Public Speaking Skills For Dummies

Chapter 9

Practicing Your Speech

IN THIS CHAPTER

Practicing out loud

Taking video of yourself — and taking notes

Slowing yourself down

Your speech is on paper — and it’s spectacular. Seriously, it’s looking like a longer version of the Gettysburg Address. Even the punctuation is spot on and in all the right places. It’s in a font that tickles your eyes, you love it so much. And the paper is that beautiful texture, the expensive kind you get at that really nice stationery store downtown.

So what do you do with this glorious document? How do you get from the page to the stage?

Practice.

The old adage says practice makes perfect. Forget that — you’re not looking for perfect, you’re looking for human. You practice so that you can sound like an augmented version of yourself. Still yourself, but a more eloquent, more confident version. Worthy of that speech you’ve got in your hands. Worthy, if someone were to transcribe it, of the transcription to be on a similar type of paper, with a similar font.

This chapter talks about getting to that level.

Practicing Out Loud

It sounds like an obvious thing, but when I ask most of my clients whether they’ve practiced their speech aloud, the answer ...