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Effective Presentation Skills:
A Planning
Overview for Extemporaneous Speakers
Speaking
success takes focus, commitment, and careful preparation.
Extemporaneous speakers may make it ‘look’ so easy and natural
when delivering a speech, and yet they spend countless hours
preparing that presentation. When you study successful public
speakers (presenters) you will see that they follow definite
preparatory steps to create a polished and attractive product,
their presentation. Copy success and do the following.
1. Find out all
you can about you and your comfort zones as a speaker, about the
audience, the occasion, timing, setting, format of presenters,
introductions, and your expected responsibilities as the
presenter.
2. Decide on
your general focus and intent. Will you inform (add to the
audience knowledge base), persuade (change existing beliefs or
attitudes or behaviors), entertain (stimulate the ‘fun’ levels
of the audience), inspire (emotionally influence the audience),
call to action (request a definite response from the audience).
3. Then decide
on the key messages (main points) you want to communicate. To
develop your main ideas, do your research and gather a variety
of supportive materials, such as: statistics, examples,
quotations, narratives, anecdotes, illustrations, etc. Use a
variety of sources: experts, journals, videos, newspapers,
textbooks, surveys, valid personal experience, etc.
4. Plan your
specific focus (target) by writing one concrete, clear thesis
sentence that predicts your main points. Everything you say
should hit this target sentence.
5. Use the
outlining process to organize your presentation into the three
main components of a speech. Sequence your ideas to follow a
definite order: time, topical, spatial, cause-effect,
problem-solution. Avoid a haphazard pattern of ideas. Sequence
them to help you remember the idea flow as well as help the
listeners to follow you.
6. First plan
the BODY of your speech and develop your main points in an
organized fashion.
7. Next plan
your INTRODUCTION which should have three parts to it: an
attention grabber (the hook), a reason (need) to listen (link to
your audience), a preview sentence telling listeners what to
expect from your presentation. Open with any of the following:
startling statements, quotations, anecdotes, mental pictures, a
moving visual aid, audience participation, rhetorical questions.
Make sure your introduction is connected to the rest of your
speech and sets the stage. Avoid sticking in jokes, anecdotes,
etc. just for effect. Have purpose with finesse.
8. Plan your
CONCLUSION. Close with any of the following: a restatement of
your focus and main points, a quotation, a challenge, a
prediction, a summary or restatement of phrases you used
throughout your speech. DO NOT FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR VOICE.
9. Plan
definite TRANSITIONS to link the introduction to the body, main
point to main point, body to conclusion.
10. Create your
simple visuals (posters, overheads, slides, flip charts, etc.)
which reinforce and do not distract from your presentation.
Rehearse while using them to iron out any glitches. Remember to
K.I.S.S.
11. Dress
rehearse, especially the day before; practice exactly as you
plan to present and include deliberate gestures and movements,
eye contact, use of visuals, etc. The magical 6X - rehearsal
rule seems to work all of the time.
If you enlist the aid of a listener, train your evaluator as to
how to coach you. Tape yourself and be your own coach.
WHEN YOU
PRACTICE, MEMORIZE IDEA FLOW AND NOT THE EXACT WORDING.
12. Create note
cards to reinforce your extemporaneous delivery. Write down
bullets to be used as reminders and not as crutches. In fact
rehearse without using your notes and only refer to them to jog
your memory.
13. Check that
the wording of your speech presentation is easy on the
listeners’ ears and on your tongue. Speak out loud your ideas,
then put them on paper.
14. ENJOY your accomplishment.
You are now ready, willing and able to deliver the highlight of
all of your hard work, the pay-off: your speech presentation.
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