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In part one of this series, Mastering the Basics of Communication, I shared strategies to improve how you communicate. In part two, How to Communicate More Effectively in the Workplace, I examined how to apply these techniques as you interact with colleagues and supervisors in the workplace. For the third and final part of this series, I'm providing you with public speaking tips that will help reduce your anxiety, dispel myths, and improve your performance.

Here Are My 10 Tips for Public Speaking:

1. Nervousness Is Normal. Practice and Prepare!

All people feel some physiological reactions like pounding hearts and trembling hands. Do not associate these feelings with the sense that you will perform poorly or make a fool of yourself. Some nerves are good. The adrenaline rush that makes you sweat also makes you more alert and ready to give your best performance.

The best way to overcome anxiety is to prepare, prepare, and prepare some more. Take the time to go over your notes several times. Once you have become comfortable with the material, practice-a lot. Videotape yourself, or get a friend to critique your performance.

2. Know Your Audience. Your Speech Is About Them, Not You.

Before you begin to craft your message, consider who the message is intended for. Learn as much about your listeners as you can. This will help you determine your choice of words, level of information, organization pattern, and motivational statement.

3. Organize Your Material in the Most Effective Manner to Attain Your Purpose.

Create the framework for your speech. Write down the topic, general purpose, specific purpose, central idea, and main points. Make sure to grab the audience's attention in the first 30 seconds.

4. Watch for Feedback and Adapt to It.

Keep the focus on the audience. Gauge their reactions, adjust your message, and stay flexible. Delivering a canned speech will guarantee that you lose the attention of or confuse even the most devoted listeners.

5. Let Your Personality Come Through.

Be yourself, don't become a talking head-in any type of communication. You will establish better credibility if your personality shines through, and your audience will trust what you have to say if they can see you as a real person.

6. Use Humor, Tell Stories, and Use Effective Language.

Inject a funny anecdote in your presentation, and you will certainly grab your audience's attention. Audiences generally like a personal touch in a speech. A story can provide that.

7. Don't Read Unless You Have to. Work from an Outline.

Reading from a script or slide fractures the interpersonal connection. By maintaining eye contact with the audience, you keep the focus on yourself and your message. A brief outline can serve to jog your memory and keep you on task.

8. Use Your Voice and Hands Effectively. Omit Nervous Gestures.

Nonverbal communication carries most of the message. Good delivery does not call attention to itself, but instead conveys the speaker's ideas clearly and without distraction.

9. Grab Attention at the Beginning, and Close with a Dynamic End.

Do you enjoy hearing a speech start with "Today I'm going to talk to you about X"? Most people don't. Instead, use a startling statistic, an interesting anecdote, or concise quotation. Conclude your speech with a summary and a strong statement that your audience is sure to remember.

10. Use Audiovisual Aids Wisely.

Too many can break the direct connection to the audience, so use them sparingly. They should enhance or clarify your content, or capture and maintain your audience's attention.

Practice Does Not Make Perfect

Good communication is never perfect, and nobody expects you to be perfect. However, putting in the requisite time to prepare will help you deliver a better speech. You may not be able to shake your nerves entirely, but you can learn to minimize them.

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10 Tips for Improving Your Public Speaking Skills - Professional Development | Harvard DCE

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Few are immune to the fear of public speaking. Marjorie North offers 10 tips for speakers to calm the nerves and deliverable memorable orations.

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Listening Skills is one of the most essential skills needed by all of us. Unfortunately, we all love only to talk and hate listening.
But, developing this vital skill can help us in our society, profession or even in our domestic field. So, why not practice it and change our life?

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Listening Skills is one of the most essential skills needed by all of us. Unfortunately, we all love only to talk and hate listening. But, developing this vital skill can help us in our society, profession or even in our domestic field. So, why not practice it and change our life?

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Public speaking is a highly sought after skill -- in fact, if you want to be an executive with your company, an author, a salesperson, a trainer or any other public-facing professional, you're probably going to need to get comfortable with public speaking.

And yet public speaking anxiety is still the top phobia, affecting more people than fears of spiders, heights, darkness and even death.

If you're one of those people who would rather curl up in a ball and simply die than speak in front of a crowd, you definitely need to check out these 9 places you can learn public speaking skills absolutely free:

Video-based learning platform Udemy has a great public speaking course offered free of charge by Professor Chris Haroun, business school professor, venture capitalist and author. In his course 'Give Amazing Presentations and Enjoy Public Speaking," Haroun analyzes great speeches by people like Steve Jobs, Meryl Streep and Ronald Reagan in short videos, allowing participants to see the power of great speaking skills in action.

Instructor Dr. Matt McGarrity from U of W's Department of Communications guides learners through a 10-week course designed to help participants verbally communicate their thoughts in a more articulate way. From designing impromptu speeches, to mastering the speech preparation process, to delivering informative and persuasive speeches in the most effective manner, Dr. McGarrity's course is a deep dive into public speaking skills for professionals of all kinds.

The author of Pearson's bestselling 'How to Be Brilliant at Public Speaking' offers a free six-week online course, delivered to participants' email inboxes. Each week's lessons focus on one quality shared by the world's best public speakers, with advice and instruction on how to develop that quality in yourself. Lloyd-Hughes emphasized brevity, with just a short written lesson and video for each component. If you're pressed for time but want advice with maximum impact, this is a good choice.

Before writing 'How to Win Friends and Influence People,' Dale Carnegie co-authored 'The Art of Public Speaking' with Joseph B. Esenwein. Their advice is still relevant a century later! Volunteer narrators at Librivox recorded the book onto over 19 hours of audio describing how to use your voice and hand gestures to emphasize your points, how to convey confidence in large groups, how to persuade people and more. You can download each chapter as a separate MP3 file from LearnOutLoud.com.

Professor Deborah Bridges from the University of Houston shares her 12-minute 'Fundamentals of Public Speaking' lecture in a video that has been viewed more than 16,000 times. Designed as a distance education course for COM1332, the course is a series of lectures all available free of charge now on YouTube. Start with the linked video above and look to the right for the next lectures in the series.

This in-depth course is a good choice for those who want to develop better speaking skills with an understanding of the theories and principles behind effective verbal communications. The course is designed around the textbook 'Stand Up, Speak - The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking,' which is also provided in digital format free of charge. Learners will also take cues from Stephen Lucas' 'The Art of Public Speaking.' This is one of the lengthier options for learning public speaking; the length of the course is estimated at 93 hours.

The Public Speaking Project describes itself as, "an assortment of virtual tools to help users improve their public speaking skills... (offered by) a variety of speech professionals who are dedicated to providing free and low cost instructional materials contributed their original work." Here, you'll find a free e-book textbook on public speaking, a virtual classroom with lessons on speech writing and delivery, video modules and interactive activities to help improve your public speaking skills. Sections of the website are still under construction, but the content they do have now is worth checking out.

Toastmasters is a massive public speaking group, with over 332,000 members worldwide. While it's great to get together in person and learn in that way, it's not always possible. If you can't join one of the 15,400 clubs spanning 135 countries, you might still find their informative articles helpful. The free resources on their website cover a variety of public speaking topics and scenarios, from preparing a speech, to presenting awards, to giving sales pitches and more.

Dr. Jim Anderson generously shares his experience and knowledge from spending the last 25 years coaching and training public speakers in regular posts on his blog, 'The Accidental Communicator.' His advice often centers around the concept that great knowledge can be unlocked from within companies through the improvement of communication and speaking skills. Dr. Anderson blogs often and has a massive collection of public speaking advice already published for your perusal.

The 'Six Minutes' website houses a wealth of free information and insight into speech writing, delivery techniques, effective PowerPoints and speaking habits, both good and bad. In addition to site creator Andrew Dlugan, dozens of professional speakers, speaking coaches and university professors share guest articles on various aspects of public speaking. The site is also structured logically, making it easy to find advice on the specific areas of speaking in which you need help.

'Talk the Talk: How to Give a Great Presentation' is a free, 6-week online course that uses resources including TED Talks videos to demonstrate the art of effective public speaking. It's more interactive than a lot of the other online resources featured here, since you're expected to participate in discussions with other learners. If you find online courses a bit lonely and like learning by engaging in conversation, this course is a great choice.

Like this column? Sign up to subscribe to email alerts and you'll never miss a post.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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9 Places to Learn Public Speaking Skills for Free

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Public speaking is a highly sought after skill -- in fact, if you want to be an executive with your company, an author, a salesperson, a trainer or any other public-facing professional, you're probably going to need to get comfortable with public speaking.

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Reading comprehension: scanning & skimming

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Short Reading Comprehension Passages - ESL Reading Articles: Practice your reading skill and improve your English, learn new vocabulary and broaden your general knowledge via our specifically chosen interesting topics below. The answers will appear in the box at the bottom of the page when you click on "Submit Test".
Also See:
Beginners reading worksheet
all readings articels

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Short Reading Comprehension Passages - ESL Reading Articles: Practice your reading skill and improve your English, learn new vocabulary and broaden your general knowledge via our specifically chosen interesting topics below. The answers will appear in the box at the bottom of the page when you click on "Submit Test".

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Public speaking is a critical skill to help prepare children and young adults for careers of tomorrow. Excellent communication skills go a long way in boosting self-confidence and ensuring career success and upward mobility.

But how does one develop public speaking skills from an early age? Unlike academic subjects, Public speaking skills have to be developed and nurtured over time. After training thousands of learners over the past four years, we have compiled some of the strategies that have worked for our learners.
Here are 7 tips for kids to develop public speaking skills:
1. Begin with writing

The most important aspect of public speaking is to understand that words and language are just means to convey your thoughts. It is more important to organize one's thoughts and formulate strong arguments.

If one's thoughts are organized, it automatically boosts confidence and fluency.

2. Do not worry about grammatical errors

Good grammar is a key aspect of communication. However, obsession with grammar while speaking impacts our ability to communicate fluently and construct a cohesive speech.

Therefore, it is best if one does not try to achieve both these goals simultaneously. While speaking, the focus should be on content and delivery and not on Grammar.

3. Attempt a wide variety of activities

When it comes to public speaking, all people can think of is a debate. However, a proficient Public Speaker needs to communicate in a wide variety of settings in front of diverse audiences.

The best way to achieve this is to practise different kinds of public speaking activities such as elocution, turncoat, extempore, advertisement commercial, poetry slam, stand-up comedy, etc.

4. Create your own YouTube channel

The best way to get feedback is to record a video of yours. Creating a YouTube channel helps in viewing one's performances and looking at gap areas.

A YouTube channel also helps in sharing videos with people for more feedback. Additionally, uploading one's video online helps in boosting confidence and in overcoming hesitation. There is, of course, the additional benefit of social recognition.

5. Learn the art of storytelling

Storytelling is a key 21 st century skill that is used in all walks of life: be it convincing parents to buy a product or cracking a job interview or convincing your friends to join you on a trip.

Structured learning of the various steps of the art of storytelling greatly helps in all public speaking activities.

6. Break the fear barrier

Everybody has a fear barrier that inhibits them from speaking confidently in a public environment. This 'fear barrier' needs to be broken before one can freely attempt speaking activities. What is your 'fear barrier'?

Are you scared of putting your point across in a public environment? Try to speak in a class full of students.

Are you scared of being judged on your accent or Grammar by people? Practise in front people who would not be judgemental.

Are you scared of taking your first shot at public speaking? Ask your friend to encourage you to participate in a low stake event.

7. Join or create a public speaking group

Social groups play a huge role in providing feedback and support. Joining a group such as Toastmasters could go a long way in ensuring that one has the right support structure and encouragement to get over one's fear of public speaking.

If you cannot find an existing group, create your own group with 3-4 people. It could be a simple Whatsapp group.

Mastering the art of public speaking is similar to getting fit. A structured approach, backed with discipline, regularity and a variety of interventions over a period of time can yield great results.

Original Content Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/featurephilia/story/7-tips-for-kids-to-develop-public-speaking-skills-1728638-2020-10-05

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7 Tips For Kids To Develop Public Speaking Skills - MyOnlineShiksha Blog

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Public speaking is a critical skill to help prepare children and young adults for careers of tomorrow. Excellent communication skills go a long way in boosting self-confidence and ensuring career success and upward mobility. But how does one develop public speaking skills from an early age?

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Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process.

Listening is key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood. As a result, communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated.

If there is one communication skill you should aim to master, then listening is it.

Listening is so important that many top employers provide listening skills training for their employees. This is not surprising when you consider that good listening skills can lead to better customer satisfaction, greater productivity with fewer mistakes, and increased sharing of information that in turn can lead to more creative and innovative work.

Many successful leaders and entrepreneurs credit their success to effective listening skills. Richard Branson frequently quotes listening as one of the main factors behind the success of Virgin.

Effective listening is a skill that underpins all positive human relationships.

Spend some time thinking about and developing your listening skills - they are the building blocks of success.

See our pages: Employability Skills and Customer Service Skills for more examples of the importance of listening in the workplace.
Good listening skills also have benefits in our personal lives, including:
A greater number of friends and social networks, improved self-esteem and confidence, higher grades at school and in academic work, and even better health and general well-being.

Studies have shown that, whereas speaking raises blood pressure, attentive listening can bring it down.

Listening is Not the Same as Hearing

Hearing refers to the sounds that enter your ears. It is a physical process that, provided you do not have any hearing problems, happens automatically.

Listening, however, requires more than that: it requires focus and concentrated effort, both mental and sometimes physical as well.

Listening means paying attention not only to the story, but how it is told, the use of language and voice, and how the other person uses his or her body. In other words, it means being aware of both verbal and non-verbal messages. Your ability to listen effectively depends on the degree to which you perceive and understand these messages.

Listening is not a passive process. In fact, the listener can, and should, be at least as engaged in the process as the speaker. The phrase 'active listening' is used to describe this process of being fully involved.

See our pages: Active Listening and Types of Listening for more information.
The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention.
Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen

We Spend a lot of Time Listening
Adults spend an average of 70% of their time engaged in some sort of communication.
Of this, research shows that an average of 45% is spent listening compared to 30% speaking, 16% reading and 9% writing. (Adler, R. et al. 2001). That is, by any standards, a lot of time listening. It is worthwhile, therefore, taking a bit of extra time to ensure that you listen effectively.
Based on the research of: Adler, R., Rosenfeld, L. and Proctor, R. (2001)
Interplay: the process of interpersonal communicating (8th edn), Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt.
The Purpose of Listening
There is no doubt that effective listening is an extremely important life skill. Why is listening so important? Listening serves a number of possible purposes, and the purpose of listening will depend on the situation and the nature of the communication.

1. To specifically focus on the messages being communicated, avoiding distractions and preconceptions.

2. To gain a full and accurate understanding into the speakers point of view and ideas.

3. To critically assess what is being said. (See our page on Critical Thinking for more).

4. To observe the non-verbal signals accompanying what is being said to enhance understanding.

5. To show interest, concern and concentration.

6. To encourage the speaker to communicate fully, openly and honestly.

7. To develop an selflessness approach, putting the speaker first.

8. To arrive at a shared and agreed understanding and acceptance of both sides views.

Often our main concern while listening is to formulate ways to respond. This is not a function of listening. We should try to focus fully on what is being said and how it's being said in order to more fully understand the speaker.
Effective listening requires concentration and the use of your other senses - not just hearing the words spoken.

Listening is not the same as hearing and in order to listen effectively you need to use more than just your ears.
See our page: The Ten Principles of Listening.

Further Reading from Skills You Need
Our Communication Skills eBooks
Learn more about the key communication skills you need to be a more effective communicator.

Our eBooks are ideal for anyone who wants to learn about or develop their interpersonal skills and are full of easy-to-follow, practical information.

Barriers to Effective Listening
To improve the process of effective listening, it can be helpful to turn the problem on its head and look at barriers to effective listening, or ineffective listening.
For example, one common problem is that instead of listening closely to what someone is saying, we often get distracted after a sentence or two and instead start to think about what we are going to say in reply or think about unrelated things. This means that we do not fully listen to the rest of the speaker's message.

This problem is attributed, in part, to the difference between average speech rate and average processing rate. Average speech rates are between 125 and 175 words a minute whereas we can process on average between 400 and 800 words a minute. It is a common habit for the listener to use the spare time while listening to daydream or think about other things, rather than focusing on what the speaker is saying.

Of course the clarity of what the speaker is saying can also affect how well we listen. Generally we find it easier to focus if the speaker is fluent in their speech, has a familiar accent, and speaks at an appropriate loudness for the situation. It is more difficult, for example, to focus on somebody who is speaking very fast and very quietly, especially if they are conveying complex information.

We may also get distracted by the speaker's personal appearance or by what someone else is saying, which sounds more interesting.
These issues not only affect you, but you are likely to show your lack of attention in your body language.
Generally, we find it much harder to control our body language, and you are likely to show your distraction and/or lack of interest by lack of eye contact, or posture. The speaker will detect the problem, and probably stop talking at best. At worse, they may be very offended or upset.

Our page on Barriers to Effective Listening explains more about common listening problems, and our page Listening Misconceptions details some of the common myths and misconceptions about listening.

Finally, it is important not to jump to conclusions about what you see and hear. You should always seek clarification to ensure that your understanding is correct.
See our pages: Clarification and Reflection for more information.

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Listening skills are vital for interpersonal communication. How well do you listen? Learn more about listening and the skills required for effective listening.

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Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. Listening is key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood.
#InstituteOfAdvancedSkills #Skills #MondayMotivation

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Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. Listening is key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood.
#InstituteOfAdvancedSkills #Skills #MondayMotivation https://t.co/7Da3UEFEK2

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Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. Listening is key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood.#InstituteOfAdvancedSkills #Skills #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/7Da3UEFEK2
— Advanced Skills Academy (@ASAPPMU) December 17, 2018

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Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. Listening is key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood.
#InstituteOfAdvancedSkills #Skills #MondayMotivation https://t.co/7Da3UEFEK2

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Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. Listening is key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood.
#InstituteOfAdvancedSkills #Skills #MondayMotivation https://t.co/7Da3UEFEK2

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.text
Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. Listening is key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood.
#InstituteOfAdvancedSkills #Skills #MondayMotivation