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Chapter 15
Delivering Presentations
CHAPTER OUTCOMES
• Manage your speech anxiety
• Deliver your speech in a confident manner
− Communication apprehension (CA) is a general fear of communication with others.
This hinders an effective delivery.
o Identify Anxiety Triggers, such as a past upsetting experience, fear of evaluation, and
distaste for attention.
o Build your Confidence:
pitfalls of each. Choose a delivery style that is a good fit for you and your speaking situation.
o Speaking from Manuscript is important when accurate details are essential, but it can be
boring.
o Speaking from Memory is called oratory. This does not create a spontaneous relationship
with the audience and is rarely used today.
© 2018 Bedford/St. Martin’s. All rights reserved.
o Guidelines for Effective Delivery explores the role of nonverbal channels of
communication during a speech delivery.
o Effective Vocal Delivery requires controlling a number of elements, including:
− Varying your pitch so that you avoid speaking in a monotone
− Adjusting your speaking rate (how fast or slow you speak) and volume to cue the
audience to what is important
− Using pauses for effect
− Speaking clearly and precisely, using correct pronunciation and articulation, and
avoiding mumbling
• Pronunciation is the correct formation of word sounds.
o Using effective eye behavior by scanning the audience, which allows you to make brief eye
contact with most listeners.
o Incorporating facial expressions and gestures that match your verbal message.
o Controlling your posture; positioning your feet at a distance equal to your shoulders is
known as planting.
o Take your presentation seriously.
• Effective Presentations Aids discusses ways in which speakers can supplement and enhance
their presentation.
o The Function of Presentation Aids is to supplement a speech, not substitute for it. They
should accomplish the following:
© 2018 Bedford/St. Martin’s. All rights reserved.
− Props (objects) and models (scaled objects) can help you describe things that may be
difficult to depict using only words, but they require preplanning to consider safety and
logistics.
− Media clips and images can illustrate topics difficult to capture with only words, but they
require equipment and infrastructure to use.
− Graphs and charts can assist you in delivering data to your audience; examples include
bar graphs and pie charts.
− Posters that are well done can help show complex information; they must be legible to the
− Eliminate surprises.
− Test the facilities in advance.
− Write notes to yourself.
− Rehearse any demonstrations with a partner.
− Have a backup plan.
1. Why might it be more difficult to give a good speech from a manuscript than give an
extemporaneous speech?
2. What are some ways that students can help improve their vocal deliveries?
3. What are some mistakes that people can make in using presentation aids?
4. How do accents enhance or detract from a speech?
1.
What Do Others Think?
Take a smartphone or video camera (or just take notes or use a recorder) and interview people
around campus, asking them about how they feel about public speaking. Does speaking in front
of others seem to be a top fear of people on your campus? Do your findings correlate with your
own ideas? Write a one- to two-page paper or create a video to discuss and present your
2.
Death by PowerPoint
Have you ever had an experience where a speaker’s PowerPoint presentation was ineffective?
What was bad or distracting about it? How would you suggest changing the person’s
presentation to make it more effective?
3.
Self-Critique
Use a video camera to record one of your in-class speeches. Critique yourself. What could you
do to change your presentation skills to make for a better presentation? Write a one- to two-
1. Storytelling Speech
Goal: To have students understand how manuscript speaking will harm their delivery skills
1.
Give each student a story from one of the children’s storybooks to read aloud.
2.
Have students take turns reading their stories aloud to the rest of the class. Have them try
3.
Have other students critique the readings, based on good delivery aspects learned in the
4.
After these first few attempts, have a few more students read their stories aloud. Encourage
the new set of readers to incorporate elements from the previous critiques into their
2. Be a Bad Speaker
Goal: To have students understand poor presentation/speaking skills
1.
Have volunteer students read the scripts out loud to the rest of the class in a way that
presents bad public speaking skills. For example, students might mumble, shift their weight
3. Are You Apprehensive?
2.
Students should score their PRCA.
Debriefing: Ask students to discuss the results and their feelings or reactions to their results.
Do they agree with the results? Have them list several ways to reduce communication
4. Bad PowerPoint
Goal: To have students understand how distracting PowerPoint slides (and distracting
1.
Have students watch Don McMillan’s “Life After Death by PowerPoint” presentation
(available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpvgfmEU2Ck).
5. Impromptu Speaking
Goals: To have students practice impromptu speaking in a non-graded format
Time Required: Twenty to thirty minutes
Materials: None
Directions: Have students volunteer to do an impromptu speech that is not graded. Give the
first student a topic from a list (there is a fun list at http://homeworktips.about.com/
od/speechclass/a/Impromptu-Speech-Topics.htm). Ask the first student (after about five
minutes of prep time) to give his or her speech. Before that student begins, give the second
student his or her speech topic, and so on.
Debriefing: Ask students how impromptu speaking is different from other kinds of speaking.
Ask the students who participated how they felt about doing an impromptu speech. (What was
difficult? What wasn’t?) Have students give some critiques on the presentation or organization
of the speeches. How much of this was because the speech was impromptu rather than
prepared? How might one prepare for an impromptu speech?
1. List four ways to build your confidence as a speaker.
2. What are the four methods of delivery? Describe the differences among the methods.
3. According to your textbook, what is the key to succeeding at extemporaneous speaking?
4. What advice does your textbook give for using facial expression and gestures in a speech
without looking unnatural?
5. What technique can help you not to slouch or shift around during your speech? Describe it.
6. How can you connect with your audience?
7. How could presentation aids enhance your speech?
8. What are some of the suggestions your textbook gives for practicing your speech?
© 2018 Bedford/St. Martin’s. All rights reserved.
The Greatest Speeches of All Time [DVD], published by the Nostalgia Company
(Soundworks International, 1998)
This two-volume collection offers footage of some of the greatest speeches of the modern
era from a diverse group of influential, inspiring, and controversial figures, including John
F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton as well as Martin Luther
King Jr., Barry Goldwater, and General Douglas MacArthur. Encourage students to watch
a few of these speeches in their entirety and identify key factors that make each one
effective.
An Inconvenient Truth (Paramount Classics, 2006)
We described this documentary in Chapter 12, but it is worth a look in this chapter as well.
See how Al Gore effectively uses his PowerPoint presentation without making his slide
show the center of attention.
Larry Crowne (Universal, 2011)
Larry Crowne is middle-aged and unemployed, so he enrolls in community college classes
to complete his education. He thus stumbles into a speech class taught by lovely but
anguished Mercedes Tainot. Romantic comedy ensues, but along the way, Larry Crowne
illustrates the process by which Larry prepares a speech about his world travels. The film
addresses connecting with your audience, effective vocal delivery, public speaking anxiety
(PSA), and other topics. Discuss with students the personal enrichment that comes from
successfully delivering a speech or presentation, while also helping students articulate
when and why they experience PSA.
Ronald Reagan: The Great Speeches (The Nostalgia Company, 2004)
This video compilation of Reagan’s most popular speeches can also be used to demonstrate
effective delivery. Have students watch two of his speeches and compare the delivery style
in each. Have them consider whether different audiences might cause delivery changes.
Sex and the City (HBO, 2004) “An American Girl in Paris, Part Une”
Chosen to speak at a breast cancer awareness event, outspoken Samantha struggles to come
up with an inspiring speech. Midway through her prepared speech—sweating through a
chemotherapy-induced hot flash—she tosses her notes, yanks off her wig, and speaks
bluntly and honestly about the everyday challenges patients face while fighting the disease.
Her exasperated gesture prompts the many cancer survivors in the audience to stand up,
wigs removed, in a moment of sincere and heartfelt solidarity—a great illustration of the
value of sincerity and authenticity in an inspirational speech. Give students the chance to
share their reactions. Discuss the pros and cons of speaking openly about emotionally
charged issues.
Thank You for Smoking (Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2006)
This is the film version of Christopher Buckley’s 1994 novel satirizing the lobbying
industry. Nick Naylor “talks for a living” on behalf of the cigarette industry. A talented
speaker with a gift for turning arguments around on people, Naylor is so proud of what he
does and how well he does it that he takes his twelve-year-old son with him on business
trips to teach him the craft. The film is a scathing yet lighthearted parody of spin doctors
and the power of public speaking. Discuss the different techniques Naylor uses as part of
his “spin” and what makes them effective or ineffective.
© 2018 Bedford/St. Martin’s. All rights reserved.
Famous Speeches and Audio (History, 2017)
This is a collection of speeches and audio from the History Channel. They are short
speeches and clips with historical significance, from the Watergate scandal of the 1970s to
the 9/11 attacks. Students can browse a wide-ranging set of categories to view speeches
and analyze them. http://www.history.com/speeches
