Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [57]
Remember, your delivery technique will depend on how well your original manuscript was prepared.
Speaking from Notes
If you possibly can, do not read directly from your typed manuscript, but instead speak from notes written on 5”x7” cards. Keep the manuscript for ready reference, but tuck the cards into the side pocket of your loose-leaf binder.
Transfer your outline to the cards, using large type. Label the first card “open” and the last card “close.” In between, have a card for each important point you wish to make. Number the cards with a bold pen, and mark up the cards using the same technique you used on your original manuscript. Your cards and manuscript will be interchangeable.
When you use the manuscript only as a guideline, you establish contact with your audience and speak to it directly. There is no need to memorize the material, just to familiarize yourself with it. Know what you are going to say and go ahead and say it, but know when to stop.
If you are able to ignore the manuscript and speak from your notes, your presentation will be greatly enhanced. However, there may be exceptions—such as a need to refer to technical data. In that case, put the number of the appropriate page of your manuscript on the card for easy reference.
Practice
It is important to practice and rehearse your speech in advance until you feel confident that you have mastered its contents. Go through the performance experience in your mind.
Visualize the room in which you will speak, the podium or table, and the clothes you will wear. Think about the members of your audience, how pleased they are to have you speak to them, and how pleased you are to have the opportunity to speak to them. Such “visualization” techniques actually work. If you have never tried them before, now is a good time to experiment with them.
Think about how you will sit as you wait to be called to the microphone, concentrating on presenting a picture with your facial expression and body language that is not stiff or awkward but pleasant, relaxed, confident, and in control. This is important because before you are introduced (or as you are being introduced), many members of the audience will be staring at you, judging you before you rise to speak.
Think through the subject matter in your speech and how it will all fit together—your opening, the points you will make, and your close. Think of the positive reaction of the audience.
Stage a dress rehearsal in front of a mirror to see how your gestures can enhance your meaning. Watch your posture and body language. Eliminate distracting mannerisms. If possible, practice your speech before one or two real people—your spouse or a coworker, perhaps.
Record your speech on a tape recorder to see how your voice will sound. Polish the phrases, sentences, and paragraphs for emphasis. Evaluate your performance and critique the replay. Write down your comments, both positive and negative.
Leave nothing to chance. If video tape is available to you, you will find it a revealing experience to watch a video tape of your performance.
You will find all of this advance preparation most rewarding when you walk up on that platform to make your speech.
Pauses within Your Speech. Silence can be powerful. Pauses can be used effectively in your speech. Use them as you would use punctuation marks, to emphasize phrases, sentences, or even paragraphs. You can give a statement added significance by using short pauses before and after it. A frame of silence around a parenthetical phrase or a quotation makes it stand out from the rest of the sentence.
Pauses can alert your audience to pay special attention to a certain thought, as if you’d said, “Listen to this!”
Use pauses to separate your thoughts into logical units that your audience can easily grasp. Once you have made an important point, pause before you move on to the next one.
Pauses slow your delivery when you talk too fast. They give you a chance to breathe. When you feel that your voice is getting strained and tense and the pitch is rising into