So far, we have covered tools used by actors to train one’s instrument (body and voice) to support performance. We have learned to analyze the given circumstances of a speech occasion by asking who, what, where, when, and why. Additionally, we learned about the different modes of speech delivery. In this chapter, you’ll learn about the transition from speechwriting to rehearsal and delivery of your speech.

Once you have been given a specific speech occasion you’ll be speaking at, determined the relevant given circumstances, and decided on your mode of delivery, you’re ready to begin the writing process. We will cover speechwriting in the next chapters. For now, we will continue to focus on delivery by assuming you have a speech written. How do you go from words on a page to a public presentation?

When approaching a speech, keep in mind the old maxim “practice and preparation prevent poor performance.”

Creating a Delivery Document

Speakers will almost always have a printed document to speak from unless they are using a teleprompter or have memorized a speech. We can call this document the delivery document. The form of the delivery document you create depends on your delivery mode: impromptu, manuscript, or extemporaneous.

Impromptu Mode

The impromptu mode is a speech for which you have very little time for preparation. It follows then, that you’ll likely not have time to prepare a delivery document. That said, if you have time to write down a few ideas, it will be helpful to you.

Manuscript Mode

If your delivery mode is manuscript, you should have the entire text in front of you. Remember that a speech manuscript is a word-for-word rendering of your speech text. It’s typically printed, although it could be handwritten. Unlike an essay that is meant to be read by others, your speech manuscript is for your eyes only. That means you can and should format it to be as helpful as possible for your presentation. Some of the formatting techniques you can use:

• Print a larger typeface to make it easier to read, 14-point font or above
• Leave extra-wide margins, and double space your text
• Use bolding, italics, font colors, and other techniques to help you
• Print on one side only, to limit confusion if your pages get out of order
• Number your pages
• Mark important words with bolding, underlining, or highlighting
• In the margins, write reminders for yourself, like “slow down,” “breathe,” or “eye contact”

It’s not recommended that you try to put a complete manuscript on notecards. But if you want to do so, be sure to write on only one side of the card and number all your cards.

Extemporaneous Mode

In the earlier chapter on delivery modes, you learned that the extemporaneous delivery mode means speaking from a thoroughly planned outline. Not every word of the speech will be written. This makes the preparation of your delivery document especially important. It should be formatted in a way that clearly guides you through your speech delivery. A useful outline is thorough, easy to read, and provides you with clear indication of your ideas.

Be sure you follow a hierarchical form of outlining that is visible on your document. Use numbering and part names to guide you. Use complete sentences. Avoid using a single word that will leave you wondering what you meant to say.

For example, in a speech informing your audience about electric vehicles, simply writing “History” as a main point isn’t helpful to you. Write your main points in complete sentence and articulate your sub-points:

• • Main point #1. The history of the electric vehicle dates back more than 100 years.
    • A. Early prototypes of EVs appear in 1920s
    • B. 1970s – GM uses NASA technology to create EV
    • C. The advent of lithium batteries advances the modern EV

Do you see how this is much more useful to a speaker? Your speaking outline should be succinct, with key phrases, and in larger letters than the preparation outline. Except for any quotations that you want to say exactly as the original, you should avoid long passages of text. Your delivery document for an extraneous speech may also provide speaking cues such as “slow down,” “pause,” or “change slide.”

Some speakers prefer to write or print the outline on a few sheets of paper while others prefer notecards. The same rules discussed above for manuscript delivery documents apply to outlines: clear structure on the page, wide margins, large text, bolding and highlighting, and numbering.

For more tips on creating notecards, see this video:

Online Speaking

Just like in-person speaking, online speaking can be impromptu, manuscript, or extemporaneous. It requires the same level of preparation and an appropriate delivery document, whether you’re speaking for a live audience or recording it for a later audience, or both. There are additional considerations when you’re speaking online:

• Will you print out your delivery document or have it on a screen in front of you? Choose the form that best suits the speech.
• Where is the camera? Can you balance looking at your delivery document and making eye contact with your audience? If not, consider finding a new place for your document.
• If you put your document on a computer or device, set it up to be easy to see and to move through the document without distraction and unnecessary pauses.

Rehearsing Your Speech

Rehearsal is a significant part of the acting process. Much of the magic of a theatrical production is discovered during the rehearsal process. Usually, the actors, director, and rehearsal staff for a production meet for weeks before an outside audience witnesses the play. The company repeatedly performs different parts of the play until the most effective mode of performance is found and the actors feel comfortable telling the story.

Public speakers can benefit from a similar devotion to the rehearsal process for their speech. No one expects a speaker—just as no one expects an actor—to first look at the words they are to deliver and immediately know how to communicate that content perfectly. The more comfortable a speaker is with their text, the less likely they are to stumble over words, skip lines, or run into other problems during their speech delivery.

Rehearsal is Discovery

While repetition is an essential element of rehearsing, it’s discovery that makes the rehearsal process truly worthwhile. While rehearsing, you learn about your speech—seeing what parts work and where it needs revision. You discover the best places for eye contact, how to use your voice, and when to maximize gestures.

It’s important to identify within the speech where the central idea statement (or thesis) falls. This is an important moment to make eye contact and help your audience connect to the topic. Additionally, you should note other important moments to look up. Hopefully, you’ll make eye contact much more than these specific moments, however, the act of identifying them reminds you to be conscious of making eye contact throughout. Furthermore, it gives you a sense of the overall structure and flow so you can emphasize the main points and important details.

Similarly, rehearsal will allow you to pinpoint moments within the speech text that may suggest a particular gesture or movement. Some people naturally speak with their hands but in a speech, you want to plan and rehearse specific and intentional gestures that enhance your overall delivery. Moreover, you want to analyze what specific passages dictate or benefit from vocal variety (i.e., emphasizing an important point by slowing down, changing tone when acknowledging a differing viewpoint, employing the proper vocal rhythm while reading a list of items, etc.). It may also be helpful to mark places on your delivery document where you can breathe. The performative elements of your speech are just as important to your overall presentation as the content; thus, they need to be well-constructed and rehearsed.

Best Practices for Rehearsing

Practice Your Speech Out Loud

If you only read your speech in your head, or whisper the words quietly, you’re not really practicing what you’ll be doing in front of your audience. Practicing aloud will help identify any places where you tend to mispronounce or stumble over words. Sentences on paper don’t always translate well to the spoken medium. Practicing aloud allows you to hear where your sentences and phrases are awkward, unnatural, or too long, and allows you to correct them before getting up in front of the audience.

Practice Your Speech Standing Up

When you practice at home, lying on your bed reading your speech only prepares you for one thing: lying on a bed reading a speech. Since you’ll be standing in front of your audience, you need to practice that way. The default position for delivering a speech is with your feet shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent. Practicing this way will help develop muscle memory and will make it feel more natural when you’re doing it for real. We also suggest you wear the same shoes you’ll be wearing on the day of your speech.

Practice Your Speech with an Audience

The best way to prepare for the feeling of having someone watch you while giving a speech is to have someone watch you while you practice giving a speech. Not only will you get practice in front of an audience, but they may be able to tell you about any parts that were unclear or problems you might encounter when you give it for a grade. During practice, it may help to pick out some strategically placed objects around the room to occasionally focus on just to get into the habit of looking around more often.

Practice Your Speech for Time

You want to make sure you’re well within time limits. As a general rule, if your speech window is 5-7 minutes, your ideal speech time is going to be 6 minutes. If you practice at home and your 5-7-minute speech lasts 5:06, you’re probably going to be in trouble on speech day. Most likely your nerves will cause you to speak slightly faster and put you under the 5:00 mark. If your times are vastly different, you may have to practice four or more times.

When practicing your speech at home for time, it’s a good idea to time yourself at least three times. This way you can see if you’re coming in around the same time and feel pretty good that it’s an accurate reflection of how long you’ll speak. Conversely, if during your three rehearsals your times are 5:45, 5:12, and 6:37, then that is a clear indicator that you need to be more consistent in what you’re saying and doing.

Rehearsal is putting all the elements together under performance-like conditions. This means running it all the way through with all planned gestures and vocal inflections, utilizing any technology for visual aids, timing the performance, and ideally presenting it for an audience. If you’re unable to find people willing to be your test audience, you can perform for your pet or even a stuffed animal. Ideally, you’ll record your rehearsal so the camera can serve as an audience. Having an audience changes your mindset and makes the experience feel closer to the actual performance.

Practice Your Speech by Recording Yourself

By watching yourself, you will notice all the small things you do that might prove to be distracting. Many times, students aren’t aware that they have low energy or a monotone voice, or that they bounce, sway, pull at their clothes, play with hair or jewelry, or make other unusual and distracting movements. At least, they don’t know this until they see themselves doing it. Since we are generally our own harshest critics, you will be quick to notice any flaws in your speech and correct them.

A Note About Memorization

Some speech circumstances, like the format of TED Talks, require memorization. In other circumstances, memorization isn’t required but may enhance the speech. If you have decided to memorize your speech, you must do this during a longer rehearsal process. For a speech of five or six minutes, you’ll need several days to memorize.

When memorizing a speech, it’s useful to employ the strategy of “chunking.” You should not try to memorize a whole speech the night before you’re scheduled to deliver it. Instead, divide your speech into “chunks,” and memorize one chunk a day over several days. You could, for example, divide your speech into the parts of an outline (introduction, main point #1, main point #2, main point #3, conclusion), and focus on memorizing one section a day over five days.

Memorize using a “stacking” formula for each “chunk.” It works like this: Learn one sentence. Then learn the next sentence and repeat the two together. Then learn a third sentence and repeat the three together.

If you spread out the memorization process, learning chunks and stacking your memorization, it’s more likely to stick in your brain, allowing you to focus on delivery and connecting to your audience when it’s time to give the speech.

Preparation For Performance

Warming up means preparing physically and mentally for the task at hand. A marathon runner wouldn’t run before warming up their muscles. An opera singer wouldn’t sing before warming up their voice. A trial lawyer might visualize the jury before they walked into the courtroom for their closing argument. These are all examples of warming up, and they are both physical and mental.

In the same way, a public speaker needs to warm up. By consistently performing warm-up activities or completing daily “tuning” of the body and voice, you can practice getting yourself into a place mentally and physically to become a successful speaker.

On the day of your speech presentation, it’s important to prepare both physically and mentally. A focus on your overall well-being will best enable you to tap into your performance tools and have your speech reflect your preparation.

This is the moment to put into practice the actor’s tools you learned in Chapter 2: Actor Tools for Public Speakers.

• Overcoming Stage Fright
• Releasing Physical Tension
• Regular and immediate relaxation
• Freeing v & S
• Vocal Variety
• Finding Focus & Commitment
• Concentration
• Intention / Objective
• Tactics

Physical Preparation

The first step in physical preparation is adequate sleep and rest. You might be thinking such a thing is impossible in college, where sleep deprivation and late nights come with the territory. However, research shows the extreme effects a lifestyle of limited sleep can have, far beyond yawning or dozing off in class (Mitru, Millrood, & Mateika, 2002; Walker, 2017). As far as public speaking is concerned, your energy level and ability to be alert and aware during the speech will be affected by lack of sleep.

Secondly, you would be better off to eat something that is protein-based rather than processed sugar-based before speaking. In other words, cheese or peanut butter on whole grain toast, Greek yogurt, or eggs for breakfast rather than a donut and soft drink. Some traditionalists also discourage the drinking of milk because it’s believed to stimulate mucus production, but this has not been scientifically proven (Lai & Kardos, 2013).

A third suggestion is to wear clothes that you know you look good in and are comfortable but also meet the context’s requirements (that is, your instructor may have a dress code for speech days). Especially, wear comfortable shoes that give you a firm base for your posture. Flip-flops and high heels may not fit these categories.

A final suggestion for physical preparation is to utilize some stretching or relaxation techniques that will loosen your limbs or throat. Your emotions may tell you to run away, but the social situation says you must stay, so all that energy for running must go somewhere. The energy might go to your legs, hands, stomach, sweat glands, or skin, with undesirable physical consequences. Tightening and releasing muscles and stretching your hands, arms, legs, and throat (through intentional, wide yawns) for a few seconds before speaking can help release some of the tension.

Mental Preparation

Equally important to physical preparation is mental preparation. Meditation or even just some deep breathing can help you clear your head and focus on the task at hand. It’s necessary to confront feelings of stage fright and negative thinking. Acknowledge your thoughts then choose to release them. Find a moment to do a quick visualization of the speech going well and the audience applauding. Or give yourself positive affirmations, perhaps while utilizing a power pose. It’s ok to be practicing the day of your speech but don’t obsess. Try to give yourself a break from thinking about the speech. Be intentional about staying focused and being grounded in the moment. Additionally, you want to be open and adaptable to any last-minute changes.

Logistics

If you’ll be using your phone, tablet, laptop, or other device make sure it’s charged. It may be useful to have a method of keeping track of time during your speech. Double check you have everything you need for your speech with you. Stay hydrated and bring extra water. Plan to arrive early.

Staff

Another consideration is whether there will be a moderator or event host that will help with audience management. Is someone going to introduce you? If there is no emcee, how will you know when to start your speech? If technical issues arise will there be somebody on hand to resolve the problem? If you’re planning to conclude with a Q&A, will there be someone else to help facilitate this? Will there be security present? Who is your point person for answering any questions you have? Are you familiar with any of the people who may be helping run the event you’re speaking at?

Your Body on Stage

Public Speaking is an embodied experience. Even in online delivery, you’re not simply a talking head. Your posture, gestures, and eye movements all add to the communication process. This section discusses physical practices that are typical for in-person public speaking, but they are not meant to exclude speakers who, for whatever reason, employ different ways of using their body. The most important thing is that you allow yourself to be present on stage, whoever you’re and however your particular body moves.

Posture

When giving a speech you should stand up straight with your feet shoulder width apart. People, especially when they get nervous, tend to lock their knees. You can overcome this by intentionally making sure your knees are just slightly bent. If your knees are relaxed it makes it much easier to stand planted and strong or move around. This posture also opens your chest allowing you to take a full deep breath of air. Your arms should hang comfortably at your sides or rest on a lectern. Clasping your hands in front of or behind you can make you appear nervous. One trick is to press your finger gently against your leg. This way you know where your arms are, and it can help ground you if you feel nervous.

Once you feel comfortable with staying planted while speaking, you can begin to incorporate gestures and more dynamic movement. The goal is to get to a point where you feel comfortable being out in front, not behind a table or lectern, and are able to move throughout the space. Intentional movement that punctuates the speech is a great way to enhance your speech and deepen your connection to the audience.

Lectern

A lectern is that object behind which a speaker stands to deliver a speech. At the top is a surface—usually slated—where the speech puts their delivery document. If there is a microphone, it’s usually on the lectern. Some lecterns have computer screens. Lecterns can be a sturdy piece of furniture, or they can be streamlined to look more like a music stand. In many live speaking situations, you’ll find a lectern.

Because it provides a place to put your delivery document or device, lecterns make it easier to deliver a speech. However, on the “too much” end, some people want to trick their audience into thinking they are not nervous by leaning on the podium in a relaxed manner. The lectern isn’t part of your skeletal system, to prop you up, so don’t do this. Tips for using a lectern to your advantage include:

• Put your delivery document or device on the lectern. Avoid holding your document while speaking at a lectern.
• Watch your posture. A lectern tends to encourage us to slouch down and lean over. Resist this with good posture.
• Rest your hands on the lectern, but don’t lean your weight on it, hunch over it, or “hug” it.
• Your hands can move off it and return to it but avoid not touching the lectern at all. If you do so, it will look strange and make the lectern appear more like an obstacle rather than a speaker tool.
• Avoid stepping away from the lectern, either to the side or moving backwards.
• While a lectern positions you facing forward, you can allow your body to turn left and right while still at the lectern.
• Bring to the lectern only what you need to give the speech. Anything else will distract the audience. Lecterns often have a lower, hidden shelf, which can be used to place a glass of water.

Hydrating

Speaking of water, a presentation of more than 7 or 8 minutes may require the speaker to drink some water. Even in a short speech speaker might find themselves drying up. Here are a few tips for drinking water on stage:

• Drink water before your speech. Don’t start a speech when you are parched.
• Once you are in front of your audience, avoid drinking water from a bottle. Instead, have a cup of water at the lectern or nearby on a table.
• If you would rather have a water bottle, try to sip, and not chug it. Have enough water in it so that you don’t have to tilt your head all the way back for the last drop!
• If the organizer is kind enough to provide you with a bottle of water, take a moment before your speech to be sure the water bottle is open and won’t spill water when you lift it.
• You should pause to sip water at a transition point in your speech or at the end of a sentence. Don’t feel rushed or try to return to speaking while you’re still sipping!

Hands

When we get scared or nervous, our bodies emit adrenaline into our systems so we can deal with whatever problem is causing us to feel that way. Unfortunately, you’ll need to be standing relatively still for 5-7 minutes, so that burst of adrenaline is going to try to work its way out of your body and manifest itself somehow. One of the main ways is through your hands.

Moving your hands too much can easily become distracting. At the other end of the scale, people who don’t know what to do with their hands or use them “too little” sometimes hold their arms stiffly at their sides, behind their backs, or in their pockets, all of which can also look unnatural and distracting.

The key to knowing what to do with your hands is to use them naturally as you would in normal conversation. If you were standing around talking to your friends and wanted to list three reasons why you should all take a road trip this weekend, you would probably hold up your fingers as you counted off the reasons (“First, we hardly ever get this opportunity. Second, we can…”). Try to pay attention to what you do with your hands in regular conversations and incorporate that into your delivery.

However, with all that said, if you have nothing else to do with your hands, such as meaningful gestures, the default position for them is to be resting gently on the sides of the lectern. You don’t want to grip the lectern tightly but resting them on the edges keeps them in position to move your notes on if you need to or use them to gesture.

Feet

Just like your hands, a lot of nervous energy is going to try to work its way out of your body through your feet. On the “too much” end, this is most common when people start “dancing” behind the lectern or twisting feet around each other or around the lower leg. On the other end are those who put their feet together, lock their knees, and never move from that position. Both options look unnatural, and therefore will prove to be distracting to your audience. Locking your knees can also lead to loss of oxygen in your brain, not a good state to be in, because it can cause you to faint.

The default position for your feet, then, is to have them shoulder-width apart with your knees slightly bent. Again, you want to look and feel natural, so it’s fine to adjust your weight or move out from behind the lectern, but constant motion (or perpetual stillness) will not lead to good overall delivery.

Eye Contact

Eye contact is how you establish and maintain a rapport with your audience during your speech. It also allows you to check-in with the audience to gauge their reaction and make sure they are following along. Frequent and direct eye contact is a crucial element of your delivery. You want to establish genuine eye contact with your audience and not “fake” eye contact. Tips:

• Look around the entire room, including the front, back, left, and right sides of the space.
• Eye contact is more than just physically moving your head; it’s about looking at your audience and establishing a connection. In general, your eye contact should last at least five seconds at a time and should be with individuals throughout the room.
• Establish eye contact with your entire audience, not just one person.

Dressing for a Speech

What to wear to present a speech is based on many factors, including the speech occasion and its given circumstances as well as who you are as a speaker. The only “rule” is to make a conscious choice about attire. In life we often give little thought to what we wear, but a speech presentation requires that we pay attention. For example, while dressing for a speech, you might overlook things that can be distracting. Some of these distracting elements can include:

• Jewelry that ‘jingles’ when you move, such as heavy bracelets
• Uncomfortable shoes or shoes that you’re not used to
• Anything with fringe, zippers, or things hanging off it. They might become irresistible to play with while speaking
• For those with longer hair, remember that you’ll be looking down at your notes and then looking back up. Don’t be forced to “fix” your hair or tuck it behind your ear every time you look up

Conclusion

Good delivery is meant to augment your speech and help convey your information to the audience. Anything that potentially distracts your audience means that fewer people will be informed, persuaded, or entertained by what you have said. Practicing your speech in an environment that closely resembles the actual situation that you will be speaking in will better prepare you for what to do and how to deliver your speech when it really counts.