Public Speaking 101: The Do's and Don'ts

Speaking to a large number of people with different beliefs, values and attitudes with the purpose of influencing their thoughts and actions positively requires you to consider a number of factors. It can be quite an herculean task, however, you can make it easier if you put the right things in place.

You don’t want to speak to your audience and not get a relatively positive reaction. Nobody wants to have a wasted-effort experience. Many people often wonder, isn’t public speaking all about speaking to people? Well, it goes beyond that.

If you dabble into public speaking with the intention to make impacts and not just for the sake of ‘speaking,’ or you’ve been wondering why you’ve not been delivering well as a public speaker, knowing what to do and what to not do will guide you in having a smooth and effectual speech delivery.

Table of Contents

What is Public Speaking?

Public speaking, also known as ‘Oratory,” is a unique form of communication that involves passing information to a relatively large audience, deliberately structured and planned to inform and persuade people. Its uniqueness is its face-to-face medium of communication with a large audience.

Not many people have the ability to communicate with a large number of people physically, this is why public speaking has become a skill to be mastered. However, mastering this skill has to do with your will. ‘Once there is a will, there is a way,’ they say.

Read also: Voice Training Tips for Confidence in Speaking and Other Related Careers

5 Do’s of Public Speaking: What You Need to Do Right

A good presentation doesn’t just become one without following the guidelines for a successful one. If you want to be a public speaker whose words can engage, influence and drive people to take decisions or actions, you have to take note of these tips:

Prepare and practice beforehand

One thing to make you easily develop a cold feet is to want to go up there on stage without adequate preparations. First, you need to know about your audience. What group of people, their interest, age range, and even gender make up your audience?

Also, consider the structure of your public speech and its impacts on your audience. Create an organized draft of your speech and rehearse it. This will make you avoid making mistakes on the stage.

Organize your points clearly and compose your words

After you must have practiced, it is important to organize your points clearly while speaking. This helps you to compose yourself and not just your points. Express your views clearly, make it flow and avoid mumbling words together.

Maintain eye contact with your audience

Public speaking requires you to speak and engage with your audience. It is not something you want to do if you want to remain shy. Maintaining eye contact when giving your presentation helps your audience to connect with you, build trust and engage in whatever you’re presenting.

Aim to look at each person in the audience for a few seconds randomly to make them aware that you’re actually following every reaction. If it’s a very large audience, this may seem impossible to do but an overhead view of everyone still counts.

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Use visuals to support your speech

Using visuals make your speech more engaging and captivating to your audience. Moreover, you don’t have to do all the talking. Sometimes, using visuals support your speech; making it easier for your audience to understand you better. However, you should not rely on it too much, it’s only meant to assist you, not to speak for you.

Use clear and concise language

When it comes to choice of language in public speaking, identifying your audience will help you to use the right language. Even at this, it’s best to use a simple and concise language. Using too many ambiguous words can distort the interpretation of the message you’re trying to pass across.

Read also: How to Build a Great Public Speaking Career in Nigeria

5 Don’ts of Public Speaking: What You Should avoid

Using jargons and technical language

As a professional public speaker, you want to impress your audience to sound knowledgeable and credible using technical words. However, avoid using technical terms and jargons while speaking, unless you’re absolutely sure that your audience understands them. Explain complex ideas in a simple and more comprehensive way.

Don’t focus too much on slides

Your slides are simply tools to aid your presentation, engage your audience and carry them along. Rather than relying on them to do your presentation, keep them simple.

Don’t pace unnecessarily

In public speaking, there are moments you need to pace, walk back and forth on stage. However, it becomes unnecessary when you do it uncontrollably or inappropriately. Practicing beforehand will give a clue on how to find your pace and move appropriately.

Excessive pacing distracts the audience. Thus, any move or pace you make should be intentional, deliberate and necessary.

Read also: How to Build Self-Confidence as a Nigerian Student

Avoid speaking too fast

Saying too many words in a few seconds will make your presentation lack coherence and tangibility. When you do this, it makes it difficult for your audience to follow you and makes the presentation unproductive. Your speech is meant to inform and influence your audience.

Filling every moment with words will be a facade if you don’t avoid doing this. Rather, you should utilize pauses strategically to help pinpoint the information in your listener’s mind and absorb the new information.

Don’t overuse the time given

Avoid using beyond the time allocated for your speech. This will help you to retain the privilege of being called to speak again. If you go on talking for too long, your presentation may lose its essence and your audience can get disconnected, bored and tired as well. This is more reason you should try to say the most important thing you intend speaking on earlier in the course of your presentation.

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Conclusion

Precautions are given to help you avoid grievous errors and mistakes. All these do’s and don’ts of public speaking will guide you in your journey to influencing lives and giving genuine information. This will also accelerate your success in your public speaking career.

Edited by Priscilla Ajayi.

About Author

Adeyemi Ezra: A content writer, copywriter and fictional author. I like to explore writing on lifestyle, entrepreneurship and many more with valuable and highly insightful contents that relates with prospects to educate and motivate.