6.What are the five steps you should follow when practicing your speech delivery?
7.What steps should you take when preparing for a questions-and-answer session?What should you concentrate on when responding to questions during the session?
Chapter 14 Presentation Aids1. What are the major advantages of using visual aids in your speech?
2.What kinds of visual aids might you use in a speech?
3.What factors should you consider when planning to use PowerPoint in a speech?
4.What guidelines are given in the chapter for preparing and presenting visual aids?
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Step Three: Be audience-centred
You need to give careful thought to the audience’s expectations. What are they hoping to receive? Be audience-centric. People will want to know what is in it for them. When you put the audience before yourself, you cannot help but win. Once you understand the expectations then work to give the audience a meaningful experience.
Step Four: Put it together
Be prepared to make changes and edit as you work. When you think you are done, walk away for a day or two and come back for a review.
Step Five: Practice
This step is absolutely critical. Record your practice sessions. When you review the video, you will be able to detect and correct any delivery or content issues that require improvement. Practice often, but not to the point where your words are memorised.
Presenting in public is about communicating. Your goal is to have a conversation with your audience. In addition, if you have the appropriate amount of practice time under your belt you will be able to handle a malfunctioning teleprompter, a major technological glitch, or anything else that might come your way.
Taking a public speaking opportunity for granted is a big mistake, even for those who speak often and feel confident in their communication abilities. Your audience has invested time and effort. They deserve thoughtful and relevant comments and content. They deserve a professional presentation. They want a speaker who possesses substance, style and passion. Following the five steps will help you meet and exceed their expectations. Investing time in high-quality practice and self-evaluation will help you succeed even when faced with an unexpected hurdle.
In the introductory human communication course or public speaking course, it can be challenging for students to see speech preparation as a developmental process. Many students come into introductory courses having done oral presentations for other academic classes. For example, they may have had a presentation assignment in an art history or business class. As a result, these students are accustomed to planning their speeches and presentations by using a PowerPoint template or simply writing down a “grocery list” of topics to cover.
How to Prepare a Speech in 5 Steps
To encourage students to be more intentional in their speech preparation, I teach a five-step model: Think, Investigate, Compose, Rehearse, and Revise. Think about your topic and audience; investigate or research the topic; compose an outline; rehearse your speech, and revise the outline according to feedback received from your rehearsal. This five-step model for planning a speech is the basis for both lessons and learning activities.
Teaching Students this Speech Preparation Process
Students are expected to apply this five-step model in preparing their speech assignment and to make their preparation visible through a portfolio assignment. Specifically, written documentation of how the student has applied each of the five steps is organized into a folder and submitted for grading. Figure 1 below outlines the five-step model along with the type of evidence to be included in the portfolio.
The portfolio assignment encourages students to be more intentional in developing their speeches and helps them see speech-making as a developmental process. Additionally, it provides instructors with a complete “snapshot” of the preparation that went into the speech, which then supports meaningful and constructive feedback to students.
Five Steps in Making Your Speech Preparation Visible (Rubric Model)
What | Evidence | |
Think |
| Brainstormed list or written rationale for topic choice. Complete audience analysis survey. Written notes that show the process of narrowing a topic and the development of a working thesis statement. |
Investigate |
| Sampling of search terms, bibliographic citations, and notes to show research efforts. Final thesis statement. |
Compose |
| Preparation outline drafts. Notes or outline drafts of speech introduction and conclusion. Notes on possible presentation aids. |
Rehearse |
| Drafts of speaker notes or delivery outline. Date/time record of rehearsal efforts. Written summary or notes from another person on rehearsal feedback. |
Revise |
| Final speech outline. |
What advice or lesson plans do you use for helping your students prepare for oral presentations? Let us know in the comments below!
For more information on this and other communication topics, please see Choices and Connections, Third Edition, by Joseph Ortiz and Steven McCornack, newly available at macmillanlearning.com.