Public speaking English

1. Pre-reading I: Public Speaking
By Zarmayana Nur Khairunni, 1306464732
As social beings, humans cannot be separated from the communication. Communication
needed to give them notice to others about their opinions or contents of one's mind. There
are two types of communication, one-way and two-way. One form of one-way
communication is public speaking. Public speaking is one-way communication that is
performed in front of many people. However, most people cannot do public speaking
easily. There are psychological problems such as nervous and afraid, problem with the
content or materials, and attitude when doing public speaking. Therefore, this article will
discuss tips and practice about how to success in public speaking.
The first important thing in public speaking is prepare the materials. There are many ways
to gain the material such as personal knowledge, proven experience, or research. From
many resources of material, we should choose one that will be of interest and then see
valuable information that we want to share to public. Yet, that is better if we collect more
material than we will need and collect the support material too. Supporting materials are
such as authoritative statements, statistical facts, historical data, or humorous anecdotes.
After we have all material, we need to arrange it. The content or material must be
compiled chronologically, spatially, logically, and topically. Chronological means as it
happens, in order of sequences; Spatial means how it relates to other things; Logical
means move from one point to another; And topical means in order of importance to
audience.
After have the materials, we may need some notes. Having notes with us is the safest way
to give a speech, especially a long speech or one filled with important points. In spite of
that, we cannot read everything in the notes. We bring the notes only for our reminder,
not to read it at all. In that notes, we can write how we talk and write the main idea or
main point with very large font or underline words we want to emphasize. Beside that,
we can give our self-written hints in the script that give us directions in our speaking. In
other words, we have a small note cards printed with abbreviated notes, lead-in phrases,

2. important words or statistics and other cues. After that, we should making practice hot to
use the notes in front of the mirror or recording it and evaluate our performance.
In practice, because public speaking are using voice, we should control our voice and
determine what kind of impression that we want to make. Impression is one of the
important things in public speaking. We should make clear articulation and
pronunciation, so that the audience will understand clearly. Beside that, we should control
our pitch (tone of voice). Correct breathing will help us achieve a lower pitch, to a point.
In addition, it is better to avoid inflections, especially inflections of sarcasm; these
inflections usually do not play well and can sound whiny and annoying. Then, our pace
should be slower and more deliberate in public speaking. For make sure about voice
control, we can practice our speech by recording it or talking in front of the mirror.
After control our voice, we need to control our gesture. It is a normal thing if we got panic
or feel anxiety in front of a group of people. Yet, sometimes those things make us doing
some weird gesture unconsciously. A natural reaction, yet totally unnecessary and more
importantly, it sends the wrong message to our audience. Therefore, we must practice to
control our gesture. Hand and arm movements can reinforcements of the words and ideas
we are trying to convey and a non-verbal representation of how we feel. If we control and
use our hand and arm correctly, it will help us enhance our message and make us appear
confident and relaxed. Right gesture will give right message.
There are three types of gestures that we can use with confidence to convey our message
and enhance our stories. Symbolic Gestures communicate words, numbers, position;
Descriptive Gestures communicate an idea or movement; And Emotional Gestures
suggest feelings. Symbolic gestures such as a raised hand signals for a stop, a thumbs-up
showing agree, three fingers for the number three, and pointing to show a position – up,
down, behind, beside. Descriptive gestures such as spreading hands apart to show length,
using hands to show a shape, swaying hands to show a flow of movement. Emotional
gestures such as a clenched fist to show anger or convey the sense we are hiding
something and hands clasped to show pleading.

3. References
Burke, C. (2015). Public Speaking Tips - How to Use Gesture. Retrieved September 10,
2015, from Art of Communicating:
http://www.artofcommunicating.com.au/public_speaking%20tips/body%20lang
uage_gestures.html
Mackness, T. (2003). Speech Preparation. Retrieved September 10, 2015, from
University of Michigan's Ross School of Business:
http://webuser.bus.umich.edu/Organizations/umbstoastmasters/file/members/pre
pare/Speech_Preparation.pdf
UROP staff. (2015). Find Projects and Apply: Public Speaking Tips. Retrieved
September 10, 2015, from Massachusetts Institue of Technology:
http://web.mit.edu/urop/resources/speaking.html#vis