"It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech."

— Mark Twain

Think of a speech, presentation, sermon, or other “oratory” performance that you either loved or hated. Why was it so good or so bad? When I ask my students this question, they usually tell stories about people who were unprepared, monotone, or boring; about people who were so nervous that it was distracting; about people who futzed the whole time with the audio-visual equipment; about people who apologized for how terrible they are at public speaking; about people who rambled on and on. Occasionally, my students will tell me positive stories about people who were funny and engaging; about people who told great stories and used humor; about people who were comfortable and natural.

From these discussions, it is clear that my students understand the basics of public speaking--what they should do and what they should avoid--but being able to apply that knowledge and actually give a good presentation is much harder than it sounds. Like anything else, public speaking requires practice. So while I believe this chapter on pubic speaking is phenomenal, the reality is that my words of advice won't do you much good unless you take advantage of the public-speaking opportunities that come your way. Fortunately, you'll improve as a public speaker in leaps and bounds every time you do it. It isn't something you need to do a thousand times over the course of 20 years to master. Even just giving three or four public presentations over the course of a year or two can be the difference between seeing yourself as a terrible, nervous-wreck of a public speaker and a confident, entertaining public speaker.

When I worked at the University of New Hampshire, I oversaw the oral-communications program, which was a lot like a writing center for public speaking. Students would bring in PowerPoints, and they could rehearse their presentation in front of a camera. Usually, only upper-division and graduate students who had a lot riding on their presentation would come in. In my short time there, I realized that everything I would discuss with students came down to two elements: being prepared and being present.

Being Prepared

Being prepared won't guarantee you a successful presentation, but it will make it much more likely. Even Mark Twain admitted that a good impromptu speech took him weeks to prepare. Rarely will you ever have to give an on-the-spot presentation without any preparation--and if you do, it will probably happen during your career when you already know everything there is to know about the topic. If someone asked me to give a quick five-minute presentation on the art of teaching freshmen to write, I could do it with no problem. But it would be a mistake to say I hadn't prepared, because I have been preparing for nearly twenty years as I've earned my degrees, conducted research, and taught classes.

But for most of your presentations in college, you will be addressing topics that are still new and unfamiliar, so it would behoove you to prepare as much as possible.

When should you read from a script?

Scripts are good for complex information that you don’t want to mess up, like press releases or report findings. Scripts, however, are problematic because it is nearly impossible to have natural gestures and maintain eye contact with your audience. Even if you flick your eyes up briefly, you can lose your spot, and then comes the awkward mumbling and stammering as you try to find your place again. If you're not at risk of being fired, being sued, or being arrested for saying the wrong thing, I would avoid reading your speech or presentation word-for-word.

When should you recite you speech from memory?

Reciting is good for informal situations or when you’re super familiar with the speech and/or material. If you're not sure if you're up to the task, try it out on a short, low-stakes presentation. I have a great memory, but when I get in front of a crowd, I tend to have what I call micro blackouts, and I forget absolutely everything that I memorized. It's also really easy to forget important things. It's no fun on the car ride home to remember some critical element of your speech that you completely forgot.

When should you rely on an outline or other prompts?

This is by far your safest option. You can use a PowerPoint, note cards, or a brief outline on paper to help you remember the important points and to keep your presentation moving. I recommend you keep it simple. A few key words or phrases is usually enough. You can glance quickly at the note card or PowerPoint and then still maintain eye contact and move around and stay engaging. There is still an element of memorization here, but you'll be relieved of the huge mental burden of memorizing absolutely everything.

When should you just wing it?

I don't recommend you ever just wing it. Perhaps if you're extremely familiar with the topic and you do well under pressure; otherwise, at least write down a few key words on a note card.

If you want to know what "just winging it" looks like, watch the following video of Richard T. Jones giving the commencement address at the University of Maryland. I'm not criticizing or poking fun at Mr. Jones, but I do think that if he had prepared a bit more, this could have been an "inspirational" speech (as was promised by the event's MC).

If the embedded video below doesn't work, follow this link: https://youtu.be/Sra3POv7pGk

Some Ways to Prepare:

One double-spaced page equals about three minutes of talk time. Even if you don't plan to read your speech, typing it up can give you a good sense of exactly how long it's going to be. It's also a great way to run over it in your mind, and then you can convert it to PowerPoint or note cards later.

I recommend you run through the talk out loud or in your head several times. In college, I used to sit in my car while it was in the garage to recite my presentations (so I wouldn't bother my wife and kids while they slept).

It can also help if you record yourself and play it back. I tried this once and learned a lot of things: I said "um" and "like" way to much, I was rather monotone, and I mumbled a lot.

One of the hardest parts of a presentation is transitioning from point to point. Spend a bit of time running through that out loud or in your mind (when to change PowerPoint slides, how to segue to a new point, and so on).

Also be sure to anticipate potential questions your audience members might have. Often, but not always, presentations and speeches are followed by a brief Q&A session. You don't want to undermine your great speech by letting an unanticipated question stump you.

If it's possible, you should check out the space where you'll be presenting. Make sure the overhead projector and computer work. Make sure you know how to turn the volume up and down. Simple things, like turning on a projector, are much harder to figure out when you're standing in front of a crowd. You should also walk around the empty room to see what obstacles are in the way, to see things from your audience's perspective, and to anticipate or mitigate any other potential problems. You might not have the chance to do this, so it's good to be mentally prepared for any obstacles--but if you have the chance, check things out first. You don't want to show up with a dynamite PowerPoint only to find out the room doesn't have a projector. I gave a presentation in Las Vegas a few years ago, and when I showed up to the room (which was packed!), there was an ancient projector that required old-school cables. I had 45 minutes to give my presentation, but I wasted the first 20 minutes of it on the phone trying to get someone from IT to find a cable so I could plug in my computer. Don't let that happen to you.

Being Present

Image you have just paid a couple hundred dollars to see Mumford and Sons. Amid a roar of cheering and chanting, the group finally walks onto the stage. The crowd quiets down, and the lead singer pulls out a sheet of paper and begins to read the lyrics of the first song. When he's done, the arena is silent, and he begins to read the second song.

Would you be satisfied?

Probably not. You would likely join the angry crowd in rushing the stage and demanding a performance. Or you would head for the exit and try to get your money back.

If you are slated to give a speech or a public presentation, you are asking a group of people to invest their time and attention in you. You don't have to be as entertaining as Mumford and Sons, but you need to do more than simply read your speech. You need to remember that a speech or presentation is a performance. Bring whatever it is that makes you unique and special to your presentation. Make it something worth watching and listening to. Make it something that no one else could replicate.

I had a fellow professor once scoff at this notion. He said, "I'm a teacher, not a performer. I'm here to instruct my students, not entertain them."

I told him he was wrong. He is a performer. That's how students learn. They don't need us to stand in front of the room and read the textbook. They don't want us to tell them something they could just read on their own. They are there because we are offering them a unique experience they can't get from the textbook or from watching an online video. We are giving them a performance, and so are you every time you give a speech or presentation.

Own the presentation. Don't waste your time thinking that someone else is more qualified to talk about this or that they could do a much better job. They're not there. You are. So it's up to you for those few minutes to perform--to instruct, entertain, enlighten, and educate.

What makes a presentation so powerful is that it happens in real time: you and your audience are occupying the same space and time. For some students, this is too much, so they attempt to cocoon themselves by not making eye contact, by reading their speech quickly, by getting the attention off of them as soon possible. But it doesn't work: all eyes are still on them, and they are doing a terrible job. If you at least try by making eye contact and giving a performance, ultimately it won't matter if you didn't do a great job, it will still be ten-times better than if you just nervously read your speech and sit down. People, especially fellow students, will respect and admire you for trying, even if you do make a fool of yourself.

A quick story. Several years ago I was at a teaching conference in Atlanta. On the first day, I was nervous about a presentation I had to give the following morning, so I attended a panel session entitled, "Teaching the Art of Elocution." I hoped to pick up a few tips for my own presentation, but I also wanted to learn some new ways to teach public-speaking to my college students. The panel discussion began when the moderator introduced the four speakers, and then she turned the time over to the first speaker. Just like in the picture below, the four of them were sitting at a table with a screen to their side. The only thing projected on the screen was the name of their presentation. The man--a college professor in his thirties--picked up a stack of papers, positioned the microphone, and began reading. I laughed and looked around, thinking it was a joke. Clearly he was showing us "what not to do" when it comes to elocution and public speaking. But he was dead serious. For twelve minutes he sat there, leaning into the microphone, reading his speech. When he was done, he scooted the microphone to the woman sitting next to him. Likewise, she read her speech, as did the other two. By the time they were done, I was furious. During the Q&A, I wanted to stand and say, "Shame on you! You're college professors, rhetoricians, and so-called experts in elocution. You should know better." But I didn't. I left, and the next morning, I sat in horror as the first speaker on my panel did the exact same thing. When she was done reading, she slid the microphone to me, but I stood up. I walked to the front of the audience and told them I had an uncomfortable relationship with microphones. I used my big-boy voice and walked around the front of the room and up and down the aisles as I taught the crowd about my research into family-history writing. I had a few sample books I passed around. I answered question in the middle of my presentation. And when it was over, people applauded, and a few even stuck around to tell me it was the best presentation they had attended all conference. So maybe I did learn something from those awful elocution "experts" the day before: don't sit and read your speech. Nobody wants that. I promise you, there is nothing interesting enough in all of the universe that you could read it sitting down and captivate the audience. My material wasn't that great, but what set my speech apart was the human element. Rather than being a reader, I was a performer. And even with my ums, and likes, and my monotonous, mumbling voice, the audience was captivated for those few minutes. We shared a moment, and I couldn't have been more pleased.

Control Your Nerves

Everybody gets nervous when they speak. Even seasoned speakers--but that nervousness lessens with time. Take comfort in knowing that even if you are extremely nervous, you are much more aware of your nervousness than the audience. I've heard many people after their presentations say things like, "I was so nervous; I could barely hold my paper." But I was able to assure them (quite honestly) that they didn't seem nervous at all. I once recorded myself giving a speech, and I remember feeling like I was trembling with fear and that people could surely hear it in my voice, but when I played it back, I sounded perfectly at ease.

A little bit of nervousness can actually be a good thing. It gives you energy and adrenaline. There have been countless times when I was tired or sick and not wanting to teach or present something, but then the nerves kicked in, and for those few moments I felt great. I could focus and muster up the necessary energy to give a performance.

Often, your nervousness will pass after a minute or two. The worst are those moments right before you speak. But then you get up there and start yammering, and you realize you're doing just fine, and the nerves begin to subside. Before the presentation, just keep reminding yourself that you are prepared. And remember that the audience is there to hear you, not to judge you. They want to hear what you have to say and to learn what you have to teach.

It can also help if you think of your audience as individual people. They're not a scary, all-knowing mass. They are fallible humans just like you and me.

Apologize No More

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I don't understand why people will spend so much time preparing for a presentation only to then undermine themselves by apologizing for being nervous, for being a lousy speaker, for being unprepared, for wasting the audience's time, for having a boring topic, or for not wanting to be there. All this does is cause the audience to check out, to stop paying attention, and to stop caring. Don't apologize. If they want to judge you and assume you're not prepared or that you don't want to be there, there's nothing you can do about that. But don't go putting those ideas into their heads.

Avoid Fluff & Filler

I like fluff. It's a key ingredient when making authentic New England-style whoopie pies. It's also great for fluffernutter sandwiches. But there's no room for fluff in your speech or presentation.

It's okay if you want to spend a few seconds telling the audience a little about yourself, or if you want to break the ice with a joke. But don't spend the first few minutes talking about things that have nothing to do with your topic. This is usually a product of nervousness, lack of preparation, or lack of confidence. Just get to the point.

I've heard a lot of speeches over the years where the person tells me all about their speech-writing process: how they came up with the topic, how they wrote their speech and then changed their mind, how they panicked at 2 am last night and finally settled on a topic. Don't do this. People really don't care how you wrote the speech, and telling us the process is similar to apologizing.

Provide Visual Aids (When Appropriate)

Visual aids serve two purposes: they keep you on track (they're a great way to remind yourself what to talk about next), and they give your audience something to look at while you speak. Keep your visual aids, such as PowerPoint slides, simple. You want your audience to still listen to what you're saying.

Compare the following two slides. Which do you think would be distracting to the audience, and which would be effective?

You can keep your slides simple by using images, a few words or short phrases, or bullet lists. But don't just cut-and-paste your whole speech onto the slides. Nobody wants that.

Maintain Non-Creepy Eye Contact

You don't want to make any individual listener uncomfortable by gazing into their eyes for ten seconds at a time, but you do want to maintain eye contact with the audience as you speak. If there are a lot of people in the room, try to make eye contact for just a second or two and then move onto someone else. Don't lock eyes, and don't only make contact with the same two or three people.

Some people try to stair at the back wall while they speak, but this just looks weird. No one really thinks you're making eye contact with anyone back there. Some of my students suggested that if you don't feel comfortable with eye contact, you can simply look at people's foreheads, eyebrows, or scalps. Give it a try.

If you are reading your speech, still try to pause every few seconds to make some eye contact. It will make the speech feel less stuffy and more natural. You could even highlight or mark the places you want to make eye contact, that way you can easily find your place again when you look back at the paper.

Use Natural Gestures

You are a human being, so you should give your speech like a human being.

Don't clutch the podium or lectern. Don't put your hands in your pockets. Act like a normal person talking to other people. If you're able to, move around the front of the room. Walk up and down the aisles. Use your hands and be a bit more expressive than you normally are. If you have ever acted in a play, you know that normal gestures go unnoticed on stage and everything has to be exaggerated. But to the audience, it doesn't look exaggerated, it just seems normal. So don't be afraid of being too expressive. Move around. Use your hands and arms and face.

Talk at a Comfortable Volume

If you have a big voice, use it. If you have a little voice, practice your big voice, or see if you can use a microphone. I know a teacher who just can't project her voice loud enough to be heard a few rows back, so she clips a microphone to her collar and uses the classroom's speaker system. Do whatever it takes, but make sure the people in the very back can hear you just as clearly as those in the front.

Don't Talk Too Fast

When you're nervous, you tend to talk faster than normal. Try to slow down during your presentation. If it feels like you are talking a bit too slowly, you are probably actually talking at your normal speed. If it feels like you are talking too quickly, I guarantee that you are. Take a breath and slow it down. If it helps, imagine Kelsey Grammer, James Spader, or Morgan Freeman speaking. They all talk at a slow, engaging speed.

Uh...Avoid, Like, You Know, Nonfluencies, and, Um, Yeah.

Words like um, like, and uh are linguistic placeholders. When we speak in small groups, we often need to pause a moment to think, but we want others to know we are still speaking. To keep someone else from talking, we say, "um," and then we continue. When you are giving a speech or presentation, you don't have to worry about someone in the audience beginning to talk if you take a second or two to collect your thoughts. Instead of saying um or like, just give the audience a thoughtful pause. It won't seem weird or awkward, and it will be way less annoying than listening to you say um over and over again.

But don't worry if you still say um or like a few times. It takes years of practice and a lot of mental energy to completely avoid saying them.

If you want to see a great public presentation, watch this humorous Ted Talk. Even though the speaker is poking fun at the way people give presentations, he is actually modeling some great strategies for engaging the audience and giving a performance (even if you have nothing particularly interesting to talk about). If the embedded video below doesn't work, click the following link: https://youtu.be/8S0FDjFBj8o