Public speaking is the process of communicating with the audience in order to inform or entertain them. We encounter public speaking in a variety of areas like the job interview, giving a presentation in seminar, wedding speeches.
There are many qualities of a good public speaker. According to Stephen Lucas (2003), language, skills, using visual aids, avoiding plagiarism, avoiding ethnocentrism, eloquence, and knowing the audience are the most important qualities.
Knowing the audience is the most important aspect of public speaking. Ormond, cited in How to Conquer Public Speaking Fear states:
The essence of public speaking is this: give your audience something of value.
The speaker should present what the listener wants to. This can be done by knowing the interest, background, and situation of the listener.
Speakers should possess excellent skills to present themselves. They should focus on the main aspect and make the content properly secured so that they will not deviate from the purpose of speech. They should have excellent delivery skills to amuse listeners by using reasoning, examples, visual aids, eye contact, jokes, body language so that the message is passed easily and the audience will remember it for a long time.
In context to eye contact (Scott,2015) states:
Let your attention move between each quadrant with the relaxed purpose of a bumble bee flying between flowers
Avoiding ethnocentrism (Lucas 2003) and plagiarism is also equally vital in public speaking. Speaker should not be biased and give equal emphasis to every culture and its practices. They should not present other works and research quoting them as their own.
In a nutshell, public speaking is challenging but an important skill.
This is my audio clip on What makes a good public speaker…
United States president Obama is a good public speaker as shown in this video.
References:
Lucas, S 2003, The Art Of Public Speaking,10 ed., New York,USA, Mc-Graw Hills.
Scott, N 2015, ‘8 ways to be a better public speaker in 2015’, Director, vol. 68, no. 4, pp. 4.