5 Don’ts in Public Speaking
Here are some things you need to avoid in public speaking.
1.Don’t be timid.
Wilma Cruz-Tapalla in her book Public Speaking and Personality Development says it perfectly: “The timid individual always suffers from the illusion that everyone is seeking to criticize his faults. Timidity makes him self-conscious and awkward – awkward in carriage, awkward in speech, awkward in expression.” Do not be too conscious that your every action comes crazily calculated. Granted, you are afraid to commit mistakes but the irony is, the more you act too carefully the more you tend to make errors. An antidote to this is the mind set that everyone stumbles in their speeches once in awhile and that it is ok to make tolerable mistakes.
2.Don’t laugh at your mistakes.
In public speaking, giggling at your mistakes is like a self-destructing act. My choir teacher back in college told us that when you laugh at your mistake in the middle of a presentation, it is like announcing to the crowd: “I messed up!” It is like putting your own index finger and thumb resembling the shape of the letter “L” on your forehead. It does nothing but worsen the harm done. One good thing to do is maintain your composure and your confidence and go on with your speech. Apologizing for mistakes that are tiny enough for your audience to understand is unnecessary. Except perhaps for mispronouncing a name of, let’s say, a very important guest.
3. Don’t talk monotonously.
When the tone and volume of your voice barely changes, you are in monotone and are therefore boring. In public speaking, the volume of your voice should be changing; amplified to convey strong points; softened to evoke ideas of calmness, peace, subtleness, gentleness, aloneness or the like. It is unnecessary to talk with a loud voice the whole duration of your public speaking engagement. You will just come out annoying. Your voice should be loud enough for the last person sitting or standing at the last row to hear you properly and clearly. There should also be an attitude in your voice. This is where tone gets in. If a line in your speech suggests emotions like sadness, depression, anger, sympathy, disappointment, joy or any humanly feelings, then your audience should know it basically by the tone of your voice. Your tone should match that what you are actually saying.
4. Don’t over do your gestures.
Gestures are done for emphasis. Do not try to put a designated motion to every idea in your speech. Overdoing is not emphasis at all.
Arsenia B. Tan in his book Public Speaking and Speech Improvement said:
…every gesture should be a part of the whole body reaction to the thought presented: hence, every gesture and thought should be one only…gestures spontaneously created must be an integral part of communication. Otherwise, if the gesture represents one thing and the voice says another, then no meaning is seen by the audience and the purpose is lost.
If gestures are not needed for a certain moment then put your hands in a rest on your side.
5. Don’t be stationary.
You need to move, unless you are speaking in an intensely formal setting and supposed to stand behind a fixed podium. Being still majority of the time, worse, the whole time, could suggests timidity which was earlier expressed as a no-no. Moving around while speaking is a good exercise for your audience’s eyes. One way also to regain their attention – when you move, their eyes follow you. When you notice a certain area in the crowd is becoming inattentive or noisy, slowly move towards that area and be surprised with the result. Make sure your move is not so intimidating. Remember that public speaking is more on pleasing and satisfying your audience, not making them uncomfortable in anyway.
Category: Public Speaking
