Public speaking can be scary for many but it is an important skill to learn. As you go through your college or professional career, there may be times in which you may have to get up in front of a crowd of people to give a speech. Speech giving can sound intimidating but is a skill that can be mastered with practice and some helpful tips.
Before you present your speech, take time to consider your audience and understand who you will be talking to. Take time to understand your audience, what they may or may not know and understand how to tailor your message so it suits them.
For example, if you are a college senior talking to freshmen and sophomores about getting internships, consider the following:
1) The students you will be talking to may not know the best way to get an internship
2) These students may not know the importance of having a good resume
3) These students want to learn how to get the foot in the door and land an internship during their college careers
When taking this in mind, consider key areas you might want to focus on when giving your talk:
1) Briefly mention how you worked on your resume before submitting it
2) Mention how you reached out to prospective internships
3) Mention dos and do nots when applying for internships
This answers some of the questions this audience may have and gives them a reason to keep listening.
Once you have determined your audience, take time to get organized. Take time to organize your thoughts, what you want to say and understand the amount of time you will have to speak. This is the time in which you need to decide what will be important to mention, what you want to share and how you will construct that message to fit the audience's needs. Speeches that go on longer then expected or get off topic (sometimes by sharing too many stories instead of discussing the topic at hand) could bore your audience and the message will be lost.
As a way to get organized, think of putting your speech together like you would a paper with the following in mind:
1) Introduction- briefly gauge the audience and provide the thesis to your speech. This should be brief and should mention the different areas you will touch on.
2) Body of your speech - similar to the body paragraphs of a paper, this should contain the key points you want to hit on for the speech. Like writing a paper, stick with one point per paragraph and provide the evidence that goes with it. Try not to veer off and stick with this plan. This will help keep your audience engaged and keep you on topic.
3) Close- take time to summarize your message and the different areas you talked about.
Once you become organized, there is another simple way to make sure you aren't dragging on too long or won't stumble during your talk: practice! If you have access to the room you will be speaking in ahead of time, go in a day or two beforehand (if possible) to understand where you will be speaking from, learn the different equipment you may have to use (such as computers for a Powerpoint) and time yourself when going through the speech. This way, you will understand the lay of the land, how to hook up the equipment and if your speech is a lot longer then you anticipated (you might be surprised how long your speech will run the first time you time yourself). Run through the speech at least three or four times (depending on how important the talk is).
Last but not least, never write your speech word for word and don't read it the same way on note cards or a piece of paper. It's okay to have note cards with reminders and key notes on them but don't read the speech word for word. If you are reading a piece of paper word for word, you are not engaging your audience and you may not be making enough eye contact either! How often have we heard someone read something word for word and not be interested after a while because it sounded mundane, to scripted and not engaging?
Even though public speaking can be intimidating at first, it can be mastered by taking time to understand your audience, taking time to get organized and practicing.
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