Public speaking tips

Preparation for Speaking—Your Voice (what you start out with) and the Sound it Makes.

1. Speech Is What You Do With Sound.

Remember where the source of your voice is--it's not in your mouth! Air is pushed out from your abdomen, not from your throat . Before speaking--and while speaking, take deep breaths that result from diaphragm movement, not movement of the upper chest.

• It's a physical thing. The muscles between the ribs contract when you take a breath, and the ribs swing up and out. The diaphragm contracts, then descends and flattens, causing a slight displacement of abdominal organs and an expansion of the upper end of the abdomen. The size of the chest cavity increases and air rushes in to fill the vacuum. When you exhale, muscles relax and return to the resting position and air is forced out of the lungs.
• You can do an exercise. Feel where the air is coming from. Stand up, put your hand on your abdomen; let air in, let air out. Count to 5, then 10, on a breath. Feel it? It's relaxing.
• Speaking posture: Stand in a comfortable position, not rigidly straight, not slumped over.

2. Your Voice Creates An Impression. What Kind Of Impression Do You Want To Make?

(A) Pitch: The tone of your voice. It is high? Low? A low voice may carry better. Correct breathing will help you achieve a lower pitch, to a point. So will relaxing.

(B) Inflection: Don't sound querulous. That is, don't end sentences with an upward tone as you do when you ask a question (unless you want to sound uncertain). Beware of the inflections of sarcasm; these inflections usually don't play well and can sound whiny and annoying.

(C) Pace: The speed at which your thoughts are put together out loud. Normal conversational speech is done with rapid bursts of sound. Public speaking pace should be slower and more deliberate than conversational speech. What may seem to be too slow to the speaker is very likely just right for the audience. The pace you choose may be related to the kind of audience and content of your material. Aim for a slow pace, with lots of pauses between ideas.

(D) Articulation and Pronunciation: Articulation is the ability to produce individual sounds. Pronunciation is putting sounds together to make understandable words. Understandability is key. Don't blur words. Voice complete and distinct sounds. This is not as simple as it sounds. Articulating plosives is a big help: b. d, g, dz (j in jump), p, t, k, ts, (ch in child), particularly when they end words as in "white."

Say only words! Don't vocalize, making sounds like "um, uh, er, aaah." Avoid sounds that only masquerade as words, like "like," that impart zero information. Learn to enjoy silence.

3. Get Your Voice Ready!

(A) Practice breath control. Avoid upper thoracic (throat) breathing.

(B) Find your natural standing body position and be comfortable.

(C) Watch what you eat before a talk. Avoid dairy products. Coagulation occurs around vocal chords and makes you want to clear your throat. Avoid having a large meal beforehand.

(D) Practice your speech by giving it to a tape recorder. This will be the harshest test you can give yourself. If you have no tape recorder, practice it out loud.

(E) Get your voice to stretch. Make sure it can reach the back of the room, at least in practice. In reality, you will probably have a microphone--but what if you don't?