101 Public Speaking Tips 

0 tips on overcoming public speaking fear:1. If there is opportunity, perform on your territory.

2. It there is no such opportunity, visit plenary in advance, get used to it.

3. Hold in your hands or in a pocket theses of your speech, even you'll have no

need to use them, it will make you more confident.

4. Find a way to get maximum information about audience/delegates.

5. Make your good friends be in room, or get to know someone from delegates

before your speech.

6. Rehearse at least 3 times.

7. Be present in audience earlier then those, to whom you'll talk to.

8. Before your presentation try to move actively some time, to burn some

adrenaline in blood.

9. Look for your breathing — it supposed to be deep, rythmic, and calm.

10.Never use and alcohol or calming medical treatment.

10 tips on preparation for presentation:1. Set up yourself for success from the beginning.

2. Start to prepare immediately, do not postpone till the last moment.

3. Set the goal: what kind of actions from audience you are expecting as result?

4. Set the most convincing arguments for your audience.

5. Make a plan of presentation according to advices from next chapter.

6. Never write the text for whole speech — it will just complicate your task.

7. Rehearse your performance with just looking sometimes on your plan. With

each next rehearse look on your plan more and more rarely and keeping eye

contact with your virtual audience.

8. Write each point of the plan on small square of thick coloured paper. You can

hold hold this paper squares in your hand and check yourself if needed.

9. Run rehearse with positively setted audience: friends or relatives.

10.Before presentation it's mandatory to rest and distract yourself from

everything related to tomorrow's performance.

10 tips on forming of structure:1. Pay attention for introduction — it will set up respective mood/tone.

2. Pay attention for final — it will fix achievements.

3. During speaking say how long presentation will last and what is the topic.

4. Never say at the beginning, that you're not ready. Don't tell about your

worrying.

5. Remember that introduction and final parts are aimed to feelings, not mind.

6. Main part of performance supposed to be not more that 3/4 of common time.

The rest — intro and conclusion.

7. Answering for questions supposed to be in the end of main part before

conclusion/final.

8. Learn first and and the last phrases of your speech.

9. While forming structure, prepare presentation lasting 20% less of dedicated

time.

10.Do not make essential changes in structure before performance.

10 tips on slides design:1. Use not more than 3 colours on one single slide.

2. Use not more than 3 fonts on one single slide.

3. Design all the slides in one slyle.

4. On one single slide shoudn't be more than 40 words.

5. All information you can show in pictures and symbols - show as pictures and

symbols.

6. Do not use sharped fonts – the are bad in perceptioning information.

7. Do not overload presentation with slides, human can percept just 7 unique

slides per 20 minutes.

8. Do not duplicate on the slide what you're talking. Slide created just to

illustrate your words and fix key moments.

9. If you're presenting from the behalf of organisation, take care about desing,

which supposed to be close to other presentations.

10.Show slides to your friends and ask, what has bad visibility or not clear for

understanding.

10 tips on room preparation:1. Allocate in a way, everyone able to see you and you see everyone.

2. There should be no delegates sitting sideways or back to speaker.

3. In case of presidium supposed to be happeningm – should be on single line

with speaker or slightly ahead.

4. If there are more chairs than delegates, take care about delegates sitting tight

in first lines.

5. Remove from room everything and everyone, what is not related with your

presentation.

6. Allocate equipment in a way to make screen and flip-chart be from left side of

you.

7. Allocate furniture in a way to make your moving around the stage without risk

to touch something.

8. Speaker from his position should be able to see entrance doors.

9. Allocate chairs and people in a way to make latecomers do not disturb

anyone who came in time.

10.Select lights to make clear and visible picture on a screen.

10 tips on attracting and retention of attention:

1. Constantly keep eye contact visual contact with everybody in room.

2. From time to time ask delegates questions, even that ones which don't

require to give answer.

3. Ask to help in something from delegates.

4. Make pauses in speech.

5. Change rate of speech and volume of sound.

6. Move, gesture.

7. From time to time offer audience some action.

8. During long presentation at least every 20 minutes change kind of activity:

speak, answer for questions, show slides, spread something between

audience.

9. From time to time approach/talk to someone from audience.

10.Make breaks and ventilate room in proper time.

10 tips on posture and body language:1. Don't cross legs, don't stick them together. Body position supposed to be

sustainable – place your feet shoulder-width apart.

2. Make sure that the knees were always straight when you're standing.

3. Shift the center of gravity slightly forward.

4. Your back should be straight.

5. Make sure that your shoulders are relaxed.

6. While gesturing, keep your hands at lines above the waist.

7. Avoid tiny, nonfunctional movements of hands.

8. Do not stay on one place, move around the stage.

9. It's allowed to hold one hand in pants' pocket. But just one and just in pants'

pocket.

10.Don't hide your palms. Oftenly demonstrate them while gesturing. This

creates trust.

10 tips on answering for audience's questions:

1. While answering, answer to everyone, not only to the person who asked the

question.

2. Manage the receipt of questions by showing to whom you are giving the word.

3. Answering for question shoudn't be a lecture. Give short answer.

4. Listen question till the end, even if you know in advance what to answer. It's

useful, after listening question till the end – to think for a moment.

5. Clarify without shyness what was on someones mind when he/she asked, in

case you dont understand something.

6. Don't start answer for question from words ”no” or ”you're not right”.

7. If you're expecting hard questions, ask delegates to ask hard and sharp

questions.

8. If the questions are ended or you didn't receive any in the beginning, answer

for most frequent questions you're usually asked to start.

9. While preparing for presentation guess, what kind of questions could be given

to you and prepare answers for them.

10.Answers for audience's questions in public speaking – not an exam. If you're

not ready to answer – say about it clearly. Sincerity is more appreciated by

auduence than competencе.

10 tips on working with microphone:1. Hold mic in a way like table knife usually holded – by fingertips, without

grabbing by whole hand.

2. Keep mic on the same distance from lips and with the same angle during

whole presentation.

3. Hold mic in right hand. If you're left-handed – in left.

4. If mic fixed on tripod, udjust the height according to heigh of you before

presentation. It's better than to stay in weird posture.

5. Don't knock mic to check is it working or not. It's enough to greet audience

and you will emmediately understand can the hear you or not.

6. If you took mic from tripod, take away this tripod to the end of the stage.

7. If mic fixed on table of tribune do not lean to it.

8. It's mandatory to train speaking with switched on mic before introduction.

9. Don't step close with mic to speakers, otherwise they will whistle.

10.Remember, that wireless mic have limited recource of batteries and it will

discharge after few hours. Take care about having new batteries.

10 different tips:1. Watch the speech rate. Try to speak slower.

2. Do not get too close to audience and don't touch them.

3. If you hear conversations among audience, make a pause. When everybody

will shut up – keep speaking.

4. Watch the breath. Do not take too much air and new portion of it don't take

untill previous will be finished.

5. During presentation be strict with logic of message. Constant distractions

from topic impede keeping attention and can annoy the audience.

6. If you made mistake, don't make exuses and don't pretend that nothing

happened. Apologize without self-effacement and continue.

7. Maintain dialogue with audience.

8. Joke only in case you're good at it. But even in this case audience will not like

joke if they are in bad mood.

9. Say ”And finally …” just once.

10.Finish your presentation a bit earlier than you've planned.

LAST AND MAIN TIP:

ALWAYS PRACTICE, USE EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK PUBLICLY.

REMEMBER, FEAR DECREASING AND QUALITY INCREASING WITH EACH

SINGLE PERFORMANCE

101 Public Speaking Tips 

By Dmytro Sopronchuk   October 09, 2012