1) Do it over and over again

2) Do it infront of your parents and have them critique you

3) Memorize it

4) Look down at the paper or w/e, don’t look straight at people

5) Just remember, you average person won’t give a darn if you screw up…its not the presidential debates or anything

Speech Effectiveness: Did the speech have any inspiration or purpose to make the audience react?

Bodily Movement: What gestures did the speaker perform to help the audience better visualize what you’re saying?

Supportment: Was what the speaker said backed up by proof? Was the evidence visualized with current proof, past proof, or quoted by words from other experienced people?

Factual: Is what the speaker saying really true? Was the purpose of your Oration mostly truthful and not mostly opinion based?

These are the questions the competitor and the judge should ask themselves before performing an Oration, to either an audience, or especially yourself. They key to gain the audience’s attention isn’t through your topic, it’s through your passion. For instance, your topic could be that people today are lazy, but instead of changing it, they are accepting it. Now the topic itself interests the audience or judge.

Have notes on note cards. Stand up straight but do not lock your legs. Doing so prevents blood flow and can cause you to pass out. Take your time and articulate. Keep your hands above your waist. Use eye contact. Only touch notes when changing cards. If you are nervous I suggest you stretch a little and move around to get your self loosened up beforehand. Make sure you either have a glass of water handy or take care of thirst beforehand. Being nervous can cause your mouth to go dry. Use visual references kike charts or time scales or photographs. This will help the audience to see your point while directing their attention away from you a bit. It will also give you something to do besides stand there.

I have felt the same way every time I had to give a public presentation, but I have done it enough in the military, and a few other places. So, this is what I recommend:

1. I think that the best thing for overcoming nervousness is to know your topic inside and out. For whatever your presentation is, YOU are the subject matter expert, so from the very beginning, know your topic.

2. Know your audience. How you deliver a speech depends to a large extent on who you are giving it to. I assume that this will be your classmates. So, consider things like “What would they want to know about this topic? What would they find interesting about it? When you talk to them, use wording and vocabulary that they would understand.

3. Be animated when you give the speech. In other words, don’t simply stand in one space reciting something. Try to show your own interest in your topic by moving while you speak…movement and gesturing should be used at the right times, and that is when you want to emphasize a point. Don’t just aimlessly walk back and forth for no reason…you don’t want your audience to think that they are watching a tennis match.

4. Make eye contact with your audience as you are moving/talking…as if you are talking directly to people in the audience. If you have trouble making direct eye contact, just pick a spot on the back wall of the room just over the audiences head and look there. They won’t know the difference.

5. Understand that it is OK to be nervous…sometimes being a little bit anxious keeps us on our toes and we perform better that way. A trick I was taught when I was in the police academy was called autogenic breathing. If you feel nervous before the speech, then try this….inhale slowly to a count of 4 until your lungs are full, hold it for a count of 2 and then exhale to a count of 4 imagining that all that nervous energy is leaving your body as you breath out. Do that a few times (go slow or you might get light headed). While you do that, just focus on the fact that this is no big deal, and you can do it. It has helped me lower my stress level before speeches several times.

6. Your audience really wants you to succeed, and they understand being nervous and/or making mistakes…they are going to do it too. So, for the most part, they don’t much care if you make a mistake. If you do, pause and calmly reorient yourself, make the correction and move on. If it was something minor, don’t call attention to it. If it was something that could be somewhat funny, make a joke out of it. I once had a computer projector that wouldn’t come on when I wanted it to…and instead of getting flustered, I said “Technology is great, when it works.” It got a laugh and I moved on.

7. Always have a plan B…a back-up for how you will give the presentation. Say you were going to use Power Point to give it. Well, I would also have my slides printed out as handouts so that, if the computer wasn’t working or something like that, I could hand out those slides and give my talk from those. If you are going to use power point, make sure you have your presentation backed up in at least two places (like a floppy disc, CD, or USB drive). I watched a guy try to give a PP presentation, and when he put in his disk, it wasn’t on there. He didn’t have it backed up on another device either…big NO NO.

8. I don’t recommend just blindly memorizing your entire speech….it comes off as very rigid. You should know your material well enought that you could discuss it smoothly. I would recommend having a basic outline of the points that you want to discuss on a 3×5 card maybe…something that you can look at to keep on track…but whatever you do don’t fidget with it in your hand….I saw a guy that took a pen up to the front of the room to give his presentation, and throughout it he kept playing with the pen…and all we could do was watch him play with the pen instead of listen to his presentation…so as a rule, keep your hands free. That is why I like power point…if I get lost, I can glance at the slide and know where I am.

9. Rehearse and practice! You can do this in front of someone, or a mirror. If you can go to the room where you will give the speech and look it over…how much space will you have? Is there a podium? If you are using Power Point, is there a projection screen? A computer with power point software on it? Will you need an overhead projector? Stuff like that. When you practice, time yourself to see how long you are taking. I am sure that you only have a certain amount of time to do this….so time it and then adjust your speech to fit the time frame that you are given.

10. Some of the best speeches have great openings….personally I like being able to open with a story if I can…something that sort of grabs the audience’s attention. How might you open your speech, and grab attention? Something to think about…

11. Finally…remember this…..heaven knows how many people have had to get up in front of a group and give a speech, and they got through it just fine. You will too! Know your topic, know your audience, be interested in your own topic (nothing kills a speech like a speaker that doesn’t like what he/she is speaking about). You will do just fine.

Sorry for the long answer….

If I can answer anything else, let me know…[email protected]

do it in front of your friends & famiy first. in front of your mirror. and BE CONFIDENT IN YOURSELF! :] good luck