Message Factors in Speech Communication

Delivery style, inclusions and omissions, organization, length, repetition, visual aids, complexity, positive or negative appeal, speed of delivery.

Organization

In general a presentation should be well organized because people desire a clear framework hang on to. At the very least, a speech should have a clear beginning, middle, and end, and the speaker should signal those parts in some way. For more on organizat ion, read Chapters 8, 9, and 10 of your class textbook.

Delivery

For a discussion of delivery, read Chapter 12 of your textbook. In general, although there are many different styles, good delivery does not call attention to itself. The best style of delivery is no style at all--in the sense that it does not detract fro m the message.

The formost rule is to not read from a manuscript. It's boring. Although inexperienced speakers feel they need the manuscript as a crutch, it is more of a straight-jacket than a crutch. Instead, use a key word/idea outline, and know your subject well enou gh to talk about it without notes. It may be alright for the President of the United States to read a policy statement because the statement might influence markets and government around the world and must be accurate, but for most other speaking situatio ns, reading is forbidden. Remember, the first rule of communication is to get and keep your audience's attention. If you are reading a stumbling monotone with no eye contact or dynamics, you can only send your audience off into the realm of daydreams.

Neither should you memorize your speech. Commonly, the first thing that happens is that the speaker forgets a line, gets flustered, breaks into a cold sweat, and fogets the rest of the speech. If that doesn't occur, he/she usually reads it from some imagi nary teleprompter suspended overhead. Usually, the teleprompter of the mind goes dead, and so does the speech.

Practice your speech, but not to much. Remember that you should be communicating ideas, not words. Practice enough so that you have the ideas down. The words will follow. Keep your key word outline handy as a map or guide incase you get lost. The key word outline should be on 4 X 5 cards, and should have only one or two points per card. That way you won't get lost in a mass of print. Just put the top card on the bottom and the next card is where you are suppose to be.

Vocal Dynamics

Good speeches have a rythmn and flow. A flat monotonic voice is fine if you're a hypnotist putting someone to sleep. However, your job is to keep your audience awake. Key words need to be accented (emphasized) as in a piece of music. Speeches need to get louder, get quieter, speed up, slow down, have low pitch, have high pitch. A speech should be like a musical composition. To understand what I mean, listen to M. L. King's "I Have A Dream" speech for the music of speech only. Forget the meaning of the wor ds, just listen to the dynamics, the way the speech builds and comes to a climax.

Nonverbal Communication

Nervousness is a big problem for novice speakers. Thus, we get all kinds of distracting mannerisms: dancing, fidgeting, scratching, jerking. Each person must identify his/her particular quirk and eliminate it. This can be done by watching a video of onese lf so that he/she becomes aware of the distracting mannerism. After that, the speaker must do my "ah" exercise to eliminate the mannerism.

Deciding when and if to gesture is another problem confronting the novice speaker. The rule is to be natural. Let gestures come if they come, but do not intentionally attempt to gesture if doing so short circuits your thinking about the message. Natural g estures are desireable, unnatural ones, a distraction.

Eye contact is an important way to maintain credibility and to engage your audience. Look at various people in the audience. Don't look over their heads. We know when people are really not looking at us. Don't look at the teacher exclusively. Gain eye co ntact with every single person in the audience if possible.

Return to Home Page