Rational Insanity
My tips for impromptu speakers
I started out joining impromptu speaking contests since high school. Back then it was called extemporaneous speaking. I grew in the art and now, I am usually called in to be a judge for such contests. It's nice being a judge, but my only regret is not being able to correct the mistakes of the contestants after the contest. All I can do is rate them on my score sheet. I've always wanted to be able to help these young hopefuls become better public speakers because it's not only in contests that one would need to be good in elocution, but in many other things as well. Nowadays, there are many jobs that require one to be fluent in English, among the most common are call center agents. Other than an edge in employment, good elocution skills also enable us to be more expressive of our thoughts; it gives us more confidence, and improves our self-esteem. It also helps us develop better human and social relationships. Joining contests are only the beginnings and the real challenge is being able to retain the skills that we acquire from contests for application in real life.
Public speaking and elocution demands many things of a person, the most important of which is a good command of the media or language, whether it be Tagalog or English. Having a good command of the language means possessing a wide vocabulary which is necessary for clearer and more comprehensive expression. However, let us not seek to use complex words to impress, the simpler and more easier our speech is to understand, the better. Aside from just the vocabulary, expertise in a language also requires a good background in grammar. The spoken language is not that much different from the written language except that when it is spoken, grammatical mistakes become even more obvious. These are the technicalities that we need to know when it comes to the language.
Moving on, when speaking in public, we should also pronounce the words well. For us to do this, we must open our mouths well and form the words properly with our lips. Other than just the actual enunciation of the words, we should also be aware of the caesura or the proper breathing patterns when speaking (this is indicated by the punctuations in the sentences, i.e. a comma indicates a short pause, a period indicates a longer pause, a paragraph shift indicates an even longer pause, etc.), and the proper pronunciation of the words. For individual words, the best source of proper pronunciation would be the dictionary -- of course, this would be useless if we are not aware of the diacritical marks, or those symbols after the word in the dictionary indicating how the word should be pronounced.
Now, from the technicalities, let's move on to the art part of it. Organization is of vital importance in impromptu speaking. When conceptualizing our ideas and thinking of what to say, we should be able to arrange these ideas in such a way that they would sound logical. There are two ways to make ideas sound logical; first is arranging them according to priority or importance. This means that we should state the most important idea first and the least important last. The second way of logical arrangement is by linking these ideas. This is more difficult, but more impressive. This is done by finding a connection between all your ideas and using this connection to move to the next idea and so forth. For instance, if my first solution to world poverty is good governance, then I would say that when good governance is in place, the proper distribution of services will follow which is then my second solution to world poverty, and finally, with the proper distribution of services comes the ultimate result of gradual poverty alleviation. This is linking main ideas together to make a logical concept. There are other ways of organizing your ideas, but all the rest are offshoots of these two techniques.
Other than just standing at center stage and delivering your speech, you should also have some gestures. This is the most abused element of public speaking. Always remember that with gestures, moderation is always the best way to go. Follow your instincts when making gestures; when you feel you need to wave your hand because you want to stress a point, do it, this would make your gestures look more natural. Your vocal intensity and facial expressions are also good tools to use in public speaking. You can stress a point either with a loud voice or a soft voice. Its always wrong to have the pre-conceived notion that stressing a point means having to shout or expel a loud voice. A soft voice if properly utilized can even be more effective in stressing a point. Change your facial expression according to the emotion that you would like to convey. Delivery speed can also be a useful means of emphasizing a point -- running through sentences means you don't want to emphasize what you are saying, but slowing down, word for word, means you want to emphasize what you are delivering.
Finally, my final tip to public speakers would be to stop talking when you have nothing more to say. Talk less, make lesser mistakes. It is not the length of your delivery that matters in this case, but the quality and worth of your ideas. The judges will be more impressed with a short, direct, and witty response than a long, pointless, and indirect reply. Oh, and just a final point, say, 'MY QUESTION IS' instead of 'MY QUESTION RUNS THIS WAY'.
I hope you public speaking hopefuls learn something from this week's column!
Be rational; be insane...every once in a while! TTFN!
I love you all! Byers!