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10 ways to improve your public speaking – 10. Speak with confidence
The room where you speak is your arena. The more you make use of it, the greater your chances of reaching your audience. I often see lecturers hiding behind a podium or a lectern – the more uncertain they feel about the group, the more they tend to hide. Taking command of the space was…
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10 ways to improve your public speaking – 9. Nervousness
One of the greatest challenges in public speaking is the matter of nervousness. I’ve not yet met the group in a workshop on this subject, where a majority of the participants are NOT nervous. In fact, I try to make a point of it. It was many years ago when I learned to reverse the…
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10 ways to improve your public speaking – 8. More on actio
As I said in my previous post about this part of public speaking, I firmly believe that anybody can be a public speaker, and that everybody has the potential for being good speakers. This, however, demands work. Some people need less, some need more of this hard work. I will get back to some hero-stories…
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10 ways to improve your public speaking – 7. Actio
As I said in my previous post about this part of public speaking, I firmly believe that anybody can be a public speaker, and that everybody have the potential for being good speakers. Understanding body language is a crucial aspect of this skill. This, however, demands work. Some people need less, some need more of…
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10 ways to improve your public speaking – 6. Memoria
This post is about a part that once held a great influence, but that has diminished into almost obliviation in later years. The fourth part, or “canon” of the basic elements in public speaking, is called Memoria and its roman name tells us rather adequately what it is about. Memorizing the speech. Is it valid…
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10 ways to improve your public speaking – 5. Elocutio
Following the path of the basic rhetoric canons, you have found your most compelling arguments, and you have arranged them in the most effective order. Now, you need to dress your message; give it the proper clothes. This means you look over the aspect called “Elocutio” in the classic roman school; the expressions you use, …
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10 ways to improve your public speaking – 4. Dispositio
For an effective delivery of your carefully crafted arguments, you need to present them in a convincing order, and hence makes your message eligible. There are a million ways of creating that order, and once familiar with the art, of course there are situations where breaking of the rules is the trick. Let me just…
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10 ways to improve your public speaking – 3. Inventio
So here we are, at the first steps of creating that speech. We have a basic understanding of the three foundational terms ethos, logos and patos, and we do intend to make them work for us. But now, need to start creating. A good point for that step is to use the first of the…
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10 ways to improve your public speaking – 2. Rhetorics
Another set of useful, theoretical elements are the five parts of Rhetorics, or “the Five Canons” of rhetoric outlined by Quintilian, a Roman rhetorician who lived around the 1st century AD. These five parts, or “canons” is something I always make room to dig into a bit in my workshops, even though I try to…
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10 ways to improve your public speaking – 1. Basic theories
In order to grow as a professional within any field, knowledge is key. Public speaking is no exception. I’ve read many articles on the subject, some great, some more rambling. And some that seems to have been written with the underlying assumption that the writer him- or herself was the inventor of the knowledge in…