Public Speaking and Debating for Beginners

okay thank you and good evening so my name is Dave and I'm going to present an educational on an introduction to public speaking and debating so public speaking is fun challenging and exciting but also to many people public speaking is also very daunting and intimidating and in the words of Jerry Seinfeld speaking in front of a crowd is considered the number one fear of the average person I found that amazing number two was death number two that means that for the average person if you had to be in a funeral you would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy that's what that means I promise that that will be the last morbid reference in this educational my purpose here today is to light your path from the intimidation towards the thrill of public speaking in front of crowds and groups according to the National Institute for mental health seventy-four percent of adults suffer from speech anxiety the first thing I like to say either by coming out to the town hall tonight or by searching for this video you've already done more than half of the work you've indicated to yourself that you find that there's great inherent value in the skill of public speaking and interest learning more and that is what we're all here to do to learn more so where does the fear public speaking come from it comes from two places personality and from uncertainty first of all personality this one can boil down to genetics and individual predisposition Susan Cain author of quiet the power of introverts reveals how anywhere from a third to a path of all people are introverts these people with quiet and introverted ways of being have just as much value of those of us extroverts introverts thrive in quieter low-key environments but that doesn't mean that they can't excel from behind the podium but it does mean that their challenges to begin public speaking are unique and distinct from those who may feel more naturally ease in social situations and with a crowd she gives an example that many transformative leaders in history have been introverts Eleanor Roosevelt Rosa Parks Gandhi all identified themselves as quiet soft-spoken and shy however they all took the spotlight even though every bone in their body was telling them not to Susan Cain's advice for you practice practice practice in a year of speaking publicly about introversion every chance she could get which she called her year of speaking dangerously she found that it helped a great deal and I recommend Susan Cain's book or the Ted on the subject for a great overview on this the second one is uncertainty Stephen Cohen an instructor at the Harvard Extension school states that uncertainty is the other component of the fear public speaking as there are many things that people are uncertain about quote people might be uncertain about how their ideas will be perceived how they'll be judged or the impression that they'll make on the audience one of the reasons a lot of people are nervous is that they feel that people are judging them they're staring right at you this overlaps very neatly with the definition of shyness as a fear of social judgment I quote Steven Collins advice for you instead of worrying about uncertainty focus on the opportunity that you have to stand in front of the audience and speak about something that you care about visualizing yourself being successful seeing the sequence of steps that will take you from the moment you enter the room to the moment that you get that applause at the end can actually help you be more successful Steven Cohen's presentation is available at the Harvard Extension school channel on YouTube the next section I'm going to talk about is overcoming this fear of public speaking Mark Twain said that there are only two types of speakers in the world the nervous and the liars you are not alone every single one of us is just muddling along as best that we can so basically fake it until you make it here are some general suggestions to help you overcome to be more comfortable number one prepare after you've done all your research for the topic that you're going to speak about you will always be able to fall back on that preparation with all your research in tow you are going to know more about your topic than the audience so enjoy the opportunity to educate them it resonates very well with people when the speaker clearly knows their stuff so get really well organized develop a strategy and be mentally ready for your presentation your presentation should have a logical sequence a beginning middle and end make sure you have a focused and supported message which doesn't get lost in the details the better prepared you are the less likely it will be that fear will hinder you number two practice practice is another way preparing after you've prepared you've got your speech ready to go now present it to yourself look in the mirror time yourself repeat the process over and over again until you could do that speech in your sleep this will allow you to know your material backwards and forwards then you'll be able to adapt to new information or anything else that you need to integrate into the debate like rebuttals for example number three is relax take your time take deep breaths slow down it is very important to breathe as air is a very important component of speech take the extra time to scope out where you'll be speaking here in this in this room it's at this podium so if you're about to debate here spend some time in front of the podium at your leisure this will make you feel more in control if I contact makes you tense look at the four heads of the audience members that way and then you'll be able to slowly ease into that eye contact slowly at your own rate and at your own comfort level relaxation releases tension caused by stress and focuses the mind so take the initiative to find out what kinds of relaxation exercises work for you so mastering these three strategies will create the formula which will allow you to come away from your presentation feeling positive and satisfied about your interaction so the third section when I talk about specifically about debating and specifically about debating here so number one this is all for the sake of fun and for learning what happens here the Terron debating society is just a learning exercise this is all for fun and we have a supportive environment so we're all here for recreation you will not find a more supportive audience for public speaking we are all interested in seeing everyone and everything new which can be brought to the table your individuality your perspective your personality and insight is all a tremendous value plus we're not actually all that serious here our debates are not important even when we're debating heavy topics about religion or ethics medicine world politics there's actually nothing at stake I remember once we had a very intense debate about nuclear power and its environmental impact at the end of the very intense debate one of the members of the audience said okay what do we do now and we all just looked around and said well that's it there's there's no next step the debate was it's the debate was it it all ends here so we're tremendously lucky that we get to have a serious intense debate and then when it's over it's over we're all friends we go to the pub besides a bit of friendly roasting at the pub after the debate there's no penalty for losing I've lost some fine debates myself but I made sure that from each of those I learned everything I learned from my colleagues I learned from my opponents and I learn from my own mistakes number two because it is just an exercise we don't believe a word that we are saying so in debating it's a challenge to debate against your own point of view this gives you a broader perspective and appreciation for the big picture in the end you should be able to defend any side of any argument and not just the side you agree with especially not the side you agree with if you're under heavy pressure from your opponents remember that your opponents don't necessarily believe a word they're saying either they could just as easily agree with you I actually remember when a debate here where every single debater was not sitting on the side they wanted there was everyone was defending the side that didn't agree with avoid emotional attachment to your cause because no one is attacking you personally to deliver this point I'm going to repeat the words of CGP grey an educational presenter on YouTube quote the trick is to keep your identity separate from your opinions they are objects in the Box you carry with you and should be easily replaceable if it turns out they are no good if you think that the opinions in the box are who you are then you'll cling to them despite any evidence to the contrary bottom line if you always want to be right you need to be prepared to change your mind unquote so separate away from what people are saying about your ideas from what people are saying about you debating is not an exercise of personal attacks finally victory and adjudication we do pick a winner but it's all just for fun debating is a sport having a victor gives us an outcome we actually give two outcomes we've got two trophies we love giving out awards now why do we adjudicate there's a seven minute speech at the end of the debate talking about all of the constructive criticisms that happened during the debate and a lot of those the criticisms could be pretty intense sometimes even for us veterans and why is this happening well no one's trying to be hard on you the adjudicators themselves are also trying to learn they're trying to be thorough so they're they're still on a learning curve of them of their own and by learning to adjudicate the adjudicators become better debaters themselves I personally have found out that learning to adjudicate has been the best thing for my own debating performance so in closing once you recognize where your fear public speaking is coming from you will take steps to overcome those fears and prepare do an excellent presentation you'll be well on your way to enjoying the thrill of public speaking finally even when you succeed try try again thank you

Channel: torontodebating

Views: 272,519

Rating: 4.9296956 out of 5

Keywords: debate, Toronto Debating Society

Id: Cry_rcxSiCc

Length: 9min 0sec (540 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 06 2013