Public Speaking Tips

On the Day of Your Speech- Avoid Panic!

Check everything! Pretend to be confident!

1. Did you preview the site? Check room size, acoustics, lighting (and how to control it, if it's controllable), microphones, availability of a blackboard, chalk, electrical outlets, where people enter and exit, etc.

2. Do you know where your equipment is? Confirm your order for an overhead, etc. Plan where to locate your handouts. Consider whether you should have them available in advance or after your talk.

3. Establish where you will situate yourself with relation to your graphics and equipment. Will you block the view? How will you point things out? Where should your notes rest?

4. Don't eat heavily before your talk, and avoid milk products. The reasons for avoiding a heavy meal may be obvious. Milk products coat your larynx and may cause you to do a lot of throat-clearing.

5. Mingle with the audience before you speak, if you have the opportunity. You may learn some relevant things that you can incorporate into your talk. Or make a last minute adjustment to what you were going to say.

6. How are you being introduced? Did you tell the person who will introduce you what to say? And how to pronounce your name? Listen carefully to your introduction and take note so that when you speak, you don't repeat what was said. Make a mental note to add to it or make a minor correction if you think it's necessary.

7. Once you've been announced, you are on stage. From the moment you were introduced you have been the focus of the audience's attention. It has no one else to look at but you. Move confidently.

8. When you're ready to begin- don't. Wait! Take a moment to catch your breath. (Remember- abdominal breathing!) Make a pleasant face at the audience. Take a comfortable stance. Breathe. Look at everyone before you start.

9. Keep an eye on your equipment as you move around or move things around. Avoid lengthy silences while you adjust equipment or arrange visuals or write on the blackboard. Talk and do. Watch where you're walking. Don't get tangled up in electrical cords. Keep your overheads in order as you use them. Don't get too close to the microphone.

10. Questions: the inaudible, the complex, the unanswerable, and the hostile. Repeat questions to the rest of the audience. Feel free to comment, e.g., "That's a good question!" Break complicated ones into simple components; tell the person asking a question you can't answer that you'll get back to him/her later or that you don't know. Don't respond to hostile questions by repeating the accusation; answer positively.

11. Head up when you're done! End naturally, without a "thank you." Look at the audience and acknowledge to them that you are done. Save your "thank you" for the roar of applause. Smile. Leave the podium as slowly as you walked to it. Don't look as if you're escaping. Head up all the way back to your seat!