Speech Anxiety
Coping with Speech Anxiety
So you have to make a speech? And the thought terrifies you? Well, you’re certainly not alone. Survey after survey has indicated that fear of public speaking is one of the very most common fears. Even many top professional speakers experience some little bit of “stage fright” when they speak. It is normal and natural. The key is to control this nervousness and use it as form of adrenaline instead of anxiety.
Speech Delivery
Speech Delivery
There are four primary types of speech delivery: Manuscript, Memorized, Impromptu, and Extemporaneous.
Manuscript speaking, like it sounds, involves reading your speech word-for-word from it’s written form. The advantage to delivering a speech this way is that you can perfectly plan and control the wording of your speech. This sounds like it is ideal, but really it is not. For one thing, as discussed in the section of this website on writing the speech body, in most speeches you should be striving for an informal, conversational delivery style. Reading prevents that, as well as eye contact. Also, with set wording, you can’t adapt the speech if the audience isn’t following or interested in your speech.
Visual Aids
Using Visual Aids
There are four basic reasons to include visual aids in your speech:
1. To hold the audience’s attention- by getting the audience envolved visually as well as orally, you are more likely to keep their interest.
2. To serve as a memory aid or learning device- people learn in different ways, some people easily recall spoken information, others written information. No matter what style they prefer, the more you expose your audience to the information, the more likely they are to remember it.