Friday, January 15, 2010

The Purpose Of A Speech Outline

So you've been asked to prepare a speech for an upcoming event. Should you just wing it and do whatever comes to mind when the event arrives or would you be better off creating a speech outline? Hopefully you answered the latter. This article will cover the advantages of creating a speech outline for any public speaking affair that you have coming up.

No matter how much experience somebody has giving public speeches, you can bet your money that public speakers of every level create a speech outline before giving their presentation. This isn't to say that public speakers actually refer to the outlines while giving a speech, but they are fully aware of the outline that they took the time to create. Creating an outline for your speech guarantees that you are prepared to deliver a speech that will get the job done with flying colors. Ask any successful person, in any field, what some of the keys to their success are, and you will discover that the majority of them will tell you in one way or another that preparation has always been a key to their success.

Preparation is not the only reason to create a speech outline before giving a speech. Keeping your audience engaged is another important reason to create an outline. From an audience's perspective, nothing is worse than sitting at somebody's presentation and listening to continuous ramblings. When you take the time to prepare an outline for your upcoming speech, your speech will flow well, stay on point, and keep your audience on their toes just dieing to know what you're going to say next.

Finally, preparing a speech outline will allow you to give a speech without having to constantly refer to notes. Sounds a little strange, right? The truth of the matter is that when you take the time to create your own outline for an upcoming speech and review it a few times, that outline is constantly in your head during your speech. As a result, you will find yourself being able to give a speech that will have a nice tempo simply because you will not have to refer to a piece of paper with your outline on an ongoing basis during the course of your speech.

As you can see, a speech outline is a good idea, even for seasoned public speakers. It helps you to be prepared, keep on point and flow from one topic to the next with ease, and keep a good tempo to your speech. These are key components of being perceived as a successful and engaging public speaker.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Erwin, its an excellent site you have going here. Like a shrine for public speaking. Some excellent posts you have here. Well done

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