This advice and more can be found in Finding Your Voice:
Don't open your speech with an apology such as 'I'm sorry I am not used to speaking in public so I will ask you to bear with me........', 'I'm really nervous tonight so please be kind with me'. While voicing this fear may relieve you, the speaker, there is every chance the audience will be distracted from hearing the full impact of your message. They could feel a little anxious about your performance or even worse experience a gut-level reaction of feeling slightly exploited. Anything that interferes with them experiencing the message means that the message loses its effectiveness. Most speakers are nervous, most audiences are supportive but they do not want to know, or need to know, that you are anxious.
Mrs Mary Atkins, Speaker and Author.
Step Two - Know the Basics
This advice and more can be found in Finding Your Voice:
 | "In any enterprise, it is not the nature of the problem that's important but the goals we fix, and the method we use to achieve those goals, which determine our success or failure." -- Anonymous Learn about the basic structure of a speech and how to use this framework to develop your speech. The body of your speech should use about 85 per cent of the time available to speak. You must grasp the need for a powerful introduction which should take up no more than 10 per cent of the speech, and a good, strong conclusion should take up no more than 5 per cent of the speech. Mrs Mary Atkins, Speaker and Author. |
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