ENOS11 Contemporary English Language 1

Reading aloud

Repeat your speech several times out loud. This is to familiarize yourself with the flow of material from beginning to end. If you find awkward phrases, or jumps in logic change them. Time the speech. If it is too long for the time allocated, cut it to fit, aiming to end before you are required to. Do not worry about expression or gesture. You will cover that in 'tip 3'. Your first focus is on getting the flow fluent. That means without jumbling the order or hesitation because you've forgotten what you planned to say.

Watching yourself

Now practice in front of a mirror or a video camera. Actually seeing and hearing yourself while presenting is a revelation. You can no longer hide in the comfortable illusion of what you 'think' you do. This is your own reality TV show. You will see the good, the bad and the ugly. The good news about that is that you are giving yourself the opportunity to learn - to become better.

Delivery demons

While watching yourself, look out for anything hindering your communication, either in your body language or speech. These delivery demons could be:

• Habitual unconscious gestures like fiddling with your hair, pulling faces when you can't remember what is next, standing awkwardly, swaying, pulling at your clothes ...
• Irregular breathing running you out of breath over long sentences or holding your breath which weakens your voice making it sound strained.
• Racing your speech through
• Pauses or breaks in the wrong places which weaken or alter your meaning
• Specific words or phrases that trip you up e.g. a name
• Holding your notes in a way that masks your face
• Rattling or fiddling with your notes if you are reading from them
• Placement and use of the stand, if you have one
• Dropping or raising your voice at the end of sentences
• Mumbling
• Repeated phrases eg. 'and then I...','and then I...', 'and then I...'
• Repeated fillers eg. 'um', 'err'...
• Lack of gesture or too much of the same gesture
• Lack of eye contact or smiling
• Minimal variation in tone or pace

Fixing the faults

When you see/catch yourself doing any of the grievous crimes listed above under 'delivery demons', STOP. Take a deep breath, fix the problem and start again from where you left off. Do be patient with yourself. Some of the habits you've just become aware of will be deeply ingrained. It will take sustained effort to create new, more beneficial ones. However the more practice you do, the quicker you'll get there.

Making notes

If it's a matter of when and where to pause either for a breath or to stress an important point, mark it on your cue cards or script. In the same way mark passages needing to take more slowly, or words requiring emphasis. Make whatever notes you need to remind yourself of what you want to do to improve your delivery.

Using humor

Humor can be incredibly difficult to get right. One person's funny, is another person's not. If you have included jokes, they need special timing attention. Point up the cue for the audience to laugh by briefly holding back the punch line and leave space for the audience to respond before carrying on.

The dress rehearsal

Testing, testing, testing ...

• Run through your entire presentation as though it was the real thing. And if possible, do it in the venue you'll be using.
• Wear the clothes you'll be wearing for the event so you can be sure you feel comfortable and that they're not restricting in any way.
• If you can present to trusted friends or a members of your family, do it! Their feedback could provide in valuable last minute suggestions. Tell them exactly what you want feedback on before you start. Ask them to take notes during your speech to give to you after it's finished.
• Do not STOP if you falter. Keep going.
• When you're done make any minor adjustments you need to and repeat to integrate them.