We all know that to be a careful driver on the highways, we need always to anticipate. When we see brake lights ahead, we anticipate some traffic problem and slow down. If we come to an intersection we look ahead to see if anyone is entering it before us. In like manner, to be an effective speaker we need to anticipate.

• We need to anticipate with our notes. Always be a sentence or thought ahead so that you can look at notes as you are finishing a thought and thus do not have to pause to find your place in your notes.

• Anticipate the response of the audience. Be prepared to pause for laughter or for the audience to take a moment to assimilate an important thought. Look for the smile or the pondering look so that you will know to stop for a moment.

• Anticipate questions the audience may ask. Seek to think ahead about the types of questions which might be asked based on the content of your presentation. Consider any current issue that might relate to your topic that could create questions for you. If you are speaking on international travel, for example, be prepared for questions on SARS.

• Anticipate the unexpected. Think about things that might go wrong and prepare for them. Know where the light switches and electrical outlets are. Know who is in charge of the public address system. Sometimes you may need to know how to turn off the music that is wafting through the hotel sound system before you speak.

• Anticipate the emotional atmosphere based on the content of your speech. If you are about to share a touching story, you may want to slow down your rate of speech or use a softer tone of voice. If you are moving to an exciting narrative, you will probably seek to speed up the rate and incorporate more volume.

Anticipation will help you maintain a confident and competent manner in speaking. Few variables will create hesitancy or indecision in your speaking manner because you have considered contingencies ahead of time and are ready for them.

Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is a professor of speech communication at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky. He works with organizations that want to speak and listen more effectively to increase personal and professional performance. He can be reached at 800-727-6520 or visit http://www.sboyd.com for free articles and resources to improve your communication skills.

1.Preparation

The most important step in public speaking is preparation. It is the
No. 1 key to success in every endeavour and this applies especially to
speaking in public. To make a successful speech requires in depth
research of your topic. For every minute that your speech lasts you
will probably have to spend one hour in research and preparation!

If you think that 10 hours is a lot of time to devote to a 10 minute
speech then consider Muhammad Ali-The
Master of Preparation. Some of his fights only lasted 10 minutes
but he spent several months in preparing himself. He knew that
preparation creates confidence:

Confidence in your abilities

Confidence in your knowledge

Confidence in a successful outcome

Confidence to overcome fear

Confidence to take action

2.Practice

Training and Exercise is the next simple step in developing confident
public speaking. If you want to become physically fit then you need to
engage in training and exercise. It is the same with public speaking.
Be prepared to feel foolish, awkward and nervous while you are
learning and trying out new skills. Just do it anyway. The more you
practice in public the more and quicker you will learn. So take every
opportunity to speak in public. Remember, while you are learning you
don’t have to be perfect, just use those occasions as learning
opportunities. One way to get practice is to join a speaking club, as I
did. That way you are working together with others who are also
learning. You will receive lots of constructive feedback, which is what
you need while you are learning.

3. Perseverance

This is simply a matter of being determined to master the art and
skills of public speaking and deciding never to give up. No matter how
badly you think your last speech went or how badly you feel about it,
give it one more try, then another and another. Improvement is
incremental, if you keep on trying.

TRI, TRI again. Take action. Review it.
Improve it. Then TRI again.

Alan Moreton

4. Plan a Simple Structure

Introduction: Tell them what you are going to tell them.
Body: Tell them two or three clear ideas.
Conclusion: Tell them what you have told them.

Nothing could be simpler.

5. Pleasure

Speaking in public is a pleasurable, exhilarating experience. It
provides an opportunity to share your experience and your knowledge.
You may not feel that speaking in public is a pleasure at first. You
may feel absolutely petrified. Many people do. This is only natural.
But once you have had the opportunity to learn a few skills and have
learnt how to control your nerves then you will experience the
satisfaction of confidence in your abilities to speak in front of an
audience.

6. Personality

You are invisible! Until you express your ideas and make them clear to
others you are invisible. To make an impact on other people you must
express your personality. Speaking in public is a wonderful way to do
this. You have to make the invisible part of you visible. By sharing
your real self, the hidden part of you, your feelings, your attitudes,
your dreams and aspirations with your audience you connect with
them in a very real and dynamic way. They see the real person and
they are then able to enter into your world and empathise with you.
By expressing yourself, your opinions, your ideas and your beliefs and
expressing them in your own unique style you make your personality
visible to others.

7. Projection

When tackling the art of public speaking one of the strategies you can
use is to see yourself as successful. Use positive Self Talk to enthuse
yourself with confidence. Walk up to the podium with your head held
high and with a confident air. No one can see what you are feeling
inside. Act confident even if you don’t feel it. You will soon feel
confident as your feelings catch up with your actions.

8. Passion

To be at all convincing you must have a passion for your subject. It
must be something you are vitally interested in. You must exude
enthusiasm and you must communicate this excitement to your
audience. So concentrate on this one thing until it becomes an all-
consuming obsession. Then you will speak about it with conviction
and your audience will be convinced of its importance to you and they
will sit up and take notice.

9. Progress

After you have made a few speeches take time to reflect on how far
you have come. See the progress you have made. Begin to appreciate
that you are feeling more confidence and that you are communicating
more effectively. This will provide even greater motivation and it will
renew your determination to keep on trying.

10. Perfecting

By putting these simple steps into effect you will learn how to become
a confident speaker and by continually thinking about them and
practising them you will desire to perfect your skills. There are many
resources available to enable you to improve your abilities. There are
speaking clubs, professional speaking organisations, books, courses
and articles available. You may wish to use some or all of these
resources to perfect your skills as a public speaker.

Alan Moreton is an International speaker, writer, editor and
businessman. Article reproduction permission is hereby granted
providing the article is republished in its entirety. With Author’s
information and any links intact.

Copyright 2005 by Alan Moreton

Mastermind Strategies for Personal and Business Development.

Wiping the haze from my eyes yet again, I glanced at the numbers that glowed red against my alarm clock’s black face. It was 2:38 in the morning. My wife had been in bed for hours, long dead to the lights that burned above my desktop buried in notes, papers, dog-eared books and small mountains of reference CDs and diskettes. A fine coating of dust covered those parts of my desk not inundated with other things. A warped leather coaster absorbed the sweat from a chilled glass tumbler of water that helped wash the clogged pipe I called my throat between coughs. Another ten or fifteen minutes will have to find me headed for the refuge under the covers. I desperately need sleep. I take a sip, condensation drips on my chest. With luck I’d finish the draft of another chapter. Tomorrow night would be the same… and the night after that … and the night after that too. And so on ad infinitum - or so it seems at the moment.

I’m working on this book you see. A text I hope will be heavily used by the students of my English classes along with multitudes of other learners who struggle daily to grasp the rudiments of a language native to me but forced on many for the sake of “bi-lingualism” or due to requirements to graduate or interview for a job at a company where Spanish is spoken 99.999% of the time. “Cie la vie.” Months pass. My eyes blur from too much reading in bad light for long hours late at night. Strained from not enough sleep, barrels of strong, thick black coffee poured down my gullet to help keep me awake and going. And never mind the million trips to the bathroom all hours of the day and night. Gotta get done … gotta finish this chapter, and the next, … and the next, … and the next.

Drudgery, no … but ultimately more a labor of love. It was born slowly, over time through the hours of countless classes, numerous questions and thousands of eyes and ears raptly tuned to my words.

“Teacher, I don’t understand.”

The phrase has rung in my ears too many times to count.

“Here, perhaps you’ll understand it better this way.”

I’d responded a nearly equal number of times. In my class logs and journals, I detailed my board work and explanations. The sheets grew to stacks of notes. The stacks of notes grew to reams of paper.

“Write a book? Who, me?”

Then finally, “Yes, me.”

And so the conversion of notes, scribblings, drafts and drawings began to swirl and form themselves into something coherent. From the years and chaos a text began to emerge from the fires of proof-testing on those charges that entered my classroom day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year.

The pittance I may receive from royalties the publisher pays can never begin to repay the decades of toil that provide the depth and fine seasoning of my work. Educational publishing is a low profit margin industry you see. Work that now lies on the shelf of a photocopy center. The photos and illustrations so carefully crafted for color and contrast now reduced to smudges of black, white and gray. The work still gives that boost so badly needed by the learners. It helps them over the humps and hurdles of pre-exam cramming and last-minute preparations for ole “what’s-his-name’s” classes. But now the profits all go to the photocopy shop owner. The publisher gets nothing. Neither do I. Neither do the distributors, nor the educational publication salespeople. Nor the EFL or other institutions where classes are taught. Only the person with enough capitol to lease or buy a photocopy machine and set up space within eyeshot of cash-strapped students cashes in.

With a reputable, well-written text costing at least a week’s salary, who can blame students for taking the low-cost alternative of buying photocopied books at up to 80% off the import retail price? Truth be known, I feel for them myself. (I was once a student too, you know) So how does a $19.95 or so text book multiply in price by four, five or more times? Profiteering on the part of publishers -yes perhaps in part, but the huge increase lumped onto the texts is mostly from import duties imposed by governments insensitive to the needs of the education sector in general and the end users - the students, in particular. Medical texts, for example, can be sheer death to a student budget. Not cheap even before the dirge begins, their cost spirals upwards, virtually out of control, until students can’t even begin to dream of purchasing one - let alone the eight to ten or more massive texts they’ll need during the course of upcoming semesters. Semesters likewise filled with sleepless nights and swimming pools filled with coffee.

Language texts don’t come from the bargain basement either. A thin English text book series with workbook and cassette tapes, can cost a week’s salary for many middle-income working families. With a new text series needing to be acquired each semester, studying English is no walk in the financial park when coupled with the other texts that students need every semester. Add supplies and other materials and the damage starts to add up quickly. In a frantic effort to avoid financial ruin, students beeline for the nearest photocopy enter to get their books as economically as possible, albeit at the expense of the author, publisher and other academic production support staff.

What’s needed are solutions. Solutions that promote a win - win scenario for the major interests involved. Students need textbooks. Educational institutions need turnover. Publishers need profits and authors, me included, need income. Yes, mine is a labor of love, but I still have to pay my bills just like you and everybody else does. If publisher’s costs and profit margins are held to levels within reason text prices will go down. If import duties are substantially reduced - or eliminated for educational materials, text prices will go down considerably. If shipping costs are government, institution or industry subsidized, text prices will be reduced. If the copyright laws are respected - and enforced, incentive for the production of quality text and educational materials will ensue, benefiting all. Isn’t that really what almost everybody wants?

And me? I have an eye doctor appointment tomorrow afternoon. On the way home I’ll stop and pick up another pound of coffee. You see, …

… I’ve just started working on another book.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is a bi-lingual copywriter, expert author and photographer specializing in business, travel, food and education-related writing in South America. His work has appeared in Transitions Abroad, South American Explorer, Escape From America, Mexico News and Brazil magazines. He lives in Colombia and teaches at a university in Cali. To get original, exclusive articles and content for your newsletter, blog or website contact him for a no-obligation quote and current rates. For free information on the 5-week online course “Develop a Specialty and Get Published on the Web for Fun, Fame or Fortune”, e-mail your request to: lynchlarrym@gmail.com