Factors affecting Speech - Research Paper Example

Factors affecting Speech Speech is one the most important practical lessons that one can everget at school. This is because learning how to speak effectively is not only confined to delivering good presentations and making tremendous speeches. However, speaking effectively is an art that is going to serve any individual in every aspect of his life that he can possibly think of. Whether it is persuading a friend about going to a museum, or it is explaining parents about a certain thing; learning how to speak effectively covers it all (Hayworth, pp. 3). Many people say that speaking effectively is a natural thing. Besides, all extra-ordinary orators in the history were born with the skill to speak effectively and to persuade others. However, this is not true because like every other piece of learning, speaking effectively can also be learned. Two important factors make one speaker better or more influential than the other, and those factors are practice and presence of opportunities. The more practice one does, the better he gets at it. Similarly, the person who gets more opportunities of explaining himself/herself to others or persuading others always does better, as those opportunities provide with ample practice and build confidence at the same time. This is why an individual’s speech class can be one of the most effective classes that he can attend as it provides with ample practice through doing speeches (Hayworth, pp. 4-9). It is very important to understand the various factors that affect effective speaking. These factors include audience, setting, timing, occasion, and the content of the speech. Once an individual gets to know that he has to make a speech to a certain audience, the first thing that he should do is analyze his audience. This is an important preparatory step and doing away with it will affect on the effectiveness and the overall impact of speech. Analyzing the audience includes knowing their demographics and their mental ability. Demographics include things like their age, gender, income group, education level etc (Kushner, pp. 12-19). One shall also try to analyze as to what is the current thinking of his audience on the subject matter and what is the audience’s previous understanding or knowledge on the subject matter. Knowing these things is extremely important, as these things would allow an individual to choose the content of his speech accordingly. It is immensely important that the content of the speech be relevant with the audience. Moreover, it should relate to them. For example, if someone were to deliver a speech to school going kids, the kids would not feel connected if the speaker gives them examples from the corporate world. Therefore, make sure that all the content including the examples, stories, quotations, etc be relevant to them and they should be of their mental level. Another important thing to keep in mind is the level of the content. As stated previously, analyzing the audience allows speakers to know as to what their audiences know already. This is specifically important because if the content of the speech were too basic for them, then they would lose interest in the topic and would probably start yawning. Similarly, if it is excessively higher than their mental level, so they would not get as to what is being said and they would lose interest in the topic. Therefore, an effective analysis of the audience leads to the development of relevant content, which in turn leads to successful delivery of the speech on the speech day. Feedback comes as a handy tool in analyzing the feelings of the audience about the speech. This means that if they are nodding, smiling, looking into the eyes of the speaker and the like; then they are enjoying the speech. Similarly, if they are shaking their heads, avoiding eye contact, and yawning; then they are bored and wishing for the speech to end soon. Credibility is an important element to gain the trust of any audience. Extrinsic credibility is what the audience thinks of the speaker prior to the speech. If they think high of his work and achievements in life, then they would pay a closer attention to what he has to say and vice versa. People who have no external credibility or who are unknown to their audiences can still create a great impact by working on intrinsic credibility. A speaker can gain this if he speaks with facts and evidence, and with sound knowledge and confidence. In the end, terminal credibility is the final impression that the speech leaves on the audience. Terminal credibility would be high if the speaker has worked well with intrinsic and extrinsic credibility or with intrinsic credibility, in case he does not have any extrinsic credibility (Jaffe, pp. 98-100). The next crucial factor in delivering an effective speech is timing. Timing can refer to either time of the day, the time norms of a particular culture or the timeliness of the speech. Considering time of the day is specifically important. This is because if a speaker has to deliver the speech just after the audience had lunch, then he should be aware of the fact that his audience would be sleepy. Therefore, the content of his speech should have reasonable amount of humor and some warm-up activities etc to make them show some interest into what he has to say (Kushner, pp. 10-14). The other important time factor that affects public speaking is the time norms of the culture. A speaker should be aware of the value his audience attaches to time. This value would differ from one culture to another. For example, if someone is asked to deliver a speech in New York, then he should be sure that people would be on time. On the other hand, if he is asked to deliver a speech in Guyana or in a country in South Asia, then he should expect his audience to turn up a little later than the time given. It is immensely important to know these cultural time norms in order to prepare for the speech and to time the speech accordingly (Kushner, pp. 11-16). The last, but an equally important time factor that affects public speaking is the timeliness of speech. In this regard, if a speaker is asked to do a 10-minute speech, so he should time himself and complete accordingly. One should never try to complete the entire time slot if he thinks that he can justify the topic in lesser than the time allotted to him. This is important because if he tries too hard to fill the entire time-slot, then his audience may find him repeating some things repeatedly, and can make them impatient and angry. Always keep in mind that nobody would hate a speaker for finishing his speech within the time allotted; however, his audience and the organizers would not quite like if he takes more time than he was allotted. Therefore, timing the speech is critical to the success of the overall speech. There is a technique to estimate the time of the speech. Late John Cantu introduced this technique. According to this technique, one page having 10 points typed in double space would consume 2 minutes of the entire speaking time (Kushner, pp. 20-28). Late John Cantu made an interesting observation about timing the speech. He observed that it takes longer when someone actually delivers the speech than how much he times at the time of practice. Therefore, every minute of the practice increases by approximately 33 percent when someone finally delivers in front of the audience. This happens because the speaker waits for his audience’s feedback at that time. This can also work the other way i.e. a speaker may speak faster than he practiced, which may lead to finishing his speech in a lesser time than how much he practiced. This would happen if he is frightened and is not confident about himself. However, this fear can be reduced through practice and by preparing for the speech way before the date of delivery (Kushner, pp. 17-25). The speaker should also allot some time for a question and answer session. Moreover, he should also allot some time for his audience’s laughter, in case he plans to crack some jokes during the speech to lighten up the environment. Late John Cantu observed that audience laughs in three waves. The first wave is by the group of people in the audience that gets the joke immediately. The second wave is by the group of people that gets the joke a little late, and the last wave of laughter is by the group that starts laughing after seeing everyone else laughing. He further observed that each of these waves take up about 15 seconds. Therefore, a speaker should allot at least 45 seconds for each of his jokes (Kushner, pp. 19-23). One should be prepared about the uncertainties with respect to the time. Like the speaker may be asked to cut his 1-hour speech short to only 30 minutes at the time of speech. In such a situation, an unprepared person would panic and it is natural to do so. However, if he has prepared himself for that also, then he can easily shorten his speech by not mentioning additional details, examples, or stories. The key is to cut from the body of the speech. Never cut anything from the conclusion or the audience would get confused (Kushner, pp. 20-25). If the organizers have just told the speaker the topic and have left it on him to take as much time as he wants, then he should talk somewhere around 20 minutes. It has been observed and noted that 20 minutes is a considerable time for any speaker to build a rapport, get to know the audience, make his point clear to them, and leave a lasting impression on his audience (Kushner, pp. 39-47). The third important element that affects public speaking is occasion. One should bear in mind the occasion on which he has been called upon to speak. This is important because a speaker’s dressing and the content of the speech should be relevant to the occasion. For example, if someone were called to speak to an audience in a beach party, so his attire would be informal but decent at the same time. Similarly, if he has been called to talk to employees of a company in a formal company ceremony; then he would dress accordingly. Dressing appropriately is essential as it helps creating first impression of the speaker and adds on to build intrinsic credibility. Moreover, occasion also gives an idea about the mood that the speech should have. If it is a happy occasion, then one should add some humor and make it lively. On the other hand, if the occasion is not so happening; then one should talk accordingly (Hayworth, p. 28). Environment or setting of speech also plays a critical role in the delivery of speech. Being aware of the setting helps a speaker to be more effective as he would plan his speech accordingly. Environment has both internal and external noise. Internal noise includes the various thoughts that the members of the audience have in their minds, various tensions, or lack of knowledge on their part. It can also refer to the tensions or restlessness that a speaker is going through. Therefore, it is suggested that a speaker takes good night’s sleep and takes proper food so that he can minimize his internal noise. Dealing with internal noise on the part of the listeners depends solely upon the skill of the speaker as to how he shifts the attention of his listeners and motivates them to listen. This purpose can be achieved by introducing the speech with an interesting or fun-filled attention getter, and by adding warm-up activities and the like. Then there is external noise in the environment. This includes the characteristics of the setting including lighting, sitting arrangement, space, locality, presence of other activities in the surrounding etc. It is not in the control of the speaker to decide upon the place, but when it is; a speaker should select a place that is free from such external noise (Hamilton, pp. 14). Visiting the site of the speech always helps reducing uncertainty about the setting. A speaker should visit the setting to analyze it for any external noise. In case he spots elements that can cause external noise, he should plan ways to deal with it. For example, a speaker can make the audience sit in groups etc, in order to deal with the distractions (Coopman and Lull, pp. 27-28). No matter what the topic of the speech is, but the introduction and conclusion should be the best parts of one’s speech. Having an attention getting introduction is important in order to make the audience pay attention to the speaker and to expect something informative out of the speech. Similarly, a strong conclusion is necessary to leave a lasting impression of the speaker. One should repeat all his main points in the conclusion and leave one message that he wants his audience to take home and remember forever. Our history has seen tremendous orators who kept all these factors in mind and delivered extra-ordinary speeches. Adolf Hitler, who is remembered as one of the greatest orators of all times used all these factors in his favor. At the time when he rose to power, Germany was struck in poverty and people wanted a way out of their problems. Jews were the only ones who were successful and were enjoying their riches. There was a general hatred among the people of Germany against the Jews (Coopman and Lull, pp. 59-64). This was the very time and setting which Hitler made use of. He moved his audiences with the rich and poor division in Germany, where rich class was only the Jews and thus made that difference to cause feelings of hatred for Jews. People were persuaded by him because he provided the hope for a prosperous Germany through his speeches; something that all the Germans wanted. Therefore, a technique for effective public speaking is to know the inner needs of the audience and then talk accordingly in order to have a greater impact. Steve Jobs is remembered today not only because of his highly innovative products, but also because of his compelling speeches. He persuaded people to buy his products by playing with people’s latent needs and by giving them products beyond their imaginations. He made sure that his words have the desired impact by making use of attractive visual images. It is critical to understand that all the great orators know their audiences extremely well. In other words, knowing the audience is the key to effective speaking. Knowing the audience includes knowing their demographics, their mental level, or the knowledge that they already have and their needs. Knowing all these things would allow a speaker to prepare the content of his speech that would be liked by his audience and it would prove effective. One should consider the importance of time as well. Prepare the content of the speech according to the time of the day, time norms of that culture and time allotted for speech. One should not take more time than what he has been allotted and one should leave some room for laughter and audience’s feedback in his speech. Moreover, one should be ready to cut the speech when asked to do so. A speaker should dress and design the content of his speech according to the occasion. Dressing appropriately is important as it adds confidence to a speaker’s personality and leaves a good impression about him to his audience even before he starts speaking. Analyze the environment for internal and external noise. One can deal with internal noise largely by introducing activities, or by adding humor and the like. On the other hand, not a lot can be done to deal with external noise but it can be reduced to some extent. Works Cited Clella, Iles Jaffe. Public Speaking: Concepts and Skills for a Diverse Society. [S.l.]: Wadsworth Co., 2012. Coopman, Stephanie J., and James Lull. Public Speaking: The Evolving Art. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. Hamilton, Cheryl. Essentials of Public Speaking. Fifth Edition. Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2012. Hayworth, Donald. Public Speaking. Kessinger, 2005. Kushner, Malcolm L. Public Speaking for Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2004. Read More