How many of you really like getting up in front of everyone and giving a speech?

How many of you feel really anxious when you are about to speak?
You are not alone
Anxiety is a huge concern when you are about to speak in public
Can be managed in a variety of ways, breathing, personal prep talks, dressing up helps you feel more confident, but you can really beat anxiety by being extremely prepared

This is where I and the Communication Center come in. Today, I’m going to talk about the eight components or competencies of public speaking and a little about what the Comm Center does. If you can master these 8 Comps and utilize the comm center then you will manage your anxiety and have a great presentation.

We have 8 competencies, but they can really be broken down by 4 components that pertain to content or the body of your speech and the way it’s organized and then by 4 comps that pertain to the delivery of your speech or how you present it.

First we are going to discuss content

Be mindful of the time constraints of your speech. This is where practice comes in. Practice and time yourself because depending on the type of speech given you must fit within the time allowed for that speech. You can usually be safe within a minute over or under, but you still need to practice.

Topic of your speech should be narrow and specific. Say you have a 3-5 min informative speech and your topic is Birds that fly. That’s pretty broad with too much info. Pick one bird.

Should be audience appropriate. Think of your audience choose something that could be interesting relevant to them. And it should interest you. Do you hate birds? Then you might not want to do a speech on them. You have passions so talk about them if you can choose your speech topic. Keep in mind that even though your passion might be clubbing you still have to make that fit the given speech format and still make it relevant to your audience.

Audience should be able to understand your thesis in the first few sentences of the speech.
You should be clear. Your thesis should fit with the rest of what you are going to talk about.
Get to the point.
Different from the attention getter. The AG sets up your speech and hooks your audience.

A thesis statement is:
A short statement that summarizes the main point or claim of an essay, research paper, etc., and is developed, supported, and explained in the text by means of examples and evidence.

This is an important one because this is what you will build your entire speech around.
Thesis is a clear statement you will make that let’s us know what you are talking about or a hypothesis or concept you are trying to prove or build awareness for.

A thesis which is just part of your introduction is different from the attention getter. I say this because I have watched speeches where students have gotten these concepts confused.

more about attention getters, but that piece comes before your thesis,

hooks your audience and gets you ready for speaking

Hi! My name is Angela and today I’m going to talk about how concussions sustained during a football game continue to change your brain well after you stop playing

That’s a thesis...It’s communicates purpose and sets you up for the body of your speech .

Thesis does not stand alone

Need supporting material or something to back it up

Visuals must be relevant to the speech. Rules of thumb are less is more. Make slides clean and uncluttered. They are supposed to just enhance your presentation. Visuals with too many words or pictures can really distract your audience.

You should know what your slides say. If you find that you are having to constantly look back at them, then you did not practice your speech as much as you needed too.

or most speeches you will have to do research to back up what you are saying and then you present most likely using and outline and a Powerpoint of some sort

Talk about Haiku, Prezi

For your visual aid...it should enhance your pres not take away, it should add not distract
Pictures should be few and relevant -no clip art really

The research you do to back up your thesis should have a mix of objective material and subjective material

Objective is sometimes easier to find...it’s the facts, data, research, studies that you use
Subjective is data still, but more that plays on opinions and sometimes emotions.

If you are playing on your audience’s emotions though beware to not make them too uncomfortable. It can get awkward.

If you use graphic photos you need to have a warning slide

You also need to have quality sources that are formatted using the APA format American Psychological Association. You can learn more about that through the Writing Center or the Owl at Purdue


Supporting material and research should link to the thesis. Remember, your research should back up the thesis and help to establish your credibility.

Format for each speech is specific depending on if you need sources or not and what type of supporting material you need.

you need to establish your credibility in the beginning and you need to help your audience understand why this information is relevant to them. Tell us why we need to listen to this speech.
Speech must follow format-Persuasive speeches have a different format than a narrative

You need basically an intro body and conclusion. These three things all have different components, but if you are getting lost make sure your speech has intro body and conclusion

Attention getters are a part of the into. they hook the audience. My speech example

then flow into thesis...that's your intro

Wow statements are the takeaway---what is the final wow that you want to settle on the audience

AG sets up thesis and body...WOW let’s us know you are heading to summary and conclusion

Relevance-why do we need to know this? Why do we care?

Preview-again...summarizing the speech’s contents

Summary let us know what you are talking about again

credibility-why do you know so much about this? Tell us why you are the expert on this topic

People will really remember the beginning and end of your speech. Try as you might...the body can get muddled that why you have to keep letting the audience know what you are talking about.

Transitions are important because they help the speech flow. They let us know you are ending one part and starting another. On my slide I talked about quality sources and then went into sources to avoid and use. That’s a good transition.

Movement can help you with this.

With that I am going to transition into the portion of the comps that have to do with delivery. You have prepped your speech with the first 8-Now it’s time to start speaking.




Transitions are required. They help you flow between slides, they help to clarify when you are changing topics in your speech. They should flow nicely.

Obvi must be appropriate...not sure of a speech when you would drop an F bomb

use vivid words...descriptive language

Avoid Jargon. Are you a theoretical physicist, like Sheldon Copper from the Big Bang Theory and are you going to talk about special relativity and mathmatical theories based on axioms? That’s amazing, but you can’t assume that your audience know what that is.

Also Spell out your anagrams. Say you are talking about CIA. The CIA...well people might think you are talking about a government agency, but in my speech it actually spells Communication is Awesome. Right?

Rate-not too slow...not too fast
Pitch-Avoid mono tone speaking. Try to vary your speaking. That makes it more interesting
Projection-Speak up and be consistent with this. Sometimes being too loud is just as bad as being to soft

Articulate--this is where practice will help you.

And really proof your speech for correct grammar this all goes back to the credibility piece. Your vocalics are important because they help you seem more competent to your audience.

um haha so what? when we get nervous we fill the space with words we don’t need. or we use them to start our transitions.

A favorite word of people is so. So this is...so let’s talk so

This happens to everyone and sometimes it is very subconscious. You may not know which is why coming to the Comm Center and practicing. Taping yourself and watching it or recording yourself and listening. That’s when you can pick this stuff up.

It’s okay to pause though..just don’t fill it with something.

It’s also okay to take a break. If you lose your place, just take a deep breath...look at your notes and begin.

Don’t apologize-we might not know that you messed up.

If you are slumped over then your audience will slump as well

Posture and appearance do matter. Your instructor will have different criteria for how you should dress, but I say look nice. Dress up. Business casual

Purposeful movements. Controlled and in time with transitions. Move and plant and speak. Avoid pacing

Eye contact-spread it around the room, don’t look at walls or forehead

Note dependency---shake paper and demonstrate how distracting notes can be

Gestures

look at our eyes, not the wall or the top of our heads

Watch those T-Rex arms