Strategies for Effective Oral Delivery

VOCAL CUES
A voice communicates a great deal more than words alone. A presenter’s voice is a potentially powerful
tool to make an oral delivery effective and impressive. Professionals whose careers depend on skilled
communication take seriously the need to develop positive and powerful vocal attributes.
The quality of a speaker's voice is determined by four characteristics: pitch, volume, rate, and tone. An
effective speaking voice is well modulated, meaning the pitch, volume, rate, and lone are altered to give
appropriate and interesting expression to the message. A voice that is pleasing and easy to listen to is
mellow, meaning it is rich in tone and sounds fully mature. It is moderate; the pitch is not too low or too
high, volume is not too loud or too soft, and the rate of speech is neither too fast nor too slow.
To add to the effectiveness of a delivery, the qualities of a speaker's voice should be varied and congruent
with the message. Vocal qualities should also be varied to provide contrast. In addition, since it is often
perceived that the nature of a person's voice reflects something of the nature of the person, a presenter
should develop and communicate with a steady, resonant, and mature voice.
Pitch
The term pitch refers to the degree of highness or lowness of a sound. Every voice has a normal pitch in
terms of what is '"normal" for the speaker. The norm for an effective communicator is a pitch that can be
raised a few levels without sounding squeaky and lowered a few levels without sounding grimly. Such a
range allows a speaker to vary pitch for contrast while maintaining a vocal quality that is pleasing to the
ear.
Pitch has a notable impact on how a presenter is perceived. In every species that makes audible sounds,
the young have higher-pitched voices than do grown adults. Consequently, a high-pitched voice is
associated with immaturity. An excessively high-pitched voice is shrill and unpleasant to listen to for
long. A person who speaks in a high-pitched voice will be taken more seriously if the pitch is lowered.
An effective presenter uses pitch changes to indicate a change in the message. At the end of a sentence,
dropping the pitch signifies a statement; raising the pitch signifies a question. For that reason, repeated
lifts in pitch ac the end of declarative statements create an impression of a speaker who is uncertain.
Occasional and appropriate variations in pitch can be used to accentuate meaning. Rapid, frequent, and
meaningless changes in pitch make it difficult for an audience to listen attentively, and may suggest that
the speaker is highly emotional or frantic.

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Modes of Delivery

There are four modes of Speech Delivery
Reading from a manuscript Reading from a manuscript is the most formal type of delivery. It is also an effective choice when you
want to have the greatest control of the wording of your speech.
You will probably use a manuscript when speaking on a highly sensitive topic for which it is important to
have precise wording. Or, if you have spent special effort embellishing your speech with stylistic
elements, reading from the manuscript will ensure that you speak the phrases just as you wrote them.
Often, however, reading your speech will rob the presentation of spontaneity and the conversational
dynamics that effective speakers strive to achieve.
To compensate for that, you will need to practice your reading to give it the feeling of being spoken for
the first time. Skillful manuscript readers will also make spontaneous changes in their speech at the
moment of delivery.
Reading from manuscript seriously limits your ability to:
1. exhibit a natural style,
2. maintain eye contact,
3. observe and evaluate feedback, and
4. adjust the messages.
Therefore, never use the written style just out of fear of facing an audience, of forgetting the material, or
of encoding messages improperly. Overcome that fear through practice and experience.
If the formality or complexity of an occasion demands the use of the manuscript, observe these important
procedures:
• Write a draft of the speech according to sound writing principles.
• Revise by reading the written speech aloud sentence by sentence and making adjustments
necessary to convert a readable piece into a speak-able piece.
• Type the revised manuscript in double- or triple-spaced, wide-margined form on only one side of
the paper, possibly all in capital letters.
• Practice reading aloud several times before a videotape camera, friends, or a mirror to improve
delivery, eye contact, etc.
• Mark the points of some of your important pauses, phrases, emphases, and other nonverbal cues
directly on the manuscript. Practice several more times.
• Apply all of the suggestions for good verbal and nonverbal presentations.
Presenting from memory
Unless you have had training and practice memorizing long passages of text, the memorized mode is the
hardest to pull off. Freed from a manuscript or notes, you are likely to have the added anxiety of
forgetting what you wanted to say.
A memorized speech can also sound "canned" and lacking in spontaneity. Some speakers, however, are
extremely skillful at memorizing. Others, who have presented the same ideas a number of times, will
memorize their lines whether they intended to or not. Each time they speak on that or a similar topic, they
can draw from memory.
The memorized speech may lead to the poorest delivery of all. Speakers must concentrate so completely
upon recalling memorized material that they do not make contact or observe, evaluate, and adjust to
feedback. Additional flaws exist in the memorized approach, which are:
1. the difficulty of memorizing more than a few paragraphs,
Communication Skills – MCM 301 VU
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2. the possibility of forgetting material during the speech, and
3. the difficulty to presenting a memorized speech in a no mechanical manner
Speaking extemporaneously
When you speak extemporaneously you are literally making up the words of your speech as you go. That
does not mean that you do not do preparation. Rather, as you rehearse you work from an outline or
speaker notes that remind you of the progression of ideas in your speech.
Because you are choosing the words at the spur of the moment, an extemporaneous speech is likely to be
very dynamic and sound spontaneous and fresh.
Choose the extemporaneous style all of the others. It has the advantages pf preparation, naturalness,
flexibility, spontaneity, and full interaction with the audience. To develop an extemporaneous speech:
• Develop the speech by first writing and revising an outline. Write only a few sentences – and
perhaps the opening and the closing.
• Place the outline or key words and phrases, possibly all in capital letters, on only one side of note
cards. Leave plenty of space around and between lines.
• Using the note cards only when necessary, practice speaking aloud several times before a
videotape camera, friends, or a mirror to improve delivery, sentence construction, eye contact,
etc.
• Avoid practicing to the point that you memorize a fixed pattern of words. Practice only you
know that you will speak in a coherent but spontaneous manner.
• Apply all of the suggestions for good verbal and nonverbal presentations.
Impromptu speech
The impromptu speech occurs with little or no time for preparation. The reduced chances for analyzing
the audience, organizing, and encoding require a fast-thinking speaker. When delivering an impromptu
speech, use these suggestions:
• At even a hint that you may have to speak, begin to apply the guidelines, even while walking or
turning to face the audience.
• Move the planning directly to the specific topic, objectives, and key points. Write them on paper
if you have the seconds necessary to do so.
• When first facing the audience, take a few seconds to form the first words silently before
speaking them.
• Watch for feedback to know when to repeat or clarify.
• Speak briefly, and conclude firmly.
• If appropriate, ask if the audience has questions.