Public Speaking How To Improve Your Performance

Public Speaking – How to Improve Your Performance by Edward HopeThe content of your speech is of key importance to the success of your speech. However, even the best content can lose its effectiveness if the performance of it is distracting or boring.Your “platform performance” should breathe life into your speech. The right moves will help you relax and your audience more receptive. Your “moves” will keep your audience interested.Your listener’s perception of you is greatly influenced by the delivery of your speech – as with all walks of life people will judge you on your appearance not just on what you are communicating by word.There are 2 main areas that are critical to the effectiveness of your performance:-(i) Visible – this relates to your movement, gestures, posture and appearance(ii) Audible – this relates to your voice, nuances and pausesYour delivery should be natural as it is in day to day conversation, but there some simple actions that can be taken to enhance it. This may seem contradictory – to be advised to be natural but you should improve. It is also natural to want to improve. You will probably not need to learn a great deal to improve your delivery.By applying the tips below you will see your stage performance improve and become more effective at communicating your ideas:-PostureYour posture should demonstrate you are in command and have purpose. If you are slouched or hunched over it can express that you are nervous, bored or even lazy.An ideal posture is to stand straight and tall with your feet planted firmly on the ground. Keep your feet slightly apart – about shoulder width – this will help prevent you swaying from side to side.Movement and GesturesMovement and gestures should be natural and serve to illustrate your speech. If you force or overdo your gestures you will be like a “ham” actor in a B-movie. You want to aim for your gestures and movement to be a natural expression of you and your speech.When you are first starting out you may have some traits that are annoying to your audience such as twitching, grimacing, handling your nose or tugging at your lips. These can eventually drive your listeners to distraction. Keep your hands light clasped at waist height when you are not gesturing.You may also have the habit of moving back and forward across the stage – almost like a panther on the prowl. The best way to prevent this is to look at your audience as one composite person and speak to that person.VoiceOur speaking voice is a wonderful expressive instrument. However, it can repel listeners if we fall into bad habits, for example, the monotone voice, speaking too fast, speaking too slow etc.Your voice should be conversational in tone, similar to when you are speaking to a friend. Listen to a recording of your voice when delivering a speech. It may surprise you at first. Listen out for the speed, pitch, tone of your delivery. If you observe an issue, a great way to overcome this is by reading aloud and working on the issue, e.g. if you speak too fast read slowly.By making a few simple adjustments to your natural performance you will quickly improve the effectiveness of your speech. This is true for public speaking and it is also true for day to day conversation.Discover how to speak with confidence in public or private conversation. To claim your free preview of The Art of Great Conversation visit SelfConfidentSpeaking.comArticle Source: eArticlesOnline.com