Content

• Steps
• Advice

Preparing for a speech shouldn't be difficult if you follow a certain process. The steps in building a speech below have been proven and reliable. Relax and keep reading, you will learn how to organize your speech and manage the anxiety that you often experience giving your speech.

Steps

Method 1 of 5: Starting from the audience

1. 

   Understand what occasion you will speak. To get off to a good start it's important to have a clear understanding of the genre and purpose of your speech. It can be sharing about yourself, providing information, persuading listeners or giving speeches during the ceremony.
   • Report about yourself. A narrative is simply a story. If you are asked to tell a story about yourself, consider why you told it? You want to take a lesson, convey a word, inspire, or simply entertain.
   • Informative statements. There are two types of informational statements: explanatory and descriptive. If your speech is explanatory, you should demonstrate how to get something done, create something, or how an thing works so that the audience can understand each step of the process. If your speech is to be descriptive, all you need to do is explain it so that your audience understands a complex topic by breaking it down into smaller sections.
   • Convincing speech. If your goal is to convince your audience, you need to get the audience to accept and follow the thinking, beliefs, and behaviors you support.
   • Speaking during ceremonies. The speeches at the ceremony took many forms. It could be a greeting at a wedding, a celebration of a person or something, a speech at a graduation ceremony or a farewell party. Most of these speeches are usually short and focus on entertaining, inspiring or making the listener more appreciative of a person or thing.

2. 

   
   
   Choose a topic that attracts the attention of your audience. If you have the choice, choose topics that will make your audience feel interesting and interested in listening. Sometimes you will not be able to choose the topic of your talk, but will be assigned to talk about a certain topic. In this case, you need to find a way to engage your audience's interest in what you need to present.

3. 

   Set a goal. Write a sentence about what you want your audience to achieve. It could be a very simple sentence like "I want the audience to grasp the four criteria they need to consider when choosing to buy diamonds" or "I want to persuade the audience to give up fast food for a month". These sentences sound simple, but when written, they offer two benefits: keep you on the right track when you start writing your speech and reminds you to focus on your audience throughout your speech preparation. .

4. 

   
   
   Always think about the audience. It will be a waste of time and effort if you are wholeheartedly preparing your speech and the audience will end up remembering a word when the talk ends. You must constantly find ways to make what you say always interesting, useful, relevant and memorable for your audience.
   • Read the paper. If you can relate your talk to current news, you will highlight how relevant the talk is to your audience.
   • Illustrations for the numbers. Using data in your speech can have powerful effects, and these effects will be more powerful if you illustrate them so your audience can figure them out. For example, you could say that every year around the world an estimated 7.6 million people die from cancer, and to make that number even more interesting, you could add that this number. equal to the entire population of Switzerland.
   • Point out the interests of your audience. Let your audience know exactly what they will get when they hear your speech so they will listen attentively. Let your audience know that they'll learn how to save money, or whether the information you share will make their lives in some way easier, or they'll have new perceptions of a person or thing.
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Method 2 of 5: Research and speech writing

1. 

   
   
   Understand your topic. In some cases, all you need to do is simply sit down, focus on your thoughts, and jot down all your ideas on paper. But if you have to talk about a topic you are not familiar with, you need to do some research to learn more about it. Usually you will fall in the middle of the two cases above.

2. 

   Research from many sources. The internet is a great resource for finding information for your speech, but you don't have to stop there. If you are a student, use the data from the school or other libraries. Many public libraries provide a single source of data containing thousands of articles. If you have a library card, you can access free resources. Consider interviewing someone who is an expert in a field you need to research or do a survey. The more channels you use to crawl, the higher your success rate will be. Plus, apply a variety of research sources to broaden your speech.

3. 

   Avoid plagiarism. Be sure to include the source of the information you used in your speech. To do this, make a note of the source of that information and use it for later citation.

4. 

   Decide to write a complete outline or script. Your narrative, informative speech, and persuasive speech can be written in an outline, while speeches during ceremonies should be written in complete script.
   • Write an outline. When making an outline, just list the main points in your talk. For example, if you talk about the topic mentioned above, "I want my audience to know the four criteria they need to consider when choosing to buy diamonds", you would cross out four bullet points for the four criteria " Cutting Angle "," Color "," Purity ", and" Weight ". Under each bullet, you'll give your audience more details.
     • Outline can be written as complete sentences or short phrases. Or you can write down a complete sentence and then turn it into an outline on your sticky note using only the necessary words and clues.
   • Complete script. You need to write down your complete speech during the ceremonies, because how you choose words to say on these occasions is extremely important. Your job is to inspire, entertain, or show respect to someone, so say exactly what you want to say and be prepared to increase your chances of success.
     • Review old writing books and review knowledge such as comparisons, metaphors, repetition, and other rhetoric. These tools will have a powerful effect on your speech.
     • Note the common errors encountered when reading the script. With a page full of text in front of you, you will easily make basic mistakes such as just reading the paper intently and forgetting gestures like looking up at the audience, making eye contact or attracting the attention of the audience. audience. Practice will help you avoid such errors.

5. 

   Make sure to present all parts of the speech. A speech consists of three main parts: an introduction, body, and conclusion. Make sure you have all three of these parts ready for your talk.
   • Introduction. A good opening paragraph usually consists of two factors: capturing the attention of the audience and a general introduction to the content of the speech.
   • Attract the attention of the audience. The most important thing you need to do in the introduction is to get the attention of your audience. There are many ways to do this: ask a question, talk about something amazing, come up with a shocking metric, use quotes, idioms related to the speech or tell a short story. Take the time to think about how you will engage your audience, making it easier to engage them in the first place when you are presenting.
     • Outlined overview. A panoramic view is like stating "interesting things are waiting" in your speech. Prepare your audience for the main points you will present. No need to go too detailed, you will provide detailed information in the body. This part can be encapsulated in just one sentence.
   • Body post. The main body is the "main dish" part of the speech. The ideas you cross out in the outline or script will build the body of the post. There are many ways for you to organize information in the body of the article: chronological order, order of steps, from most important to least important, causes - solutions,…. Choose a suitable arrangement based on the purpose of your speech.
   • Conclude. There are two things you need to achieve in the conclusion. You should not bring out new information, instead, summarize the issues you presented in the clearest and most memorable way.
     • Give a summary. Intentional repetition is one of the ways to get your audience to remember the content of the speech. In the introduction, you need a general introduction to the content of your speech; in the body of the article, you will cover those contents; and the conclusion should repeat what you said by summarizing the main points.
     • End with a solid argument. The argument here is a clear and memorable statement implying that your speech has ended. An easy way to make this claim is to relate the opposite of what you said to get your audience's attention initially. This will help refine and conclude your speech.
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Method 3 of 5: Choose a visual instrument

1. 

   
   
   Choose a visual tool that will help your audience. There are many reasons to use the visual tool. They will make what you are saying easier to understand, help your audience remember what you say, engage learners visually, and make your speech more convincing. Understand what you want to use for each of the visual aids in your talk.

2. 

   Use the appropriate visual tool for speech. The use of the visual tool is helpful, but you need to choose the right tools. For example, in the above diamond talk, if you want your audience to know about four criteria to consider when choosing to buy diamonds, you should show a illustrative chart of where the gemstone cut the diamond. pictures of transparent diamonds, white diamonds, and yellow diamonds may be projected side by side to show the audience the color differences. On the other hand, using a photo inside a jewelry store isn't very helpful.

3. 

   
   
   Use caution when using Powerpoint presentation software. Powerpoint is a very useful presentation software. You can project images, charts and graphs easily. However, there are a few bugs presenters encounter when using Powerpoint for presentations. These errors can be completely avoided if you take the time to review them.
   • Don't write everything you want to say on the slide. We must all have heard speeches where the speaker was only focused on reading the slides. This makes the audience feel bored and will quickly lose focus. Instead of reading slides, use charts to introduce, repeat, and emphasize important information. Keep in mind that the slide should only serve as a supporting role, not a complete copy of what you want to say.
   • Make sure your slides are readable by your audience. Use a font size that your audience can read and don't put too much on a slide. If your audience cannot read or see everything you show on the slide, it will all be in vain.
   • Use a simple slideshow effect. The flying, zooming, zooming, and color-shifting images can be engaging, but distracting at the same time. Don't use too many special effects. Your slide should only be a supporting role, not a key role in the presentation.
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Method 4 of 5: Practice speech

1. 

   
   
   Spend a lot of time preparing. The more time you spend practicing, the more prepared you will feel, so you will feel less anxious. The recommended time to prepare for your speech is about one to two hours for every minute you will speak. For example, you might need to spend 5 to 10 hours preparing a 5-minute speech. Of course, that time includes all the preparations from start to finish, the practice takes up only part of it.
   • Take some time to practice. If you have a habit of procrastinating, you will find yourself in a situation where you have little or no time to practice speaking before giving your speech. You may feel that you are not well prepared and become anxious.

2. 

   Practice speaking in public. Whenever possible, practice speaking in front of your family and friends. If you want to hear their comments, give them specific instructions on the points you want them to comment on, so you won't be overwhelmed by the comments.
   • Look at the audience. Nothing attracts the audience more than the eye contact from the speaker. As you practice your speech, remember to look at family and friends as spectators. You will need a little practice to be able to look at the outline, script or take notes, capture a few ideas and then present them while looking at the audience. That is also one reason why the pre-rehearsal is so important.
   • If you don't have a chance to practice speaking in front of people, read your speech out loud during practice. You don't want the day you get to speak also the first time you hear your own words. In addition, when speaking out loud, you will have the opportunity to check and correct mispronounced words, practice pronunciation clearly and ensure speech time (We speak faster when memorize his speech)

3. 

   Adjust your speech if needed. The practice of speaking also allows you to make the necessary changes. If it feels too long, you can cut out some of the information. If the talk is too short or some sections are not informative, you can add it. Not only that, every time you practice speaking out loud, you will speak a little differently. This is completely normal. You are a human being, not a robot, so you don't have to make your speech perfect word by word. It is important that you communicate information in a way that is engaging and memorable. advertisement

Method 5 of 5: Reduce speech anxiety

1. 

   Motor. We often have some physical manifestations when we are anxious, such as heart palpitations, shortness of breath, and trembling hands before speaking. These are completely normal reactions caused by a release of adrenaline when the body feels threatened. You should do a little exercise to get the adrenalline through your body and melt away.
   • Tighten and relax. Grasp your hands tightly, hold for a few seconds then relax. Repeat a few times. You can also tighten the muscles in your calves then relax. Each time you relax, you should feel the symptoms subside.
   • Deep breath. The hormone adrenaline released in the body when you feel fear causes your breathing to become shallow, which in turn increases feelings of restlessness. You need to break that cycle. Breathe in deeply through your nose, letting the air fill your stomach. Once the air has filled your stomach, hold your breath and open your chest, eventually bringing the breath to your chest. Open your mouth slightly and begin to exhale, releasing air in your chest, then your chest and finally your abdomen. Repeat the entire process five times.

2. 

   Focus on audience. It's hard to believe, but a good speech doesn't depend on the speaker but on the audience. You need to focus your attention on your audience through your speech, especially from the beginning. Really engage them in your talk and notice the nonverbal messages they send you - do they understand what you are saying? Do you need to speak slowly? Do they agree with you? Are they comfortable as you approach to increase the connection between the speaker and the listener? If you're completely focused on your audience, you won't have time to be nervous and anxious anymore.

3. 

   Use the visual tool. You may have been planning on using the visual tool, if not, you should consider that. For some, the use of visual instruments reduces anxiety as they feel they are no longer the only center of attention when the stage is shared with visual instruments.

4. 

   Practice your imagination. This step is as simple as visualizing in your mind the image of you having a successful speech. Close your eyes and imagine you are sitting before your speech. You hear your name called or you hear yourself being introduced. Imagine standing up confidently, holding your notes, and walking upstage. You find yourself stopping to check for a bit to make sure your notes were in the right order and making eye contact with the audience. Then you imagine yourself speaking. You present your speech smoothly from start to finish. You see when your speech is over, you say "thank you" and confidently get back into your seat.

5. 

   Always be positive. Even if you feel anxious, try to avoid negative statements. Instead of saying, "This speech is going to be a disaster," say, "I tried to prepare this speech as best I could." Instead of saying “I am extremely worried,” say “I feel anxious, but I know that is a common feeling before giving a speech, and I will not therefore stop trying to give a speech. expressed in the best way ”.
   • Negative thoughts are powerful - it is estimated that you need five positive thoughts to counteract one, so try to stay away from them.
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Advice

• When you practice, speak out loud as if you were speaking so that everyone in the room can hear your speech.
• Give your speech vividly instead of reading the script.
• Wear appropriate clothing. Appearance can determine anything.
• Make sure your speech is coherent and meaningful.
• Use your own language. Don't use words that you never say.
• If you need to, use a note. But you need to practice first. Practice in front of a parent, spouse, daughter, cat or even a mirror.
• Ask your audience questions. Let's say you are talking about cell phones. Ask your audience some questions like "Have you seen the latest iPhone from Apple?" or "Has anyone used the GPS navigation system on LG 223 yet?"
• Everyone is worried when speaking. Regular practice is the path to success.
• Try to keep the majority of your talk humorous, or at least entertaining, so your audience doesn't get bored.
• Record your speech. Then review it to see where to make adjustments, like how many times you make eye contact with the audience.