The Importance of Public Speaking

Public Speaking is FUN

On February 16, Richard Giragosian, the director of the Regional Studies Center, visited us to give a lecture entitled ” How to become an effective public speaker.”

Public speaking is the most neglected skill in this world of communication. Once Whinstone Churchill stated that public speaking is a skill that can turn a common person into a king. Thus, why not to acquire that skill?

Acquiring this skill is very important if you are living in a civilized society. From time to time, you will have to give congratulation speeches for someone’s birthday, or wedding or graduation. In the ordinary life, you might want to address your friends, family members or colleagues about your preferences or your position about a specific topic. There is a time when you need to stand and speak-up to express your own thoughts or to defend your friend, in a debate, casual conversation or even at court. Even during the interview, you will have to express yourself in a correct way. Public speaking skills will help you to express yourself.

If you have decided to take some steps towards developing public speaking skill than congratulations you are in the right place.

The format of the speech should be the following: introduction, body, and conclusion. In other words

Intro: tell people what you are going to tell them

Body: Tell it

Conclusion: Tell it again

Here is some advice to take if you are preparing for a speech.

Talk to the audience, not to specific people you target
Keep eye contact with your audience
Always give the audience something to take home. A message that will be stuck in their head for a long time.
Ask rhetorical questions
Share an emotional story. This will wake up your audience and make the presentation personal not only for the speaker but also for the audience members.
Make a 2 seconds pause during your speech. The audience will assume you have lost your place. Five more seconds and the audience will assume the pause is intentional and after 10 seconds even the audience members who were staring at their phones won’t be able to stop themselves from looking up.
Make a powerful conclusion. Be creative.

After all, remember giving a speech is a life-long experience that will make your life more colorful. Thus, enjoy every second of your speech.

by Margarita Dadyan