Public speaking is like any activity requires better preparation to deliver a better performance. But at the same moment, anxiety about speaking in front of an audience can make you nervous. To overcome this, I started rehearsing like a week before the actual speech day. I prepared for the speech by rehearsing speech often by myself in front of the mirror to check my vocal variety and after rehearsing many times by myself I also shared my speech with my siblings. Sharing it with my siblings made me confident because they were able to tell me what I was doing wrong and how can I fix it before I give my actual speech.
During the preparation, my goals for the speech were to deliver it effectively and confidently because giving your speech full of confidence can make you look real about what you are saying even if you not right and not 100% sure about what you are stating in front of an audience. Also, effectively giving the speech can have a generous effect on the audience. My major concerns going into the speech were how I am going to deliver my speech, how to hold the audience to be engaged in the speech and also how to maintain the body gesture.
The most important thing in the speech when you are presenting is that how you grab your audience’s attention. If you are unable to grab the audience’s attention than there is no point in, you are standing there and stating your facts because no one is paying attention or listening to you about what you are saying. The way I gained the audience’s attention was by asking them a question to build a bond of commonness which effectively helped to attain their attention in the speech.
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I think asking a question is a great way to gain your audience’s attention because when I asked a question which was a general question related to everyone’s life made my audience seemed engaged and interested in what I am going to talk about in my speech. Because of that question I kept my audience ‘s attention until the end of my speech. Later, I introduce more about the topic; how stress affects our body, what are the symptoms, and how we can overcome it. After Introducing more about my topic, the audience seems interested and engaged in the presentation.
Furthermore, the preview statement I had in the speech was “I am going to mention some crucial points about stress like what causes stress in our life? Why is it important to talk about stress? And how to deal with and reduce stress in our life?” My main points were “What causes stress in our lives and how it affects our body. Why it is important to talk about stress. Ways to deal with and reduce stress.” I had three main points, and they were very clear and knowledgeable for the audience to comprehend. Also, I clearly preview all of my main points before moving into the body of the presentation. The transition I made within my main points was by addressing the possible effect of mental illness. I think my transitions were smooth and effective because the transitions words that I used were clearly indicating what my next main point is going to talk about.
I was a little worried about what if don’t finish my speech and run out of time. I have seen a lot of people start with great off but unable to conclude their speech at the end because they run out of their time limit. But thankfully, I wrapped up my speech and finished it under the time limit. The signal I made to the audience about speech closing was by giving a wrap up of the whole speech and addressing a famous quote related to the topic. I said, “To conclude, it is very important for people to aware of what causes stress in their life and how it affects the body.
Also, why it is important to talk about stress, and what are the ways to deal and reduce stress in their life.” I wrapped up the speech by restating all my main points again so that the audience know what I just talked about in my speech. The outline that I was given by the professor had two parts in the conclusion, first was Review the statement and give a closing statement. My review statement was “In conclusion, the manner in which somebody sees life can cause them stress; however, some stress is valuable, an excessive amount of stress is hurtful to our wellbeing, but thankfully there are numerous ways that can assist with reducing stress in our life.”
In my review statement, I basically restated my thesis statement. After reviewing the statement, I used a quote for my closing statement ‘ As Amit Ray said, “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” The conclusion I made was to readdress the point I previously made in the speech and wrap it up with a closing line which clearly provided a note of finality.
The delivery skills that I have built regarding speaking extemporaneously are that I always tend to explore various topics and gain knowledge about the current events which helps me to increase my extemporaneous skills. I always look up to myself in the mirror and practice eye contact, movement/gestures, and vocal variety to deliver my speech effectively. In the speech, my voice was clear and was loud enough for the audience to tune in. I made appropriate eye contact with my audience. For movement/gestures, I used my hands to deliver my speech. Using hands during the speech made me look more confident about what I am talking about. The visual aids that I used in my speech were very interesting and effective because I am MS PowerPoint certified.
With my experience in PowerPoint, I have learned many tricks and learned how to deliver various contact effectively. I was only allowed to use 5 slides for my PowerPoint so that was a little tricky for me to put my whole my speech into 5 slides. The way I used my 5 slides were very different from other students in my class. I only put important information on the slides and didn’t make it too wordy so that the audience can easily read and understand it well. I was very confident about my topic, and also about the facts, I was stating about my points. This builds credibility with my audience because I was authentic and confident about what I was talking about.
The foremost thing about the speech was the topic I choose as if I see today in the society that most people recall mental illness a minor issue which they should give a major priority. The improvement I want to make in my future presentation is to add more facts and enhance my speech delivery. The way I will improve my skills by practicing it more and giving more time to my weaknesses. I think you have already provided us the source which can help us in our next presentation, and I am going to look at all those sources and going to get ready for my next speech.
