Giving a Talk


More than anything else, if you can make this kind of contact you
will command attention to what you are saying.


THE VOICE
When we speak to a large group we adopt a manner of speaking that
is different from our everyday conversations. We need to speak
louder (without shouting), slower (though not too slowly) and we
choose our words with greater care.
One of the biggest errors a speaker can make is to speak so softly
that his audience cannot hear him properly. Think of the loss in
your effectiveness if more than half of what you say cannot
be heard. If you do not speak loudly and clearly enough, you are
wasting both your own and your audience's time. Furthermore,
your audience will lose patience with you, lose their interest in your
subject-and will not be keen to attend your next meeting!


A simple but effective device is to make sure you ask at the
beginning of a presentation, "Can you hear me at the back?"
But variety in delivery is the keynote of a good public speaker. To
arouse and keep attention you need to vary the volume, tone and
the pace of your delivery. Again, these variations should be pur-
poseful-they should arise from the meaning of what you are
saying. You strike only the key words; you heighten the tone when
there is an urgency in your message; you slow the pace when you
want every word to work in the ears of your listeners.
Chapter 7


Speaker Audience
 Words Spoken Softly Do Not Reach the Audience


 ))))O ) Hear Me?
 Speaker Audience
Words Spoken Loudly and Clearly Reach the Audience