Article Category: Weekend Reviews

Public Speaking Blogosphere: Week in Review [2008-03-01]


Week In ReviewSaturday signals a scan of the best public speaking articles from throughout the public speaking blogosphere.

Just a few of the topics featured this week are:

  • speech preparation;
  • conquering stage fright;
  • visual aids;
  • Toastmasters contests; and
  • speech analogies.

Six Minutes

Week in Review: Six Minutes

The Speech Preparation Series launched this week with the first three articles:

  • How To Prepare a Presentation
    An overview of a six-step preparation process, and a roadmap for the topics to be covered by the other nine articles.
  • Selecting a Speech Topic
    Advises speakers to select topics which have three characteristics: the speakers is knowledgable, the speaker is passionate, and the audience is interested. Also distinguishes between the topic and the core message.
  • Don’t Skip the Speech Outline
    Encourages speakers to start writing with a speech outline, and provides several speech outline examples.

Seven more articles are coming that will cover speech writing, editing, staging, body language, vocal variety, and practice.

Week in Review: Public Speaking Blogosphere

Public Speaking Blogs

These are the best public speaking articles I read in the past week.

Dining out and presentations are both multi-sensory experiences. The taste of the food is not all that matters, and the content of your presentation is not all that affects an audience.

If using PowerPoint, never skip a slide in front of a customer. If you do, you will give the impression that you are hiding something from them.

  • you avoid going on tangents
  • you get your main point across with clarity
  • you’ll be able to manage your time more effectively
  • you won’t leave out important details
  • you won’t include unnecessary details
  • you can generate a media buzz for your organization or cause
  • you will be using a model of previous successful speeches

[…] the most effective tip is the one that people with stage fright will least to want to follow: do more public speaking! It truly does get easier with practice.

Well, I didn’t come out of the womb performing (although my mother might disagree). I had to learn the skills and become comfortable onstage just like everyone else.

Articles about Visual Aids

Toastmasters (Contest) Blog Articles

Analogies to Use in Your Next Speech…

For speech inspiration, here’s another index card gem from Jessica Hagy. I love this sketch because it offers a wealth of possible analogies that you can employ in a speech. When you are trying to convey the concept of “neutralized” (as in the sketch) or deflated or cancelling out, try something like this:

  • “This tax bill will destroy our economy like a wooden stake through the heart of a vampire.”
  • “The sight of my daughter negated the stress of the work day just like bureaucracy negates good ideas.”

Jessica’s book Indexed is an inexpensive, but rich source of speech inspiration.

Neutralized Speech Analogies

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Comments icon1 Comment

  1. Ella Pelayo says:

    getting more and more involvement in public speaking makes a person do more at ease with what he is doing so I agree that those who suffers stage fright must do more public speaking so that they can have practice and I want to share some tip when having public speaking hope this can help:

    PRACTICE
    What it’s all about: It’s not enough to just practice a couple times and think that you know your performance or speech well enough. You need to know it so well that you can perform it under any conditions – that way you won’t have to worry about forgetting key parts or stumbling during a performance. The only way to know your performance that well is to practice, practice, and then practice some more.
    Put it into action: There are many different tips for how to practice, but the bottom line is that you need to put in the effort to practice more than you have been in the past. Often, the first part of your performance is when you will be feeling the majority of the stage fright effects, so practice the first section of your performance the most. An easy way to do this is to always start at the beginning when practicing.