The importance of Good Preparation in Public Speaking

Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance is known as the 5P principle. Just writing a speech does not make you prepared.

When I had to give a presentation at university on futuristic space flight. I spent hours researching my topic. I knew the topic extremely well. However I spent virtually no time at all practicing the presentation. The result a bad presentation.

Preparation consists of Writing out your speech. The very best speakers never read there speeches, but the very best speakers always write their speeches. Knowing exactly what you want to say it extremely important. Have your speech written out as if you are going to present it and have the speech summarized with all of the major points.

Say you speech out loud (not just to yourself). The spoken word and the written word are very different. A speech that may look good on paper may not sound good when you say it out loud.

If you write your speech and then say it out loud it has the benefit of both helping you to remember the speech but also gives you the opportunity to rewrite when saying it out loud could be improved.

Practice your speech as if you are giving it to an audience. What you say is only part of the presentation. Give your speech standing up as if you are giving it to an audience. This will help you to give effective gestures, pauses and eye contact as well as re-enforcing what you are saying.

Get some feedback for your speech. After you have practiced to yourself give your speech to 1. a Colleage 2. a friend 3. a family member Let them give you some honest feedback. This will give you the opportunity to make changes before you give a formal presentation

It is important to remember that the more you practice your speech the better it will be.

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