Practical Communication and Public Speaking Skills TEST

supergeek101

G110-Segment2.pdf

Home >Applied Sciences homework help >Practical Communication and Public Speaking Skills TEST

Thomas Francis University • Course G110 • Segment 2

PUBLIC SPEAKING AND PRESENTATIONS

—Douglas R. Kelley, PhD, CH, CSL

Updated: August 17, 2017

Upon Completion of this Segment, You Will Know:

• How to be less nervous and more effective when giving a speech.

• How to use PowerPoint effectively in presentations.

• Public speaking mini-course

The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.

— George Jessel

remember the first time I ever gave a public presentation. It was way back in 1966, I was seven

years old, and my knees were literally knocking together as I gave my six-minute speech. In my

twenties, I began to speak more often, but I still remember the nerves giving me trouble. Of

course, the more I spoke publicly, the easier it became. As I got into my thirties, I was speaking

even more, and on three occasions, the audiences numbered more than 3,000 people, with one au-

dience around 5,000. I wasn’t accustomed to such large groups, so I had yet more opportunities for

getting weak in the knees.

Just about every person has to get up in front of a group at one time or another. If you are like

most people, you would rather burn in hell than stand up in front of a group and speak. It can even

be worse if you are speaking before your peers or high-profile organizational officers or “big-wigs.”

So, what can you do if you have to give a presentation and are dreading it? Let me share some

techniques from my experience that I have found beneficial. The following is not meant to be an

exhaustive discussion of public speaking techniques, for you can get a good book for that (or join

Toastmasters). Moreover, it would be very difficult to effectively teach public speaking in an online

format. The following points are just a few things I do to make my presentations run smoother.

To begin, it is obviously very important to prepare and practice your presentation thoroughly. It

has been said that a good presentation is one that is practiced over and over. While I agree with this

in principle, I also think you can practice a presentation so much that it becomes canned. Canned is

not good.

After you have prepared and practiced, remember the following points to help with the nerves

and to make your presentation memorable:

Segment 2: Public Speaking and Presentations

1. Be You. Be Passionate. Whether speaking to one person or 10,000 people, be who you are.

Do not substantially change your manner of speaking when in front of a group. Speak con-

versationally just as if you were speaking to one individual, which of course you are, just

multiplied several times over. Some speakers feel that they must change their manner of

speech when they get in front of a group. I don’t. Be the same person you are regardless of

how many people are in your audience. Doing so will allow you to avoid sounding canned and

help you to come off as personable. People will relate much better to you as a result.

And speaking of canned, absolutely never, ever read your speech! Notes are fine, but as

an audience member, I can read your speech myself. I want to see and hear you, your story,

your passion, and your unique presentation. By the way, believing in and being passionate

about your topic will also quell the nerves. If all you plan to do is read your speech, then

save yourself and your audience the stress and just give them a handout of your speech. Be

a Real Live Human Being. Be you!

2. Speak From Your Own Experience and Knowledge. If I were to ask you to talk to me for a

few minutes about your area of expertise, could you do it? Undoubtedly. Would you have to

prepare? Probably not. Oh, you might make a brief outline so you could talk to me in an

organized fashion, but I’m willing to bet that you are familiar enough with what you do that

you could speak like an expert with little preparation. Furthermore, I’ll bet you wouldn’t

feel the least bit nervous, would you? So what is the difference between talking to one

person or 100? You are simply speaking to one individual times 100. The only real difference

is in your mind.

Many new speakers get nervous because they are worried that those in the audience will

think what they have to say is wrong, silly, or stupid. Never forget that you have the same

moral right to express your perspective as any other human being—no more, no less. Your

audience is there to learn and benefit from your experience; otherwise, they wouldn’t be

there. And don’t worry about hecklers; they are a very rare phenomenon. If you should ever

get one, try to answer their question if appropriate. If they continue, tell them that you will

be happy to discuss it privately after you are finished, and then ignore them and continue

with your presentation. Hecklers are aggressive individuals who don’t deserve your mental

attention or energy.

3. Focus on Your Audience, Not on Yourself. Remember, it’s not about you; it’s about bene-

fiting your audience. Whenever you focus on yourself, you will become nervous. When you

focus on how you are benefiting your audience, the nerves are not so bad. As you begin your

presentation, keep telling yourself, “It’s about them, not me.” You may feel some nervous-

ness, but it will quickly fade after a moment or two.

4. Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously. The best thing you can ever do in front of a group is

screw up! If you’ve ever experienced screwing up in front of a group, then you know why I

say this. When you make a mistake on stage—be it a lost note or saying something intended

to be funny that falls flat—you simply recover the best you can. Admit what you need to

admit, and then press onward! Once you do, you will find that a huge burden lifts off your

shoulders. It’s almost as if you are saying, “Okay, you all know I screwed up! You all know

I’m human! Now let’s get on with it!” You can then move forward much more relaxed be-

cause you are no longer taking yourself too seriously. It also helps to have some funny come-

back lines for those awkward moments. I actually prep my audience in my opening comments

Segment 2: Public Speaking and Presentations

by saying, “One very important thing before we get started; I have this delusion that I’m

funny. Will you help me to perpetuate this delusion by laughing at my jokes? Thanks!” This

has the added benefit of breaking the ice right up front.

Speaking in front of groups can be a rewarding experience, especially if you do it enough to get

past the nerves. It is not nearly as bad as most people believe. Of course, it takes courage to get up

in front of people, and your audience knows this. Audiences are generally very forgiving, and they

will automatically credit you with a higher level of authority, knowledge, and intelligence simply

because you are up there speaking.

MULTI-MEDIA PRESENTATIONS

One other area that bears mentioning is the use of Microsoft PowerPoint in presentations. You will

find a variety of opinions on this ranging from favorable to unfavorable. Some speakers even claim

that using PowerPoint at all subjects your presentation to “Death by PowerPoint,” which I find absurd.

This is another area in which balance is important. I almost always use PowerPoint in my presentations

and do so effectively.

Here are some guidelines to help make your PowerPoint presentation effective:

• Keep your slides simple and legible. It is fine to use an attractive background, just make sure

your slides are easy to read. This means using highly contrasting font and background colors.

• In most cases, you should never put paragraphs on slides. If you do, your audience will read

your slide and not listen to you.

• Never put more than about six or eight bullet points on one slide. If you have more than that,

use another slide.

• Use at least a 20 point font, and bigger would be better, such as 28 or 32 points. Your font

needs to be big enough for your audience to read.

• Generally speaking, do not read your slides to your audience. Your audience can read the slides

themselves. Use your slides to support what you are saying. This said, there are times when

you will want to make a point by reading something verbatim, which is fine.

• Use your slides as a mental guide for your presentation much as you would use an outline.

However, be careful of relying on your slides as a crutch. Be aware that sometimes equipment

fails and you should still be able to do your presentation without the aid of PowerPoint. If your

projector fails, you can still take cues from your slides by viewing them on your laptop com-

puter. Of course, your audience won’t be able to see them unless you have a very small group.

If this is the case, turn your laptop around and let your audience see your slides too.

• Face and speak to your audience, not the screen. I usually stand a few feet to the side of my

laptop. This allows me to view the same slide the audience sees without turning around to see

the slide on the screen and thus lose audience contact. You should look at the screen occa-

sionally just to verify everything is working properly.

• Use a remote control to advance your slides, if possible. If you don’t have a remote control,

then use the space bar on your computer—don’t use your mouse. In this case, press the space

Segment 2: Public Speaking and Presentations

bar quickly and then back away from the computer. In other words, don’t hover over your

computer unless you are teaching a software program that requires you to use the keyboard.

• When and if viewing PowerPoint in the editing mode (not presentation mode) in front of an

audience, blank the projector screen or place a card in front of the projector lens to prevent

your laptop screen from being projected to the audience. This is just good presentation eti-

quette and it prevents your audience from potentially seeing upcoming slides.

The next time you have to give a speech or talk, remember these techniques. They have helped

me and I know they will help you!

PUBLIC SPEAKING MINI-COURSE

For students who have a desire to improve their public speaking abilities, I have purchased the

rights to an introductory mini-course on public speaking which consists of four modules or “sessions”

and is available in PDF, MP3, and video formats on the course page. The audios/videos are of a person

reading the PDF material and are not to be viewed as an example of effective speaking (or narrating).

PLEASE NOTE: The PDFs, audios, and videos all contain the same information. Choose which format

works best for you. However, you must at least open the PDF format so the system will count it

as completed for course completion purposes. This means that if you prefer the video format, also

open the PDF format too at least once.

Unfortunately, the purchased rights don’t allow me to edit or alter the material in any way; there-

fore, you will notice a few typos as well as a point or two that will conflict with what you have already

learned here in this course such as the 7%-38%-55% rule applying to general speech (it doesn’t apply).

Also, this mini-course in public speaking will tell you to spend the last 15 minutes of your talk in

“pitching” the audience on whatever products you may be selling. I will offer a couple of words of

caution here. First, people don’t like to be “pitched” and, secondly, 15 minutes is usually far too

long to spend in “pitching” them. It is fine to do a “2-Minute Commercial” of sorts at the end of your

talk. It takes great preparation, practice, and skill to effectively sell an audience on back-of-the-

room products. But don’t let my cautionary statements dissuade you if you have products to sell. Just

do it with discretion and good judgment.

Bear in mind that even if you don’t have products to sell, you are still selling something—your

message. Therefore, you should be “selling” your message throughout your talk and especially in your

conclusion where you will include a “call to action” based on the points in your talk.

And lastly, there is a reference to Donald Trump in Session #1 as an example of an effective public

speaker. Whether he is or isn’t, and regardless of your personal opinion of this man, please remember

that I did not write this public speaking mini course, and I do not have permission to change or alter

it. Therefore, take the reference with a grain of salt, if necessary.

The foregoing being said, this mini-course does include some helpful and valuable information for

beginning and intermediate speakers. Even seasoned speakers might learn something new (or be re-

minded of something forgotten). If you are planning on doing any public speaking whatsoever in your

metaphysics career, then please take the time to review this short mini-course on speaking and prac-

tice what you learn as often as possible (even if it’s in front of the mirror).

Segment 2: Public Speaking and Presentations

Segment 2 Supplemental: Public Speaking Mini-Course

NOTE: Before proceeding to the next section, please review to

the mini-course above on the Course Page for a supplemental dis-

cussion of this section. This information is part of the course.