STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL SPEAKING & SUCCESSFUL LISTENING

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Steps for Preparing Effective Oral Presentations Kinds of Oral Presentations Strategies for Improving Oral Presentations Effective Nonverbal Delivery Strategies for Reducing Stage Fright Strategies for Improving Listening Skills

Steps for Preparing Effective Oral Presentations

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Determine your purpose Analyze the audience & occasion Select the main ideas for the message Research the topic Organize the data & write the draft Create visual aids Rehearse the talk

1. Determine the Purpose

We communicate to produce a result. We wish something to occur as a result of our words. Our overall goals are: to inform to persuade to entertain

To Inform or Instruct
Here your core goal is to clarify, secure understanding, and explain a process e.g. teachers/authors At the conclusion of your message you hope that listeners will have a better comprehension of an issue, an idea, a process, or a procedure.

To Persuade
Gaining willing acceptance of an idea is core to persuasion. Your goal is that after you have finished your presentation, listeners will accept your proposal, your claim, your thesis, and they will do what you have asked them to do.

Advertisements also desire a productive result. But their tools of persuasion may include the oral plus many other kinds of persuasive devices.

To Entertain
This speaking genre may include not only humorous statements but also numerous ceremonial, introductory, or stimulating statements. Social occasions such as promotion parties, retirement, or anniversaries are characteristic of this kind of speaking.

2. Analyze the Audience and Occasion

Written or spoken, messages must always be adapted to the audience. What will be the differences between a talk within and one outside the organization?

Within the organization, you will have some idea about who and how many people will be in the audience. Less information is available when speaking to outside groups. In such cases seek out information regarding the size, age range, interests, goals, occupations, and other tidbits of the group that may be incorporated into your remarks.

Some of that information may be obtained from the person who asked you to speak and from other members of the group. If all audience members have the same occupation, such as purchasing agents or computer sales persons, you can use more technical expressions and illustrations.

3. Select the Main Ideas for the Message

First select your main theme or your core ideas. Then gather additional information in support of those core ideas. Your first list of core ideas may be disorganized, haphazard, which is fine.

Later, you can select those ideas that are workable and offer a unified theme. You may begin with filling a complete page with single words or incomplete sentences, and onto this they impose a form of organization. Do not rush this stage of preparation; do not presume this initial structure will be your final version.

4. Research the Topic

It is obvious that you will not possess all the information in relation to your central theme. Thus, as in writing, you need to collect facts, data, and information. Your research may cause you to drop some of your initial ideas and add some new ones. One has only to read newspaper accounts of the Presidents speech to realize it was still under revision until the last moment. New facts, new views are constantly appearing.

5. Organize the Data & Write the Draft

Assume that you have completed gathering your information. Then it is time to force some order on your information, usually in the form of an initial outline. As you do this, remember that good speech has three parts: an introduction, a body (or text, discussion), and a conclusion or summary.

Introduction

An introduction seeks to get attention, include an aim or purpose, and layout the direction of the speech. It has three parts that we may call PAL

Porch Aim Layout

Porch: Your opening remarks, your preamble, your preface, your greeting. You may begin with a quotation, a question, a startling statement, a reference to an occasion, a reference to the past, or a humorous story. Aim: Your purpose and intention of delivering the talk. Layout: Your agenda of the talk in the form of points is the roadmap for what follows.

Body

Here you explain and support the main purpose of your presentation. However, in speaking there is often a time constraint which demands that the talk be limited to two or three main points.

Summary or Conclusion

A summary reminds the audience of the main ideas covered in the body of the talk, whereas a conclusion draws inferences from the data.

Create Visual Aids

Add visual aids to support your message and help the audience in understanding it. Some presentations do not require visuals.

For example:
It would be odd to include an overhead of the major dates in the career of a retiree. On other hand it will be odd not to include a visual when speaking about structure of an organization.

Rehearse the Talk

Two purposes underlie rehearsals: You will become more comfortable with your material and you can still revise where necessary. When rehearsing, keep the following points in mind: Rehearse about three times. Stand and deliver your talk out loud. Always imagine the audience is in front of you. Use transitional phrases and sentences.

Avoid long sentences and unusual words. Take each of the main points one at a time and learn to present each with its supporting material as a unit. Include the visual aids you will use--and in the margin, note where each visual aid should be used.

Anticipate questions from the audience. Jot them on paper and consider thoughtful answers. Stop at the allotted time. Then cut and revise the speech accordingly until you deliver it within the time limit, allowing also for a question-andanswer period.

Kinds of Oral Presentations

Following are some of the ways of delivering oral presentations: i. Extempore ii. Impromptu iii. Reading iv. Memorization

Extemporaneous The speaker is given the topic in advance and is allowed some time for preparing the talk or lecture. This method allows a speaker to use notes or an outline. Impromptu The speaker is given the topic on the stage and is required to speak on the topic without being given any time for preparation.

Reading Newscasters and politicians who do not want to make a mistake read from a device called teleprompter. Memorization A risk of memorization is forgetting your precise words; groping for words in front of your audience that decrease your credibility.