Delivery

Content, organization and a consistent argument are the most important elements of a presentation.  Once you have refined these elements, you can polish your presentation by practicing good habits of delivery.  Below are some basic suggestions for delivering a speech.

Your relationship with the audience:
The easiest way to make audience members feel involved in your presentation is to make eye contact with them.  Maintain eye contact with individual audience members for a complete phrase, thought or sentence.  Avoid scanning the audience, as this turns the audience into an undifferentiated mass. 

Maintaining eye contact requires that you face the audience as much as possible.  Give some thought to how you will manipulate any visual support so that you can minimize the amount of time you spend with your back to the audience

Environment:
Be aware of the shape of the room, the arrangement of seating, temperature, acoustics, location of light switches and anything else that may effect your ability to communicate with your audience.  Before you begin, take time to arrange the front of the room so that there are no objects in your way and set up equipment that you will use during your presentation.

Speaker:

• Breathing: remember to breathe during pauses and at the end of sentences.  To read more about breathing, see our handout at www.sas.upenn.edu/cwic/dl3.html
• Enthusiasm: convey to the audience your enthusiasm for the topic
• Extemporaneous delivery: extemporaneous delivery occurs when a speaker presents from an outline rather than a script.  This requires just as much thought about content as scripting a speech.  On most occasions extemporaneous delivery is most appropriate because audiences prefer conversational speech to scripted speech.  To read more about constructing an extemporaneous speech, see www.sas.upenn.edu/cwic/dl2.html
• Practice: practice delivering your speech before you present formally to work out all problems with content, organization and delivery

Expression:

• Personality: people relate to people.  Express your personality in the design and delivery of your presentation
• Humor: whenever possible, share humor with your audience.  It is often helpful in developing understanding of complex ideas and, of course, makes the presentation more pleasurable to watch

Voice:

• Volume: project your voice to the back of the room by supporting your voice from your diaphragm
• Rate: speak at an appropriate rate for audience comprehension.  Rate should vary with the complexity of your content
• Pitch: avoid allowing the pitch of your voice to rise to an unnatural level.  Especially avoid raising the pitch of your voice as though you are asking a question when in fact you intend to make a statement
• Emphasis: highlight important facts or concepts by emphasizing key words.  Avoid emphasis that does not help the audience understand what you think is most important
• Enunciation: say each word clearly and say all parts of the word
• Style: deliver your speech in your natural, conversational voice, but use language appropriate to the level of formalism expected for the occasion
• To learn more about voice, see our handout on breathing at: www.sas.upenn.edu/cwic/dl3.html

Physical Movement:

• Gesture: use gestures that complement the content of your speech and are natural for you.  Avoid understated and overstated gestures by getting your elbows away from your body but keeping your movements under control.  Keep your hands in front of your body when gesturing and at your side when not gesturing
• Body movement: avoid swaying, fidgeting, putting your hand in your pocket, and other distracting body movements
• Walking: some walking adds variety to a presentation; too much is distracting
• Posture: if you stand with your weight dispersed evenly on both feet (possibly with one foot slightly in front of the other), you will most likely also stand with your shoulders back and your back straight
• Video: the Speaking Center offers video taping during office hours for students who wish to see what physical habits they exhibit when speaking

What do I do if I forget part or all of my speech?  If you forget what you’re going to say next, pause to take some deep breaths and reorder your thoughts.  If you find yourself paralyzed by confusion and nervousness, stop speaking and refer to a detailed outline of your speech to reorient yourself.  Audiences generally sympathize with a nervous speaker and will give you the benefit of the doubt if you are well prepared.