3 Essential Tips For Public Speaking | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Politics and Activism

3 Essential Tips For Public Speaking

With These Tips All Eyes And Ears Will Be On You

23
3 Essential Tips For Public Speaking
Pete Souza

In today's world, few things are as essential as good soft skills. With everyone becoming so connected through the internet and the world moving towards a speak-centric sense of communication, employers are desperate to find people who are able to work with others and stay cool in situations where they may suddenly find themselves leaders. Possibly the most crucial of these skills is public speaking. While the rest of the world may be quickly eradicating the dreaded stage fright, some of us still might find that we just can not speak to large groups no matter how hard we try. To try to help those who find themselves falling into this category, here are three absolutely essential and simple tips to be a better public speaker.

1. Loud Speaking/Yelling

Being able to speak loud probably seems like a no-brainer. Yet, people struggle so hard at being able to reliably speak loud when public speaking. The problem stems from the fact that people can not differentiate between yelling, where you raise both your pitch and volume to basically scream, and speaking loudly where the only thing that changes is volume, not your pitch. Yelling may get people's attention, but it also looks unprofessional and can come across as threatening. Mastering the ability to raise your voice's volume without changing how you sound will guarantee you are the one all eyes are on when you speak.

2. Sing What You Speak

This is a skill that took me a long time to learn and for a long time held me back from speaking as well as others. We all have the occasional stutter as we speak, or we mispronounce a word or we think faster than we talk and words jumble or any other matter of flubs in our vocabulary that only become more likely to happen when we are speaking to a crowd. For people who have mouth augmentations such as braces that can cause unintentional slurs the problem is even worst. So what is the solution? This may sound crazy, but before you start to speak anything sing it in your head and as you say it. You will not sing it aloud but you will also not flub the line you are thinking. This can take some practice but once mastered will kill off any word hiccups.

3. Eye. Contact. Matters.

I can not preach this enough! Making eye contact can be hard, especially for those who are introverted or shy, but it can also be the difference between life and death when public speaking. People have a tendency to doze off or lose interest if they do not feel that something happening is aimed towards them. So how you can make a singular person in a crowd feel like they are the one being directed at? Just look them in the eyes. All it takes is one minor glance and the Deer-In-The-Headlights effect will kick in. That person will be glued to you. So as you speak make sure to glance around and try to make your eyes cross the paths of others who might be losing interest. This will keep listening both on an indiviudal level and as a group since people are way more likely to pay attention if they see everyone around them doing so.

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
Featured

12 Midnight NYE: Fun Ideas!

This isn't just for the single Pringles out there either, folks

15057
Friends celebrating the New Years!
StableDiffusion

When the clock strikes twelve midnight on New Year's Eve, do you ever find yourself lost regarding what to do during that big moment? It's a very important moment. It is the first moment of the New Year, doesn't it seem like you should be doing something grand, something meaningful, something spontaneous? Sure, many decide to spend the moment on the lips of another, but what good is that? Take a look at these other suggestions on how to ring in the New Year that are much more spectacular and exciting than a simple little kiss.

Keep Reading...Show less
piano
Digital Trends

I am very serious about the Christmas season. It's one of my favorite things, and I love it all from gift-giving to baking to the decorations, but I especially love Christmas music. Here are 11 songs you should consider adding to your Christmas playlists.

Keep Reading...Show less
campus
CampusExplorer

New year, new semester, not the same old thing. This semester will be a semester to redeem all the mistakes made in the previous five months.

1. I will wake up (sorta) on time for class.

Let's face it, last semester you woke up with enough time to brush your teeth and get to class and even then you were about 10 minutes late and rollin' in with some pretty unfortunate bed head. This semester we will set our alarms, wake up with time to get ready, and get to class on time!

Keep Reading...Show less
Student Life

The 5 Painfully True Stages Of Camping Out At The Library

For those long nights that turn into mornings when the struggle is real.

3047
woman reading a book while sitting on black leather 3-seat couch
Photo by Seven Shooter on Unsplash

And so it begins.

1. Walk in motivated and ready to rock

Camping out at the library is not for the faint of heart. You need to go in as a warrior. You usually have brought supplies (laptop, chargers, and textbooks) and sustenance (water, snacks, and blanket/sweatpants) since the battle will be for an undetermined length of time. Perhaps it is one assignment or perhaps it's four. You are motivated and prepared; you don’t doubt the assignment(s) will take time, but you know it couldn’t be that long.

Keep Reading...Show less
Student Life

The 14 Stages Of The Last Week Of Class

You need sleep, but also have 13 things due in the span of 4 days.

1837
black marker on notebook

December... it's full of finals, due dates, Mariah Carey, and the holidays. It's the worst time of the year, but the best because after finals, you get to not think about classes for a month and catch up on all the sleep you lost throughout the semester. But what's worse than finals week is the last week of classes, when all the due dates you've put off can no longer be put off anymore.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments