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Chapter 15
Delivery
What you’ll know:
• Some of the symptoms and causes of public speaking apprehension
• Several techniques you can use to manage public speaking apprehension
• Pros and cons of different delivery methods
What you’ll be able to do:
• Engage in productive speech rehearsals
• Use your voice effectively when giving a speech
• Use your body effectively when giving a speech
• Use presentational aids effectively during your speech
• Evaluate speech effectiveness
Chapter Outline
I. Public Speaking Apprehension: a type of communication anxiety that reflects the level of fear a
person experiences when anticipating, or actually speaking to, an audience
A. Symptoms and causes
1. Signs and symptoms vary from person to person
2. Symptoms include physical, emotional, and cognitive reactions
3. Anticipation reaction: the level of anxiety you experience prior to giving the speech
4. Confrontation reaction: the surge in your anxiety level you feel as you begin your speech
5. Adaptation reaction: the gradual decline of your anxiety level that begins about one
minute into the presentation
6. Negative reinforcement from the past may increase apprehension
7. Many of us may become nervous because of underdeveloped skills
II. Effective Delivery Style
A. Conversational: an informal style of presenting a speech so that your audience feels you are
talking with them, not at them
B. Animated: lively and dynamic
C. Spontaneity: a naturalness that seems unrehearsed and un-memorized
III. Use of Voice
A. Intelligibly: be sure listeners can understand you
IV. Use of Body
A. Appearance
1. Consider the audience and the occasion
2. Consider your topic and purpose
3. Avoid extremes
B. Posture: the position or bearing of the body
C. Poise: refers to assurance of manner
D. Eye contact: looking at the audience
1. Helps the audience concentrate
2. Increases the audience’s confidence in you
3. Helps you respond to audience feedback
E. Facial expressions: eye and mouth movement
F. Gestures: movements of your hands, arms, and fingers that describe and emphasize what you
are saying
G. Movement: motion of the entire body
VI. Rehearsals: Practicing the Presentation of Your Speech Aloud
A. Preparing speaking notes: a word or phrase outline of the speech put onto note cards, plus
hard-to-remember information such as quotations and statistics
B. Handling presentational aids: visuals must be handled well to avoid problems
1. Carefully plan when to use presentational aids
2. Consider audience needs carefully
3. Position presentational aids and equipment before beginning your speech
4. Reveal a presentational aid only when talking about it
5. Display presentational aids so that everyone in the audiences can see and hear them
6. Reference the presentational aid during the speech
7. Talk to your audience, not to the presentational aid
8. Resist the temptation to pass objects through the audience
C. Rehearsing and refining delivery
1. First practice
a. Record (audio or video) yourself giving your speech
b. Read through your outline before delivering the speech and then put the outline out of
sight and practice the speech using only note cards
c. Mimic actual speech conditions
d. Write down the time that you begin
e. Begin speaking
f. Write down the time that you end and calculate the length of the speech.
2. Analysis
a. Listen to or watch your tape
b. Check your outline
c. Consider changes to improve your speech
3. Second practice
a. Immediately follows analysis and first practice
b. Make adjustments
4. Additional practices
a. Practice two times and then put the speech away for the day; it is possible to over-
rehearse
b. Consider practicing right before bed
c. The number of times you should practice depends on many variables
V. Adapting While Delivering the Speech
VI. Evaluating Speeches
A. Content: speech goal, high-quality information, variety of developmental material, appropriate
visual aids, adaptation
B. Organization: introduction, conclusions, meaningful points, clear transitions
C. Presentation: language clarity, vividness, emphasis, enthusiasm; vocal expressiveness,
fluency, spontaneity, eye contact, pronunciation, articulation, poise, posture, gestures
Discussion and Assignment Ideas
I. Quotes: These can be used to introduce topics, question perspectives, or gain individual opinion.
Providing students with a quote and prompting them to write or reflect on their personal feelings
about the quote can help to spark discussion and interest. Suggested prompts may include “Define this
concept in your own words”; “Do you agree with this statement? Explain”; “What text material can be
used to support or refute this idea?”
Think you can, think you can’t; either way you’ll be right.
—Henry Ford
Technology Resources
Access cengagebrain.com to find Web Links: Body Motions and Audience Attention. After reading the
article, do you recognize any of your habitual body motions that you would like to change? Can you
think of any other body motions that you would like to add that aren’t mentioned in the article?
Movies
The King’s Speech (2010)
Rated: R (Biography, Drama, History)
Synopsis: The story of King George VI of Britain, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the
speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it, The King’s Speech deals with
heavy speech apprehension and anxiety. Specifically noting the extenuation of communication
apprehension in high stress situations.
Questions for discussion
1. Of the many embarrassing and troubling moments, which is the most monumental and important
for King George?
2. Why is King George’s speech therapist helpful? What helpful (and hurtful) advice does the
therapist offer?
3. What is the breakthrough moment for King George? Could he have achieved this moment without
speech apprehension?
Executive Edge: Presentation Skills (1998)
Additional suggested movies: Conquering Communication Anxiety (1998) (managing anxiety)
Other Media Resources
Skills and Competency
Please refer to the core text for a prompt to Web Resource 14.1: Visualizing Your Success. The
following visualization exercise can also be found in the Communicate! online textbook resources.
Visualization Exercise
I want you to get really comfortable. If you are sitting, uncross your legs and let your arms relax in
your lap. If you can lie down on your back, please do so now. Lie flat with your legs uncrossed and
your arms lying comfortably at your side. Close your eyes. Let the tension drain from your face. Feel
your facial muscles relaxing. Relax your jaw. Let your eyes sink toward the back of your head. Feel
the tension drain out of your neck . . . shoulders . . . abdomen. Relax your arms. Open your fingers
and let them relax. Feel the tension drain from your back muscles. Release your hip sockets. Feel your
legs muscles relax. Unlock your knees. Let the tension drain from your calves . . . your ankles . . .
your toes.
Focus your attention on your breathing. Slowly inhale . . . exhale . . . inhale . . . exhale . . . inhale.
Now I want you to visualize how you are going to prepare for this speech. It’s about ten days before you
are to give your speech. See yourself choosing a topic that you are personally passionate and
knowledgeable about. How do you feel? Excited? Confident? [PAUSE]
Now picture yourself learning about your audience, studying their demographics, finding out how
much they know about your topic, deciding what they need to learn. Imagine learning about the
occasion of your speech. What is expected of you on this occasion? How will the physical set-up of the
room and the size of your audience effect what you do? Think about how you have chosen your
speech goal based on what you have learned. How do you feel? Are you looking forward to helping your
audience understand more about this topic? Picture yourself developing a strategy for how you will adapt
to this particular audience. [PAUSE]
Now see yourself gathering the information you need. See yourself searching databases, reading
articles, scanning websites, and making note cards for the information you are finding. [PAUSE]
Next, imagine yourself identifying the three or four main ideas you want to share with your audience. See
yourself writing them in full sentences. Now picture yourself deciding on the order in which you will
present these ideas, figuring out how to move from one point to the other. [PAUSE]
Now visualize choosing the statistics, illustrations, and examples from your research that are
appropriate to this audience and that will develop each of these points. [PAUSE]
When you have finished thinking about the body of your speech, begin to consider the introduction.
See yourself creating three different interesting introductions, and then choosing one you know will
capture the interest of your audience and lead smoothly into the body of your speech. [PAUSE]
Now imagine yourself creating three different conclusions, each of which summarizes your main ideas
and leaves the audience with a final thought that will cement your speech thesis in their minds. See
yourself choosing the best of these conclusions and using it in your speech. [PAUSE]
Now visualize writing your speech outline, carefully constructing full and meaningful sentences. Marvel at
how well you have managed to organize your ideas. [PAUSE]
It’s now three days before you are to speak. See yourself practicing your speech out loud, playing with
different ways to phrase your ideas. Notice how after each run-through you work on a section of your
speech that was rough, correcting any errors you made, editing your speaking notes to add mental
prompts or deleting unneeded notes, adjusting the length of your supporting material for each main
idea so that you meet time expectations. See yourself smoothly using the visual aids you have
planned. [PAUSE]
It’s the day before you are to speak. Enjoy watching yourself as you flawlessly deliver your speech in
your final practice run-through. [PAUSE]
Now see yourself entering the room in which you will speak. You’re relaxed, composed, and looking
forward to sharing your ideas with your audience. You enjoy talking with several people before class
begins. Take your seat and confidently wait for your turn to speak. Feel how pleased you feel to have this
chance to share what you have planned with your audience. Remind yourself of why your
audience needs to hear this information. [PAUSE]
It’s time. Feel the little kick of adrenalin . . . smile, relax. You know that you’re just feeling a little
edge that will help you be animated and alert as you speak. Picture yourself walking confidently to the
front of your audience. As you take your place, stop. Quickly scan your notes. Look up and see your
audience looking at you expectantly. As you look back at them, you smile to help them relax. You take a
deep breath and begin your well-rehearsed introduction. You deliver it smoothly and your audience is
engaged in what you are saying.
As you transition to your first main point, see yourself really focused on having a deep conversation with
your audience. As you finish your second point, you notice quizzical looks on the faces of several audience
members, so you explain your point again and offer another short example. Heads begin to nod in
comprehension, so you move on to your final point. Look at how actively your audience is
listening to what you are saying.
As you smoothly finish your final point, you begin your well-planned conclusion. As you make your
final comments, notice how attentive the audience is. Visualize their applause. Smile. Relax. They got it.
Your hard work and careful planning paid off. You were awesome!
Chapter Activities
15.1: Impromptu Speaking
Purpose: To give students further practice in preparing short speeches with minimal preparation
time
Time: 40 minutes
Process: Create a list of topics (or, alternatively, provocative quotations). Write each topic on a
strip of paper, one topic per strip, and put the strips into a manila envelope. Ask for a
student volunteer to draw two topics from the envelope, select one, and take three
minutes to prepare a three-minute speech. Just before the first person starts
speaking, have a second person draw two topics. This second person, and each
subsequent speaker, also has three minutes to prepare a three-minute speech and does
so while the previous speaker is giving his or her speech.
At the end of five speeches, have the class discuss what they considered the strengths of
each speech in terms of delivery and organization.
15.2: Vocal Variety
Purpose: To give students practice using vocal variety in their speaking
Time: 30 minutes
Process: Divide the class into pairs and instruct each pair to write the following words on strips
of paper, one word per strip. Students should then fold each strip in half so that the
word is inside. Then they should mix all of the strips together in a manila envelope.
Here are the words: anger, love, happiness, joy, excitement, fear, sadness, anxiety,
Journal Assignments
A. Communication Apprehension
Make a list of all the fears you have related to speech presentation. Order them on a continuum from
least feared to most feared. Decide which fears are preventable and describe how they could be
prevented. For the unpreventable fears, decide what you will do it they occur.
