How to speak in public without the panic

With a little practice and prep, you could be an accomplished public speaker - and maybe good enough to run for office.

For many students, public speaking can seem like an insurmountable challenge.

College provides many opportunities for high-stakes speaking, from in-class presentations to internships interviews to informal conversations with professors, peers and potential employers. In all of these situations, it’s important to put your best foot forward -- after all, you never know who’s listening.

These anxieties aren’t unique to college students. People of all ages suffer from glossophobia: the fear of public speaking.

Even established professionals can find delivering a presentation or brief to be a “nerve-wracking, knee-knocking experience,” career columnist Anita Bruzzese wrote in a recent Paste BN Money piece.

But if public speaking leaves you with the same “clammy hands” and “churning stomach” Bruzzese describes, you’re not condemned to a future of likes, ums and other awkward rhetorical stumbles.

Public speaking doesn’t have to be a nail-biting experience, and with a bit of practice, you can develop the skills that will help transform lackluster speeches into oratorical tours-de-force.

Know your audience.

Delivering an address to university administrators? You shouldn’t be using the same language you’d use for a presentation in front of your peers — or a conversation with your future boss.

“The speech is always more about the audience than yourself,” said Burton Chaikin, a freshman at the University of Southern California.

That means doing due diligence before that big presentation. Does that professor fill his slideshows with pictures, graphs or comics? Try taking a page from his book, he’ll appreciate the effort.

Be careful with jargon, too. If you’re giving a presentation on, say, your university’s football team, you shouldn’t use advanced sports vocabulary in front of business-minded administrators. But if you’re addressing coaches and athletes, you’d be foolish not to use that kind of terminology.

Don’t bite off more than you can chew.

While it’s tempting to prepare an elaborate outline or detailed script, the best speeches start simple, students say.

Most audiences can retain only three points from a speech, said Northwestern University student Jacob Humerick, so you should keep your main arguments “clear and concise.”

For one thing, attempting to cover an assortment of related topics in one short presentation might confuse your audience — and cause you to lose sight of what’s really important.

“If possible, emphasize your three most important points more than once.”

Many students believe that writing their speech like an essay — then delivering it verbatim — will help them shake off their nerves.

Yet treating a speech like an essay can easily overwhelm you. Not only does it force you to memorize unnecessary material, it also can derail you if you forget your lines midsentence.

Structuring an outline of your speech around three main points is not only more manageable, it’s also just more effective.

Have fun with it.

While many students let nervousness mask their personalities, humor can be an effective tool, said Chaikin. Laughter can encourage audiences to connect with a speaker on an emotional level.

And don’t forget to smile. According to Darlene Price, a corporate public speaking coach interviewed in Bruzzese’s Paste BN column, smiling “releases chemicals from the brain that calm the body.”

Smiling can also communicate your confidence and competence to your audience, she said.

Even if you’re delivering a speech on a weighty topic, have fun with it.

Good speeches can allow you to snag a job or earn a good grade — but public speaking also allows you to convey a message you care about to an interested audience. That’s an exciting opportunity, so treat it like one.

With a little time and effort, your hard work will pay off.

What are your favorite public speaking tips? Let us know in the comments below.

Marissa Medansky is a Fall 2012 Paste BN Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about her here.

This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.