Tollefson/Peterson over UC Berkeley has made a tips sheet on how to make public speaking more effective. The document mentioned couple of good areas on delivering speech, for instance:
- How to analyse the audience
- How to do opening and closing for presentation
- How to prepare your speech
- How to deliver your speech
- How to be confident and committing to your presentation
- How to handle questions
- How to get feedback
How to handle questions in my opinion is one of the hardest aspect to master on public speaking:
- Explicitly request and encourage questions.
- The audience will see that you have a genuine interest in what they’re
thinking.
- Be aware of how your behavior and comments can set the tone for questioning.
- A negative response (e.g., “We’ve already covered that”) discourages
further questions and may make the audience think you don’t really want
questions.- Make sure everyone hears the question.
- Repeat it if necessary.
- But don’t make a habit of simply repeating every question.
- Ask the audience if they heard the question; then ask the person to
repeat.- Clarify questions.
- Say, “Do you mean that . . . ,” or “I’m sorry, I don’t understand the
question,” rather than “Your question isn’t clear.”- Answer questions as directly as possible.
- Address your answer to the whole audience.
- Ask whether you have answered the question.
- Be diplomatic when people raise tangential, overly complicated questions,
or persistently ask questions just to be asking.
- Ask them to stop by after the presentation or to contact you.
- If a someone is simply confused, say, “Let me go over this point a
bit more slowly.”.”
How to Make Your Speaking Easier and More Effective – [UC Berkeley]
