I. It is important to understand the various dimensions of delivery and to practice
them far in advance of delivering your presentation because delivery is usually the most noticeable element of the speech and can be the most memorable. II. Components and forms of delivery: A. Delivery can be broken into two key parts: vocal and physical delivery. i. Vocal delivery includes everything that affects how your voice sounds. 1. Pronunciation: what a word should sound like when it is spoken according to a rule or standard. Saying a word incorrectly could indicate to your audience that you did not practice and can take away from your credibility. 2. Articulation: the process of physically shaping the sounds that make the word 3. Volume: how loud or soft the sound of your voice is when you speak. 4. Pitch: how high or low your voice sounds when you speak. Lower voices tend to carry better through a room so those with higher pitched voices need to work harder to project. 5. Rhythm: the cadence or pattern of movement in your voice 6. Rate: how fast or how slowly you speak. 7. Tone: how variable your voice is and how “warm” your voice sounds. The more vocal variety you use, the more emotion and interest you will be able to convey. 8. Vocalized pauses: filler words that many speakers use when they feel like they should be saying some- thing but do not have anything to say (Example: “like” “um” “you know”). ii. Physical delivery includes all the physical signs you send during your speech. 1. Appearance: includes apparel and grooming; should be appropriate for the occasion. 2. Posture: the position of your body while speaking should be tall but relaxed and natural. Stand on two feet and avoid shifting back and forth. 3. Facial expressions: the way we convey emotion and engagement 4. Gestures: movements of hands and arms that add emphasis to important points or illustrate relationships between ideas. 5. Eye contact: look in the eyes of audience members while speaking; do not look at the back of the room but rather be fair with your gaze and make eye contact for a few seconds with each audience member. B. Forms of delivery: different speaking contexts call for different types of speeches. i. Memorized: a speech the speaker commits to memory and delivers without the use of any notes. 1. Advantages include delivering your speech the same way every time and being able to use eye contact and gestures to their fullest potential. 2. Disadvantages include the time it takes to memorize a full speech and the possibility that during the speech you will freeze and forget everything. It is also hard to adapt your speech to your audience or the occasion. ii. Manuscript: a speech the speaker writes out word for word in an essay format and delivers by reading from the manuscript. 1. Allow for the speaker to carefully word every sentence but, 2. Makes it hard to make eye contact with the audience or use gestures while holding the manuscript. iii. Extemporaneous: a practiced, polished speech that makes use of a limited speaking outline. 1. The speaker has a high familiarity with the content of the speech and has nearly memorized the material but would likely say the speech differently each time. 2. Allows for natural vocal and physical delivery 3. But takes time to practice. iv. Impromptu: a speech presented with little or no preparation. III. Communication apprehension (CA) is defined by communication scholar James McCroskey as “the fear or anxiety associated with real or anticipated communication with another or others.” A. Trait Anxiety refers to the amount of communication apprehension someone was born with. B. State Anxiety is related to the context or environment in which you are communicating. C. Symptoms of CA include sweating, flushed skin, butterflies in your stomach, dry mouth, shortness of breath. IV. Strategies to reduce communication apprehension A. Practice your presentation often: this can increase your comfort level with the material. B. Employ relaxation techniques: these can be breathing exercises, stretching, exercise. C. Systematic desensitization: the process by which a person is slowly introduced to something they fear so that each time they overcome the fear, the intensity of the fear is decreased. D. Self-fulfilling prophesy convincing yourself that something is going to happen before it does, thus leading to the occurrence of what you originally expected. E. Think about your speech as a conversation with one individual in the audience at a time, instead of as a presentation in front of an entire room full of people at once. V. Using presentation aids: presentation aids are additional resources that engage one or more of the audience members’ five senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell) to help them better understand the message. Depending on the topic and goal of your speech, you might choose to use one or more of the following types of presentation aids: A. Objects: using the physical object you are discussing as a presentation aid helps your audience more easily understand what you are talking about and makes it easier to visualize the processes you might be describing. B. Models: scaled physical representations of things utilized as presentation aids. C. Demonstrations: enacting the process you are trying to teach your audience. D. Traditional presentation aids: additions to your speech that are meant to help the audience understand a concept; can be visual, audial, or both. i. Charts: visual presentation aid that shows numeric data in a series of rows and columns. ii. Line graphs: visual presentation aid that uses lines along two axes to show changes in values over time. iii. Bar graphs: visual presentation aids that have two axes and either horizontal or vertical bars that show the total number of items or levels of achievement in each category. iv. Histograms: a type of frequency chart that shows the proportion of individuals that obtained a certain level of achievement along a continuum. v. Pie graphs: a round graph that has slices that represent how large the proportion of that particular category is compared to the whole. vi. Scatterplots: a graph that shows the relationship between two continuous variables. vii. Photographs: Photographs can also be a valuable presentation aid for showing your audience an image of something that cannot actually be brought into the classroom viii. Videos: When you need to demonstrate something that is impossible for you to exhibit on your own in the classroom, a brief video clip can be an excellent way to briefly show an idea to your audience. 1. Always introduce your video for your audience and summarize what they saw afterward. 2. Test the technology where you are delivering your speech in advance. ix. Audio clips: Sound can be highly valuable in helping your audience understand a topic such as comparing music styles and others like it. E. Multimedia technology includes PowerPoint, Prezi, Keynote, and others. They can enhance your speech but also distract from it. i. Do show diagrams, charts, images that complement your message; choose large fonts that are easy to read; include blank slides to display when you are not directly incorporating a slide. ii. Don’t fill the slide with a lot of text; use small font; use clashing colors. VI. Practice is the final element necessary for delivering a successful speech. Public speaking is a skill that must be developed over time, and one of the best ways to become a better speaker is to do it often. A. There are several ways to practice: By yourself, in front of a mirror; in front a small group of friends or family members; in front of a camera so that you can record and watch your performance. B. In order to make your practice effective, consider these strategies: time yourself; practice using your presentation aids; give your small practice audiences some questions to consider or a rubric to guide the feedback you receive. VII. Using delivery to encourage dialogue A. Check pronunciations before you speak: saying a word incorrectly not only damages credibility but it can make the audience think you do not care enough to learn the correct pronunciation. B. Engage with your audience: create the perception that you are talking with your audience not at them. Making eye contact is a sign of respect from the speaker. C. Practice, practice, practice again: If people can sense that you did not practice, they may assume you to not take them seriously. D. Choose presentation aids to increase understanding: All presentation aids should be used with intent of helping your audience, not for entertainment. E. Choose interesting vocal delivery methods: Share your interest for your topic with your audience by using vocal variety. Your enthusiasm can ignite an interest in your audience for the topic.