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I did well at public speaking. I have these pointers, which you must do your very best to believe in. They address the illusions you will set up for yourself when you're up there:
1) No one but you knows how nervous you are. I'm serious. Every voice quaver, every stammer, every missed vowel you might make might sound like explosions in your ears, but they are basically unnoticeable to the audience. If you think you sound nervous, keep in mind that no one else can hear it--that will hopefully keep you from getting into a stage fright feedback loop.
2) Long pauses are nowhere near as long as you think they are. You can try this in normal conversation. Be speaking, and during a point it's obvious you're not done, stop talking for a moment. Take a breath, stroke your beard, stare penetratingly, whatever, for what seems like faaaar too long, and then continue speaking. It turns out it was probably two or three seconds, and that is a perfectly reasonable pause. Therefore, by all means, pause between sentences to collect your wits; give a ridiculous (to you) pause between paragraphs if you like. Take as much time as you need--that can keep you from doing an unwitting impression of the speedreader of legalese on the radio.
3) An audience genuinely wants you to be good. Audiences hope for a good speech, so they prepare to listen. They don't start by crossing your arms and going, "Alright, boyo, impress me or I'm falling asleep in 10 seconds, 9, 8, ..." And as has been mentioned earlier, this is the most sympathetic audience that you can possibly have. They will forgive any mistakes in reading--in fact, those mistakes will likely be charming, and taken for an upwelling of emotion. Even if your speech is dreadful, the audience will politely smile and pretend it's not. Do not underestimate this--I attended a wedding in which one speaker (not the best man, a relative) managed to bring up genocide, and the guests quite successfully avoided showing just what bad taste this was. If you can get THAT audience to dislike your speech, you will be one of the great rhetoricians of all time.
I hope some of that helps, and good luck! |
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