Words matter. The words you choose when you speak in public will incite energy, stir the imagination, invoke emotions, or cause your audience to be bored to tears, or worse, sleep. When you think you are finished with your speechwriting, read it aloud to yourself in the mirror. Are you boring yourself to sleep? Consider
You may recall my recent blogpost “I versus Me – When Do You Use Which?” In this post, I introduced you to one of my favorite high school teachers, Sister Florentia, who drilled into me the proper usage of these pronouns, and instilled the feeling of frustration when I notice these used incorrectly! She was also a
A Rhetorical Device is a creative literary technique devised to help the speaker or author communicate and generate an emotional or provocative response from the audience. Rhetorical devices, used correctly, can make your position more melodic, interesting, stimulating, and memorable, which in turn, makes your speech more powerful and effective. According to www.literarydevices.net, there are 136 different literary
You’re sitting down to edit your speech. You’ve selected an interesting topic you’re passionate about. You’ve written your beginning, your supporting points, and your ending. Now, it’s time to dive deeper into the wording of the speech itself. You can have a phenomenal speech structure – that’s the macro level – but if the words you use
The most memorable parts of your speech are the beginning and the end. The concept of “primacy” means that people will remember most vividly what they hear at the beginning of a speech. So, the beginning of your speech must grab your audience’s attention and get them excited to listen to you. The concept of
A key part of becoming a good public speaker is learning to avoid filler words, sounds, and phrases, which produce disfluency in your speech. Filler words and sounds are the weak points for many public speakers: it can be hard to notice when you’re relying on them, but it will be extremely apparent to your audience! And, as you’ll come to see in this post, overreliance on fillers can completely undermine your speech!
I’m excited to announce that I will be teaching a Public Speaking Workshop through Park City School District Community Education, “The Compass” this spring! Public speaking is a common fear that is said to affect 75% of our population. Whether you have an upcoming presentation for work, or you are working to perfect your keynote
We are all familiar with the image of a television newscaster, sitting behind a desk, eyes surreptitiously moving back and forth as they read the teleprompter. As a public speaker, this is not you. Your job is not to read your presentation to your audience. When you are speaking in a professional setting, your job is to build
Whether you are a professional speaker, presenting to your boss or coworkers, or participating in a virtual conference, you must look like you are in control at all times – In control of the words you are using, in control of the clock (don’t go too long or too short) in control of your emotions
Sign up for my newsletter and receive a copy of Making Your Presentation Powerful directly in your inbox.
