Improving Your Speaking Skills

Unless you have somehow evaded the law of averages, you say about twenty thousand words a day and devote over 90 per cent of your language activity to talking. You probably do most of this talking without paying much attention to it. As you speak, your mind wanders, you interrupt yourself, your sentences trail off. Yet you do manage to be understood.

Speaking in public is a different matter. Your audience is captive. They are listening closely to what you have to say, and they are making judgments about you and your ideas. For that reason, you should try to improve your public speaking.

Speaking is a skill. This mean it can be studied, developed, and perfected. The effort, furthermore, is well worth it. For as your public speaking improves, your everyday speech will too. You will have now confidence and eloquence in talking to a college admissions officer, applying for a job, or conversing with friends.

This chapter will tell you how to recognize and combat some of the most common problems people have in speaking habits, using effective gestures, and controlling nervousness.