by Mike Perry

Created on: October 30, 2006   Last Updated: May 02, 2007

Maybe you are one of the lucky ones, but making a speech or giving a presentation still gives me the jitters, even though I have done many over the years. My heart will start to thump away like mad and my voice often goes a little shaky when I start out. Nevertheless, like most things in life, this nervousness can be overcome and most of us can put on a decent performance, providing we prepare properly and follow a few basic steps.

For example, I always learn my opening paragraph by heart but still write this out in full. I then start off by reading this from my cards or papers. This allows my voice time to settle down and the familiarity of the words helps to ease my nerves. Once the opening paragraph is out of the way I move on to just using notes for the rest of my talk. By then I'm usually fairly in control. A speech doesn't sound right if you simply read continuously, word for word, from what you have written down.

I'm probably getting a bit ahead of myself, so I'll start at the beginning of preparing for a presentation of some kind. Traditionally they are expected to have an introduction, a middle and an ending. This may sound obvious but watch a lot of inexperienced speakers and you will see how they do not always follow this format. Everything can then turn into a jumble, with no real flow or continuity and often you can't be quite sure when they have actually finished, other than everything goes quiet!

Let's look at these three parts:-

#1 Introduction ~ This is where you tell 'em what you are going to say.

#2 Middle or Main Body ~ Now you tell 'em

#3 Ending or Summary ~ And finally you tell 'em what you said.

To balance a talk properly 10% of your allotted time should be for the introduction, 80% for the main body and the final 10% for your summary. A thirty minute talk, for example, would have 3 minutes allocated to both the intro and summary and 24 minutes for the main body. It is always preferable to finish a minute or two earlier than to overrun your time.

Many speakers find it difficult to guage their time. As a rough guide the speed ought not to drop below 120 words or exceed 150 words per minute, other than in exceptional circumstances.

#1 Introduction

Firstly a look at the introduction for the presentation (i.e. tell 'em what you are going to say). Some suggestions:-

I ~ Start with something which is particularly Interesting or unusual, something your audience may not be expecting. Try and think of a way to grab their attention

N ~ Demonstrate the 'N'eed

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