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Did you know that 90% of what you speak about will be forgotten within 60 minutes? In fact, people retain only 5% of what they hear in lectures. You can practice what this writer calls "The 5 Bees of Public Speaking" as tips on effective public speaking:

1) Be Organized
2) Be Passionate
3) Be Natural
4) Be Understanding
5) Be Prepared

These steps are absolutely important and necessary to be a great public speaker. But in order to improve your public speaking, each speech (or lecture, talk, meeting introduction, or any form of speaking) must have a clear cut purpose.

The purpose of this article is to provide specific questions to ask before you write and prepare your speech. If there is is just one thing you remember from these questions it should be the first question: What is your purpose of giving the speech?

So many speakers walk into a speech with the subject. They present the subject. But they do not have an underlying purpose of why they are sharing the subject with their audience.

The 6 questions are:

1. Your Purpose
2. Your Vision
3. Your Goal
4. Your Motivation
5. Your Plan
6. Your Strategy

By understanding 'your purpose' you can deliver a directed message more efficiently and effectively, thus, improving your public speaking.

1. Your Purpose

"I have a dream..." Martin Luther King, Jr.

Why are you delivering your speech? Be prepared to know what you want to impress upon your audience. Know the one clear cut thing that you want them to remember from the speech. If you are giving 10 different points on a particular subject, discover the one thing you want your audience to remember and make that your purpose of giving the speech. Then share that purpose with your audience.

2. Your Vision

"I believe in action on all fronts by whatever means necessary." Malcolm X's "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech.

What is the end result. Share your vision and what motivated it. If it is important to you, and this importance is made by 'your purpose', then it will be more important to them. The end result will be information that they themselves can also see.

3. Your Goals

"Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion." Woodrow Wilson's War Message.

What do you plan to do? What do you want to do? How can you make it unique? If you can answer these three questions in your speech, your audience will be able to identify with your purpose. They see your goals, identify with them, and understand

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