PRESENTING YOUR SPEECH: Using notes
These notes cover the range of “appropriate presentation techniques” that must be
used to pass the Standard. Here are things your marker will listen for, and some ideas
on how to do them well.
There are several ways you can use notes during a presentation:

Full Text
If full text notes is your preferred method, then type the content double-spaced on one side of
the paper only. Have your pages numbered clearly and not stapled together. Refer to your
manuscript only occasionally.

Prompt Notes
These comprise one or two pages of outline notes that you place on a lectern in front of you
and refer to as necessary during the presentation. You can use symbols and drawings as well as
key words in your notes (see below). The advantage of prompt notes is that you don’t need to
touch them at all, and your hands are free for gesture.

Cue Cards
These are small cards held in the palm of your hand which contain key words and brief notes.
Cue cards keep your presentation on track – you can glance at them easily and be reminded of
what to say next. An advantage of using cue cards is that you are free to walk away from the
lectern.
-
Use large writing so that you can see easily.
Use headings, numbers and bullet points.
Different colours are good.
Space it out!
Don’t write your whole script on them. Only write the main points and key words.
Don’t make them too big (distracting) or too small (hard to read). Make them small
enough to fit in your hand.
Number them in the order you want to use them (If you drop them, you can instantly
get them back into order).
Don’t try to hide the fact that you are looking at them – that’s what they are there for!
As soon as you’ve sighted your next point, hold them at arm’s length at your side, or in a
loose 2-hand clasp at your navel.
Swap hands, or leave your cards in your hand, when you want to make a gesture.

Memorising a Speech
If you have time to commit your speech to memory, this can be very effective. However, a
poorly memorized speech can sound artificial as you hesitate and try to remember what to say
next. Speakers tend to recite memorized speeches too quickly. If you speak without notes, be
careful to speak naturally.

Off The Cuff Speaking
Never attempt to deliver an unprepared presentation. Even if you know your subject
thoroughly, an impromptu speech will be unstructured and you are likely to make it too short
or ramble. Worse still, the marker and audience will be able to tell that you are unprepared and
will not be impressed.

Annotating Your Notes
Underline words to be emphasized. Make the line darker if the words need to be emphasized
very strongly.
Mark where you need to pause with a slash. /
When you need to speak more slowly, use an extended arrow to remind you to extend the time
it takes to say the words.
Use an up arrow if you need to raise your volume for emphasis.
Use a down arrow if you need to lower your voice.
Mark where you can use a gesture with a g or *
Mark where you must make eye contact with an E or eye shape
.
Losing Your Place: If you look up and then can’t find where you are up to in your notes, either
they are too dense and detailed, or you haven’t practised enough!
Try to eliminate reading as much as you can. If you are reading, it is boring for the audience,
and they may as well have read a handout. Reading a written text makes it difficult to build
rapport with an audience as it is almost impossible to make eye contact, or use facial
expression and gesture. If you don’t read well, you will lose your audience rapidly. Speaking
directly to the audience is what makes a presentation interesting and unique.
Complete the following: Having read all the notes above, my preferred option is:
______________________________________________________________________________
PRESENTING YOUR SPEECH: voice
These notes cover the range of “appropriate presentation techniques” that must be
used to pass the Standard. Here are things your marker will listen for, and some ideas
on how to do them well.
It is important to control your voice, so that you speak as naturally as possible and still be heard
easily and clearly. You need to understand and practise ways of varying your voice. A speech
can be made more interesting by varying the following:

Speed/Pace
Your speech needs to be delivered slowly enough to be understood and quickly enough to
maintain interest. Speaking too fast is the main problem. The desire to get your presentation
over will probably make you go too fast. This will rob you of effectiveness and may cause you to
speak under the minimum time. If you speak too quickly, the audience will not be able to catch
and process your message. Don’t gabble! You may need to work at slowing down. Some
sections may be faster or slower than “normal” to achieve effect and impact. Speed up to
suggest hype or tension, or for listing. Slow down for serious, difficult or sad ideas. Go faster to
excite. Go slower to show importance.

Volume
The danger is speaking too loud or too soft. Your top priority is to be heard! The key question is:
Can you be heard by everyone? Project your voice – aim for the back. Speak loudly enough for
those at the back of the audience to hear. Increased volume is achieved by standing tall and
breathing deep. The quantity of air available determines the sound quality. Too little air means
a squeaky, strained voice and a sore throat!
Check the volume setting on any audio aid you are going to use.
As for variation, adjust the volume to the mood of what you are saying: up for excitement and
anger, down for tenderness and pathos.

Intonation/Tone
Intonation is the way a voice rises and falls during speaking. Sometimes the pitch will be high
and sometimes low. Your voice has a wide range of pitch – nearly 2 octaves! Most of us stay in
the middle of the range most of the time. Don’t do this in your speech! Do not use a
monotonous, boring voice. Modulate your pitch. Be aware that raising your pitch at the end of
a sentence will make it sound like a question.
Tone is just feeling – what mood or emotion you feel when you think about your subject. It
adds impact to your words. You can express a whole range of emotions with your voice, e.g.
harsh, gentle, endearing, alienating, angry, authoritative, timid. If you express funny, exciting,
teasing, cheeky, angry, serious and pitiful ideas all in the same tone, you will seem robotic and
your audience will not be able to feel them with you. We can also add feeling and mood by
stressing certain words in a sentence and softening others, e.g. “We must now ask ourselves
three important questions.”

Enunciation/Clarity
Enunciation means saying the words clearly. Your voice must be clear. If it is not, try speaking
more slowly. Concentrate on pronouncing each word correctly and do not run words together.
Usually this boils down to saying all the letters that are meant to be there but which are often
dropped in careless speech, like the ‘g’ at the end of coming, doing, etc. Dropping letters
creates an impression of sloppiness and sometimes actual confusion: was it would-be killer lyin’
asleep or would-be killer lion asleep?
A common case is where one word ends with the same letter as the beginning of the next. Be
careful not to pronounce the double as a single, so that, for example, red dwarf is heard as rare
dwarf or red wharf.
Keep your head up so that words are not muffled, and shape the words. Imagine always that
someone is trying to lip-read your speech. Don’t mumble.

Pronunciation
To show competence and respect towards your subject, avoid sloppy pronunciation, e.g. pitcher
for picture, genuwine for genuine, error for era. Pronounce Maori words correctly, e.g. whanau.
The same applies to foreign expressions. However, deliberate mispronunciation can be used
effectively, e.g using a thick French accent to make your audience think of our stereotypes of
French people.

Pause
Pause is a key factor in controlling pace. It is good to pause now and then and look around the
audience.
Pausing after a word or phrase is an effective way to add emphasis. When you have said
something amazing or forceful, asked a rhetorical question, or touched on a tender emotion,
count silently to 3 to give your audience time to think and feel before distracting them with
your next idea. To link two statements together forcefully, the natural pause between them can
sometimes be omitted.
We automatically pause for a full stop, but beware or the full stop drop! In normal speaking we
drop our volume and intonation at the end of a sentence. If you drop too far, the audience will
struggle to hear the last few words.

Stress/Emphasis
One type of variation of volume is stress. The most common way of emphasising a word or
phrase is to give it more stress and say it slightly more loudly than the words before and after it.
This is a way of signaling something important, using sound instead of italics or CAPITAL
LETTERS as you might in writing.
The question Does he live here? is really four different messages. Say it four times stressing a
different word each time and you will hear them.

Silence Fillers
Avoid “Um”, “Ah”, “Err”, “Erm”, “You know”, “like” and other such terms.
The key thing to remember in using your voice is variation!
Fluent speakers vary their voices to achieve flow!
Complete the following:
1. Having read all the notes above, the aspect that I most need to work on is:
______________________________________________________________________________
2. Read suitable sections of your speech to a classmate or friend. Ask them to tick the
boxes, then use the ticks (especially the missing ones) to guide your final practices.
Aspect
Speed/Pace
Volume
Stress/Emphasis
Pause
Intonation/Tone
Pronunciation
Enunciation/Clarity
Appropriately Varied
Supports the Message
Gives Strong Impact
PRESENTING YOUR SPEECH: body language
These notes cover the range of “appropriate presentation techniques” that must be
used to pass the Standard. Here are things your marker will listen for, and some ideas
on how to do them well.

Stance/Posture
This refers to the way that you stand. Stand squarely in front of the audience, close to the front
row (so you don’t seem fixed to the wall as far away as you can get). Standing upright with your
head held high communicates a feeling of confidence and purpose. Plant your feet as far apart
as your shoulders. This foot position makes it impossible to lift one foot absent-mindedly. In
most formal speeches, speakers tend to stand in one place. Stand still – do not sway, rock or
lean. You may need to depart from this stance to create some special effect, but return to it
quickly. Stand side-on to use the OHP or other machine. Avoid turning your back to the
audience for more than a couple of seconds at a time. Stand behind props and models. Stand
side-on when beside the whiteboard or projected images and use a pointer to focus attention
without getting in the way.

Facial Expressions
These will naturally be appropriate if you think about what you are saying. Look friendly and
smile at your audience if it is appropriate to your speech. Use you facial expressions to indicate
mood and emotion. Your face should be animated and alert. If you are going for a special effect
(e.g. humour) you can exaggerate your facial expressions.

Eye Contact
This is really important in oral presentations. It is weird to be in a presentation where the
speaker talks for several minutes but appears to be unable to see! You should be looking at the
audience, not staring at the ceiling, out of the window, at the back wall, or over your audience’s
heads. In general, keep eye contact with members of the audience, but don’t stare at any one
person too much. Look away as soon as you see the other person’s eyes – you have made
contact. Look into another area of the audience for your next contact – this makes the whole
audience feel involved. The best time for eye contact is at a full stop or deliberate pause.

Response to the Audience
React to any positive audience response. Smile with them; frown with them; nod in agreement
with their response. Quickly answer or just ignore any interjections of comments from the floor,
then get on with your speech. One response to an interruption is to tell the person that there
will be time for 1-2 questions after the presentation.

Gestures
A gesture is any movement of limb, body, or even muscles. Striking poses and adding arm and
hand movements add life and emphasis to your performance, but they should be done
naturally. Remember that the eye is naturally drawn to moving objects, so become the moving
object.
Decide on gestures and movements which support your words, and practise them at the same
time as the words until they blend smoothly. The movement of hands and arms can be used to
effectively “underline” what is being said. They can save long explanations and can be dramatic
as well as clear.
It is better to have too few gestures than too many. Any frequently-repeated gesture is
tiresome and distracting. Let arms fall loosely at your sides. Don’t point your finger at the
audience in a scolding fashion. Avoid wide swings of the arms; numerous rapid movements of
the forearms; pounding the podium or table. Arms should not be folded across the body, as this
reduces your volume and makes your audience feel cut off.
Avoid fig leaf, stern father (arms folded), slouch (hands in pockets), arm walk, parade rest (arms
behind back), podium clutch.

Mannerisms
A mannerism is a repeated movement (often unconscious) or an excessive use of one gesture,
e.g. rocking back and forth on your heels, swaying the body, scratching your nose, twisting your
hair, shaking your hands. People develop these when they are nervous. Avoid them.
Complete the following:
1. What points do you wish to emphasise in your speech. What body language would help
you to do this?
2. What emotions do you want to display in your speech. How could body language help?
3. Look at these pictures and decide what the “message” is. Write it underneath each
picture.
DELIVERY TECHNIQUES FOR ORAL PRESENTATIONS
Answer the following questions in your exercise book using the notes provided…..
1. What three major factors are involved in the delivery of an oral presentation?
NOTES
2. What is the major difference between “prompt notes” and “cue cards”?
3. Whatever form of notes you use, it is vital to n_______________ your pages/cards.
4. What are the dangers in fully memorizing a speech?
5. What should you try to eliminate as far as possible?
6. Complete the question at the bottom of page 2.
VOICE
7. What are the 8 factors to consider in the use of your voice?
8. What is the main danger as far as speed/pace is concerned?
9. What is the primary consideration influencing your volume?
10. Another word for intonation is __________, and it is vital for this to be
m____________
11. Is there any difference between intonation and tone?
12. One problem that hinders clarity is…
13. Pronounce words properly, especially M_______ and f_________ words.
14. What is the major purpose for pausing?
15. How long should you pause?
16. What is something to beware of when pausing?
17. How can you most easily signal something important?
18. When using your voice, the most important goal is to achieve ___________________
19. Complete the questions at the bottom of page 5 (you may not be ready to do the 2nd
one)
BODY LANGUAGE
20. What aspects does “body language” refer to?
21. Describe the ideal placement for your feet.
22. Where should you stand in relation to (a)machines and images (b)props/models
23. What 2 things are expressed by facial expressions?
24. Keep eye contact but do not _________. Rather “spread” your gaze widely.
25. The best moments to achieve eye contact are…..
26. How should you handle interjections (if any come)?
27. List four gestures to avoid.
28. Answer the questions on pages 7-8.
pjd: 2/10