As the title says really. This is the first speech I have given in years, and I am pretty nervous about it. I have made a few pages of notes, and everything, but this is where my dilemma is. If I just read the notes, I get the point across, but it is really boring (it is a speech on a boring subject anyway). However, I think I could do it off the cuff. I know the material well, and I am a pretty good speaker without notes (aside from the occasional tasteless joke), but I have images in my mind of me standing up and then forgetting everything I need to talk about, in front of an audience of 20 people. If I do remember everything though, and I manage to stay calm, it would be a damn good speech, even though I do say so myself. Do you all think I should take the risk, or not?
what i have always done is just use a one page outline of what i needed to talk about. If you can remember most of the information, an outline helps alot for those momments you do blank out momentarily.
make some bullets Youll be speaking infront of alot of people and will most likely be kind of nervous when you are there in person. Also itd make you look better since you wont pause and be like uhh
you will remeber dont worry lol, with all the pressure and ****, and i dont mean to be a dick BUT DONT START LAUGHING!! lol i busted out laughing once inf ront of 300 people! it was in DC when i had to give a speech.. lol I could not stop laughing, i told the audience that i laughed when i was nervous and they found it funny so it was cool lol, and I went on to make a nice speech ha
My tip: don't say 'erm' when you pause after each sentence... I have a lecturer who does that, and it just makes you sound dumb.
Thanks for all of this advice guys, I have practiced loads in an attempt to cut out the 'erm'ing, and I think I will take in a sheet with a few bullet points on it, I suppose it would be a bit rash to go in with nothing at all. As for Scipio, ha, I will consider that. Supatitanman, I bet that was pretty embarrassing, I will try my best not to do the same.
Well, I'll put it this way. If YOU can't remember the information enough to give a speech on it then I doubt they will remember it either. I'm not saying to just get up there and start speaking with no help or anything, but an outline with some keywords and points you want to get across should be fine enough. Just make sure to give it a few run throughs before you give it. 20 people isn't that bad. My public speaking class has more people in it than that and I've given 2 speeches already. I've got another one in 2 weeks actually.
Maybe just accept from the start that you might make some mistake and even forget something. Notes are good for this reason. Use them to kick it off and to keep it going should you hit a snag. Just because you memorize something won't make the presentation of it grate, nor do transforming letters on paper into spoken words amount to more then reading out loud. In the end it depends on the speakers personality and how he/she presents the material.
You need to figure out what kind of speaker you are. Some people need to nearly read it all. Others can do it "off the cuff." I can basically do a speach (well sort of, I'm thinking of oral arguments which are basically a speech that the judge interupts with questions) off the cuff with some notes to make sure I don't miss anything major. The key is to practice, practice, practice, with an audience. It will get rid of the nerviousness which is what causes you to stumble.
back in the day when I still taught physics I got my first dumb tip , a real cliche'. "Imaging the whole class room naked". Well, My first ever class was a physics refresher course, which was 90% female. 20 y/o females. Imagining them naked did NOT help my fluent lecture. It was a lot of "Uh", "Erm" and squirming. The lecture after that I had to visualize everyone with mustaches. Was much easier But more to the point, use the bullet method to summarize your stuff. AS long as you have the frame in front of you the rest will flow.
