Here’s a simple tip to improve your public speaking if you like/need to use notes, with a couple of other tips thrown in for good measure:
Most of us type up a speech, so printing it on a card isn’t always convenient. I don’t recommend using paper, as it’s far too easy for pages to stick together, and it’s just plain flimsy, especially after a few practices.
At a recent event, a speaker apologised for his illness, and I was approached to read his speech. I prepared in the same way I would instruct my clients to.
Firstly, I increased the font and tweaked the layout to make it easier to read. Here’s a critical tip: remember to practice it by reading it aloud at this point. You may find that what reads well doesn’t sound well when spoken.
For example, I can say Berkshire (pronounced ‘Bark-shire’) if I’m not reading it, so I needed to change the abbreviation ‘Berks’ in the speech, not only because the abbreviation doesn’t sound good when spoken but because I will inevitably rhyme it with ‘jerks’!
I re-typed it phonetically so I wouldn’t stumble or mispronounce it on the night.
Then, I ensured that it was spaced on the page to fit onto A5 cards. This picture shows many words on the page, but as the audience knew I was reading someone else’s speech, it was OK to have more words per card.
Here’s the simple tip I promised: take a few spare subject dividers and guillotine them in half.
Not only are you recycling, but it’s slightly more prominent, so it frames the speech; you have a couple of convenient tags to change cards smoothly, and the coloured card can mean it’s more discreet than white. In my case, I chose purple as it matched my outfit, but it really doesn’t matter.
Et voilá, you have a speech, all dressed up and ready to go.
Just don’t forget to practice delivering it aloud a few more times!
