of questions arise in the audience's minds at the beginning of the talk like

• Who are you?

• What are your qualifications, experience, and interests?

• How will it help them?

• Why should it interest them?

The first task, them, is to establish rapport with the audience, gaining its confidence, and

thereby making it prepared to give attention.

GETTING ATTENTION• After making it clear who and what you are, you must launch into your subject without

delay.

• One way of starting the talk is to put a question in the audiences’ minds.

• Pointing out how the present talk fits into previous talks, and a question related to the last

presentation will help to remind the audience of what they already know, and how this new

presentation will fit in.

• Tell them what you’re going to tell them, then tell them that you’ve not told them.

• The job of the introductory sentences is to arouse interest in what you are going to

tell them, by telling them.

• Telling your audience in advance what to expect is an essential part of presenting

information to them.

SIGNPOSTING ALL THE WAYThe idea of “signposting” originated with Tolman in 1951. The idea was that people

become mentally disoriented by new information, and need to find their bearings. Once

the opening stages of the talk are over, and the audience have been told where they are

going, it is important to continue to signpost throughout the talk. This can be done by:

• Announcing the topic

• Giving a heading

• Writing on the board

• Using flip-chart or

• Overhead projector

THE LONGER SPEECHA longer presentation (one which lasts more than ten minutes) demands a long span of

uninterrupted attention from the audience, and therefore needs more skill in structuring

the talk.

• Longer talks need more organizing, more linking, and more reminders.

• Signposting in the longer talk becomes more important.

• Longer talks need some technique to interrupt the monologue with a different

activity every five or ten minutes.

The key to an effective talk is variety, whether the talk is long or short. And the key to an

effective longer talk is to break it down by whatever means available into a sequence of

shorter sections.

THE CLOSING STAGESThere are tactics for finishing, just as there are tactics for opening, and thought about

what you are trying to achieve will, as always, improve the performance.

The essential aim is to round off the presentation on an up beat.

• Get attention again by a vital, arresting and memorable fact or idea.

• Tie up all the loose ends by restating the sub-headings you used, restating the main

heading or title of the talk, and restating the conclusion you came to.

• Never end weakly with: ‘Shall I go on?...’; or ‘What I should have said if I had time

was…’; or ‘What I intended to say was ….’; or ‘I think that’s all I have to say’.

• End boldly, with a final statement of your main point which you fly like a banner, before

sitting down.

CH-5MAKING NOTES

SCRIPT OR NOTES

• Some sort of notes must be produced, usually depending on the factors such as

what other people have been seen to do, what sort of notes were used at school.

• Poor notes, however, are an added strain while talking, and can cause you to miss

sections of the talk, lose the place, and dry up.

A LITTLE THOUGHT IN ADVANCE SAVES A DEAL OF EMBARRASSMENT AND CONFUSION ON

THE DAY.

WRITTEN SCRIPTS

• Often the first method chosen by an inexperienced and nervous speakers, is to write the

talk out in full, and read it out from the script. He or she may even think it is the only proper

way to deliver a so called talk.

• The process is only called ‘speaking’ by courtesy, and because a voice is being used. It has

more in common with public speaking.

• Advantage of a written script – it gives the speaker confidence.

• But the disadvantage is overwhelming: written language is not spoken language.

• The difference between spoken and written language can be summed up in on simple fact :

SPOKEN LANGUAGE DOESN’T HAVE SENTENCES.

THE LEARNED TEXTA second method sometimes used by inexperienced speakers is to write the talk out if

full and learn it by heart.

• Advantage: It avoids the loss of eye contact and gestures.

• Disadvantage: There is a danger of forgetting the lines, and anxiety about

remembering them is an added strain.

• Another disadvantage: The speaker spends time and energy in wasteful role

learning, and therefore has less time and energy to use in preparing the context of

the talk.

When written language is spoken, whether it is read or remembered, it sounds stilted,

formal and un-natural.

FROM NOTESThe third method, and the one which all experienced speakers recommend, is to prepare

the talk carefully, but to deliver it from notes, choosing the actual phrasing extempore.

• Advantage: Flexibility, spontaneity and openness

• Another advantage: There is eye contact and natural gesture.

Having only notes for most of the presentation forces the speaker to talk to the audience

naturally and spontaneously.

NOTES ARE TO HELP YOU• Good notes is to ensure that you do not forget what you intend to say. We often need some

object to remind us; notes are a kind of external memory that is under conscious control.

• The most useful function of notes is not just to remind you of the material, but to give it

structure.

• Notes should not be a version of full information. The details of much more interesting, and

convincing, is they come directly from the speaker’s memory.

• One way of preparing notes is to write the key words boldly on the left hand side, leaving

the detailed notes on the right hand side.

• The purpose of this is to make the structure of the talk as clear as possible to the speaker –

then he or she will in turn make it clear to the audience.

COLOURS AND CARDS• Notes do not have to be written in one colour, or in one size of script. Coloured pencil

should be used to distinguish different elements in the notes.

• One system is to write central points in black, less important or peripheral material in

green.

• The best material for notes are on 8” X 5” cards. Cards have two final, decisive advantages:

• They are easy to carry out.

• They are easier to hold.

• The audience can see them- Especially if the listeners are bored, the notes will provide

them something to watch.

WHAT ABOUT THEIR NOTES?Having thought about your own notes, you should also think about the audience’s notes.

Consider how will they transfer your notes in to their own.

In trying to ensure that the audience’s notes are good, the most fatal error is to write them

yourself. You think that if you prepare a set of notes which accurately summarizes the points you

are making, and distribute them to the audience, you have solved their note taking problems.

NOT SO?

The best solution is to prepare a single sheet of paper with the five to seven headings you are

going to use on it, with blank space between these headings for the listeners’ own notes.

CH-6COPING WITH NERVES:

THE CREDIBILITY PROBLEM

NERVOUSNESS• Everyone is nervous, even experienced performers.

• Nervousness is a valuable boost of energy

• Research shows that people work faster, but less accurately, when they are being watched.

• Too much arousal disrupts a performance.

• Inexperienced speakers should choose easy tasks first.

• The size of the audience, its importance, the difficulty of the subject, and the personality

you choose all increase nervousness.

• Hesitations don’t matter much.

• A visibly nervous speaker makes the audience nervous.

• Don’t show nervousness by pacing about.

NERVOUSNESS• Nervousness can be reduced by realizing that:

• It doesn’t show from outside.

• Audiences are sympathetic.

• You were asked to speak, so they are interested.

• The penalties for mistakes are very small.

• Over nervous people can be helped by desensitization.

• Experience is the best de-sensitization treatment.

• Reduce adrenalin by deep breathing and relaxation.

• Imagination is a form of experience.

• Thinking and planning increases imagined experience, and calms nervousness.

CH-7TIMING AND BAD TIMING

TIMING• Bad timing causes dissatisfaction.

• Speakers have high adrenalin levels, audiences have low adrenalin levels.

• Speakers are passionately interested in their subject, audiences less so.

• There is a contract – you speak for so long, they listen for so long.

• Talks which end on time, or a few minutes early, are always welcome.

• Any subject can be made fit to any length of time.

• Audiences can only listen for five to ten minutes without wandering. An hour is the limit of

attention.

• Inner level is disrupted by high adrenalin levels.

• Test timing during preparation is unreliable.

• If you run out of time, stop.

TIMING• You can’t do mental arithmetic while speaking.

• You can’t rely on your memory of times when speaking.

• Write down the finishing time in your notes before you start.

• Modify the content as you talk, to fit into the time left.

• Tell the audience how much time is left.

• Don’t be a bore, and go on for too long.

Arranging the physical environment for a talk

• Physical comfort we are affected by the physical surrounding we are in .

The profession of architecture is based on this fact , but physical

surrounding affect us in more ways than aesthetic.

The embattled speaker Speakers respond to the speaking situation in a way which

both conforms to the theories of proxemics , and illustrates

their subconscious attitude to their audience.

Visual aidsVisual aids is all about presentation

of things with the help of pictures and graphics.

What is the use of visual aids?

Most experienced speakers use visual aids. Why?

The short answer is that they make the talk more interesting for the audience, and they do this for a number of reasons.

What are the those reasons why visual aids improve presentations?

1. The first is that visual aids get attention:-

People are naturally more interested in things and pictures than in abstract words. Even adults look through books for pictures. So visual aids have greater impact than words alone.

2. Visual aids give variety:- • Audience can only listen for about ten minutes

without having a micro –sleep.

• Visual aids are the most convenient way to break up the talk into smaller chunk, with a fresh picture or object every 5 minutes or so.

3. Visual aids help memory :- There is evidence from studies of memory, that memory works better through sight than sound.

4. Visual aids save time :- Visual aids help the audience is that they save time. Visual perception is faster and surer than verbal description.

A complex shape and relationship is difficult to describe in words, but can be quickly and memorably shown in a picture.

5.Visual aids provide the same image for all the audience. :-

Visual aids make sure that everyone has the same thing in mind.

For example :- If you tell your listeners that the growth rate of company has ‘speeded up’, they may have a variety of different ideas of what this means. But if you show them a graph, they will have the same picture.

• The word ‘house’ produce a different image in everyone’s mind, but a picture of a particular house does not.

Some information can only be presented visually.

Ex- Complex shape, the rate of change of a curve and complex statistics.

The disadvantages1. Visual aids can not tell the whole story:-

We need a guide to an exhibition, and important details need pointing out in logical order.

2. Can not show the abstract concept :- Such as ideas, importance etc. Because these are purely mental concepts, and we can not easily imagine what a picture of ideas would look like.

3. Too many visual aids can distract. :- • Too many visual aids can make the audience

to forget the structure of the speech while looking at the pictures. The result was boredom and confusion for the audience.

• Aids can distract the speaker too. If you

have too many aids , it becomes difficult to control them, and too much time may be spent changing slides.

Non-verbal comunication

• Signs and symbols which we use to communicate is NVC.

Conclusion Practice will improve your skills. If you think

about what you are doing, know something about audience psychology and the do’s and don’ts of speaking, and listen to criticism and advice from friends, you can become a sound and effective speaker.

Get a close and trusted friend to observe you practice your talk, and take careful note of what he or she says.