Barronforcongress

Communication with your audience begins before you ever open your mouth. Your facial expression, personal appearance, and air of confidence all convey a message. How do you walk to the front of the room to give your speech? Do you move with confidence and purpose, or do you stumble and shuffle? As you begin your speech, do you look your listeners directly in II eye, or do you stare at the ceiling as though seeking divine inspiration? This body language is a nonverbal message that accompanies your speech. It at’fects how your audience responds to what you say. For public speaking to be effective, your body language must reinforce your verbal language. If your face is expressionless as you urge your listeners to action, you are sending inconsistent messages. Be sure that your body and words both “say” the same thing. Although we discuss separate types of body language in this section, ii practice they all work together and are interpreted as a totality by listeners.

The word communication stems from the Latin word for common. An effective presentation allows a speaker and audience to hold ideas and feelings in common, even when they come from different cultural backgrounds. Such a presentation makes use of a verbal and nonverbal system of symbols that should work together to create meaning.
An effective presentation begins with your attitude. You must be committed to your topic and want to share this commitment. The way you speak should bring your ideas to life. In brief, you should want to communicate. This may seem obvious, but we remember another student in whom this desire to communicate seemed oddly missing. She had done well in high school speaking contests, and in her first speech she told her listeners that she thought of herself as a good speaker. And in a technical sense, she was correct. Her voice was pleasant and expressive, her manner direct and competent. But there was a false note, an overtone of artificiality. In consequence, her listeners gave her a rather chilly reception. It was clear that for her, speaking was an exhibition. She was more important than her ideas. Her listeners sensed that she had her J priorities wrong.
Beyond the right attitude, any good presentation has certain requirements. Your presentation must be loud enough to be heard easily in the back of the room where you are speaking. It should not call attention to itself or distract from your message. Consequently, you should avoid pompous pronunciations, artificial vocal patterns, and overly dramatic gestures. An effective presentation sounds natural and conversational—as though you v. talking with listeners, not at them. This helps reduce the psychological distance between you and your audience.