An introduction to public speaking training session

Editor's Notes

• #4: Welcome to Public Speaking, An Introduction for Class Reps…. I’m (name) and I am one of Glasgow Caledonian University Students’ Associations (role) and I will be running this workshop. The aim of this workshop is to basically give you few tips on how to improve your public speaking as well as give you a taster of some of the things covered in the “Introduction to Public Speaking” workshop available as part of GCU Students’ Associations Student Leaders Programme.
• #10: First off … What is Public Speaking? Public Speaking is a ‘formal’ face-to-face communication method where a person(s) uses the medium of speech to inform and/ or influence a group of listeners (an audience). It’s important to remember that when we are talking about Public Speaking, we are not just talking about making speeches. Public Speaking is any formal situation where you use speech to inform and/ or influence an audience face-to-face. Other examples of public speaking can include… Delivering lectures, seminars and training Making presentations Debating Conducting demonstrations Why is developing Public Speaking skills important for Class Reps? Being able to inform and influence both students and university staff members through effective communications is essential for a Class Rep to be able to help improve the learning experience at GCU. Although Class Reps won’t really be delivering speeches in their role, they will often have to undertake some form of public Speaking during their role. For example… Lecture or Seminar shout-out to influence student to pass on feedback about their learning experience, or to inform students about how you dealt with the views, opinions and issues you have received. Presentations in SSCG Meetings to inform the University of the views, opinions and issues students have, or to influence the University to make a positive change to the learning experience.
• #16: What skills are required for Public Speaking? The following three skills are required for … Planning & Preparation Positive Non-Verbal Communication Confidence In this session we will only be looking at and focusing on the importance of Planning & Preparation for effective Public Speaking and the importance of Non-Verbal Communications for effective Public Speaking. We won’t be looking at Confidence.
• #17: Before we go on any further, we are going to play a game called ‘Just A Minute’. The aim of this game is to speak for a full 60 seconds on a randomly selected topic without any… Hesitation - A break or pause in the natural rhythm of the speaker which last three or more seconds Repetition – Using the same words or phrases repeatedly, excluding the phrase of your topic which you can repeat occasionally Deviation – Going completely off the given topic You will get one point for each second you are able speak on your topic without being successfully challenged by a member of your audience for either Hesitation, Repetition or Deviation. If you are able to speak for the full 60 seconds on your topic without any successful challenges you will receive ten extra points. Each successful challenge will get one point, however each unsuccessful challenge will get minus one point. Whoever gets the most points wins a prize!
• #19: How did you find having to talk concisely for 60 seconds on a randomly selected topic without any chance to plan or prepare? Did you find it easy? Or did you find it very hard? That you found it very hard is no surprising. Very few great (or even good) public speakers can actually speak effectively without planning & preparation! All public speaking activities, whether it’s delivering a speech, lecture or presentation, really require planning & preparation. If you don’t plan and prepare for your public speaking activity you will find it very difficult, if not impossible to effectively communicate your message to your audience. As a general rule, out of the total amount of time you spend on any Public Speaking activity you should aim to spend around 90% of it planning and preparing what you will say and how you will say it, and only around 10% of it on the actual delivery of the activity. So for example, if you have a one minute speech to deliver you should aim to spend at least 9 minutes preparing to deliver it. Before you can start to plan and prepare the message and the structure for your Public Speaking activity you will need to consider the… Audience (Who you are trying to inform and/or influence) Purpose (What you want to achieve by informing and/or influencing your audience) Timings (How long you have to inform and or influence your audience)
• #20: Public Speaking can only inform and/or influence an audience if it is delivered in a structured way. The best way to ensure that your Public Speaking activity is structured is to plan & prepare notes that can be used as a guide when speaking. When you are planning & preparing notes for your Public Speaking activity you should avoid writing an ad verbatim (word for word) script of what you are going say to read from. Instead you should look to use headings and key words in bullet-point format to help you trigger what you want to say. It is actually incredibly difficult to speak effectively face-to-face from just reading from a script. When people do speak from reading a script it is usually a combination of memorising lines while using teleprompters rather than paper to display a script for reference.
• #21: Although planning and preparation are extremely important, all the planning and preparation in the world will not help if you are unable to project positive body language, and make effective use of the pitch and tone of your voice. Like in any face-to-face communications, Public Speaking isn’t just about what you say; It’s also about how you say it! The vast majority of the information we receive in face-to-face communications in non-verbal sources. Around 70% of the information we receive in face-to-face communications comes from body language and around 23% comes from voice pitch and tone. Only around 7% of the information we receive in face-to-face communications comes from the words we say. It is therefore essential that when you are undertaking any Public Speaking activity your are mindful of … Your Posture & Body Movements Your Facial Movements & Making Regular Eye Contact Your Voice Pitch & Tone
• #22: Not convinced on how important posture, movement, eye contact and voice pitch and tone are? Well here is a short video to highlight how important they are, that Public Speaking really isn’t just about what you say; It’s also about how you say it!
• #24: Read out and explain points from the slide.
• #36: To wrap off this workshop, we are going to play another round of ‘Just A Minute’. However this time you will you are going to get nine minutes to plan and prepare the randomly selected topic that you will need to speak on for a full 60 seconds without any Hesitation, Repetition or Deviation. The same scoring applies as before. You will get one point for each second you are able speak on your topic without being successfully challenged by a member of your audience for either Hesitation, Repetition or Deviation, and if you are able to speak for the full 60 seconds on your topic without any successful challenges you will receive ten extra points. Each successful challenge will get one point, however each unsuccessful challenge will get minus one point. Whoever gets the most points wins a prize!