318
Chapter 15
Delivering Your Speech
CHAPTER OUTCOMES
• Learn how to deliver a speech effectively
• Examine ways to connect with your audience
• Explore ideas for managing speech anxiety
• Discover the process for selecting and using presentation aids
• Understand how to evaluate others’ speeches and use feedback to improve your own
presentation skills
CHAPTER OUTLINE
MODES FOR DELIVERING SPEECHES
You can start “Step 4: Rehearse” by considering how you will actually give your speech. Will
you have time to adequately prepare? How heavily (if at all) will you rely on notes? Will
factors such as the setting, situation, or audience influence your presentation? Questions like
IMPROMPTU SPEAKING
• Impromptu speaking is when you are making public remarks with little or no time for
preparation or rehearsal. There are six ways you can handle impromptu speaking:
319
○ Anticipate, as much as possible, occasions where you might be asked to say something.
○ Keep your message brief, and don’t apologize for being unprepared. No one expects you
to give a long, detailed speech on a moment’s notice.
○ Identify a central point you want to make, and provide two or three illustrative points or
facts to back you up.
MANUSCRIPT SPEAKING
• Manuscript speaking is when your speech is based on a written text that you either read
word for word or commit to memory. This type of speaking allows you to correctly state
more intricate, emotional language and phrases. It is best used in formal situations that
usually require a speaker to carefully craft a message with polished or poetic language.
Examples are political speeches, commencement addresses, and ceremonies.
• Manuscript speaking has three drawbacks:
320
○ Using a manuscript makes it difficult to adapt to your audience. If you sense your
listeners need an additional example to understand a point you’re making, you might find
it hard to deviate from your script and provide that example.
EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING
• Extemporaneous speaking includes elements of both manuscript and impromptu speaking:
a structured preparation outline and a delivery outline. The resulting speech sounds more
conversational than it would if you read from or memorized a manuscript.
○ A conversational tone is similar to a casual conversation; it uses a natural, spoken
MANAGING YOUR SPEECH DELIVERY
“Step 4: Rehearse” isn’t only about the delivery mode you will use. Practicing your delivery
will help you feel more comfortable and confident, fostering a sense of closeness and gaining
the respect of your listeners. If you seem distant or lack confidence, your audience may not pay
attention to your message.
• Immediacy is a sense of closeness that your audience feels toward you as a speaker; it is
321
CONVEYING IMMEDIACY
• You can create a sense of immediacy by adopting an oral language style, which uses words
that are similar to how people talk, when delivering your speech.
○ An oral language style of delivery differs radically from a written language style, which
is usually more formal and detailed vocabulary and results from composing a manuscript
speech or writing an overly detailed delivery outline.
• You also connect with your audience through the following nonverbal behaviors:
○ Vocal characteristics create a sense of closeness or distance with the audience. When
delivering your speech, consider how these three features will help you connect with
listeners:
▪ Your vocal pitch is the high and low registers of your voice that vary with your
emotions. In ordinary conversation, when you’re excited, your pitch rises; when you’re
▪ Vocal tone is the richness and sound quality of your voice; it also varies during natural
conversations. People who don’t vary their vocal pitch and vocal tone during a
conversation or public presentation are speaking in monotone, which doesn’t create a
sense of immediacy. A monotone delivery bores an audience, giving the impression
you don’t care about what you are saying.
▪ Vocal rate refers to how rapidly you speak; it also determines immediacy. Ideally,
speakers deliver their messages at 140–175 words per minute. Don’t worry too much
322
○ Eye contact shows attention, interest, affection, and even aggression; during a
presentation, it signals your interest and desire to connect with your audience.
▪ Spend two to three seconds looking at listeners in one section of your audience, then
spend the same amount of time looking at listeners in another section, and so on,
throughout your speech.
▪ Watch out for two common mistakes:
2. Making eye contact with only those listeners who are the most interested and
supportive
▪ Listeners who don’t receive eye contact will feel ignored. Be sure to make your eye
contact random so it feels natural and spontaneous. If you simply scan the room back
and forth, it feels staged and diminishes the sense of closeness.
▪ For online presentations without an audience, look straight at the camera as though
you were talking to a close friend.
○ Facial expressions can tell your audience how strongly you feel about your message and
reinforce your feelings about the message, strengthening the connection with your
audience. They should naturally arise from your feelings about specific points you’re
making in the speech.
▪ As you compose your speech, take time to critically self-reflect about your feelings
○ Gestures and body posture also reveal the intensity of your involvement with your topic
and thus affect the degree of immediacy your audience feels. You naturally use your
hands and move your body to help you describe something or tell a story; but often, when
you give a speech, nervousness can cause your gestures to be awkward, stilted, or even
nonexistent.
▪ Some manage nervousness through adaptive gestures, such as fidgeting, twirling their
hair, or fiddling with their jewelry. Even your posture is more likely to become stiff or
you may stand stationary, causing you to sway back and forth. Any of these changes
▪ When rehearsing your speech, focus on proper posture and practice specific gestures,
such as pointing, to emphasize main points or to reinforce your visual aids.
○ Personal Space. Presentations often involve the use of a lectern or simply occur at a
physical distance known as public space, a distance of 12 feet or more apart. Although
large distances between the speaker and the audience may reduce a sense of immediacy,
1. Only move to emphasize a key point or when transitioning to another point in your
speech.
324
PROJECTING A POWERFUL SPEECH STYLE
• During a presentation, your choice of language and other nonverbal behaviors can gain or
lose the respect of your audience. Scholars have found that expressions of power enhance
perceptions of a speaker’s competence through the following:
○ Language. Avoid the common mistake of using powerless language that suggests
you’re uncertain about your message or yourself. Examples include the following:
○ Vocal delivery can also project confidence or uncertainty; it influences how your
audience perceives you. Consider these four aspects of vocal delivery:
▪ Vocal volume is how loudly or quietly you speak. Speaking too softly can make it
hard for listeners to hear you and may cause them to doubt your confidence and
credibility. If you speak too loudly, your audience may see you as overbearing. You
want to talk just loudly enough for people sitting in the back row to hear you.
▪ Poor articulation can cause your audience to misunderstand what you’re saying.
325
▪ Avoid overusing vocalized pauses and fillers. Researchers have found that frequent
occurrence of such hesitations in a presentation leads to a negative impression of a
○ Dress and physical appearance can build or undermine the impression you make on an
audience. If you want your audience to take you seriously, you should look the part.
○ Here are a few points to remember:
▪ Avoid dressing as though you’re headed to the beach, to sleep, or to the dance club.
▪ Remove chewing gum.
▪ Don’t wearing “noisy” jewelry, sunglasses, flip-flops, or a baseball cap.
MANAGING YOUR DELIVERY IN ONLINE SPEECHES
• When delivering an online speech, you want to ensure that your audience stays tuned in to
your message by conveying immediacy and projecting a powerful speech style.
• Keep in mind these suggestions when making an online presentation:
○ Make sure the camera is properly adjusted by focusing the lens to a medium close-up
326
○ Be expressive with your face, eyes, and voice. Even if your audience can’t see your facial
expressions, using your nonverbal communication will help your vocal expressiveness.
○ Avoid excessive gesturing and body movements that could be distracting.
○ Use presentation software and other visual aids to help keep your audience engaged.
MANAGING SPEECH ANXIETY
• Speech anxiety, or being nervous about speaking in public, is a common experience for
many people because no one wants to lose face or become embarrassed in a public setting.
Letting your nerves take over can undermine all the time you spend rehearsing.
• Self-fulfilling prophecies are predictions you make about interactions that lead you to
communicate in ways that make those predictions come true. Studies have shown that
people who experience high levels of anxiety about giving a speech often have thoughts
such as “I’m really going to blow this!” Once you start thinking like this, it is likely to
happen.
• Although there is no “magic pill” cure, there are several strategies to help reduce the
nervousness associated with public speaking. Here are some suggestions to try:
○ Look for opportunities to speak up in large groups. Make comments and ask questions
327
comfortable and confident if you are familiar with the room setup.
○ Expect the unexpected. Try to plan ahead for things that might go wrong so you won’t
have to make last-minute, under-pressure decisions. Being prepared for such
“unexpected” events will help boost your confidence overall.
○ Know your introduction. During the first few minutes of a speech, your nervousness
○ Use visualization techniques. Visualization is effective in reducing pre-speech jitters. To
visualize a successful presentation, follow these steps:
1. Relax your body through deep, concentrated breathing.
3. Imagine yourself successfully presenting.
4. Visualize yourself getting praise from your audience and others after the speech.
CHOOSING AND USING PRESENTATION AIDS
Incorporating visual support for your ideas will enhance your speech. These aids not only help
keep your audience’s attention: they can also help them understand complex points. But not
just any image or slide will do. Selecting the right visuals and rehearsing with them is the key
to improving your delivery.
328
TYPES OF PRESENTATION AIDS
• Whiteboards and flip charts allow you to write or show key ideas while you deliver your
speech.
○ Creating your visual aid as you present gives you the ability to interact with your
audience: you have the flexibility to address a specific audience’s needs or produce a
record of their responses.
○ Drawbacks include the need to have clear, visible handwriting and the need to break eye
• Handouts can help your listeners follow steps in a process or remember important
information, but they may become a major distraction if handed out during a presentation. If
you decide to use handouts, give careful thought to how much information to put on them,
and consider distributing them after your speech.
• Physical objects or props sometimes make it easier to explain an idea to your audience. An
advantage of using physical objects is that they can have more visual impact than a two-
dimensional diagram or photograph. Physical objects provide a novel experience for your
audience, giving them something to focus on beyond your words.
○ If you decide to use physical objects, be sure to consider the following:
▪ Consider your presentation space. Will everyone be able to see your prop?
329
▪ Is the object prohibited on campus?
• Posters. Although increasingly rare in our digital age, posters are another form of
presentation aid. The main advantage of using posters is that you’re not dependent on
electrical or technical support for your presentation because all you need is an easel or a
wall for displaying them. Posters are usually best for displaying charts, graphs, or other
visual information. If you choose to use posters in a speech, remember two things:
• Videos. Either from the Internet or from content created by the speaker, videos are
commonly included in presentations. A major benefit of video is that it will grab your
audience’s attention. Yet effectively integrating video clips takes planning and practice.
Remember to do the following:
○ Make sure that you can quickly access the required video clip.
• Presentation software such as PowerPoint is still widely used in presentations because it
makes it easy to import graphics to your slides to achieve a highly professional, polished
look. By providing key points or summary information on your slides, you can help the
audience follow your presentation. Avoid letting presentation slides come between you and
your listeners and thus undermining your immediacy or powerful speech style.
○ Avoid the following common design pitfalls:
330
▪ Too small of text
▪ Hard-to-read fonts
▪ Too many bullet points
▪ Overwhelming colors and images
TIPS FOR USING PRESENTATION AIDS
• No matter what presentation aids you decide to use, keep the following tips in mind while
preparing, rehearsing, and delivering your speech:
○ Know how to use your media. While composing and rehearsing your speech, spend time
with the presentation aids you’re going to be using, if possible in the same setting where
you’ll be giving your presentation. You can damage your credibility by fumbling with
your slides or not knowing how to properly handle any physical objects you brought.
○ Prepare your audience for what they’re about to see or hear. Take time to introduce any
slide or handout you present, especially if it contains complex information.
○ Thoroughly explain the information on a presentation aid. Whether you’re introducing a
○ Remove the presentation aid once you’re done with it. After you’ve made your point with
a presentation aid, cover it up, remove it from the screen, or erase the image. You want
your audience attending to you as you move to your next point, not mulling over a
EVALUATING SPEECHES AND MANAGING FEEDBACK
Rehearsing your speech is not a solitary activity. Getting feedback from others about your
speech and delivery provides vital information you can use to complete the last part of your
speech preparation—“Step 5: Revise.” You’ll use feedback to make any necessary changes to
the presentation as well as to improve your public speaking skills over the long term.
GIVING EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK
• Actively listening to and evaluating other speakers will help you improve your own public
speaking skills. Feedback is most useful when it’s delivered soon after a rehearsal or the
actual presentation and is specific—whether it’s praise or criticism. When providing
feedback to others, keep the following five guidelines in mind:
1. Make sure the recipient is ready to hear what you have to say. Timing is everything when
2. Start with positive comments. Find and articulate the strengths of the presentation to