Public Speaking Song

You're walking to the podium, telling yourself not to trip and fall. You look out at the audience and every eye is on you. You try and gulp your nervousness away. You feel your knees start to shake as sweat trips down your face. You open your mouth ready to start. . . and nothing comes out. We have all had these feelings at least once, and we all know what it is. Thats right, it's the infamous symptoms of dreaded public speaking. 

How can we get over this fear and become the eloquent speaker we want to be? We need to treat each word, each sentence, and each paragraph like a work of art. We need to trust our masterpiece. We need to understand the power of our choice of words. We need to listen to ourselves changing our tone of voice. And finally, we need to understand how to position ourselves so that our posture is open and welcoming to the audience. This comes from understanding the power and rules of rhetoric. 

For example, lets take this sentence: the lamp sits on the old wooden table.  

How can we transform this sentence into one that will capture the audience and allow us to fluctuate our tone? By changing our diction. 

For example, that once boring simple sentence can now be this: The antique lamp sits on the rectangular mahogany table. 

By simply changing our word choice, the sentence was transformed completely. Proofreading, revising, editing, and re-reading our work can prevent from grammar mistakes. 

To help our performance in presenting our work, confidence is key. Situate yourself so that your body is facing the audience with your chin up to help a straight posture. When reading your piece, speak as if you were speaking to you closest friends. Be comfortable. Don't rush, but don't speak too slowly either. Speak at a normal pace with a fluctuating tone when needed. All these tricks and tips developed from ancient rhetoric rules and have influenced some of the great public speakers of the world today.