Tips on speeches & public speaking in general?

Question

I get nervous REALLY easily when I get infront of my class to do a speech. We have one coming up at the end of February and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to keep my stomach flipping out with butterflies?

BTW the speech has to be 4 minutes long, we can use notecards, and it's supposed to be about a person of our choice.

Answer 1

OK, this one's easy. So if it can be any one person, pick the person you know the most about,YOU. You won't have to put much on your index cards, just a little outline and key words under each subtopic, to let you know what to say next. And if you are sharing information about YOU, well you should be totally comfortable, getting your class to know you. If you can't use yourself use your mom or dad, you know lot's about them and hopefully they have had impact on your life. I've found that i can't sum myself up in less than 5 minutes, so pick out key things, such as accomplishments and such and just roll with it. Most of all have fun, it's ok to be nervous, let that be part of your speech, break the ice and then jump in the water, smile the whole time, tell them like this, I'm gonna talk about this girl I know real well, she gets a little nervous in front of crowds, but she sure has a lot to say, so with that being said, i'd like to share a little of me with all of you. trust me the crowd will be at ease but on the other hand they will be eager to hear what you have to say. Also i like to take something to the stand with me, to remind me of comfort, weather it be a picture of my family or a peice of jewelry that someone special gave me. Make indirect eye contact with the crowd, in other words, look beyond the croud, but in the general direction of them, as to be looking at them. You will be graded on your general appearance, so wear something nice, and comfortable. Speak clearly and consistently, don't go too fast but don't bore the crowd. Throw some fun questions in there that get people thinking. Like for instance use a subtopic THE BEACH, to describe what you like to do and throw a question like SO- what do you do when you get bit by a shark, well I hope I never have to know the steps to take, but I love going to the beach in the summer, if i'm not lying around on the couch, i'm layed up on the beach wiggling my toes in the cool wet sand, take them to the beach, the'll be to busy trying to picture your toes wiggling in the sand to be consentrating on you. Once you get comfortable, and if you can think without the cards, walk around the room, it will give you more ease to move around, you won't be stuck standing in one place, and your instructor will love the way you just float around the room, talking as if speech giving were your second nature.

Answer 2

Nerves are normal. First of all, tell yourself that it's normal to be nervous, and there's nothing wrong with it. Talking to some classmates about the nerves will make you feel better, too.

Thorough preparation, and picking a topic you're actually interested in are very important. People sense enthusiasm, and react to it positively.

People all like to laugh. If you can insert some appropriate humor into your speech, it breaks up the monotony of listening to a group of people mashing through boring stuff. Getting a couple laughs will make you feel much better, too. Humor doesn't have to be about the topic, necessarily, you can describe some mistake you made in researching the subject, or something funny about closely related material, or about the process of doing the speech itself. "Today, my butterflies and I would like to talk about..." "Man, I expected butterflies in my stomach, but these feel more like BATS!"

Above all, practice the speech, and practice it with intonation. Do not just talk. Raise and lower your voice, scan the crowd, making brief eye contact with all of the room. Remember to breathe! People often talk too rapidly when nervous.

Develop a routine before speaking. Some call this a mantra, or meditation. It gets you to start confidently and mechanically, and once you get going, the butterflies will settle.

Remember, what are they going to do? Kill you? Eat you? Imagine the very absolutely worst thing that will happen. Usually, our fears are unrealistic.

Realistically, the worst thing might be forgetting some material, or having somebody not like the speech. Tough luck for them. Nobody pleases all the people all of the time. Your job is to DO the speech, and put in the elements that your teacher expects.

Smile, act confident. You'll be fine. When the speech is over, you'll be relieved, and your friends and family will still love you, whether the speech was good, bad, or indifferent!

Answer 3

Practice practice practice. It really really helps if you do thorough research, know your stuff, and write down key notes on the note cards... then practice practice practice. Do your speech in the car while driving to school. Do your speech in the shower. But the better you KNOW your stuff, the less the butterflies will stir up!!! The confidence of knowing your material will help tremendously.

Lastly - don't drink OJ the morning of the speech. Stay away from sweets and acidic drinks... don't drink too much coffee... if you MUST have caffiene, drink tea... eat some toast... stay away from anything that is going to hit your stomach hard.... no heavy meals!!! You are nervous enough as it is!! Also, try to go to the bathroom just before you give your speech.... this will alleviate THAT little distraction....

Good luck! You'll do fine.... pick someone you admire (living or dead) and research the history of that person... it will be interesting to you and you can share that interest with others in your speech.

Answer 4

bekka is right. i took speech last semester and i had a great teacher. she would always say that the best way to not get nervous was to practive your speech AT LEAST 15 times. i know it sounds crazy, but believe me, it works. i got an A in my speech class and all of the grades in the class were just 4 speeches. obviously practicing 15 times the night before won't help cause you might not have enough time, so just make sure you practice early.

also, make sure you're speaking about something you really enjoy. on my commentary card people always told me that they loved my speech because it was obvious that i loved what i was talking aboout.

and finally, make sure nothing gets in your way before your speech. make sure no one makes you upset or angry. i remember one day i had a bad morning and my speech didn't turn out the way i had planned, which upset me but w/e.

anyway, good luck! =)

Answer 5

first off, relax. before you even start thinking about getting up in front of your class, think of your topic. who do you want to do it on? who interests you? should they be alive or dead? political or celebrity or family? after that you need to write down all of your points. start with an intro to this person and thesis, etc. once you have all that done, now focus on doing it in public. do not wait until the last minute! not even so much for the rush factor, but you won't be able to practice at all. first start running through the speech in front of a mirror, while doing this make any of the nessesary tweaks that your speech will need for it to sound your age. next start practicing it in front of family, alternating. you should do this enough that you have the thing basically memorized and only have to look down once or twice a notecard. that sounds hard, but i just did a speech and with all of te practicing and revising i did i memorized it in no time. now its easy to get into a comfort zone with your family, so practice it in front of some friends (they'll probably want to do the same anyway). and now you are probably expecting me to say "picture the class in their underwear", i think that that is stupid. just don't concentrate on the class, concentrate on your words, your facial expressions, and pretty much just have fun with it. (if you practice enough you can basically just run on autopilot all the way through. basically the best thing besides that would be to just take deep DEEP breaths and squash down the nervousness, push it down as far as you can into your stomach. or imagine that it is absorbing into the floor. (i personally squash it, but a lot of people like to let it out.) also, find a friend in the class that you have already rehearsed in front of and look at them for support. you'll do fine, and remember. it's just one lousy speech.

Answer 6

It's not something you can instantly fix, but gradually you can get over being nervous. My suggestions would be to understand your audience and get to know them. You should get out of your comfort zone and slowly you'll see you won't be as nervous speaking and expressing your opinion in public.

Answer 7

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