Types and features of public speaking: how to prepare, main difficulties

What is public speaking

Public speaking is a public event during which the speaker (speaker) conveys certain information to the audience. Features of such representations:

the presence of a group of listeners,
predominant monologue speech,
thoughtful structure of the statement,
specific goal.

Depending on the purpose and audience, the style of presentation is chosen; for greater efficiency, various electronic tools are currently used (videos, presentations, audio recordings, and others).

A public speech can be considered any monologue speech aimed at several listeners (announcing a concert to the whole class, a student’s answer at the blackboard, speaking on stage, teaching a lesson, congratulating a friend at a holiday table, and so on).

Features of public speech

There are some psychological features of public speaking. They consist in communication between the speaker and the audience and arise from the dialogue between them. The relationship between the two sides of communication is objectively subjective in nature and acts as a joint activity or cooperation.

Types of public speaking

What is the friend zone in girls and men - the main signs

Public speaking is not the same; according to the target load, it is divided into:

Informing (the main task is to convey information to listeners).
Protocol (used at official events, anniversaries, rallies).
Entertaining (humorous TV shows, concerts, stories from interlocutors).
Persuasive or agitating (popular with politicians or advertisers who convince listeners that they are right).

Important! Typically, speakers use not one type of presentation, but several (for example, information and entertainment).

Public speaking varies not only in purpose, but also in the form of presentation of the material:

A message is a public speech lasting up to 10 minutes, which briefly outlines the essence of the problem.
A report is a clearly verified and pre-prepared story on a specific topic that can last from 10 minutes to 3 hours.
Speech – short-term, no more than 5 minutes, presentation of information on the proposed issue. It can be improvised or prepared.
A lecture is a monologue presentation before an audience of a specialist who is well versed in the topic. The optimal duration is 90 minutes.
Conversation is a form of open speech in which the speaker’s monologue alternates with speeches from the audience.

Lecture

Typical mistakes of speakers

It is worth listing the main mistakes in public speaking:

Bury yourself in a piece of paper, mumble the text . Why are you needed there then? You might as well put on a recording of your performance. The effect will be the same. It’s better to make small A3 cards with color lamination.
There is nothing worse than a monotone voice . Even if the speaker says something important, it is impossible to listen to him. Monotony is the killer of any performance. Practice dubbing famous announcers out loud, recording yourself on a dictaphone, trying to repeat their intonation.
Do you put yourself above the audience ? In public speaking, arrogance towards listeners is not allowed. They will immediately feel it, and there will be no result. Don't pretend that you are the smartest. It’s better to say: “We are all with you” or “We are together today.” Tune in with the audience, be on an equal footing.
Vanity and unnecessary body movements will quickly tire the listener’s attention. The pose of the statue will also depress the audience. Relax and meditate for 5 minutes before your performance.
You are a speaker, which means you are a leader. Do leaders make excuses and constantly apologize ? Replace excuses and apologies with gratitude.
"Cramming" of the text . A memorized text sounds dry and lifeless. You are not there. People want to feel you. Learn to improvise and speak from points.
Unreliability of facts . Triple-check the facts that you doubt so that it does not lead to a fatal failure. Especially if you don't know how to joke and improvise.
Stress and pronunciation . Sometimes one mistake in stress or pronunciation can ruin everything: “Hello everyone, I’m from Moscow.”
Machine Gun Man . Out of excitement he speaks 1000 words per minute. He seems to be energetic and smart. And from the outside he looks like a coward in a hurry. He who understands life is in no hurry.
You have to be able to joke . There are jokes that only we laugh at. They must be tested many times on different people long before the performance. If you haven't laughed at a joke in at least ten different situations, don't use it in public speaking.

Stages of public speaking

How to flirt with a man correctly - rules and examples of flirting

Almost all performances go through 3 stages:

Pre-communicative (preparatory) stage.
Communication stage:

establishing a relationship with listeners;
concentrating and keeping the audience's attention on the problem;
arguing and proving your point of view;
summing up and concluding the speech.

Post-communicative (analysis of the positive and negative aspects of the event, personal conclusions of the speaker).

Important! Listeners remember best the ending of a speech, so speakers carefully think through the verbal design of this part in advance.

Structure of public speaking: concept and main phases

Moving from the general to the specific, it should be noted that in the context of the chosen topic, such an important component of public speaking as its structuring is of greatest interest. Let's introduce a definition of this concept. O.Z. Mushtuk in “Fundamentals of General Rhetoric” puts forward the following interpretation of the term in question: A summary of a public speech is its division into parts, each of which performs a specific function in achieving the goal of the speech. This definition seems to us the most successful. Based on this definition, we can derive our own understanding of the term “structure of public speaking.” Thus, the structure of a public speech is a coherent system of elements of a public speech, arranged in a certain order, corresponding to the goals pursued by each structural unit of the speech.

It should be said that structuring and preparing a speech is one of the most important processes in public speaking. CM. Chalin notes that the application of the considered process allows the speechwriter to carry through the entire process of working on a speech a certain principle of organization, which, in turn, “facilitates the assimilation of the material by the audience, gives the material compositional unity, ensures coordination and even a certain harmony of parts of the speech.” Let's consider existing theoretical ideas about the structure of public speaking.

As a rule, most scholars agree that public speech should be understood as a three-part structure, the main elements of which are the introduction, the main part of the speech and the conclusion. However, some researchers also consider the preparatory and final stages as part of public speaking. Thus, speech is a single process, and its public part acts only as one of the stages. We consider this position to be illogical, since the very theoretical understanding of the term “public speaking,” which we discussed in the first section of this course work, assumes that it begins only from the moment of the speaker’s speech impact on a given audience or ends with the cessation of this contact. In this case, preparing a public speech, collecting materials, summing up and evaluating the results of the speech should not be included in the general structure of the concept we are considering.

So, before briefly describing the elements of the structure of public speaking, it should be noted that the three-part model of speech (both oral and written) is not an achievement of modern science. This three-way division has existed for quite some time. It arose during the times of ancient Greek and Roman orators. Such famous speakers as Socrates, Demosthenes, Cicero and others were prominent representatives of the classical school of orators and followers of the three-part structure of public speech.

What are the main compositional and logical parts in the structure of a public speech?

First, there is the introduction, also called the lectern, which serves as a kind of preparatory stage for the main part of the speech. Within this stage, psychological techniques and, above all, ways of attracting the attention of the audience are of particular importance.

The main or main part of the speech, which is a presentation of the main material on the topic. The presented element of the structure of a public speech is the most extensive, therefore, as a rule, it is also divided into internal subelements, such as a description of the topic of the speech and one’s position on it, argumentation, counter-argumentation, analysis of various positions, and so on.

Conclusion or inference. In this structural part of a public speech, the speaker must present the final points of his speech and its general results, as well as end his speech using some rhetorical means or techniques.

As for the structural parts of public speech, it should also be noted that their volume and the relationship between them are different. At the same time, in our opinion, it is impossible to develop a single percentage ratio of these parts, since each individual speech, not only due to its specific characteristics, but also due to the desire for any goal, will always have certain structural features.

Public speaking requirements

What is charisma in a man - the definition of the word, how to become like that

The main task of the speaker is to convey information to the audience. To do this, its verbal representation must comply with the following standards:

A clear start. The first phrase should attract attention and interest the listeners, so it is prepared in advance and memorized accurately.
Create and maintain light tension throughout the performance. To do this, they deliberately confront two opposing opinions or argue with an imaginary opponent.
Dosed emotionality. Monotonous speech is not understood by the audience, but excessive temperament does not inspire confidence in the speaker. To hold attention, they do not amaze with their dramatic talent, but select facts that affect the feelings of listeners.
Conciseness. Short speeches are better perceived and remembered.
Dialogue with listeners. The speech must include questions for the audience (rhetorical and real); the speaker can demand answers to them.
Ease and closeness to a conversational style of speech. Talking about important things in simple, understandable language without difficult to pronounce terms is the highest aerobatics in oratory.
Establishing and maintaining a relationship with listeners. The speaker must monitor the reaction of the audience and, as necessary, adjust the methods of presenting information.
Clarity of the idea of the speech. The main idea is clearly formulated and repeated several times for better perception.
Clear ending of speech. Both the initial and final phrases are formulated in advance, pronounced emotionally, clearly and meaningfully, so that the listeners understand that this is the end of the speech.

Important! Depending on the purpose and genre of the speech, some points are manifested to varying degrees: more emotionality may be allowed in entertaining speeches than in informational ones.

Speaker's emotions

Types and methods of public speaking

The following types of public speech are distinguished:

Social public speech helps to express family or community relationships. This includes congratulations on holidays, wedding toasts, and funeral speeches.
Church eloquence consists of delivering a sermon and communicating with church ministers. This type does not contain logic, arguments, professional terminology, listeners do not look for specific facts in it.
Judicial eloquence is present in judicial practice. Unlike the church one, it contains a clear style of presentation and argumentation. Judicial oral public speech consists only of facts and is divided into accusatory and defensive. These types of public speaking differ from others in their degree of responsibility, since the content of the speech affects the fate of a person.
The academic art of public activity carries specific speech filled with professional terminology or scientific expressions. This includes the following genres of public speaking: scientific reports, reviews, lectures.
Political genres of public speech represent the pronunciation of speech on topics of economics, politics, and the social sphere. Political eloquence manifests itself at rallies, propaganda and patriotic events.

In addition to the types, there are methods of eloquence that help to compose a clear and understandable text that is as close as possible to the goal. Methods of eloquence were developed many centuries ago and include certain rules of public speaking:

Eloquence lies in the use of concise texts that are understandable to the audience.
The main function of a speaker is to convey useful, reliable information to the audience. Methods or techniques of influencing listeners must not violate their rights. But the psychological characteristics of public speaking do not always correspond to the requirements of ethics.
It is not recommended to “stretch out” a speech in front of a large audience, because people’s attention is short-lived and easily scattered
Before speaking in front of an audience, you should learn to distinguish their emotional mood.
The psychology of public speaking is designed in such a way that the final result of the event depends on the structure of the prepared text, the use, and call-to-action phrases. Important information is provided only at the beginning and end of the speech. Such specificity of construction is necessary for the successful and effective delivery of material, since the public’s attention during these periods is maximum.
The speaker's speech must comply with ethical standards. The culture of public speech is observed under any condition and is considered a necessary element of speech pronunciation.

These rules are not a prerequisite for the speaker's speech. The structure of a public speech depends on the type, composition of the audience, its activities and the speaker himself. Techniques and rules for speaking are determined during speech preparation. Only constant diction training and daily exercises will help you achieve success and public recognition.

Preparation rules and basic techniques

Experienced speakers follow certain rules when preparing their speech:

They are responsible for defining the topic: it must be specific, not imply a large amount of information, be based on experience from the storyteller’s life or on the requirements of the customer, or correspond to the thematic plan and curriculum (for teachers and professors).
They think over and formulate a title that accurately expresses the essence of the speech. The title uses clear words and avoids complex terms and long sentences.
Determine the goals of the speech for the speaker and for the listeners, which are directly or indirectly communicated to the audience. Most often, speeches are made for the purpose of:

inform;
form an opinion;
change point of view;
influence people's consciousness and motivate them to action.

Selects, studies and analyzes information from:

official sources,
scientific and popular science literature,
reference literature,
statistical data,
journalism,
Internet resources.

Important! Information is taken from several sources and carefully processed.

Analyze the composition of the intended audience and the general situation in the room. The text of the speech is compiled taking into account the age, social status and interests of the audience (children perceive information differently than adults).
Working on the content of the speech:

make a plan
select material
choose a speaking style,
arrange parts of the speech compositionally and logically,
are working on writing the full text,
write down the abstracts and summary of the message (some speakers use loose or card notes).

Preparing for the performance

Drawing up and using a plan

People who speak often understand the importance of a well-written plan, which usually includes:

a thoughtful way to hook the audience;
an introductory part outlining a certain problem that is understandable and close to the listeners;
a short list of the main ideas of the speech;
the main part, containing no more than 3-4 key points, so as not to overload the audience with information;
a final part that draws clear and meaningful conclusions from the entire speech.

A plan is necessary at the stage of preparing a speech so that the materials are arranged in the correct logical chain. During a speech, it is also needed so that the speaker can convey everything planned to the audience.

Successful speakers understand the nature of eye contact with the audience and do not allow themselves to sight-read the entire speech. It is at this moment that a plan (preferably a thesis) comes in handy, which will not allow the speaker to wander away from the intended topic.

The beginning and end of a speech in front of an audience

The beginning and ending are the most powerful parts of a speech. It has been proven that the initial opinion about the speaker is formed during the first 5-30 seconds of communication. Therefore, the speaker tries from the very beginning to create an appropriate psychological mood with a greeting, demonstration of a video or photo, communication of an interesting fact, description of the problem or possible prospects after solving it.

After the connection with the listeners is established, the rhetorician moves on to the main part, not forgetting that people's attention span weakens after 10-20 minutes.

It is important to end the speech correctly. This part of the message consolidates the initial impression of the speaker and the topic of the story, enhances the emotional impact on the audience, sums up everything that has been said, once again emphasizes the idea of the text, and calls for specific actions. Competent speakers compose a speech in such a way that all parts flow logically from one another, are sufficiently saturated with emotions and arguments, and include practical recommendations and compliments to listeners.

Thinking through the beginning and end of the speech

Preparation

The second rule: know the interests of your listeners before preparing your report.
The report must be well prepared. It's ideal if you tell people what you know well. What if you bought the text of your thesis yesterday, and tomorrow you have to report it in front of a room of evil teachers? And you have to go to the client to tell him how to use the admin panel of the new site, and this is the second time in your life you’ve seen this CMS?

The only way out, if you don’t know much about the topic as a whole, is to study the interests of your listeners and talk about what is more important to them about this topic. For example, if you are afraid to talk about the new version of Solaris because you don’t know what’s new in it, and you need to speak in front of system administrators, you can focus on what is important to them - for example, on administration tools, or where in the new version, settings have been transferred compared to the old version.

Rule three: prepare good slides

It is not necessary to give a presentation with slides, but most listeners now expect the speaker to stand next to the projector, and you can look not only at his high forehead and good suit, but also at the illustrations for the report. For listeners of the speaker in a miniskirt, the slides also play a distracting role: there is no point in staring at other people’s knees the entire time you are defending your thesis.

If you give a report with slides, do them conscientiously. I want to dedicate a separate article to slides. In short, slides are good if:

on the slides - what helps people understand the essence of the matter. A report is not a comic; having a slide for each phrase is overkill
The slides are easy to read from any row in the hall. Few people will see a font smaller than 30.
a standard slide is 5-7 lines of text, no more. Better - five: a title, a thought and three sub-thoughts
A clearly visible graphic element is desirable on each slide: diagram, photograph, drawing. A slide with text without graphics looks like a hint to the speaker.

The exception is slides with code at developer conferences: sometimes the code just needs to be shown, and the main thing in the code needs to be highlighted in color. However, the code should still be readable from afar: remove any code that is not directly relevant and write the remaining code in 30 point size.

Possible mistakes

Oratory skills do not come immediately; many novice speakers make typical mistakes:

They demonstrate a lack of confidence (the speaker has little knowledge of the issue being covered or is afraid of people).
They begin to make excuses and lose the trust of the listener.
Do not illustrate the speech with examples from experience or literature.
They use excessive gestures and chaotic facial expressions (to control body language, they analyze the video recording of the performance and get rid of unnecessary movements).
They do not select words and compose sentences accurately (for example, frequent use of negative particles will lead to misunderstanding of the text).
They pay little attention to preparation.
They read the message monotonously without humorous asides and do not maintain eye contact.
Do not use pauses to maintain attention - stopping for 10 seconds will awaken the curiosity of all distracted people.
They show excessive seriousness, self-confidence and over-erudition.
They use a large number of filler words.
They fuss or, on the contrary, become tight.

Important! High-quality preparation and repeated rehearsals allow you to avoid many mistakes.

Speaker mistakes

The psychology of speaking in front of people

In order to attract people's attention, psychologists advise:

Pay enough attention to your appearance (dress comfortably and respectably).
Take a short pause before starting and look around the audience, making eye contact.
Start your performance at a slow pace.
For public speaking, it is recommended to lower the timbre of your voice by 2 tones (this will help protect your vocal cords; a low voice is perceived by people better than a high one) and develop the skill of using various voice techniques.
Repeat the most important thoughts 3 times.
Do not exceed the speaking limits, even if the audience’s attention has not weakened.

Successful performance

Thus, if you prepare diligently, then everyone will be able to perform well in front of the public.

How to speak in front of an audience correctly. Rules of Public Speaking: Psychology

By the time of your public report, you need to approach it in excellent psychological and physical condition. Don't worry about your fears because at the end of the day it's just a performance. O. Ernst wrote: “Not one of the speakers has ever fainted on the podium, even if his speech was really below any criticism.” The existing rules for giving a public speech contain several important points:

Pay close attention not to your experiences, but to the content of your speech. You should not tell your listeners absolutely all the prepared material; leave room for questions, if any. And the idea that you know much more than you say in this lecture will significantly increase your self-confidence. You shouldn't prepare on the day of your performance; it's better to finish all your preparation the night before. Before the performance, you should not start new things or get involved in new activities that are unusual for you.

They will take over all your attention and direction of thoughts. Try to have a light lunch or breakfast, do not overeat before an important report.

If you still feel that anxiety does not leave you, the main thing is to understand the cause of your anxiety. Most often this is:

Lack of practical experience in such performances.
Features associated with your character: shyness, restraint, excessive anxiety, lack of self-confidence.
Doubts about the interest of listeners.
The fact of unsuccessful performance in the past.
Strong emotions associated with excitement and experiencing a stressful situation.

If your anxiety is mainly related to the reaction of listeners, then there are the following rules of public speaking:

choose a viewer who is positively disposed towards you and tell the story, looking into his/her eyes, as if you are alone in this room;
if you feel that contact has been established, you can nod slightly and turn your gaze to your neighbor and look into his eyes;
try to maintain a friendly and open expression on your face;
try to smile more often and then you will see how the mood in the room will change.

If your anxiety is related to your own condition, then carefully study these rules of public speaking:

Practice speaking in front of the public as often as possible, participate in public discussions, conversations, and ask questions.
During this time, you will find an inner state that gives you confidence and helps you feel successful. This feeling will be different for everyone. Some people need to feel the “joy of flying”, some need to feel as focused as possible, concentrated on their topic, while others need a slight excitement that makes them slightly excited and joyful.
Think about what emotional response you want to achieve from your listeners, what message you send to the audience.
Before going on stage, be sure to “warm up.” You can talk to one of the audience or organizers, or just walk around the room.

General rules for giving a public speech:

Ideally, you have the opportunity to rehearse the day before in the room where the performance will take place. You can look around the room, rehearse your entrance, give a speech, practice your posture, gestures, voice volume, and some important turning points in your speech.
Before going to bed, imagine the entire course of your speech. How the event begins, how the audience gathers, how you go on stage, what you say, where you look. Finish your speech and feel how great you did.
A few hours before going on stage, go through the outline of your report in your imagination, fix the key points of the speech in your mind and feel the joy that will overwhelm you after a successful performance.