The Speaker’s Dictionary Q-Z

Welcome back to The Alphabet of Public Speaking, a series where I give you some quick tips for being a better public speaker. You can read part one and part two on this site. Today, we’re going to finish up the alphabet with some more important terms you should know:

Questions – As a public speaker, it’s a great idea to ask your audience questions. Some questions will be rhetorical to get the audience thinking, and others will require audience participation. Getting your audience involved is crucial to a good speech. People will feel like they are an important part of your speech if you get them to say what you are trying to convey.

Repetition – When you’re writing a paper, you often try not to be too repetitive. But for speeches, repetition can be a good thing. No one is a perfect listeners, so even if your speech is engaging, your audience members will tune out at points. It’s a good idea to repeat important phrases and ideas so that everyone has fully absorbed them.

Simplicity – If you want people to take away the main points of your speech, make sure to keep your speech simple. Make your speech short, sweet, and to the point. Make sure you have a limited number of main points and you communicate those points clearly.

Target audience – It would be lovely to get through to every single audience member. But realistically, this isn’t likely to happen. Large audiences are bound to be filled with people who have different interests. Figure out which part of your audience you most want to persuade, and work hard to persuade them. If you persuade anyone else along the way, that’s an added bonus.

Universal human values – People have many differences, whether they’re personal, cultural, or social. But the Institute for Global Ethics has identified eight values that transcend these differences. These values are fairness, love, freedom, truthfulness, tolerance, responsibility, unity, and respect for life. If you tap into these values, you will be able to connect with a lot of people in your audience.

Vocal variety – Nobody wants to listen to a monotonous speaker. The best way to give a successful speech is to vary the way you are speaking. Change up the pitch, rate, and volume of your speech to make your speaking style more expressive. This will get audience members engaged and keep them on their toes.

Working outline – Many people write outlines when getting ready to write papers, so why should this be any different for speeches? A working outline is a tentative outline that includes a speech’s major points, how they fit together, and how important they are relative to one another. This will serve as a guide to help you write and deliver a powerful speech.

(e)Xamples – If you want to be sure that your audience understands the key parts of your presentation, including examples can do the trick. To illustrate a point that is not very complex, but may not be immediately obvious to all audience members, you can give a brief example. If you’re discussing a more complex topic that your audience is likely to be unfamiliar with, you can go ahead and give an extended example. Short stories in the form of anecdotes are easy to relate to.

(Be) Yourself – A speech should be practiced, but it shouldn’t be so formulaic that you lose your individuality. Feel free to add bits of your personality, whether that’s making jokes or telling a little bit about your personal story. Just make sure that these parts of your speech are also rehearsed. It won’t look professional to do them off the cuff.

Zeal – If you’re giving a speech, you have to have zeal for what you’re talking about. If you’re enthusiastic about the topic of your speech, this will shine through. When you deliver a speech with passion, you can transfer that passion to your audience and they can leave your speech with some interesting takeaways. 
Thank you for reading my series The Alphabet of Public Speaking. I hope you learned something, and I hope you’ll continue to tune in for more blog posts about public speaking.