The Fascinating Art of Public Speaking

     Many people would call public speaking an art form. Knowing how to stand up in front of an audience and to properly deliver your speech does not come easily. It takes time and practice. There are many aspects than need to be polished  before delivering your speech. It's not as easy as just going up and talking. Some have the natural ability to communicate with an audience, and others don't but that's ok because you don't have to have a natural talent to be good at it. You just have to put your effort into it and work your hardest. Here are some of my ideas that can turn good public speakers into great public speakers.
Body posture. It's incredibly important because it leads to other factors. If your body posture is slanted or your facing the ground the majority of the time, your voice will be directed to the ground. That's never good because your audience will have trouble hearing you. This is something I need to work on also. A good way to keep your posture straighter would be to firmly plant your feet to the ground. This will make you look taller and more confident. Going back to the part about your audience hearing your clearly. This is one of the most important factors because making sure that the audience can hear you clearly is a crucial part of public speaking. Make you that every word that comes out of your mouth is properly annunciated. Clarity is extremely important as well. To have clarity, you need to have proper pacing. Going too fast or too slow can throw your clarity and annunciation out a window.
The next idea is different from the rest. It doesn't involve pacing or annunciation of volume. It has to do with catching your audience's attention. We are all human, meaning we get bored easily and tend to drone off to things we find boring or uninteresting. A good way to keep your audience up and awake is to add a little humor here and there. If you add to many jokes, you might steer away from your main idea or point. Also asking the audience some questions is a good way to catch their attention. Make points that can connect with other people so they feel as if you understand them and they understand you. Try to refrain from cristism and/or judgment towards someone or something. Doing something in that sense can make certain people love you and others despise you. You don't want both extremes, you want a neutral crowd.
As you can see there are many factors when it comes to speaking in front of an audience. It's not a skill that can be mastered overnight. It is definitely a tricky experience than many people are uncomfortable with. Public speaking is not an easy task for anyone no matter what age. Everyone gets nervous but learning to overcome that fear and become more confident in front of an audience is the point of learning how to public speak.