Content and delivery matter. Purpose matters – a lot. Evidence and expression matter. Argument and performance matter. Good public speakers are convincing with the power of their material and the manner in which they present it.

This competition encourages you to research your material thoroughly. If you have good ideas relevant to the topic, research them – see what you can find. High quality content matters. And when you have put the words together, practice them. Ask others to listen to you. Get feedback on the written and spoken words. Refine what you say and how you say it.  

Please remember that reading a speech aloud is not giving a speech. You may want to use cue cards. If you do, treat them only as prompts – don’t have the whole speech written on them!

In opening the Armidale Speaking 4 the Planet event in 2016, Dr Ian Tiley, the Administrator of the newly amalgamated councils, said, ‘Good speeches are succinct and original, and they contain viewpoints substantiated with evidence.’ He also observed that good speakers are prepared even though they might be nervous.  It’s good to be nervous because nerves can keep you focused.

My final thought about public speaking:  slow down, slow down, slow down! Don’t rush your speech.

Here are some more hints on improving your public speaking. Students entering the Prepared and Impromptu Speech sections of the competition will benefit from reading these carefully.

10 Tips for Improving Public Speaking

1. Nervousness Is Normal. Practice and Prepare!

All people feel some physiological reactions like pounding hearts and trembling hands. Do not associate these feelings with the sense that you will perform poorly or make a fool of yourself. Some nerves are good. The adrenaline rush that makes you sweat also makes you more alert and ready to give your best performance.

The best way to overcome anxiety is to prepare, prepare, and prepare some more. Take the time to go over your notes several times. Once you have become comfortable with the material, practice—a lot. Videotape yourself, or get a friend to critique your performance.

2. Know Your Audience. Your Speech Is About Them, Not You.

Before you begin to craft your message, consider who the message is intended for. Learn as much about your listeners as you can. This will help you determine your choice of words, level of information, organization pattern, and motivational statement.

3. Organize Your Material in the Most Effective Manner to Attain Your Purpose.

Create the framework for your speech. Write down the topic, general purpose, specific purpose, central idea, and main points. Make sure to grab the audience’s attention in the first 30 seconds.

4. Watch for Feedback and Adapt to It.

Keep the focus on the audience. Gauge their reactions, adjust your message, and stay flexible. Delivering a canned speech will guarantee that you lose the attention of or confuse even the most devoted listeners.

5. Let Your Personality Come Through.

Be yourself, don’t become a talking head—in any type of communication. You will establish better credibility if your personality shines through, and your audience will trust what you have to say if they can see you as a real person.

6. Use Humour, Tell Stories, and Use Effective Language.

Inject a funny anecdote in your presentation, and you will certainly grab your audience’s attention. Audiences generally like a personal touch in a speech. A story can provide that.

7. Don’t Read Unless You Have to. Work from an Outline.

Reading from a script or slide fractures the interpersonal connection. By maintaining eye contact with the audience, you keep the focus on yourself and your message. A brief outline can serve to jog your memory and keep you on task.

8. Use Your Voice and Hands Effectively. Omit Nervous Gestures.

Nonverbal communication carries most of the message. Good delivery does not call attention to itself, but instead conveys the speaker’s ideas clearly and without distraction.

9. Grab Attention at the Beginning, and Close with a Dynamic End.

Do you enjoy hearing a speech start with “Today I’m going to talk to you about X”? Most people don’t. Instead, use a startling statistic, an interesting anecdote, or concise quotation. Conclude your speech with a summary and a strong statement that your audience is sure to remember.

10. Use Audio-visual Aids Wisely.

Too many can break the direct connection to the audience, so use them sparingly. They should enhance or clarify your content, or capture and maintain your audience’s attention.

Practice Does Not Make Perfect

Good communication is never perfect, and nobody expects you to be perfect. However, putting in the requisite time to prepare will help you deliver a better speech. You may not be able to shake your nerves entirely, but you can learn to minimize them.

http://www.extension.harvard.edu/professional-development/blog/10-tips-improving-your-public-speaking-skills

And here are some more links to great ideas and advice on public speaking.

Direct Speech

http://directspeech.com.au/Tips/ 

Youth Central

http://www.youthcentral.vic.gov.au/government-info-assistance/do-it-yourself-democracy/telling-the-story/speak-in-public 

Toastmasters

https://www.toastmasters.org/Resources/Public-Speaking-Tips

Art has the capacity to uplift and provoke. Art is an expression of passion. We live and breathe inside art, whether it’s an item of clothing, a dance, the design of an old steam engine, or a well-composed photograph. Art is a frontier of free expression – about what’s happening in our world and what needs to happen. Art crosses linguistic and cultural boundaries because it can speak to the soul and inspire change.

Artists question everything. They help us visit places unknown. Artists rather than politicians lead some of the most important discussions about the state of the world. As an example, cartoonists poke fun and simultaneously point in new directions. Artists challenge us to re-evaluate and reinterpret social, historical and political events. They invite us to reshape society.

Here’s what a few artists have said about the role of art in society.

The artist records history for future generations, art reaches out & touches people around the world, it can lift people when they are down or create controversy, art is a very important part of society.

Pearl Rogers, Australia

Artists see things in a totally different way; they challenge the boundaries of rules, society and imagination yet also keep us in touch with the past.

Linda Hoey, UK

Art takes us out of ourselves. It allows us to address the big questions in life. It makes us think of ourselves and mortality.

Alice Helwig, Canada

Art has always embodied the relationship between humans and the natural environment. Artists address concerns about the way we interact with nature. In the 21st century – as in other times – art can and must play a role in focusing humanity on social and environmental issues and on dealing with the sustainability problems of our time. It can and must encourage discussion about community concerns, how we relate with the planet and each other, and possible solutions to sustainability problems.

Art is a compulsory subject in Australian schools. It plays an important role in deepening students’ engagement with learning. Through engaging in productive art lessons children develop high order skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation as well as critical thinking, problem solving and decision making. Art also enhances literacy and numeracy skills in children. Art allows children to grasp and appreciate not only their culture but other cultures and traditions. It exposes children to different societies and beliefs. Children learn to respect and appreciate diversity and become more tolerant of different cultures, all through art.

Phil Smith

Check out these clips for more information on the role of art in society.

Perhaps this applies to our students.

For some students, the reasons for undertaking a public speaking course go far beyond learning skills and techniques. Important as they are, these skills are not the driving force, the motivator, the deep-down reason for taking the course. Some students come with their reasons and they know them – a competition, a good mark in exams, better performance in schools. But others may not even be conscious of their own ‘real reason’ when they start the course: that reason emerges as they learn to speak up.

The final speeches in the course are on topics chosen by the students themselves. Most topics have a combination of personal and broader interest: the challenges of online learning, the importance of science, (more examples….)

But for a few young people…their topics come from a place deep within, and these youth give the speech they have been waiting all their lives to give. A speech they want others to hear. Close friends and family. The wider community and the whole world. In those few minutes, their screams are raw but structured, their passions demand and are given voice, their pain surfaces in detached anger, and their appeals become well-shaped, clearly- structured clarion calls to all.

If you listen not just to the structure and delivery – skills they learn in the course – but also to the content, you see a beautiful, powerful person calling for change, calling for help, calling for a better world. Whether they are talking about care and respect for self and others, or making pleas to stop the damage being done to the planet, these young people are desperate to the heard. With courage they step up and speak up: they want others to sit up and listen up…and to re-think, re-feel, re-do.

Yes, for these students, learning the techniques and strategies matters. But the skills are not an end in themselves. They are the beginning.

LGBTQ, body shaming, the pressures of generation gaps and gender roles on a young woman in Viet Nam….

The courses do one more thing: they provide and create a safe space for these life-changing, life-beginning speeches. If the students did not participate, if they did not join the classes week after week, if they did not become a part of a community of public speaking learners, they would not have a forum in which to present and test their views, passions,
needs, appeals… The public speaking courses provide a platform, a safe space, an audience that might NEVER exist if they do not take the course. The pain and joy of giving voice to those inner feelings and thoughts may never happen…..

And so…

For some, it seems like it is the speech they have been waiting all their lives to make.

For some, their final speeches are cathartic. They are powerful and moving.

For some, the final speech is a moment of change – a moment when the students stepped up and spoke up as a part of the next phase of their learning and growth

Phil Smith
December 2021

Read more here: Speaking 4 the Planet, changing the world – one presentation at a time