Effective public speaking - manner

In this post I am going to discuss what public speaking is, outline the most important aspects of public speaking for debates, elaborate on speaking anxiety, and then give some basic speaking style tips about: Dynamism, Voice, Gestures, Face expressions and eye contact and Body movement.

• So to get cracking: Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners. In public speaking, as in any form of communication, there are five basic elements, often expressed as "who is saying what to whom using what medium with what effects?"

• For debate purposes I am going to try and focus on persuasiveness and clarity of a speech, which are most often described in debate books. To achieve that you mustn't be:

1. BORING
2. CRAZY- Get so over the speaking boarders that, the audience ask themselves: What is wrong with him?
3. FRIGHTENED - being to anxious.

• Because anxiety often leads to either crossing the lines - CRAZY, or trying to control yourself too much and consequently being BORING lets deal with the deep inside, emotional issues first.In this way we get rid of the bad extremes in speeches. Wikihow has many hilarious and debate useless tips on this topic, but check them out anyway because they really are funny. Personally I think that your frame of mind is the most important, whenever emotions must be controlled. So, every time you feel that you are getting too anxious, I recommend asking yourself: Why am I debating? Is anyone in the public going to laugh out loud if I screw up? How many good speeches have I had so far? The answers to these questions should calm you down to a desirable level of pre debate excitement.

• Dynamism is the result of your eagerness and excitement about debating. To be the most persuasive you should sound just enough into it, enough active for the audience to feel you actively believe in what you are saying. Too excited, means hard to listen to - CRAZY and too controlled means BORING. So to find right balance. Concerning dynamism Dr. Tuna recommends:

1. Changing the way you speak, by having enough variation in your speech itself and your voice tone and making sure your gestures adjust to what you are saying. For example it is recommendable to be very calm and self confident when refuting other sides arguments and more zealous when explaining your crucial points.

2. Emphasizing things that are important, using your voice and gestures. So if you are moving on to next point of your speech emphasize it. I believe the same logic should be applied whenever you mention your underlying principles or ideas.

3. Always stay within your normal speaking range. Don't start jelling or waving your hands like you just ran out of a mental institution. On the other hand, don't start speaking as if you were in a tomb. If debate is like Tightrope walking then make sure you don't lean to one side too much!

• Voice is very important for persuasiveness and ability to be listened to. And although you probably don't have as smooth and sexy voice as Barry White, here are some tips to make the most of your speaking apparatus:

1. Be very clear. It is logically impossible to persuade someone if he doesn't understand you, so make sure you pronounce words clearly. Avoid too long and too complex words that might confuse your audience. That is why even the WUDC tutorial puts clarity on the 1. place.

2.Volume. Make sure you asses the acoustic space correctly or your yelling will make you intolerably loud. So if you are speaking in a small room make sure your eagerness doesn't shatter windows. But after achieving a normal volume, don't be afraid to be a bit louder or quieter in order to emphasize things you are saying. If they use this phenomena in music, why shouldn't you? And of course if someone listening can't hear you, he won't understand you.

3. Speed. Can become a major issue for "English first language- EFL" and especially American policy debaters, because they want to say too much in too little time. That makes them almost impossible to follow. And they can become boring too, because they don't make any pauses which would break the monotony of their machine gun fire.. So it is advisable to use pauses and variations of your speaking speed in order to emphasize things and avoid monotony of your speech.

4. Tone / pitch. You want to look confident and powerful, to be persuasive, so use a tone of a superhero instead of a small cartoon character. It is far easier to listen to deep voices instead of squeaking high pitched ones. This means you should try and lower your tone a notch or two, but at the same time make sure you audience doesn't start asking themselves the question: What is wrong with him?. When explaining the really important stuff, I believe it is acceptable to tighten your chords and show your energy. But overall you should be the cool one, who is so confident about his case that he speaks with a powerful voice of energy.

• Gestures. Are a very important part of body language. Psychologist say that body language makes more than 3/4 of the whole communication, so this part shouldn't be neglected. Always try to stand upright ( a good tip for that is to raise your chest), with relaxed, confident and deliberate movements. So at all costs avoid nervous movements. For example never touch yourself or your face, kick with your legs, or make aggressive rapid movements. You should also avoid movements that seem funny to the audience as for example moving your hands in dorky way. The gestures themselves depend much on personal style, but I believe that the most effective gestures are "squeezing a bug" in one of your hands, which is slightly elevated, counting and making a pyramid with all of your fingers... It is important that these gestures are natural and are never inconsistent with the ideas you are presenting. You should always try to mix your effective gestures to avoid using one and the same gesture over and over again and become BORING.
• Face expressions should always follow your emotions. So you shouldn't laugh when you are talking about starving children in Africa. The most important thing about face expression is the correct use of your eyes. Looking someone into the eyes is very powerful and persuasive. So never forget to establish powerful eye connection with your audience. Especially the part that decides on your rankings.
• Body movement is important to give your speech an aura of commanding the speaking floor. So by gliding withing your speaking space you leave a more self confident and powerful impression. You look in command and that is a good thing, because people usually follow people with the look of power on them. But make sure you don't go outside your speaking space. It is just odd. Odd means CRAZY. So don't go and check the adjudicators flows! The second important thing that you shouldn't do is sway. Unless you want your audience to get seasick, anyway. Which again is CRAZY. Thirdly, staying as put as a soldier won't do either, because it is BORING. Move within your speaking space to show who is in command.

So, to effectively speak in a debate you must strike the correct balance between two extremes of being too CRAZY or being BORING. You must make sure to make sure you aren't over anxious about debating, are dynamic enough throuoght your speech, use your voice in such a way that it is easy and pleasant to listen to, make sure your points are supported by your gestures and face expressions and that you show everyone who has the command of the floor by body movement.

"According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that seem right? That means to the average person, if you have to go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy."- Jerry Seinfeld

The five types of BP debates.

All motions as for example: This house believes abortion is murder or This house would accept Turkey in EU or This house believes that police should search houses to prevent terrorism, have something in common. They can basically be arranged into five basic types of debates. (Thanks to guys from Oxford for explaining them to us):

1. Ends vs. Means
2. Isolation vs. Integration
3. Security vs. Civil liberties
4. Freedom vs. Preventing 3rd party harm
5. Long term vs. Short term

The first example falls into the principles of the Freedom vs. Preventing 3rd party harm debate type. The second motion example fits the principles of Isolation vs. Integration and third motion under the Security vs. Civil liberties type.

If you look at almost any random debate motion, you will see that it "fits" into the principles of these five debate types. Some motions may include a mix of two or even three types of principle debates, but still almost every debate is about these basic ideas. And knowing how to qualify any motion under these basic principle debates is a skill I have observed in many experienced British parliamentary debaters. So why is that such an important skill? Well, because these debaters then always know exactly in which principle spheres the debate is and the understanding of these ideas makes it far easier for them to come up with arguments, examples and underlying logic.

But understanding that all debates are basically about five basic principle debates is also important for your scores, because good adjudicators are also very familiars with these types of debates and if they hear a concept they are familiar with, they know you really understand what you are debating about. That means they are more likely to understand your argumentation in the way you want to present it and therefore consider your speech as having more weight in a debate as such.

Every time you see a motion it is important that you:

1. Qualify it under one or maybe two "Five BP debates" .
2. Ask yourself what is the problem and what principles I can use to explain it in favour of my side.
3. Ask yourself what do I have to prove to tip the scale onto my side of these principles behind five basic debates? So for example if you are the opposition in the this house would invade Iran debate, you should prove that isolation is a better idea (principle) then intervention in this case.
4. Use appropriate argument names (tag names) in the debate itself. These make it easier for the adjudicators to understand the ideas you are presenting under the underlying principle.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. - Henry David Thoreau.

The begining.

Debate is a formal method of interactive and position representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, since it includes persuasion which appeals to the emotional responses of an audience, and rules enabling people to discuss and decide on differences, within a framework defining how they will interact.

Many Slovenians like to debate. Many of them are very good debaters. Many of them have a lot of experience. Many of them have a lot of knowledge...

But many of us are still on the way to get there. Practice can only get you that far, so we need more knowledge and knowledge is perhaps too widely spread and therefore too difficult to access.

So this blog is going to focus on accumulating as much knowledge as Slovenian (and guest) debaters can accumulate. So how are we going to do that?

1. Getting many people involved. The idea is that anyone who has the time and the energy, can add a piece of debating knowledge...a useful link, a link to a debate movie, useful research, notes from an academy lecture... Remember, together we are strong, so if you would like to add something just contact me or any other member of this blog and you will soon be able to contribute to this humble cause.
2. By making sure that all the accumulated information is systematised in such a way that it is most easily accessed. So we are going to support a search option and are going to use the following labels: Theory, Research, Useful link, Motion analyse, Debate analyse, Debate video...
3. By commenting and adding perspectives and ideas to the issues brought up in the post.

Debating knowledge is important for both experienced and little less experienced debaters. We should make sure that this knowledge is more easily accessible to all and that it accumulates instead of gets lost. So if you feel like you would like to add your piece of debate wisedom, contact me via email or just write a comment.