Voices of Aaron Toastmasters

You’ve been asked to speak at an event next week. You know the subject matter fairly well, but you’re not sure whether you can speak for 5-10 minutes completely off-the-cuff. At the same time, you’re worried about writing out your speech and reading it word-for-word (risking boredom to your audience).

What to do?

Improvising takes practice, just like speaking in general. The more your practice it, the better you become speaking off-the-cuff.

However, even improvising a speech requires a framework in order to be more than incoherent rambling. This framework is usually contained with notes, and a central idea or theme. You can use an outline to begin the major points of your speech, and use your knowledge of the subject matter to follow the outline. In this manner, you speech will spotlight your mastery of the subject matter, and you’ll look cool and confident.

On the other hand, if you are not confident about your ability to speak off-the-cuff using a general outline, you should certainly write your speech out in advance. This way, you can memorize the entire speech, and use an outline or notes to prompt your memory. After memorizing and learning your speech, you can then practice body language, gestures, speech inflection, and other techniques to ensure that your speech contains enough variety to keep your audience interested. Your speech will sound more polished, and you’ll have greater success.

At Toastmasters, we emphasize both approaches.

Each speech project is designed to be carefully prepared and rehearsed for your audience to get the full impact of your delivery. At the same time, the Table Topics sessions give you an opportunity to practice speaking off-the-cuff. As you gain experience in the Table Topics sessions, you’ll improve your quick-thinking abilities and begin to apply them to your prepared speeches. At the same time, carefully preparing your speeches will give you a foundation to structure your improvised speaking, even off-the-cuff.

Please visit the Voices of Aaron Toastmasters Club today, and we’ll be happy to show you how both approaches will help you become a better speaker.