Delivery Tips for Speaking in Public
Name of sponsoring organization: LinkedIn Learning
Type of Course: Professional Skills
Instructor: Daisy Lovelace
This course teaches how to improve public speaking skills. The course starts by trying to convince the audience that public speaking is not scary. Then the instructor goes on to give tips on how to present. For example, make sure to make intentional eye contact and to present with lots of energy. A person should never look down or up when presenting but they should look at the audience so that it makes the presentation more interesting and the audience can be more engaged. Practicing your speech to yourself or others before delivering a speech can be very helpful. Using gestures that match your content is very important because it could help the audience better understand your content and it makes your speech look more professional. Reducing filler words like “you know” is important and if you are thinking about what you want to say next, you can take a break for a few seconds to gather your thoughts and present. Lastly using visual aids can be very helpful but you should make sure it is only an aid. Slides or a visual aid should never have too many words and you should not be reading off of your visual slides either. Visual aids should be used to help the audience better understand your content and help you present.
The course was very useful in helping me improve my public speaking skills. I learning how I can give eye contact in an efficient way, for example I should look at one person for at least 15 seconds in the presentation. I learned that it is better to practice or talk about my presentation beforehand rather than memorize the whole speech. Gestures are very important during a speech because if it is inconsistent with the content, you might lose credibility with the audience. Lastly, I learned that visual aids should never be used to read off of but it should only be used to help the audience comprehend your content and to aid your speech.
This activity relates to my career and coursework because public speaking is always going to be everywhere. In many classes there are presentations that have to be done and this course will help me present better. In many careers you have to speak to either your manager or many people to present something for your job and this course will be helpful for that.