Tips for Better Public Speaking
Posted February 15th, 2012
If you have to give a presentation or make a speech – and many of us will do so at least once in our careers – take note that you need to pay as much attention to the pacing, intonation and timing of your speech as you do to the content.
Jerry Weissman, a leading corporate presentations coach, gives an example of this by relating a story about watching a foreign film. Weissman says he has only a rudimentary knowledge of French and Italian and so when he watches foreign films in these languages, he has to lower his gaze to read the subtitles during the movie. As a result, he says, he cannot follow the spoken words, because they go by too quickly, except, he says, at the end of a sentence, where there is a pause.
This example illustrates the need for speakers to pause at the end of sentences during their presentations. Actors, public speakers, clergy, even people in everyday conversation usually pause at the end of a sentence or even a phrase. It gives the listener, like Weissman with his foreign films, the time to take in the words.
The problem, which is all too common among people who are not used to public speaking, is that when we get in front of an audience, our anxiety leads us to rush through our words, to speak faster than usual and, as a result, simply rush right through the spots where we should pause. This fast pace makes us look as if we are out of sort, often causing us to mangle words. This becomes even more of a problem if you are giving a presentation to people for whom English is not their native tongue.
Presenters need to take their cue from actors here, Weissman says. Actors watch the cadence of their speech and tone of voice and when they reach the end of a sentence, they pause for effect.
If you’r presenting, take time to pause in order to give your audience time to take in and assimilate the information you are giving them. The best way to do this, Weissman says, is to drop your voice when you reach the end of a sentence. Unfortunately, most speakers tend to do the opposite – raising their voices at the end of a sentence, making them sound more like a Valley Girl, Weissman says.
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