When it comes to public speaking, confidence is key. The audience that will listen to your talk can smell if the speaker in front them is nervous or brimming with confidence. A nervous speaker lacks credibility and persuasive power. In contrast, a speaker brimming with confidence is more likely to captivate the audience and make them hear out their thoughts. Therefore, it is important to boost your confidence levels before making a public speech. In most cases, we feel nervous because we feel lacking and unprepared. That is why one of the best tips to improve one’s speech delivery skills is by making a speech outline. By having an outline, you can readily look up anything that you might have forgotten. This doesn’t mean that you need to write down your entire speech and read it out on the podium; an outline will help you remember the key points that you need to make and the flow of your speech.
Capture Your Audience
The first thing you need to put in your speech outline is how to capture your audience’s attention. The first thing that they will remember about you once you go in front is how you were introduced so you can use that as a platform to catch their interest. Thank the host and address the distinguished guests, then from there, you can connect it to your introduction. Some start out with a simple quote, a scenario, a story, or a joke. It really depends on the topic, your personality, and who your audiences are.
Getting to the Meat of Your Talk
After establishing rapport with your audience and giving them all the necessary background about who you are and why you were chosen to speak in front of them, you will then have to convey what your message is. You should tell your audience what it is that you plan to talk to them about and why it is important to talk about it. This gives them an idea or a brief overview of your entire talk and what to expect. In you speech outline, you should write down the main elements that you wish to talk about as well as the proper order in which they should be mentioned. It is handy to have an outline especially if you need to supplement your claims with various reference materials since it would be difficult to remember them all.
Driving Home the Point
After saying all of your key points and all the supporting data and references, the last part of your speech should be allocated for the conclusion. This is perhaps the most important point of your speech since it is here that you will summarize your points and tell your audience what it is that you want to happen because of these. You also point out how your information affects everyone and what needs to be done afterwards. All of this information is quite difficult to remember so it would be helpful to write them down on your speech outline as well. Maintaining a proper flow and remembering things without stumbling are also one of the great benefits of having an outline.