The Difference Between Knowing and Executing

                                                                                     

We all know what makes a successful speech. We’ve seen them on TV with all the presidential elections, we’ve watched countless speeches for civil rights to motivate others. We’ve even been motivated by speeches in our lives. The problem is not knowing what makes a good speech but the execution of it. Watching the speeches over the past 2 weeks and presenting my own I’ve realized just how difficult it is to present a well spoken, well prepared speech to even a room full of people. I don’t consider myself an amazing speaker, in fact I was beyond nervous during those 4 minutes in front of the class, but I prepared well enough to survive through it.
Seeing all the different speeches, I found that being prepared before hand is the biggest thing you can do to guarantee an A. This includes preparing your notes, your visuals, and practicing in front of people before hand. If you go into a speech not having notes or practicing, you become a babbling fool stumbling to form your ideas. This was one problem I have seen in the past and in some speeches. It is ok to have your notes on flashcards during the speech, but you cannot use them as a crutch to carry you. They should be there as a helpful tool if you get lost or need to know your organization, but no speaker should ever spend the duration of their speech staring at the cards. A big part of speeches is the connection speakers can create with their audience, and one of these connections is as easy as making eye contact. I believe this was very good during many of the students speeches. Another aspect that worked very well with students was their choice of visuals. I’m a big supporter of pictures, and not only one picture but multiple. If you give the audience different things to look at they become and stay interested in what you are saying. I found myself drifting off when there were either no pictures or only one image the entire presentation.
There are so many different aspects that go into executing a good speech. Even if no one in the class did perfectly, that’s why were taking the class. Even if we do not become perfect, we will still leave this class feeling at least a little more comfortable delegating our ideas to a large group of people.

Leave a Reply