Speech

[Runepop]

I have to make a speach for my senior project. I have never made a speach before in my life. So any advice on the matter anyone?

[Grand_OoF]

My advice? Don't worry about it.

I know that sounds absolutely lazy or easier said then done, but from personal experience, when I make a big deal out of a speech or I practice it before hand, I mess up. When you make a huge deal out of it, the fear of messing it up becomes overwhelming and if you do mess up, well now it's the end of the world.

If you go in and treat it like it's not a big deal, it won't be. If you mess up, it's a lot easier to take it in stride and poke fun at yourself if you're not worried about how you look. Be calm and be collected and if possible, try to have fun with it.

If you feel like you do need to practice though, my advice is to find a friend, family member, group or a private mirror you feel comfortable with and just practice what you want to say to them/it. For some people, it helps ease the tension and if you have a better idea what you want to say, it's a lot easier to say it.

For future reference, there's a group called The Toast Masters that I believe is free, and it's just people who get together and practice public speaking. It may be of some use to you (or anyone here on Foxkei).

[SnakeEyez]

Think back to the last time you sat and listened to someone else give a speech. How much of it did you pay attention to? Probably just the very beginning and the very end, right? Everything in between was just a steady stream of white noise.

Now imagine yourself standing at the podium giving a speech yourself. How much of it do you think the audience is going to listen to? That's right -- the very beginning and the very end.

No one cares what you say. Come up with a catchy beginning and solid end and you'll be just fine. The entire middle portion doesn't matter because no one is going to listen to it. That's the secret of speech writing right there.

[GlassAdam]

Chew gum, if possible. It's relaxing and it'll allow you to have a bit of a "whatever" attitude about the whole thing. It might also help to think of yourself as a character in a movie or TV show that you like, preferably somebody who has a way with words or is good at speaking. Sounds weird, but a bit of make-believe and fun is helpful.

[RedWizard]

Or try making cheesy jokes. That always worked for me.

[GlassAdam]

The key is to care about the speech, of course, but to not care so much about messing up or looking funny. Get rid of self-consciousness, and remember that 10 seconds after the speech is over with people will already be thinking about something else. So if you're worried about looking silly or sounding stupid, don't worry about it, nobody will remember.

[KomodoAce]

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In other words watch/listen to famous speeches and imitate.

[SmashBro]

The key is to care about the speech, of course, but to not care so much about messing up or looking funny. Get rid of self-consciousness, and remember that 10 seconds after the speech is over with people will already be thinking about something else. So if you're worried about looking silly or sounding stupid, don't worry about it, nobody will remember.

Before I lead my department in doing stretch exercises, I always tell a joke. Today, I said," Man, I went to Starbucks today. But it wasn't really Starbucks. It was four bucks!" Nobody laughed. A couple even booed me. I followed that up with, "A swing and a miss. Just like the Rangers." I was almost mauled after that. Fuck ya'll. I'm from Texas. Oh, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, nobody really cares about another person's speech. The only speech I remember in speech class was this girl's speech about prosecuting people for animal cruelty, because she said that most serial killers start off by killing or torturing animals. Anyway, what's your speech about?