Public Speaking I:
Preparation And Structure

Public Speaking Is Truely An Art!

There are situations in which you might be called upon to speak in front of a group of people. When?

At an event
In class
In a scene
At work
While making a video to present yourself
Conducting a seminar around your area of expertise

If you are looking for more tips for public speaking and you need to start from scratch, you can have a look at the other three parts by clicking on the following links. If you go through them all, it will be like taking a mini course:

The Art Of Public Speaking Pt. II: 9 Ways To Communicate Your Message
Stage Fright III: Stage Fright And How To Get Over It
Public Speaking IV: Your Communicative Ability IV

Questions To Help You Prepare

Let’s start at the beginning. There are some important questions you will want to ask yourself as you begin to prepare your speech or presentation:

1. What is the purpose of me giving this speech?

2. What is my objective? In other words, what is it that I want my audience to do, to think differently when I am finished speaking?

3. Who is my audience? (This is crucial!) The better you know the make up of the group, who the people are, what they need, what they are expect, what they want, what they like, what they do for a living, what kind of hobbies they have, the way they like to receive information, etc. the greater chance you have of putting together a presentation that they captivate them and that they will find interesting and in tune with their needs.

4. What is it about me, in other words, what I am going to say or in what way am I going to communicate it so that my audience will want to listen to me? You have a message to give. Why should people want to listen to you talk about it? You must find that key? If you can’t answer that question or if you can’t communicate to your audience that they need to listen to YOU give them this message, then what you are really saying is, that you can just as well get this information from someone else, so why don’t you just stay home. You must be able to give yourself a convincing answer to that question!

The Structure Of Your Presentation

A basic rule of public speaking is that you want your message to have structure. As I said, this is basic public speaking 101.

The basic structure that every good speech should have is:

a. An opening
b. The body
c. A closing

The opening has the following purposes:

*To create interest around your topic
*To help you break the ice and create rapport with the group
*To help you set up the real message you want to give

The body of your message, the main part has the following purposes:

*It is the main message that you have for your audience.
*It is the reason that you are giving the speech.
*It is the meat of your subject.

The closing serves the following purpose:

*To bring closure to your speech
*To sum up what you’ve talked about
*To give you a chance to set a plan of action with your audience.

In Conclusion

So, to conclude this section you want to:

*Tell them what you want to tell them. (Opening)
*Tell them (Body)
*Tell them what you told them! (Closing)

In a class or seminar, clearly we would do exercises around all of these areas, but what I have outlined is to get you started.

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