Course work on public speaking

The best speech I ever heard was one given by a peer of mine at school. She was running for Class President and had to give a speech outlining why she wanted to run and why we should vote for her. She had always seemed like a quiet, unassuming girl beforehand and when she had told me that she was going to run for Class President, I was a bit surprised but her speech quickly alleviated any concerns I might have had.

The best thing about her speech was the way that she addressed the audience: the other candidates all stared at their notes and talked into the podium but she looked up, glancing at her notes sparingly, and spoke directly to us all. I can remember feeling like she was addressing me in particular and I can imagine that the others felt the same way too. As well as using her eyes to connect with her audience, she also used gestures to confidently put her point across making her seem a lot less robotic than the other candidates.

Her choice of words was also excellent. Instead of using words such as ‘ quite’ and ‘ probably’, she was far more definite and used words like ‘ very’ and ‘ will’ instead which quickly inspired confidence in me for her – I felt as though she would genuinely do the job well and with aplomb rather than simply just ‘ trying’ to be Class President. Equally, because she was looking at us as she spoke; her words came across as being honest and trustworthy too. She presented herself well and confidently and that inspired confidence in her audience. She eventually won the Class Presidency on the strength of that speech.