HELPING YOU PREPARE:

CRAFTING YOUR SPEECH FOR YOUR AUDIENCEORGANIZATION

AWARENESS OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIORSTHE POWER OF YOUR VOICE

USING VISUAL AIDS

Turning your Research Paper into a Speech

Oral communication is not simply just reading a written text out loud. It is an interactive and real-time experience among participants that involves not only verbal language, but nonverbal delivery as well.

What is Oral Communication?

Research Paper into a Speech

You will be turning your research paper into a speech.

Depending on your topic: Your task or purpose might be to

inform/explain to your audience about a topic you researched.

Your task or purpose might be to not only inform your audience about a topic but also to persuade them to do something (take action), to stop doing something, or believe something (to change their mind or their opinion)

Crafting Your Speech for Your Audience

When creating a speech (or adapting something you have written to turn it into a speech) it is important that you understand the audience to whom you will be speaking.

Your audience will dictate how you craft your speech’s overall message, the language (formal vs informal) you use, the word choice you select, and the details you provide.

Questions to Ask Yourself

Who is my audience and what is the setting or situation?

If you are speaking to the school board at an official meeting, you would want to use formal language (avoiding slang, jargon, and “text message speak”, writing in complete sentences, etc.).

If you are speaking to your peers, perhaps through a speech you are making to run for student government, your language might be more informal.

Questions to Ask Yourself

What does my audience already know about my topic?

This will determine what details you provide. If your audience knows a good deal about a subject, you will want to find ways to provide them new, fresh information. If they know little about a topic, you would want to start with the basics and then work from there.

Your audience’s knowledge about a topic will also determine your word choice. You don’t want to use words, phrases, or terms they won’t understand (unless you explain them in your speech). Likewise, you don’t want to explain terms they already know.

Questions to Ask Yourself

What is the purpose or task for my speech? A few examples:

Are you supposed to inform your audience about a topic? Are you supposed to persuade your audience to believe

something or take action about something? Are you supposed to relate a story (narrative) about your life to

share lessons you have learned?

The purpose will dictate the content of your speech. It will help you craft your attention getting introduction and thesis statement, help you determine the points for your body paragraphs and the details you provide, and how you conclude your speech.

Research Paper into a Speech

What to include and not include from your research paper as you adapt it into a speech: Remember to keep your audience in mind:

What do they know about the subject? What would be interesting to them? What would be new information for them?

Keep in mind your time allotted: If you have a long research paper, you will have to cut

some material out in order to fit the length of speech time you are given. What are the most important points and details to keep?

Research Paper into a Speech

Remember to keep your audience in mind: You may have to do more research to add to your

speech (especially if your research paper was written for an audience that knew a lot about your subject, but your speech audience does not).

You may need to approach your introduction and conclusion differently in order to really engage your audience in your speech (more on this in the following slides).

You may need to work on adjusting your language and word choice if your audience for your speech is different from that of your research paper.

Organization of Your Speech

Introductory Paragraph:1. Attention getting opening (to get your audience interested in your topic)2. Establish your credibility (why you are a source of authority on the subject you are about to discuss)3. State your thesis (central idea or overall argument) 4. Preview the main points for your body paragraphs (this helps the audience see where you are headed)

Organization of Your Speech

Attention Getting Opening Ideas:Note: These should connect to your speech’s topic

Use of an anecdote (a brief story or episode)Use of vivid description (use of imagery & your

senses)State a surprising or little known factUse of a statistic Use of a thoughtful or interesting quoteMake a shocking or controversial statementAsk a thoughtful question

Organization of Your Speech

Body Paragraphs:For each body:1. Transition word or phrase (to connect your points together) 2. State main point or argument for the paragraph3. Set context for supporting evidence (where it came from, establish authority or credibility for the evidence)4. Give supporting evidence (quote, example, statistic, testimony, illustration, etc.)5. Explanation (why this supporting evidence matters)6. Repeat #3-5 for additional supporting evidence

Organization of Your Speech

Conclusion:

1. Transition word or phrase (signal you are wrapping up your speech)2. Summarize your thesis and main points (not word for word with the introduction)3. Leave your audience with a “gift”

Organization of Your Speech

Conclusion- “Gifts”A “gift” simply means to leave your audience with something significant or thoughtful to think about in connection with your speech and your topic.

Ideas:Use of a quoteUse of a statistic Ask an engaging or thoughtful questionCall for action (this is important if you are doing a

persuasive speech)

Preparing to Speak

The Physical Message - The way you stand, where you look, how you use your hands and vary your voice help make your speech interesting.

Eye contact - where we look to keep in touch with the audience as we speak.

Posture - the way we stand and position our body.

Gestures - how we move our hands to support our words.

Voice inflection - the way we change the tone of our voice to emphasize key words.

The Physical Message

Good Eye Contact

Eye contact: Look at the audience for at least three seconds before you begin your speech.

Look at several people throughout the audience (in the center, on the left, and on the right) during your speech.

If you use a PowerPoint with your speech, avoid turning your back to the audience or solely looking at the PowerPoint slides. You don’t want to ignore your audience.

Good Eye Contact

Practice your speech ahead of time to balance looking at your notes, any PowerPoint slides, and the audience.

If you use notes, make sure they are displayed in enlarged font so you can easily read them.

Set your feet: Place your feet shoulder-width apart. Balance your weight evenly on both feet. This posture is stable and shows self-control and confidence.

Set your hands: If there is no podium, hold your hands together. Keep them about waist high in front of you. This posture focuses attention on your upper body and face and is an easy position to gesture from. Avoid standing with your arms crossed.

Good Posture

Gestures can help make your speech easier to understand and more interesting. By using gestures, you can emphasize certain points to capture the audience’s attention.

You can use gestures to illustrate many words. Some examples are: big, small, round, square, long, short, three points, first, second, equal.

Gestures

Presentation voice: Take a deep breath. Begin speaking in a voice 100% louder than your usual speaking voice. Speaking loudly releases nervous energy and gives your speech enthusiasm.

Presentation voice: You can choose to lower or raise your voice to emphasize certain points in your speech to capture your audience’s attention.

Voice inflection means to change your voice. You can vary your voice by stressing a word or phrase, stretching a word or phrase, or pausing before a word or phrase.

Stressing: I've got a BIG dog.Stretching: I've got a b--i—g dog.Pausing: I've got ... a big dog.

Voice and Voice Inflection

Pronunciation and Pacing

Correct pronunciation of words during your speech is important so that your audience can understand what you are saying.

If you aren’t sure how to pronounce a word, check with your teacher as you are practicing your speech.

To help with pronunciation- slow your speaking down when delivering your speech. Speaking too fast can cause you to not properly enunciate letters in a word.

Use of Visuals

When preparing a PowerPoint to accompany your speech:

Use a background color and font that is easy for the audience to read

Use large font size (at least 18 or bigger)Don’t put too many bullets on one slideMake sure your photos/images are clear and not

pixilated Don’t use so many visual effects that it is

distractingProofread your slides!