Verbal communication

The first words you say will either confirm the audience’s initial impression or give you at least some opportunity to alter it. Introduce yourself clearly and confidently, smile and make eye contact with the audience; and then tell them, quite briefly, the purpose of your presentation, before providing an outline of how you will proceed.

volume;

clarity;

pace; and

tone.

Your voice should be loud enough for people to hear without them having to struggle to listen. Straining to hear is very tiring and people will stop listening very quickly if they cannot easily hear what you are saying. If you are using a microphone to amplify your voice, or are speaking in unfamiliar surroundings, it is perfectly acceptable to ask the audience if they can hear you. Asking this question straight after you have introduced yourself is also a good way of engaging with the audience at an early stage of the presentation.

Your words will need to be more clearly enunciated when you speak in public than in your ordinary speech. Pronounce the syllables in words clearly and avoid dropping letters at the end of words and allowing words to merge together. A common difficulty is the letter ‘g’ at the end of words, thus ‘going around’ ends up sounding like ‘goin-round’. Numbers can also be very difficult to hear unless they are clearly pronounced: for example, ‘fifteen’ and ‘fifty’ are readily confused.

As well as enunciation, the pace at which people speak affects the clarity of what they say. When addressing other people, even in a small group, you need to speak more slowly than you would in everyday conversation. This does not mean that you need to have long pauses and breaks in your delivery but it does mean that your delivery should be slow enough for your listeners to hear every word and at the same time should flow smoothly. Pauses should, of course, be inserted; both to give people time to consider points you have made, and for dramatic effect.

Finally, you need to vary the tone of your voice to emphasise important points and to keep the audience engaged. Speaking in a monotonous voice will send your audience to sleep and communicate a complete lack of interest in the subject on your part. Voice tone, pitch and pace can be used to deliver a number of signals to your listeners. For example, if you slow down or make a slight pause before increasing the volume of your voice slightly, the audience will realise that you are about to make an important point. Such implicit clues are much better than pausing and saying ‘Now this point is very important, please listen carefully’. An audience will soon tire of such interventions.