Throughout the past couple years, I've had several opportunities to build my public speaking skills. Whether church related or school related, I have had various public speaking experiences that have highlighted both my strengths and my weaknesses.
While I have plenty of room for improvement in each aspect of speaking, I have noticed lately that my tone and voice inflection are primary areas of concern. Sometimes I focus too much on the words I'm using and not enough on the way I deliver them. I think I need to work on fluctuating my volume level and pitch throughout the speech, and that should help the audience better understand which concepts I'm trying to place emphasis on. It will also ensure my audience doesn't become bored through a monotone delivery.
There are a few strengths I've noticed in my recent public speaking experiences that I would like to build upon. I feel that one of my best skills is the ability to memorize my words without slipping up or reaching extended pauses. As a result, I try to avoid note cards, and this allows me to connect to the audience with substantial eye contact. I hope to fully develop this skill and use it to help my main weakness. If I truly have my lines memorized by heart, then I should be able to focus more on my voice inflection while maintaining eye contact with the audience.
If I am able to enhance and refine my memorization skills, I should be better equipped to tackle my primary weakness of voice fluctuation. By achieving this, I will develop a better connection with the audience, and I will effectively convey the points I'm trying to make with emphasis. I don't want to put my audience to sleep with a steady, monotone voice, so I must focus on attacking this weakness as I prepare for my next public speaking opportunity.
I remember from your speech that you were very good at saying what you needed to say without making any mistakes so that was definitely very good! I think we all focus so much on trying to get our words out that we forget about the other details such as tone of voice. I'm sure with practice you'll get the hang of it!
ReplyDeleteI really agree that memorization needs to come first before a lot of improvement in other areas can come. Once you have the content down pat you can begin to work more on the finer details of how you are talking, like verbal tone. I hope you're able to get to a point where you're confident in your ability to do this for your TED talk.
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